Previous Interns:

Where are they now:

You are welcome to e mail these people and find out about their experiences with us.

Australian Graduates:

Fiona Anderson: Fiona was born in Traralgon (East Gippsland). She is a Melbourne graduate of exceptional ability. She was in  a veterinary practice at Cohuna with a friend of ours who suggested we take a close look at her for an internship. He was right and we are lucky enough to have had her for the 2004 breeding season. Fiona has just started (2007) a Residency in Medicine at Murdoch University in WA.

Kristin Arnold: Kristin was one of first interns. She came from a practice in Mansfield and was a great asset to us. Kristin became a member of the Marriot family and moved from Mansfield to Benalla. She has a horse only practice that specialises in Clydesdales.

Jane Axon: After leaving us Jane went to Pennsylvania (New Bolton Center) to work as a Medicine Resident. After completing her three years there, Jane now works each breeding season with the Scone Veterinary Clinic and is in charge of their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Jane is an excellent example of what hard work and dedication can achieve.

Rebekah Barkla: Bec is a Melbourne University graduate. She came to us as student and we so impressed we asked to her to stay on for an internship. She started last summer so is the only current intern with any idea what is just around the corner.  Just about single handed, she managed the intern responsibilities around the hospital during the non breeding season. She is a great personality and a happy person.

Maxine Brain: Max loves Standardbreds. Her husband trains them and she fixes them. She has recently started up her own practice for horses only at Kilmore. She is so popular that after only a few  months she needed to hire someone to help with the workload. Now the practice has three veterinarians. Well done Max.

Anushka Chaku is a bright young spark that came as a recent graduate a few weeks ago from Murdoch University in WA. She was born in Adelaide moved to Broome, Kalgoolie and finally back to Perth. All part of her dad being a geologist. She was sent to Beglium as an exchange student when she was 17. We think it was really a finishing school of sorts. She has travelled to more places than most us have had hot meals. She loves to horses and salsa dancing. She has moved back to Western Australia to work with Chris Gales and the team in Perth.

Graham Dougherty: Graham was born with a harness and sulky already attached. He demonstrated remarkable talents in the areas of Standardbred racing. He resided at Alabar Farms, without doubt the biggest Standardbred farm in Australasia for a year. Recently Graham was appointed to the Racing Industry as a veterinarian in NSW.

Darien Feary: DJ has been an exceptional intern. Able to cope with any challenges thrown at her, she seemed to love pressure. She could work all night and then still smile all the next day. She has completed a residency at CSU (Colorado State University) in medicine and took a job in California at the Veterinary School in Davis. There she is stayed for and completed teaching and training assignments in emergency and critical care. We talked he into coming back for a few months when we suddenly needed a medicine clinician, but then a job at Sydney University beckoned her back to her friends and family. Contact her at djfeary@hotmail.com

Laura Fennell: A Kiewa (northern Victoria) farm girl that went to Sydney University. She is so smart that she graduated with 1st class honours (not seen around here before I can tell you). Since completing her internship she went to Scotland to work in a large practice. Came back and worked for us for the breeding season in 2005 and 2006 and now has started a three year Residency in Equine Medicine with Kate Savage at Melbourne University.

James Hart: James is another Kiwi. You would think that we would have learned by now? James was quite clever (even if it did take us a few years to recognise it) and finished here an extremely competent anaesthetist as well as excelling in other disciplines. His wit and enthusiasm will be missed by all. James went to Sydney University as an horse surgery resident which is a great feather in his cap. Good luck to you James and good luck to Bridget too (she'll need it we reckon).

