美国国家公共电台 NPR On Derby Day, Visiting A College Where You Can Major In Horses

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Kentucky Derby day - sorry if we didn't mention that in sports - post time this afternoon, 6:46 Eastern. Midway University - an hour's drive away from Churchill Downs to the east in the Kentucky bluegrass - it's a small school with intense focus on horses. Many of the well-known thoroughbred farms have Midway graduates on staff. NPR's Noah Adams visited.

NOAH ADAMS, BYLINE¹: Midways started back in 1849. It was called the Kentucky Female Orphan² School. Now it's a coed university. And 35 horses are in the fields and barns on campus because 75 students are going after equine management degrees.

(SOUNDBITE OF HORSE NEIGHING)

ALLIE JOHNSON: Horses can just really teach you a lot.

ADAMS: Allie Johnson is ending her sophomore³ year. She loves to ride Sophie in the indoor arena⁴. Johnson plans to open her own farm to be able to teach kids about horses - certainly those with special needs like autism.

JOHNSON: I love horses. I just get emotional about them because whenever I had a lot going on at home, my horse helped me through a lot of it because I would just always sit in the barn. I was supposed to be in the house after 10 at night. And I would sneak⁵ out there and hang out with my horse until like midnight.

(SOUNDBITE OF HORSE NEIGHING)

ADAMS: Over in a busy barn, somebody says here's the first brave guy to sign up for the horse program. His name is Koy Lindsay. He is a rodeo fan and would like to start his own rodeo in Kentucky. Midway makes him think he can do it.

KOY LINDSAY: I did a year - a full year of doing work in the barns, and then now I'm a manager. It's really helped me a lot in my managing techniques and in becoming a better reader.

JANICE HOLLAND: You have to at least be in khakis or dress pants. You do not have to be in a suit.

ADAMS: In a classroom, the professor Janice Holland is helping⁶ set up a student presentation. What should they wear? Holland advises barn professional. The students have been making posters for a symposium⁷. Sara Gatchell shows her idea to Beverly Garland.

SARA GATCHELL: It is a comparison of PEMF devices - a breakdown⁸ of Cytowave and BioPulse.

BEVERLY GARLAND: OK.

GATCHELL: So it's long.

ADAMS: At a quieter place - one of Midway's barns in the rain - Hannah Waraway does some careful sweeping⁹ as an assigned chore. She is a freshman¹⁰ from up near Ann Arbor¹¹, Mich.

HANNAH WARAWAY: There's no equine anything in Michigan. I mean, we have Michigan State, but that's really an animal science rather than equine. So down here, I found that they had a very hands-on program. And I'm a very hands-on, kinesthetic learner.

ADAMS: Lately Midway's had equine students from 15 states and South Africa and Zambia. And the school estimates that 80 percent of the current equine students have off-campus jobs. Rene Fossett works 32 hours a week at a thoroughbred farm - sometimes helping with a birth.

RENE FOSSETT: I did get to witness one and help out with cleaning the foul¹² off and everything like that - and tying up the uterus so that it pulls out correctly.

STEPHANIE KEELEY: All right, so we are doing two vaccines¹³ and dewormer per horse.

ADAMS: Seven o'clock in the morning, students meet with Stephanie Keeley. She loves planning these classes - real freshman stuff, early in the day. And the idea is hands on the horse.

KEELEY: Remember. When we are giving our injection - kind of fast like you're ripping off a Band-Aid, just - right? Just stick it in. Don't sit there, and - just stick it in, OK. Excellent.

ADAMS: Around this campus, with the barns and the fine spring grass, there's maybe some talk about the Kentucky Derby coming up today. But the true excitement - that's the graduation next Saturday on this campus in Midway, Ky. Noah Adams, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF DUNKAN'S "EUROPE (ORIGINAL MIX)")