Equine at Tufts & Cornell?

[bluesails]

Hi all,

I am actually not accepted at either of these schools yet (alternate at Cornell, just interviewed for Tufts) but I am the type to think about these things long before I have to, plus others may be wondering the same thing. Plus if I did get off the alternate list at Cornell I know that I would have a small window of time to decide whether I wanted to withdraw at another school, so I would rather "rank" my schools way ahead of time.

I have pros and cons about both schools that I am weighing on my own, but wanted to ask about doing equine med at both Cornell and Tufts. Didn't really get a clear idea of the caseload at either school when I visited, though Cornell did say that they are partnering with a clinic right near Belmont to expose their students to more Thoroughbreds. I am not particularly interested in racetrack practice though so this is not a huge factor for me. Tufts did say they are mostly sport horses which I kind of like.

Please don't comment on PBL or anything if it doesn't relate directly to how the equine program is going... Like I said, I'm weighing the rest on my own and would like info on caseload, hands-on experience, employment opportunities part-time, research opportunities, etc. Reputation is something I'm kind of thinking about too even if we all try to avoid that.

Oh, and any info about barns in the area for either school would be nice too. I sold my horse, but would love to lease or half-lease during vet school haha.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[CloudlessNights]

I'm just a first year at Tufts, and not really an equine person, but this is what I know. Our large animal hospital caseload is about 1600 animals a year, with 80% equine, 12% camelid, and the rest other farm animals. Fourth year rotations include 3 weeks each of large animal medicine, large animal surgery, and ambulatory down in CT (which sees larger operations mostly--i.e. dairies). Other elective rotations are equine palpation and equine sports medicine. Plus you can make a self-styled rotation fourth year doing anything in the large animal hospital (i.e. equine anesthesia, radiology, nutrition, emergency, neonatology, geriatrics, therio, etc.).

As for first-second years, we are required to take clinical skills, which includes hands-on with horses, cows, small animal, and other (i.e. sheep/pigs/goats) once a week for an hour about every other week. The horse section is very well organized, but may be a little slow for you at first (we work on handling first for the newbies like me), but now we are doing physicals and lameness exams. We also have Tuesday afternoons off to do "selectives", which are basically electives during first-third years. Some options are large animal medicine or surgery, neonatal intensive care (though we don't get as many foals in the spring as we used to.. hopefully will this year with the economy improving), equine practice at the ambulatory service, etc.

We have a large animal tech team here as part-time work. You can either do large animal medicine or surgery and you are on-call about once a week (typically evenings or one full weekend day). You are called in to any surgery that may come in during that time and basically are the tech for it. You are obviously trained first, but it is a fabulous opportunity, and all of my friends are so glad that they are doing it. Definitely hands-on! You only get paid if you get called in, however.

Our chapter of AAEP is very active--I have attended 4 different wet labs this year (ultrasounding legs, lameness exams/working with cadaver legs down at the ambulatory clinic, saddle fitting, etc.)

 

[gugoodoll]

There is a barn 1 mile away from the vet school called Oxley. It houses the school's lesson ponies, varsity team eq horses, and polo ponies. In all honesty (this is coming from someone who spent 3+ years there), it's not a great barn. The only advantage is its location and huge heated indoor arena. Private boarding (10x10 stalls I think) is extremely expensive for the quality of the place (600+/month) and you barely get any indoor time because you have lesson riders, equitation team riders, and polo players in it 80% of the time. I think the only open times are during lunch and from 5-6pm or something. There is an outdoor ring and outdoor dressage arena, but keep in mind that Ithaca's weather is nasty most of the year. I've also heard some horror stories of boarded horses coming in from the pasture (if you could call it that; they're more like 30x50 plots of dirt) with nasty wounds and the barn help not even noticing. Oxley is always short of barn help, so they end up hiring people who don't know horses. The lesson horses are another story. They (and the polo ponies) are in standing stalls 24/7 and only get turned out into the indoor 1-2x a week during the academic year. Some of them are lame half the time. It's really sad.

(Also, Oxley is where the 1st years will go to learn PE's and such on horses, I think)

There are a few barns outside of Ithaca (ranges from 10-25 min drive). Kelviden Farm is a Welsh pony hunter/jumper place, I think, and I've heard they are nice but expensive. If Only Farm is another hunter/eq place that I think is expensive-ish as well. Some cheaper alternatives where I think many vet students board are J&B Stables and Barton Valley Farms. StoneyBrook Farms is decent- it has an indoor (half the size of Oxley's) which is nice but I'm not sure of the price. I've ridden there before.