Richard Hill: Richard and Kate came and went fairly quickly as Kate missed England and Richard found out he was a father to be. A Sydney graduate with heaps of enthusiasm and talent, Richard went working in mixed practice in the UK while study for his Cert in Equine Practice. Four children later, Richard and Kate are showing no signs of returning to Australia. Richard has joined the Delaware Veterinary Group in Somerset as a partner. They can be contacted on kandrhill@onetel.com

Imogen Johns: Im wears the mantle as our longest serving intern. She came to us in 1999 and never really left until 2001. We kept asking her to stay. Imogen accepted a Residency at the New Bolton Centre and now is at the Royal Veterinary College in London. We will miss her and her humour. Will eagerly await her return for this years Melbourne Cup just to see what she wear. Do you need to speak to her about our program? Try imogenj@hotmail.com

Christine Johnson: Chris was poached for a year from Perth. After that she went back there and continued to develop the Epsom Veterinary Clinic with Brian Hilbert. One day in the year 2000 she decided to ride across Australia, so she did and during the trek met and married the man of her dreams. Now she lives somewhere in Queensland.

Richard Lam: Richard is a Sydney graduate (2004) and we missed him immensely when he left (late 2005). He left a large hole, difficult to fill. A good man, reliable and efficient, he also delivered a wealth of knowledge in the IT department (much of which is another foreign language to Angus and Jim). He was responsible for organising the new digital radiography system and images saved from the new ultrasound systems. Apart from all that he is an excellent clinician.

Tim Lescun: After leaving us Tim went to Purdue for a surgical residency and then 4 years later became one of the youngest ever 'Board Certified Surgeons'. A few years ago we were able to entice Tim and his bride (Heidi) to move back here and join or ranks. Heidi is a trained anaesthetic technician so they made quite a package. More recently they decided to move back to the US. A disappointment for us but good news for Purdue University who is employing them both. Tim and Heidi may be contacted on tlescun@purdue.edu

Paul O'Callaghan: A very well travelled young man. He spent a year with us then went and worked in England, Saudi and a host of other countries. When he finally stopped long enough to catch his breath he was offered a job with the VRC (Victoria Racing Club) as a veterinary stipendiary steward. A job he loves. Recently he was appointed the president of the Australian Horse Council.

Wendy Perriam: Came to us from Geralton (western WA) and then went to Littleton Large Animal Clinic in Colorado as the first one of our rotating internships with institutions in the USA. Due to her talents and personality that programme worked well for a number of years. Wendy has concentrated on reproduction and after some time travelling has returned to Perth. Time does fly. To update Wendy's fortunes, would be to highlight a  marriage, two babies and a partnership in a equine practice in Perth. Well done Wendy. You can contact her on weniki@iinet.net.au 

Rod Stewart: Rocket was a man with many talents. He could have chosen any field to work in. He eventually chose a residency in surgery at Washington State. After finishing a year he chose private practice in the US as the outlet for his talents as he waited for his much more intelligent bride (Erica) to be to finish her Ph.D. at Harvard. Now married they have moved to racetrack practice in New York.

Kylie Tiller: What a great acquisition she turned out to be. Born and bred in Euroa and then relocated with husband Stuart to Sydney for a few years of small animal work, when she started here she just shone. He ability to understand and interact with clients was a lesson to us all. Most of the letters up on the notice board during the time she was here were to thank Kylie for caring so much. Kylie left for and became a partner in the Main Ridge Veterinary Clinic on the Mornington Peninsula. 

Johnny Walker: What a character!! Johnny had a  zest for life that kept us all moving. Johnny went on to work at Randwick Equine Centre in Sydney. He loves his job and relishes working with the Thoroughbred trainers such as the legendary Gai Waterhouse. Recently Johnny moved back to Victoria and now lives in Melbourne and works on the Peninsula where he does quite a lot for Lee Freedman.

Bruce Young: Just to show you the diverse nature of previous interns here we have one in Bruce who went to Queensland and has become a veterinary steward in the Queensland Harness Racing industry. Bruce loves the challenges of his work and has been instrumental in introducing many common sense procedures to the industry.

Foreign Graduates:

Scott Alshwede: A visiting Intern from Rood and Riddle in KY, Scott was lots of fun. He worked and played hard and won our respect. He was the second of our rotating internships with partners in the USA. We have all been happy with the way it worked out.

