Once again the University of Kentucky China Initiatives Office approached me regarding offering a "horse program" for the Chinese students (from universities in China that have a relationship with UK) that come to UK to learn English and other subject matters. To date we have offered this academy twice, to 2 separate groups of students.  

These students come to UK for a period of 2 weeks, and this is one of the ways for UK to recruit international students. 

Last year we developed a pilot program for January/February 2018 for 5 students. It was a very successful program, and for 2019 we had 21 students take our horse academy lessons. It is an intensive program where the students learn 20 hours of classroom about equine science (anatomy, function, breeds, equipment, nutrition, health, international issues, etc), divided into 10 2-hour classroom style lessons in the morning, as well as toured some of Lexington's most prestigious Equine Related businesses that I set up, to include: Coolmore's Ashford Stud (home of American Pharoah, and now Justify), Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, Standlee Hay, Hallway Feeds, KESMARC, and some tack shops, which happened in the afternoons. 

The students also took horseback riding lessons with a local riding facility. 

Overall, the program was extremely well accepted, and students left Lexington saying they would pursue a riding activity in China.