BUDAPEST, Hungary — A lecture corridor filled with first-year veterinary college students in Hungary eagerly took their locations for the primary animal anatomy lesson of their educational careers, when two full-grown horses clopped inside and joined the category.
The rector on the College of Veterinary Drugs in Budapest, Dr. Péter Sótonyi, coaxed one of many animals onto a riser on the entrance of the corridor and used a stick of chalk to attract onto the horse — from head to hooves — the place its bones, organs and muscular tissues might be discovered inside.
“That is their very first lesson, and the primary time ought to be with a dwelling animal,” Sótonyi stated of his college students. ”They shouldn’t first meet with a carcass, as a result of they wish to heal animals. They wish to make animals higher.”
Sótonyi has used this distinctive technique for introducing college students to animal anatomy for round 25 years, and is satisfied it helps them interact extra straight with the subject material than finding out solely by means of books, charts and fashions.
Horses, he stated, that are “notably clever and honorable animals,” are particularly suited to the duty.
“It’s an enormous animal and rather a lot might be demonstrated on it, and individuals are so amazed that the horse comes into the classroom and climbs up on the rostrum. This instantly offers the scholars plenty of motivation,” he stated.
The horses, supplied to the college annually by the Budapest Police, stood calmly all through the lecture, inspired by occasional treats of sugar cubes.
Along with marking the animal’s physique with chalk and colourful oil pencils, Sótonyi held up items from a mannequin horse skeleton to their corresponding places to supply a clearer visible illustration of the horse’s anatomy.
About midway by means of the hourlong lesson, Sótonyi demonstrated the oral construction of one of many animals, reaching his hand inside its mouth to know its lengthy tongue — and getting a mild nip from the horse in return.
“What’s improper with you right this moment?” he requested the horse to laughter from the scholars, lots of whom stood up for a greater view and snapped photos with their telephones.
Following the lecture, there have been no lengthy faces or neigh-sayers, however a room of excited future veterinarians. Noémi Tamaska, 19, stated that she thought the lecture with dwell horses was helpful for future retention of the knowledge.
“It meant rather a lot to me that we may see on a dwelling animal how a skeletal system is constructed,” she stated. “I believe it’s simpler to think about, particularly for visually-oriented folks.”