Monday, Dr. Halbrooks’ Equine Disease Management class and other students in Judson’s Equestrian program were fortunate to have the opportunity to hear Dr. Pugh speak on the subject of Disease management. Dr. Pugh is an equine vet who formally taught at Auburn University and currently works for Fort Dodge, a leading producer in Equine Vaccinations.

I am sure that some of you are thinking that listening to a vet discuss disease management does not seem like an opportunity that you would be glad to have and, to be honest, I was not that excited about it myself. I mean I sit in class every week and listen to Dr. Halbrooks speak about equine disease. Don’t get me wrong: Dr. Halbrooks is a great professor and I enjoy his class, but what could another vet really have to say that was that much different? Well, what he said may not have been different, but let me tell you, the presentation was. I don’t think I have ever laughed that hard or that much during a lecture. Dr. Pugh is very knowledgeable and he knows how to make topics that may be a little bit dry very interesting by adding humor.

Havinga guest like Dr. Pugh come and speak to us is not a rare occurrence in Judson’s Equestrian Program. Dr. Pugh has not been here before, as far as I know, but we have had a number of other guests come and discuss a variety of different equine related topics. During spring semester last year we had two guest speakers visit. One of these speakers owned an equine-related business and, therefore, was able to inform us about different laws that were in place or waiting to be passed concerning horses. The other was an animal trainer who was, at the time, working for a horse breeder in the area. He talked with us about methods of training horses and what all is involved in that career.