Four future horse doctors in their fourth year of outstanding veterinary school performance are the 2024 recipients of $75,000 Coyote Rock Ranch Veterinary Scholarships. The Foundation for the Horse presented their awards on December 8, 2024, during the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) 70th Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida.

The scholarship recipients, selected from 53 distinguished applicants, are:

Holcomb intends to pursue an internship, residency, and surgical career. “When starting veterinary school, I thought that would be as a podiatrist,” said Holcomb. “Three years (and many broken sterile fields) later, I have found a passion for surgery. Where I once saw four feet and their necessary attachments, I now see a complex mass of muscle, bone, and ever-clogging intestines. This career pursuit will best inform me toward understanding and supporting my future patients.”

Mangine expects to enter ambulatory practice after completing an internship at a well-established, multi-doctor practice. She hopes to work in a larger practice where she could use her special interests, including sport horse and racetrack medicine.

Poth intends on being an ambulatory practitioner focused on equine sports medicine. She is interested in many aspects of ambulatory medicine, including therapeutics, nutrition, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, and emergency and disaster medicine.

Wethington aspires to complete a large animal internal medicine residency, earn a doctorate in equine disease, and mentor as many students as she can along the way. She hopes to be boarded in internal medicine and has a passion for equine-focused pathology. Wethington intends to eventually to be a professor in equine internal medicine and serve as a principal investigator of a laboratory.

Penelope Knight created the Coyote Rock Ranch Veterinary Scholarship. Since awarding the first scholarships in 2016, 32 AAEP student members from 16 schools have shared cumulative proceeds of $2,475,000.

“At Coyote Rock Ranch, quality equine veterinarian medicine lies at the heart of our program. In helping future veterinarians achieve success, we elevate the entire equine industry and ultimately the welfare of the horse,” says Mrs. Knight. “With my overall aim of supporting education, research, and advancements in care for the horse, I am pleased to offer these scholarship opportunities to our next generation of equine veterinarians.”

For more information about this program and other scholarships offered through The Foundation for the Horse, visit FoundationForTheHorse.org.