"The internship is a combination of on the farm experience and networking," KEMI coordinator Leslie Janecka said. "It gives them practice getting out there and being able to communicate."

KEMI is a 22-week program that places interns at participating farms as full-time employees and requires weekly meetings for educational lectures and seminars. Spring semester interns focus on mares and foals, while fall semester interns focus on yearling preparation, breaking, and sales.

The topics presented were: backstretch conditions for racetrack employees; overbreeding the Thoroughbred stallion; racing 2-year-old horses; the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP); dual agency issues; farm preservation and land development issues; the national animal identification system; and treatment options for developmental joint disease.

Each group of two to three interns focused on the positive and negative aspects of each topic and provided the group's overall opinion. A brief question and answer session took place after each presentation, with the overbreeding of the Thoroughbred stallion presentation drawing the most questions.