Rikke Munk Andersen: Now Rikke was a Danish national with a veterinary degree from Copenhagen. She has visited and worked for us for 3 years now. We love to see to come and hate to see her go. There isn't anything that she can't do, but beware do not get into the car with her. Contact her if you like.  rikkema@hotmail.com  

Alan Clarke: Alan is a Irish veterinarian that came to us for a season's work. He looked after Roselands (later became Vinery) as a resident vet and did a great job. Recently he has become a father (together with with Grainne) to a young son named Raffi. Alan worked for us as the resident vet on Eliza Park Stud near Melbourne in 2003 and now is their resident veterinarian. Alan can be contacted on acvet90@hotmail.com 

Mette Christensen: Mette (pronounced Metta) was a foreign student visiting from Denmark in 2006. We thought we worked her and Janine so much they wouldn't be back. Great news for us when they applied to work in 2007 at the hospital. Talented and fun she was a welcome addition to the team. All we knew about about the Danes' are that they like to ride and are mostly fearless. Now we know they are able to work hard and have great character.

Eldryudd Davies: EJ is so much easier to say than Eldryudd. She came from Liphook Equine Hospital in the UK. She only worked with us for 6 months but was loads of fun and very talented. She loved life and spent hours trying to convince us all to leave work to water ski or have a night out. Currently she is working (and sunning herself) somewhere in WA (actually I have no idea where she is now).

Padhraic Doran: I still can't spell his name. We called him Poor Rick which was phonetically correct but as usual with the Irish it bore no relation to the spelling. Padhraic was nice guy. Talented and helpful. He withstood the rigours of the internship and always smiled and got on with it. He was a seasonal intern that only was with us for 6 months. Never see anyone try so hard with the girls though.

Carolyn Duddy: Carolyn came to us from Ireland by way of Jerry's Plains. Caza can be seen under the veterinarian section.

Kirsty Gallagher: Kirsty was with us for 5 months before I understood anything she said. He accent was supposedly from Scotland but if you didn't know that it could have been any language at all. Kirsty was fun and vivacious and a great intern with a good work (and party) ethic as well. She loves being down under and has taken a job in Western Australia.

Scott Gibbs: Scott came from Vinery (USA). He had a great time here and Graham Dougherty and he became good friends. We haven't heard from Scott for a while now but know that he will be doing well as he had lots of admirers over here.

Lisa Hinder: Lisa is a real character. She sure can talk (at least we can tell where she is). She's lots of fun to be around and is always in a good mood (perhaps she is on some kind of drug we don't know about). She is a Florida graduate and the only reason we knew about her was through Rob Franklin (an internal medicine specialist here). Rob had worked with her in Florida and said she was a 'must have' for the programme. She is independent, adaptable and enthusiastic for her work. She is close to leaving and that will be a sad day for all of us.

Imogen (alias Jennie) Henderson: Jen arrived from the UK as part of the John Newcombe research team. Jen had worked with John as a student and he was most complimentary and strongly recommended that we employ her/ He wasn't wrong and we were all very sad when it was her time to go. She is coming back to Australia this year to work Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley. Their good luck we reckon.

Aaron Hodder: Aaron came to us from NZ via a job with Jack Easley in Kentucky. Aaron demonstrated a remarkable intelligence and ability to apply himself to the program. The tougher it got the better he became. We would have liked him to have stayed on or done a residency but alas a young South African girl has his attention and we think his next job will over there. Aaron is just completing is residency at the University of California at Davis. Who knows perhaps we will see him come back here one day. Contact him on aaronhodder@hotmail.com

Yuji Inoue: Yuji, is a Japanese graduate in veterinary science. He worked for Hidaka Horse Breeders Association in Hokkaido before coming out here to do the internship. Yuji is in a unique position of being able to converse easily with both Stud Masters here and in Japan. We hope that he will use this ability to set up some form of continual cross cultural exchange of ideas and work. Perhaps there will be some Japanese investment in our breeding industry right here?

