Dr. Megan Mathias
Hi WEC and WNEC clients and friends! My name is Megan Mathias and I am one of the new interns at Woodside Equine Clinic. I grew up in a beautiful small town in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. I always had an interest and love for horses and learned to ride at the age of 10 when I got my first pony, Honey (an excellent teacher, as ponies tend to be). Shortly after, we bought my dream horse, a little Arabian filly named Phancy. My mom and I spent most of our summer evenings trail riding our horses in the woods behind our house, and travelling to local and 4h horse shows, horse camps, and competitive trail rides. I was also highly involved with interscholastic sports through high school including basketball, softball, and tennis which took up the remainder of my free time!
After high school graduation, I attended college at Bridgewater College in Virginia where I majored in Biology with a minor in Equine studies and played on their collegiate ODAC tennis team. Veterinary medicine was always a potential career plan for me, but after making the decision to euthanize Phancy when she had severe colic, I became committed to the idea of pursuing a veterinary degree. I wanted to help horses like her and help owners face difficult decisions like the one I had to make. I attended veterinary school at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC where I worked as a veterinary assistant in the large animal hospital , did research in the ophthalmology lab, and worked in the small animal ER in addition to my studies. During my fourth year, I visited Woodside Equine clinic for a two week externship and I loved the doctors and technicians at the practice, the greater Richmond area, and I was (and continue to be) impressed with the high quality of medicine practiced here.
My special interests within the veterinary field include ophthalmology, colic management, preventative health, and surgery. Outside of my work, my passions include riding my half-Arabian gelding, “Dexter” who has made the move from WV to NC to VA, country music, good food, sweet wine, traveling, tennis, and beach volleyball. I am extremely excited about spending my next year with the great folks at Woodside Equine Clinic and working with you and your horses!
Dr. Kara Brown
My name is Kara Brown and I am one of the two new Interns at Woodside Equine Clinic for the 2014-2015 Intern year! I was born in Southern California but spent most of my childhood in a small town near Mt Rainier in Washington State. When I was about 9 years old I fell in love with horses and horseback riding after starting my first English riding lessons on a big appaloosa named “Cutie”. It was about that time that I also decided I wanted to be a veterinarian, and even wrote in a project my third grade year, that my life goal was to be a “veterinary scintist” (please excuse my third grade spelling…) I continued riding horses and competed in Hunter/Jumpers with my pony until high school, when I decided to begin playing scholastic and club volleyball full time.
I left the Northwest in 2004 to attend Haverford College, a small liberal arts school outside Philadelphia, where I majored in Neural and Behavioral Sciences. After graduating from Haverford I spent some time in Portland, Oregon (which quickly became my favorite city on earth), and worked in Philadelphia at the Veterinary Clinical Investigation Center at the University of Pennsylvania. There I assisted in clinical research involving dogs with arthritis, osteosarcoma, and hemangiosarcoma. During that time I fell in love with Philadelphia, and had the privilege over the next 4 years of attending the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School and working with the wonderful doctors, staff and students there.
Joining me in my move is my big black cat Angus, who I adopted from the blood donor program at Penn 6 years ago, and who has been my loyal companion through stressful times ever since! I miss Pennsylvania but I have loved my time in Ashland so far, and you will often find me and our other Intern at Ashland Coffee and Tea, eating at some of the local restaurants, or buying zuchinni from the farmers market on Saturday morning when we aren’t busy with our cases. I look forward to meeting you all and working with your horses and ponies!