Europe — Two faculty and three undergraduate students from the equine science section within the Department of Animal Science spent a couple of weeks this summer in Europe teaching horse riding clinics.Animal Science undergraduate students Ari Sear from Simonton, Amy Heartfield from Belton and Raul Valdez from Laredo served as instructors at the International Horsemanship Clinics held July 17-Aug. 5 in Gotland (a small island in the Baltic Sea), Sweden, Poland and Switzerland. The program is funded by the American Quarter Horse Association and provides university students the opportunity to educate European western riding enthusiasts with basic and advanced riding skills.

The clinics focused on gaining better communication between horse and rider in order to focus on specific events of interest, mainly reining, trail and horsemanship.

Dr. Clay Cavinder, assistant professor, and Dr. Laura White, equine lecturer, assisted and traveled with the team.

Photo caption: Standing, left to right, Dr. Clay Cavinder, Raul Valdez, Amy Heartfield and Ari Sear with participants of the International Horsemanship Clinic on horseback.

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