A First Time for Everything

On Monday morning I biked over to the horse barn to introduce myself to the manager there. What I expected to be a quick, "Hi, I'm Kim," shake hands and leave, ended up being anything but. I met Joel and some of the girls that work at the barn, including a barn resident (the program I applied for and did not get), then we jumped right into work. I watched and assisted as they rectally palpated the brood mares and the mares they use in the animal science classes; they were checking ovulation cycles. Then I was able to perform my very first vaginal palpation on a mare! Yup! This girl was shoulder deep in a horse's patootie.  That was something I was not expecting to be able to do until vet school, so I was shocked and very grateful for the opportunity at the same time. 

After all the mares were checked, we vaccinated, dewormed, moved some horses out to pasture and weaned some babies. All in all, a very eventful and exciting morning! Now I need to study like crazy to understand all the reproductive terms they were using.

We didn't get a picture of the special moment, but here is one from the internet to give you a clear mental image.