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did not get to know Peter Rossdale personally until the 1990s, but these points, made 20 years earlier, describe his career- long ethos of working with others, from a private practice setting to gain and share knowledge to improve our ability to provide for the horses under our care. Peter’s first publication appeared in the Lancet, reporting
seizures in newborn foals and drawing parallels with human neonatal illness (Mahaffey & Rossdale, 1959). This became the underpinning theme of much of his subsequent research effort. In addition to describing clinical findings and behaviour of foals (Rossdale, 1967b), he performed early work on electrocardiography (Rossdale, 1967a), blood gas analysis (Rossdale, 1968a; Rossdale & Mullen, 1970), ventilation parameters (Rossdale, 1969a) and indirect blood pressure measurement (Franco et al., 1986). He reported neurological signs in compromised neonates (Mahaffey & Rossdale, 1959; Rossdale, 1968b, 1969b) and by the 1970s, Peter proposed a classification of differential diagnosis of the collapsed neonate differentiating (1) infection, (2) non-infective behavioural disturbance, (3) failure of development and (4) immunological conditions (Rossdale, 1972). To the modern reader, these classifications are somewhat descriptive. Nevertheless, they are accurate precursors to what we would currently think of as sepsis, neonatal maladjustment syndrome/perinatal asphyxia syndrome/hypoxic-ischaemic- encephalopathy and haemolytic disease of the newborn, terminology which continues to evolve as our understanding of pathogenic mechanisms develop. True to his ethos that research should be applicable to practice, Peter’s interest in the clinical challenge of managing foals with neurological and developmental problems, led him to join forces with researchers at the University of Cambridge working on physiology and pathophysiology, and Peter’s work with Dr Marian Silver’s group enhanced understanding of equine fetal physiology and, in particular, the importance of adrenal function and steroid hormones (Broughton Pipkin et al., 1984; Challis et al., 1995; Fowden et al., 1984; Han et al., 1995a; Ousey et al., 1987, 1998, 2004; Rossdale et al., 1984; Silver et al., 1984, 1987). The Cambridge group’s work on progesterone profiles in the pregnant mare (Holtan et al., 1991; Rossdale et al., 1992), steroid hormone production in the placenta (Han et al., 1995b) and the effects of placental pathology on maternal plasma progestogens (Rossdale et al., 1991) ultimately paved the way to our understanding that progesterone may mediate neurological signs in neonatal maladjustment (Ousey et al., 2005; Rossdale et al., 1995). Peter led a team working on in vivo studies of normal and abnormal fetal development based on a pony research herd in Newmarket which advanced our understanding of prematurity and dysmaturity (Rossdale, 1993; Rossdale et al., 1985) and on induction of parturition (Leadon et al., 1986). In parallel with this basic research on fetal and neonatal
pathophysiology, Peter continued to have a strong focus on developing and validating techniques which had immediate relevance to clinical practice, exemplified by his work on use of mammary secretions to assess fetal readiness for birth (Leadon et al., 1984; Ousey et al., 1984, 1989). Throughout his career as a researcher, he continued to ensure that knowledge gained in the research laboratory informed clinical practice, for example, in his review of disturbances in equine fetal maturation which was included in a 1993 EVJ supplement on perinatology research, he sought to make
sense of the link between placental pathology and dysmaturity and explain the phenomenon he called ‘the second day syndrome’ whereby foals compromised in utero may progressively develop clinical signs relating to dysmaturity, respiratory compromise and neurological dysfunction having appeared at birth to be fairly healthy (Rossdale, 1993). Peter’s interest in the Thoroughbred was not limited to the
foal. His clinical practice led him to spend much of his time on the coalface of the Newmarket Thoroughbred breeding farms. He published extensively on aspects of problems and management of the broodmare (Allen et al., 1987; Chandley et al., 1975; McGladdery & Rossdale, 1992a, 1992b; Michel et al., 1986; Pemberton et al., 1994; Rossdale, 1984, 1994; Rossdale & D’Eath, 1987; Rossdale & Gerber, 1968; Rossdale et al., 1976; Samuel et al., 1979; Steven et al., 1979) and horse in training (Frauenfelder et al., 1986; Harris et al., 1990; Jeffcott et al., 1982), infectious diseases (Browning et al., 1991; Jeffcott & Rossdale, 1976, 1977; Mumford & Rossdale, 1980; Mumford et al., 1987; Pepys et al., 1989; Ricketts & Rossdale, 1979; Ricketts et al., 1977, 1978; Rose et al., 1974; Rossdale, 1978; Stoneham et al., 2001), heart disease (Cottrill & Rossdale, 1992; MacDonald et al., 1988), clinical nutrition (Ousey et al., 1997) and sales assessment, (McEvoy et al., 1998) and he thought and wrote extensively on how early life and veterinary management might impact performance of the finished product, the racehorse (Allen et al., 2002; Rossdale, 1998, 2005). Returning to Peter’s approach to the role of Editor, he saw
EVJ as serving as a conduit between clinicians in practice and those who wish to contribute new knowledge for the benefit of the horse (Rossdale et al., 2008). To ensure that equine practitioners could remain entirely up to date with progress in their field, under Peter’s leadership EVJ not only published primary research and clinical reports but also provided EVJ’s readers with access to recent and ongoing work through supplementary issues linked to groups such as the International Conference for Equine Exercise Physiology, the International Symposium on Equine Embryo Transfer, the International Congress on Equine Clinical Behaviour, the International Colic Symposium and the International Workshop on Animal Locomotion. Peter also worked closely with those organising meetings with the Havermeyer Foundation to disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge on equine diseases. Peter was consistently innovative throughout his long
tenure with Equine Veterinary Journals. He was not EVJ’s first editor, this honour falling to Col John Hickman and then Leo Jeffcott succeeded him before Peter took on this challenge in 1979. However, Peter was undoubtedly its most influential. Under Peter’s watch, EVJ evolved into the leading international journal for equine veterinary science and it performed consistently well in the citation indices for veterinary sciences. His life-long belief in the importance of practice-generated research was more widely articulated by the evidence-based medicine (EBM) movement of the 2000s, although it clearly amused him greatly that this discipline was extolled, by some more passionate adherents, as a novel approach to practice. Peter had been talking, and writing, about exactly the same principles for almost 50 years by that time (Rossdale, 1975). Nevertheless, he saw the enthusiasm for EBM amongst younger clinicians of the day as an opportunity to promote his belief in the clinic as a laboratory, and in 2003, he established EVJ’s evidence-based medicine
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