{"id":7689,"date":"2020-02-21T11:55:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T16:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=7689"},"modified":"2025-12-02T08:22:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:22:29","slug":"dvm-student-pursues-her-passion-with-elite-equine-experience-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/dvm-student-pursues-her-passion-with-elite-equine-experience-in-the-middle-east.php","title":{"rendered":"DVM Student Pursues Her Passion with Elite Equine Experience in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Equine
The Dubai Equine Hospital, one the largest private-practice equine hospitals in Dubai, has a selective externship program and accepts only two students from the same country per year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For Caitlin Smith, a member of the DVM Class of 2020, the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap took her across the globe to Dubai, where she became the first Purdue veterinary student to participate in the highly selective Dubai Equine Hospital Externship Program.  Caitlin stayed in Dubai on the hospital\u2019s campus for the entirety of her externship, which ran from November 30 to December 29, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Caitlin
Caitlin took some time out of her busy externship schedule to go riding at the Mleiha Archaeological Centre. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Dubai Equine Hospital is one the largest private-practice equine hospitals in Dubai and is located less than two miles from the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. There are usually anywhere from 20 to 50 horses at the hospital at a time. The externship program takes one applicant every month from countries all over the globe, and does not take more than two externs from the same country in the same year. The students\u2019 travel and food costs are covered and they are housed in an apartment on the hospital campus. When horses are not in the ICU, each student extern is responsible for conducting all treatments from six in the morning until midnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caitlin loved the flexible schedule she had, which enabled her to make the most of the many educational opportunities the externship afforded.  \u201cWhen I wasn\u2019t doing treatments, I was able to make my own schedule. I could scrub into surgeries, do appointments, look at the radiographs, and talk to the other doctors,\u201d said Caitlin. \u201cThis program requires that you are fully invested in being an equine veterinarian, as you work strictly on horses 18 hours a day for 30 days straight.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the horses that come through the hospital are high quality racehorses or endurance horses, as Dubai has a large horse racing industry. Caitlin was able to visit and work behind the scenes at the largest racecourse on the planet, the mile-long Meydan Grandstand in Dubai. The Meydan Racecourse is home to an almost six-month long racing season, as well as the Dubai World Cup, which is the world\u2019s richest race day at $35 million.  <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Caitlin
Caitlin Smith, of the DVM Class of 2020, was able to visit the Meydan Grandstand in Dubai, the largest racecourse in the world.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI hope to eventually work on equines at world-class shows,\nso it was great to get a taste of that through this externship program,\u201d\nreflected Caitlin. \u201cI would recommend this study abroad experience to other\nequine-track DVM students because it gave me global exposure to the horse racing\nindustry and allowed me to build a lasting network of equine veterinary\nprofessionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething interesting that I learned while at Dubai Equine\nHospital was that there are so many ways to achieve the same result through\ndifferent approaches,\u201d said Caitlin. \u201cThis is why I believe it is important for\nall DVM students to study abroad at some point; it provides you with a\ndifferent perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caitlin is from South Bend, Ind., and while at Purdue Veterinary Medicine, she has participated in the Equine Club (AAEP), served on the College\u2019s wellness committee, and served as an officer for the International Veterinary Student Association (IVSA). After graduating in May, she plans to pursue an equine-based internship at a private practice in Connecticut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information on study abroad and externship opportunities is available through the PVM Office of Global Engagement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Caitlin Smith, a member of the DVM Class of 2020, the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap took her across the globe to Dubai, where she became the first Purdue veterinary student to participate in the highly selective Dubai Equine Hospital Externship Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,44,499,28,29,42],"tags":[1566,1568,1567,379,94,1564,122,56,1565,127,25],"class_list":["post-7689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-dvm","category-global-engagement","category-our-impact","category-our-people","category-students","tag-caitlin-smith","tag-dubai","tag-dubai-equine-hospital-externship","tag-dvm-class-of-2020","tag-equine","tag-giant-leap","tag-global-engagement","tag-homepage","tag-small-steps","tag-study-abroad","tag-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7689"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31750,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689\/revisions\/31750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}