welcome to the equinnection.
Hi future doctors!
My name is hannah mae and I am currently a fourth year veterinary student. You are probably here from my TikTok account where I discuss issues in the equine industry, the ins and outs of veterinary nutrition, share my daily life in veterinary school and make other cringey content for the enjoyment of others.
A major passion of mine is the issue of retention in the equine industry. Less and less graduating veterinarians are pursuing equine medicine and it is our job as industry professionals to turn things around! Through my final year of veterinary school I noticed a trend: many people choose not to pursue careers in equine
medicine simply because they feel as though they are not good enough. These feelings of inadequacy can come from many factors including not getting enough hands on experience before or during veterinary school, not having owned a horse themselves or even not being born into the industry.
I created this company to try to counteract these insecurities that people feel every day in the equine industry. This website is meant to provide a surplus of information and direct networking so that those interested in pursuing careers in the equine industry with no prior knowledge can feel welcomed and know that they CAN succeed in this industry.
In addition, I have always hated sharing my own opinion on social media because I would much rather hear what other people have to say. My goal with the discussion panels on this site is to provide a safe space where people feel welcome to share their own opinions, no matter how controversial it may be. We are all professionals here and I aim to encourage educational discussion when it comes to these tough topics.
I hope that this website can be used as a safe space to ask questions to industry professionals, have resources available to get you started in the equine industry and help you to find the answers you never even knew existed. I encourage you to make an account and leave a few comments on the discussion posts I have posted, as well as post your own! I look forward to watching this community grow! And thank you so much for being here!!
our mission statement :
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to inspire people to do things they thought they couldn’t
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to nurture the connection between horses and humans
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to provide access to a network of resources
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to bring together individuals who all share an everlasting passion for the horse industry
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to get you started in the equine industry, one stride at a time
our core values :
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respect
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compassion
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collaboration
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resilience
if you really want to know more...
I was born in Sarasota, Florida, though we only lived there for my first year of life before my mom and I drove up the coastline to Connecticut. I grew up in the small town of Wethersfield where my mom, two dogs and I shared a quaint little cape-style home for a majority of my childhood.
I have known my entire life that I wanted to be a veterinarian and often would perform 'exams' on my childhood dogs with my plastic toy stethoscope. Though my mom was, and still is, petrified of horses I was fortunate enough to grow up riding at a local hunter barn in Glastonbury. By the time I was 10 I was horseback riding, playing soccer, piano, and french horn in my free time (though the soccer thing didn't last too long).
At the age of 12 I underwent three separate orthopedic surgeries to correct the angular deformities in my lower limbs. It was through this experience that I fell in love with the art of surgery and knew that someday I myself wanted to perform surgeries too. I flirted with the thought of being a human orthopedic surgeon for a while, but I knew it just didn't fit. I knew I could never operate on a human; the thought of cutting human flesh just freaked me out.
I toyed with different career ideas all throughout middle and high school; I thought of becoming a sports photographer or a graphic designer for a long time, but nothing truly spoke to me as much as veterinary medicine did. I shadowed my first veterinary clinic when I was in the 8th grade and fell in love with caring for animals.
I attended Sport and Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford for middle and high school, and picked up volleyball as a new hobby when I started school there. This school prepared me more than I knew for my career; they provided me with a surplus of college-level math, english and science courses which I am to this day beyond thankful for. They also gave us all eight free college applications, which I knew I had to use wisely.
I had always envisioned myself attending UCONN for my undergraduate degree and University of Florida for my DVM, however when it came time to apply I found myself with one last free application to spare. I had never even considered schools that weren't on the East Coast, simply because I had never been farther West than Ohio. I was searching for the perfect last school to apply to when someone mentioned to my mom that Colorado has one of the top veterinary schools in the country, and that they thought I would fit in great out there.
In the spring of my senior year I had been admitted to all of the schools I applied to, including Colorado State University, and it was time to finally make a decision. My mom and I visited my top 5 choices all in one week, and even though both of us knew I was going to choose either UCONN or UVM, we decided to visit Colorado just for fun too.
The blue mountains of Colorado were unlike anything I had ever seen. I instantly fell in love with CSU and the great state of Colorado, and knew that I couldn't go anywhere else for my education. I did my undergraduate degree in Equine Science learning the ins and outs of managing equine herds and facilities. I truly cannot say enough good things about the equine program at CSU, both for undergraduate and veterinary colleges. From classes that teach you how to break horses, manage facilities and put on events to the brand new state of the art equine hospital, this school has it all.
I graduated with my undergraduate degree and started veterinary school in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. It was challenging starting veterinary school completely online, but it was also a blessing in disguise. Since lectures were online I was able to watch them at night and spend a lot of my days working several different veterinary related jobs. It's been an interesting experience for sure, but I've been thankful for every second of it.
I have a lot of career goals and some of them I'm not quite ready to talk about publicly. However, it will certainly always involve horses and it will probably also involve some degree of orthopedic surgery. My biggest interests are equine orthopedic surgery, podiatry and reproduction, and I hope to have some aspect of each of them in my future career.
Well, that pretty much covers it, plus or minus a few details. If you have any questions about my journey, feel free to reach out anytime below! And thank you again for being here!