After nearly 20 years of planning and work, the Ohio State University Veterinary Hospital’s Equine Trauma Center is nearly complete.The Daniel M. Galbreath Equine Research, Intensive Care and Trauma Center, named after a major contributor to the project, allows the hospital to progress with state of the art technology.The new wing of the hospital, modeled after The Kentucky Horse Park, incorporates the use of more wood so it doesn’t have the look of a sterile hospital environment. The ceilings are composed of tongue-and-groove wood with electric-chain hoists used to lift horses onto examination tables.Craig Miller, assistant director of the hospital, said the new center is similar to the old wing, but it is much more modern. ‘A stall is a stall,’ Miller said. ‘What you do inside of it is what makes the difference.’The current facility moved to its location in 1973 from an old bus garage on West Campus, Miller said. By 1978, they had outgrown the current facility and the first sketches of the equine center had been drawn. Through the process of getting funding, donations and state grants, the drawings were not finished until 1989 and then updated in 1993, he said.Mike Rings, associate professor of veterinary medicine, said the hope is that the center will attract major horse breeders and horse race owners from Kentucky, Michigan and Indiana. ‘It is a state-of-the-art trauma center and orthopedic center,’ Rings said.The center will also have a treadmill for horses to be used as a diagnostic tool. ‘If a racehorse owner brings their horse in, we can put the horse on the treadmill, running it like it was in a race, and do diagnostic tests to find out what’s wrong,’ Miller said.The treadmill is estimated to cost a little more than $500,000 and construction is expected to start in the spring.The center is estimated to cost about $7 million when it is completely finished. Chris Moore, a senior majoring in animal science, plans to apply to OSU’s veterinary school next year and he believes the center will be a great benefit to the school, despite the cost. ‘The cost is justified by bringing in researchers who will bring in more students, and it will pay for itself,’ Moore said.