LOADING

Type to search

Uncategorized

For the love of animals

Stephanie Williams jumps with a horse

From premed veterinary pathways to equine studies minors and the century-old Equestrian Program, Goucher College alums have pursued their passion for working with animals in a variety of ways.

By Martha McLaughlin, M.F.A. ’16

*

HORSE WHISPERER

Stephanie Williams ’02 started riding horses when she was six. When she was eight, she wrote that her dream “was to be a horse trainer and riding instructor.” When she was 13, her parents, along with their two horses, moved to a four-stall “farmette.” But that same year, she says, “I discovered boys and theater, and left horses in the dust.”

Williams, a theatre major, began riding again seriously when she joined Goucher’s equestrian team. “Goucher led me back to horses,” she says. “I don’t know, if I’d gone to a different school, if I would have rediscovered that passion.”

After college, while performing at a theater in Columbia, MD, she learned it was struggling and for sale. She’d always joked that she wanted to have her own theater company, and, in 2006, she bought it. Then resuscitated it. She describes Drama Learning Center (DLC) as “holistic, ensemble-based theater education for kids from pre-K through college.”

In March 2020, DLC was thriving. Then the pandemic brought theater everywhere to a halt. Unsure how long it would last, and with friends asking if she would give their kids horseback riding lessons—a safe, socially distant activity—Williams embraced the opportunity. In between writing grants to keep DLC afloat, she gave lessons at the farmette. Demand grew, so Williams leased a neighboring property. Demand outgrew that. What started as a resourceful way to survive a pandemic was turning into another career path.

At end of 2021, Williams and her fiancé purchased a 33-acre property in Ellicott City, MD, less than 10 miles from the farmette. They built several run-ins (shelters) and a 13-stall barn for their 30 horses and ponies with an attached indoor arena. She named it Clover Luck Stables.

Williams describes the program she’s designed as “a hunter, jumper, equitation barn with a focus on horsemanship.” Her horses are not “lesson horses.” She owns them all and prioritizes their care and health above everything else. “Our program is different from a lot of the programs out there,” she says. “We get our students to look at the big picture of the horses’ welfare, not just riding.” Williams spends her days caring for and training her horses and giving lessons, as well as doing administrative work for DLC. She still competes and, in the fall of 2024, won a competition with 24-year-old Celtic Charm. “I went through a long, arduous training process with him, and he’s emerged into an amazing horse—my ‘living resume.’”

While most of her time is still spent at Clover Luck, Williams is excited to be designing the set for a stage production of Beetlejuice at DLC. She hopes to create a hybrid that allows her to continue pursuing both lifelong passions.

ANIMAL ACUPUNCTURIST

When a beagle mix came racing down the hallway at the practice where she was working as a veterinarian, Deborah Comings ’98, V.M.D., could not believe her eyes. The last time she’d seen the dog, just three weeks before, he couldn’t walk because of a severe spinal disk injury.

The cure? Acupuncture.

When she beheld the seeming miracle, Comings was determined to learn veterinary acupuncture herself. In December 2023, after the rigorous yearlong training, she completed the certification program at Chi University in Florida and has been using acupuncture to treat patients since.

With its origins in traditional Chinese medicine, veterinary acupuncture uses thin needles inserted into the skin at specific points to “regulate the flow of qi [energy], which nourishes the tissues and organs,” she says, thus decreasing pain, treating injury, and improving health, according to the American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture. “It’s particularly effective for animals with arthritis, inflammation, hip dysplasia, and spinal disease,” says Comings. While, in the last 30 years, its use in Western medicine for treating humans has increased, acupuncture’s use on animals in veterinary clinics is still quite rare.

As part of her training, Comings worked with Duke, “a 12-year-old yellow Labrador who had two torn ACLs,” she says. “His owner opted for surgery on just one of the knees. They brought him to me because he’d pulled his neck and couldn’t move well—his owners were carrying this 70- or 80-pound Lab around in a sling. I did acupuncture for the neck and it got better quickly, but he was so active he reinjured his knees. I then focused my treatment on the knees and Duke came trotting back in.”

He also had laryngeal paralysis, “a breathing problem that, in Western medicine, can only be treated with surgery,” Comings says. She didn’t focus on the problem in her treatment. “But after the fourth session, I realized he was breathing better. I went to my acupuncture books and discovered that the points I was using to treat the knees and neck were helping it.” Duke’s breathing returned to normal, but a few months later, he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. “I started acupuncture for that, and his most recent bloodwork came back normal,” she says. “There’s nothing in Western medicine that can cure that. Nothing.”

