Richard S. Meirs, VMD, director of the Walnridge Equine Clinic and general manager of Walnridge Farm in Cream Ridge, New Jersey, has joined the board of directors of
the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey in 2010.
Meirs fills the vacancy on the Breeders Committee created by the resignation of Martin O’Hare.
A 1982 graduate of the Veterinary School at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Meirs grew up in the standardbred racing and breeding industry on his family’s 300-acre farm in Central New Jersey.
“We are pleased to have Walnridge and the Meirs family represented on the board of directors and welcome the contributions Dr. Richard Meirs will bring to our discussions at this critical juncture in the future of the racing and breeding programs in New Jersey,” said SBOANJ president Tom Luchento.
As director of Walnridge Equine Clinic PC and general manager of Walnridge Farm, Dr. Meirs focuses on reproductive work with stallions and mares, as well as elective surgical procedures, such as arthroscopic surgery, foal orthopedic surgery and upper airway procedures.
The Upper Freehold Township farmland has been in the family since 1830 when it was purchased by Nicholas Waln. When Elizabeth Waln married John Meirs in 1861, it established the connection between Walnridge and the Meirs family. There is currently a seventh generation of the Meirs family at Walnridge.
Dr. David A. Meirs II, father of Richard Meirs, inherited the farm in 1952, founded the equine clinic in 1965, and ventured into the standardbred breeding industry when the New Jersey Sire Stakes program debuted in 1972. In 1989 the Meirs family assured the agricultural future of their farm by participating in New Jersey’s Farmland Preservation Program.
(SBOANJ)