Another lovely obituary from the Daily Telegraph (of course) that is, as always, written with panache:
Nick Mills, who has died aged 54, was a country vet with a practice which took him across the world as an anaesthetist for wild animals, an insurance adviser to the racing industry and a “sex therapist” to thoroughbreds at stud.
Among the famous racehorses he examined before they were purchased or put out to stud were Epsom Derby winners such as Galileo and Benny the Dip. When the 2002 Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem showed a lack of interest in the opposite sex, Mills made several journeys to Japan (where the horse was standing) and drew on his research with the Cambridge University veterinary school. This included using chemical stimulants; placing a blanket soaked in mares’ urine on stallions; and even introducing reluctant thoroughbreds to a harem of carthorses in the hope that they might be stimulated by “rough trade”.
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