Learning to care for animals at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine often extends beyond the classroom. For students like Jason Simmons, that meant spending time in the corrals of central Arizona, where wild horses and burros roam.

Last October and November, Simmons and a handful of classmates spent four weeks providing medical care for hundreds of animals at the Florence Wild Horse and Burro Training and Holding Facility in Florence, Arizona.

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The facility is a partnership between the Bureau of Land Management and Arizona Correctional Industries, an enterprise of the Arizona Department of Corrections. Together, the organizations operate the Wild Horse Inmate Program, through which inmates help care for the animals as part of their rehabilitation.

Simmons called the four-week experience transformative for his veterinary training. Working alongside the staff and inmates who manage the herd, Simmons and his classmates performed a variety of necessary surgeries as well as daily health and wellness checks on the animals.

"Some days, we would perform surgeries on 30 or 40 burros," Simmons said. "Other days, we were administering vaccines, microchipping or helping with blood tests to track potential infectious diseases."

Through a longstanding partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, third-year veterinary students like Simmons can complete one of their required clinical rotations at the Florence facility. While the U of A previously collaborated with the facility on a rotating basis, the value of hands-on, large-animal experience recently led to formalizing the program as a permanent part of the curriculum. 

John Hall, Arizona lead for the bureau's Wild Horse and Burro Program and facility manager of the Florence training and holding facility, said the facility not only provides hands-on training and experience for inmates and students, but vital care and medical attention for the animals.

The horses and burros are eventually domesticated and made available for adoption.

"We have an excess number of animals in almost every state, including Arizona," Hall said. "That means it is a constant process to try and keep animal populations at an appropriate level. But at the same time, we are also responsible for the care of these animals and placing them into good homes. We care immensely about these animals and about the environment. That is why this whole program exists: We want to maintain a thriving ecological system."

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Formalizing the partnership between the Bureau of Land Management and the U of A marks a significant step in expanding veterinary education in Arizona, particularly in the face of a national shortage of equine veterinarians, said Dr. Luise King, assistant professor of practice in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

By immersing students in a high-volume, large-animal environment, the program not only enhances students' education but also encourages more graduates to pursue careers in rural and equine veterinary medicine.

"One challenge in the field is the declining number of equine veterinarians," King said. "A few years ago, only a few dozen graduates nationwide specialized exclusively in equine practice. Every one of our students will go through this rotation, giving them hands-on experience in a field that needs more practitioners. Exposure to equine medicine might inspire more students to pursue this path. Some of these animals have never felt a human touch before, so even collecting blood or performing routine exams is a unique experience for students."

Hands-on experience with undomesticated animals is exactly what Simmons found invaluable during his time at the Florence facility. Unlike in a controlled classroom setting – where students might practice a single procedure on a handful of animals – Simmons and his classmates were tasked with treating dozens of animals every day. 

Simmons said working in such a fast-paced environment required him to quickly adapt, refine his techniques and build confidence in his clinical skills. That confidence quickly paid off in a rotation with the Arizona Humane Society, where he assisted with spay and neuter surgeries on shelter animals.

"When you're working with the volume of animals we did in Florence, I was able to use my clinical skills over and over until I became really good at them," Simmons said. "Even though the anatomy is a little different, the work I did on horses and burros is very translational to small animals."

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Dr. Bonnie Price, associate dean of clinical relations and an associate professor of practice at the college, said the goal of the students' clinical year is to help them apply their classroom knowledge to real-world medical settings. Unlike most traditional veterinary degree programs in the U.S. – which are four years long – the U of A curriculum spans three years. 

Simmons and his third-year colleagues work through 13 different academic blocks over the course of their final year, which includes studying for the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination, working in clinics and general practice in Arizona, and completing rotations in specialty subjects, such as surgery or internal medicine.

Students working in Florence also gain extensive experience in population management of large animals – a practice they may not encounter in a more traditional clinical setting. Price said the partnership with the Florence facility also gives students insight into the power of the human-animal bond, particularly in the rehabilitation process for incarcerated individuals.

"This partnership directly aligns with the U of A's dedication to student success, and our land-grant mission," Price said. "In the West, we deal with feral horse and burro populations like we manage stray dogs and cats – and veterinarians play an important role in these efforts. Our students are already required to complete a rotation with the Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix, and this partnership helps them see how veterinarians manage feral populations across species, and how they can contribute to community health."