Hahn Kingma: A Dutchman and one of the nicest persons you would ever be lucky to meet. Nothing was too much trouble for Hahn. He worked as hard as anyone ever has and still managed to keep everything in perspective. We all miss Hahn and expect and hope that one day he will spend another breeding season with us.

Monique Kuypers: Monique was a seasonal  intern from Belgium. She was lots of fun and together with Jami Whiting and Jane McNally spent hours and hours palpating and scanning mares for our frozen semen program. We don't have a current address.

Jane McNally: Jane came by way of the Irish National Stud. She had done two seasons there and was looking for a change. She wasn't big but had loads of talent and dedication. She was greatly missed when she went back to Ireland. Recently we heard a whisper that she was back in Australia and was looking to settle down with a young man that breeds quite a few horses himself.

Charlie Pinkus: We were only lucky enough to have Charlie for one season. He came and went in a flash but he did impress us (and the girls). The associated picture may suggest otherwise (after many whiskies at the famous annual cattle muster's at Angus's) as Charlie was quite taken the local legend cowboy Tom Herring (Charlie pictured on the right). He is an impressive veterinarian and will be expected to excel wherever he goes.

Reinder Schurrmanns is Dutch graduate. Reinder is quiet and relaxed. He is tall and well loved by all the girls. Where ever he goes there is a team of helpful (perhaps hopeful?) young women. Reinder has shown us that there is no need to have English as a first language if you have intelligence and aptitude. He has applied for a surgical residency in Switzerland. We strongly support him and look forward to hearing of his endeavours when he leaves us in a few months time.

Olivia Sheerin:  Was not amused at being labelled 'the big O' when first arriving but cast aside her worries and became a funny and reasonably hard working intern that didn't take life to seriously until she met Ivan and the 'green card' issue surfaced. She is back in Australia now and is working at the Epson Veterinary Clinic at Caulfield. It was possible to reach her at olivia_s@hotmail.com

Jannie Sorensen: Jannie (pronounced Yannie) graduated from veterinary school in Copenhagen and came here to get a concentrated experience in all aspects of horses. She likes to ride but won't fly in small planes. The more we are getting to know the foreign veterinarians the happier we are to have all of them over here. They work hard, are cheerful and don't complain about how hard it is. Jannie's main interest is in reproduction. She loved it so much that she was going to come back and work in the reproduction department next season (2008), however to the chagrin of most of the guys she met over here, we don't think she will be back because she is engaged already.

Sonia Tarrida Del Marol Figuerora: Sonia was a Spanish veterinarian in search of whatever life would bring. She visited and worked with us on and off for 4 years. Finally, she decided that apart from veterinary medicine that being a mother was a good move for her and her family. We wonder how she is doing and hope she is well. She is pictured here with Angus in France  a while ago (judging by the colour of Angus's hair)

Mike Tweedie: Mike is an Cambridge graduate with an Irish upbringing. He is a former star rugby player (which has made him useful around the surgery area) and posses a mild non aggressive manner around people and horses. Apparently I was the only person not to notice that his interest in the breeding efficiency project had nothing to do with horses and he has married our favourite research assistant Lara. Mike has his own veterinary practice named Kensington Equine Practice. Rumour is that that he is very well liked by the trainers and is happily settled in Melbourne now.

Martin Vidal: Martin is of German origin but educated in the UK. Martin excelled in our environment and quickly settled in and made friends with his clients (especially the female portion), so was asked to stay on for another year. This worked in well and helped give him time to apply for and be offered a residency in surgery. So, it was of to Louisiana State University where he completed a PhD and Residency and now to a faculty position at University of California at Davis. We know he will do well and be a god emissary for us and you can guess from the picture at right that he needs the practice. You better meet him and decide for yourself.

Jami Whiting: Jami came from California on our exchange internship program and never once drew breath. She was much fun to have around the hospital and her keen sense of humour always shone out no matter how many hours she had to work in a row. From us she went to Hagyard, Davidson and McGee in Lexington, Kentucky and then was a offered a job with Sheikh Mohamed's horses in Dubai JLWDubai@aol.com.