MEDIA ADVISORY/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Miniature Horse Gets Check up Following Eye Surgery

Note to Reporters: This invitation is limited to media only. Please RSVP.

WHAT: Snuggles, a miniature horse who underwent eye surgery at CSU in October of 2008, will be at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital for a checkup. Snuggles was featured in local press last January when she visited the VTH.

WHEN and WHERE: 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 11, CSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, 330 West Drake Road. Media are required to RSVP and should gather at the Large Animal Reception area before being escorted back into the hospital.

DETAILS: Two miniature horses, Snuggles and her pal Austin, will visit the VTH on Monday for an ophthalmology check-up following Snuggles’ laser eye surgery in October 2008. Snuggles, who is 5 years old, lost her left eye when she was a month old to an infection and her right eye has glaucoma.

Snuggles and Austin live in Texas and are with Minis and Friends of the Sough Plains. The two are part of a group of miniature horses that travel across the state of Texas visiting rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, Alzheimer’s units, special needs children centers and hospitals to bring cheer to patients through equine therapeutic healing. Although it’s unlikely that Snuggles will ever have an ability to see well, her work to help others has not been hindered by her sight. Austin is traveling with Snuggles to keep her company.

Please arrive by 9:15 a.m. RSVPs are required. Contact Dell Rae Moellenberg by 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 8, at (970) 491-6009 or dellrae.moellenberg@colostate.edu.

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