When our ranch hands look for careers, we have a feeling many of you will want to work with animals. As a Rawhide Ranch camper, you’re getting a great head start on the skills you’ll need!
Our hands-on classes are a great way to work toward a career as a veterinarian or other animal-care specialist. You’ll learn the basics of ranch animals and their care in our animal science classroom. In our horse science class, you’ll learn all about horses, including care, anatomy, biology—even delving into a horse’s thoughts with some horse psychology. And don’t forget our animal care class, which offers the day-to-day tasks of feeding and watering animals and helping to keep their living areas clean.
Volunteerism and youth education programs like the ones offered at Rawhide Ranch will get you started early on your animal care experience. Then it’s up to you to give it your all! To succeed in a veterinary science or animal care career, all you really need is hard work, dedication, and a genuine love of animals. Earning good grades in school helps, too. Starting early on these things will help you know if animal care is the right field for you!
To learn what it’s like to work as a veterinarian, take a look at Animal Planet’s interview with Dr. Roger Mahr, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association and long-time veterinary practitioner. According to Dr. Mahr, “For every veterinarian the day is never routine, and no two days are ever alike. It requires caring for both healthy and sick animals. This includes examinations and vaccinations, diagnosing diseases and injuries, and treating animals with medicine or surgery.” Plus there are many different kinds of veterinarians, so your career choices are many. You can:
- Treat pets at animal hospitals
- Work with large animals, such as horses and cattle, at farms and stables
- Treat exotic animals at zoos, circuses, or marine parks
- Work with endangered species
- Conduct lab research to discover new treatment methods
- Study human-animal disease transmission to protect people
- Become a professor to teach future generations of veterinarians
Wherever your career path takes you, your experiences at Rawhide Ranch will help you along! The leadership skills, self-reliance, and confidence you learn at camp will make you stronger in everything you do. We can’t wait to see where your life takes you!
