Ridgeland Veterinary Clinic open again

It was about 18 months ago that Dr. Jacob Smith, a Ladysmith veterinarian, found out that longtime vet Dr. Al Horvath was going to leave his Ridgeland practice and retire.

“Our family had some mutual friends who knew Al’s family through our church,” Smith said Monday, June 11, as he, Horvath and staff members Amy Knutson and Bridget Kessey unpacked boxes of supplies at the clinic, on Main Street, in Ridgeland.

That started a conversation between the two veterinarians about whether Smith was interested in buying the practice from Horvath.

“I wasn’t quite ready at the time,” Smith said.

In the interim, Horvath retired and closed the veterinary clinic that had served the Ridgeland area for nearly 40 years.

“But, six months ago, the timing seemed better,” Smith said. “We had the practice up and running in Ladysmith, we had connections to the Barron area through the hockey association (Smith is a youth hockey coach in Barron), and we had friendships and relationships established here. We thought we could make it work.”

The long and short of it was that, earlier this spring, the two veterinarians completed an agreement to reopen Ridgeland Veterinary Clinic under Smith’s ownership.

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