Comings was as pleased as Duke was. “It’s so gratifying,” she says of using acupuncture. “I love having another powerful tool in the toolbox to help my patients live long, pain-free lives.”

EMERGENCY SERVICES PROVIDER

Eli Woodoff-Leith ’11, D.V.M., wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after he graduated. He struggled to find a job he felt passionate about. He considered getting a Ph.D. in chemistry, but it would’ve been something to do rather than something he was excited about.

“I stumbled into a job as a kennel tech at BARCS [Baltimore Area Rescue and Care Shelter],” he recalls. “I’d never worked with animals in my life, and I loved it. The shelter dogs and cats really stole my heart.” But he was eager to find a vocation. One day he was lamenting to a retired veterinarian, who volunteered at BARCS and with whom Woodoff-Leith worked closely, that he didn’t know what he wanted to do. “This doctor told me, ‘You need to take a couple of years, stop messing around, take some classes, and go to vet school.’ And I was like, ‘That’s insane. I can’t do that.’ I hadn’t even considered it before. It was very flattering to hear that from him because he didn’t say that to everyone.”

Few people are aware how competitive it is to get into veterinary school. Only 10% of applicants are accepted, compared to 40% of medical school applicants. Woodoff-Leith didn’t get in the first two times, but he took all the suggestions he was given to improve his application, and his third try was the charm.

In May 2023, Woodoff-Leith graduated from Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg, VA, with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. He then decided to do a 13-month internship at Pet ER in Hunt Valley, MD. He found that he “liked the pace of ER and the depth of medicine” it involved. “I stayed on as a full-time staff doctor,” he says, “and I’m still learning every day.”

“Something that is really important to veterinarians and veterinary medicine is mental health,” says Woodoff-Leith. “Veterinarians have, unfortunately, one of the highest suicide rates in the country. Their job is very difficult, and I’m just learning that. I’ve had many friends struggle mentally and I just hope that it is something that folks feel more and more comfortable talking openly about.”

He works hard to ensure good communication among his colleagues and reminds himself and them that they’re all doing their best to offer the highest quality care to their patients and clients.

LARGE ANIMAL EDUCATOR

Virginia Buechner-Maxwell ’76, D.V.M., is a professor and specialist in large-animal internal medicine at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (VMCVM) in Blacksburg, VA. Like Woodoff-Leith, she also graduated from there.

“I thought about going into veterinary medicine when I was young,” says Buechner-Maxwell, “but back then, it was very difficult for women to be accepted into veterinary college,” especially for large-animal practice.

“My time at Goucher woke up a love of learning and gave me the confidence to aim for a career in veterinary medicine,” says Buechner-Maxwell. She had wonderful science teachers, specifically geneticist Ann Lacy, embryologist Martin Berlinrood, and microbiologist Helen Funk. “William Johnson, who taught environmental science, developed a course for students to complete research projects on marine life in the Virgin Islands,” she recalls. “I learned to love discovery and pursued an academic career that included research.”

Buechner-Maxwell, who was a biology major, also cites Professor of English Fontaine Belford, who inspired her interest in English literature, and Joe Morton, who taught philosophy and photography and provided “a broader perspective and view of the world,” she says. Janet McBride, who ran the campus equestrian program, was her dorm supervisor and introduced Buechner-Maxwell to a new way of working with horses—methods that she still uses. “The opportunities at Goucher were so vast. I received a true liberal arts education,” she says.

After graduating from Goucher, Buechner-Maxwell taught high school. She entered veterinary college in 1982 and, in 1986, while still a student, completed a master’s degree program in cell and molecular biology science at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated from VMCVM in 1987.

“Once I joined [VMCVM] as a student, I thought, ‘This is where I want to come back and teach,’” she says. After finishing that program, as well as an internship in California, and a residency in large-animal internal medicine in Virginia, she taught at Michigan State. She joined the faculty at VMCVM in 1995 and in the fall of 2025 will have been there for 30 years. She loves teaching and describes her students as “truly talented and a privilege to work with.”

In 2016, Buechner-Maxwell was named director of the Center for Animal Human Relationships (CENTAUR) at Virginia Tech (of which VMCVM is a part), which educates people “on the importance of human-animal relationships,” according to its website.

“I am so grateful for the time I spent at Goucher,” says Buechner-Maxwell. “It was foundational to my professional journey and helped make it possible to do what I wanted to during my career.”

 

 

(Pictured at top: Stephanie Williams ’02)

Tags

Next Up