Description of LINK
LINK stands for Leading Internships for New Knowledge. It is a three week long internship that all juniors at animas must complete to graduate. To complete the internship you must create a project with a mentor you find and have a minimum of 90 hours of work time.
My Experience
For my LINK internship I went to Fort Collins Co. I worked with Brittany McDowell owner of Rocky Mountain Vet Care. Brittany is an equine chiropractor that specializes in Acupuncture, Kinesiology, and PEMF (Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field therapy).
WEBSITE
WEBSITE
My Project:
For my LINK Project I created a video of me stretching my own horse. I learned most of these stretches from my mentor.
Reflection:
Going into LINK I already knew the pain and relief signals of a horse like licking their lips when they are relaxed or an aggressive swish of the tail when in pain, because I have worked with them for as long as I can remember. Also knowing the pain and release signals was helpful because I knew when a horse was uncomfortable or when they are relaxed or if they were going to strike. I built so many skills during LINK, but I think the most beneficial for me was that I built confidence in working around high strong horses which has helped me build my confidence l in my own riding.
LINK was a lot of fun but it did come with its own share of challenges. One thing that happened was I was not sure what to do for my project. It was challenging coming up with something out of the box but also something that I could bring to the school. My original Idea was to demonstrate the stretches in person with my horse but that didn't seem realistic. So what I finally figured out was a video of me doing stretches with my own horse and sharing the benefits of the stretches.
Rocky Mountain Vet Care has so much to offer in the way of interns. It is an amazing hands-on learning experience. Students and mentors can both benefit from this experience. The mentor can have help holding animals, moving stuff around,and taking notes. Students can benefit from the experience of running a business and learn the life of an equine chiropractor.
This internship was such an amazing experience in helping me figure out my college and career path. But the internship was only part of it. My internship was in Fort Collins, Colorado and that is the home of CSU and the CSU equine science centers. I visited the Equine center while I was in Fort Collins and that experience made me think even more about the possibilities of college. Within the boundaries of the internship, I discovered a few more things. The first discovery was that there are two ways to become an Equine Chiropractor. That is through either vet school or becoming a human chiropractor and getting an equine certificate after that. The next thing I learned is I don't necessarily want to go into vet School. It is many years in school and a lot of loans to take out and pay back. However, I don't think it is the right path for me, because I am not someone who can tell someone that their animal is going to die. Finally, there are actually a lot of alternative medicine practices that I could pursue that don't require a vet degree such as equine massage or Kinesiology.
LINK was a lot of fun but it did come with its own share of challenges. One thing that happened was I was not sure what to do for my project. It was challenging coming up with something out of the box but also something that I could bring to the school. My original Idea was to demonstrate the stretches in person with my horse but that didn't seem realistic. So what I finally figured out was a video of me doing stretches with my own horse and sharing the benefits of the stretches.
Rocky Mountain Vet Care has so much to offer in the way of interns. It is an amazing hands-on learning experience. Students and mentors can both benefit from this experience. The mentor can have help holding animals, moving stuff around,and taking notes. Students can benefit from the experience of running a business and learn the life of an equine chiropractor.
This internship was such an amazing experience in helping me figure out my college and career path. But the internship was only part of it. My internship was in Fort Collins, Colorado and that is the home of CSU and the CSU equine science centers. I visited the Equine center while I was in Fort Collins and that experience made me think even more about the possibilities of college. Within the boundaries of the internship, I discovered a few more things. The first discovery was that there are two ways to become an Equine Chiropractor. That is through either vet school or becoming a human chiropractor and getting an equine certificate after that. The next thing I learned is I don't necessarily want to go into vet School. It is many years in school and a lot of loans to take out and pay back. However, I don't think it is the right path for me, because I am not someone who can tell someone that their animal is going to die. Finally, there are actually a lot of alternative medicine practices that I could pursue that don't require a vet degree such as equine massage or Kinesiology.