Class of 2025: Wild Horses Couldn’t Have Dragged Her Away from Her Dream

When Lexi High takes the Veterinarian’s Oath this weekend, she will bring to it a determination that has been unwavering and the knowledge that she led the way for other doctor dreamers from North Carolina’s rural areas.

In 2017, the Laurel Hill native was the first University of North Carolina-Pembroke undergraduate to be granted entrance to the UNC System Veterinary Education Access program, which guarantees admission to the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine to chosen biology majors who meet all of the standard CVM admission standards.

“This program was the first step toward getting to my goal,” says High, who will become an equine-focused veterinarian. “It allowed me to focus on my clinical hours and getting that experience as well as keeping my grades up. Knowing I had that spot, I could put all my effort into school and clinical experience.”

The UNC-SVEA program is one of four that the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine now offers to undergraduates across North Carolina. The other three — the Equine Scholars Program, Food Animal Scholars Program and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Scholar Program — are designed to attract veterinary students to fields that have more acute veterinarian shortages.

For High, no one needed to draw her into equine medicine. She grew up on a farm with poultry houses and a small cow-calf operation, but it was horses that captured her undying devotion.

“It’s the only thing I’ve done,” says High, who goes home as often as she can to ride Jezebel, Fireball and Big Mama. “Everything has revolved around horses since vet school started. I’ve been laser-focused.” 

Throughout her years at NC State, High has taken every opportunity — every elective, every externship, every internship, every extracurricular — to work with horses. She has traveled and worked in equine facilities across the Southeast and Texas, she says, in addition to those local to Raleigh such as Foundation Equine Clinic in Southern Pines and Summit Equine Hospital in Apex.

Around studying, classwork and exams on campus, she also spent time riding out to after-hours calls with the veterinarians providing NC State’s Equine Ambulatory Emergency Service. The service, which the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine began in 2023, partners with three area clinics to fill a desperate need for off-hour medical coverage.

Dr. Elsa Ludwig, an equine emergency surgeon and clinical professor at NC State, says she was impressed by High’s skills and attention to detail almost immediately when High participated in ambulatory calls. 

“I was always happy to have Lexi on the service because she was excited to learn, hardworking and overall a fun person,” Dr. Ludwig says. “When Lexi became a fourth-year and rotated through my equine soft tissue surgery service, she continued to be driven and worked to obtain as much experience as possible. I have total confidence that Lexi is about to become an incredible veterinarian.”

Being able to work with the equine ambulatory service during her pre-clinical years was an NC State highlight for High, and her fourth-year clinical rotations left her feeling confident and elated.  

“Clinical year is where the magic happens, where it all clicks,” she says. “Everything you’ve learned throughout the first three years, you get in clinics and see a case or get the chance to do the ultrasound, and it just all clicks. I love the feeling of figuring it out and coming full circle.”

In June, she will begin an internship at the Brazos Valley Equine Hospital in Navasota, Texas. She completed an externship at the clinic last summer and looks forward to continuing to serve the rural area northwest of Houston.

“I’m super excited, a little nervous, but I feel like clinical year has prepared me,” High says. “I worked in the NC State Large Animal Hospital as much as I was able to, and I was very hands-on. I feel like I can handle most things.”

High has returned to UNC-Pembroke to share her NC State experiences with other medical-field hopefuls and will go again this month to talk about her joy in finishing strong.

She finds it hard to believe that it has been eight years since she was admitted to the UNC-SVEA program, knowing her path to becoming a horse doctor was nearly sealed as long as she worked hard and gathered the veterinary experiences she desired to do anyway.

“It’s surreal,” she says. “It seems like just yesterday I was starting undergraduate or even vet school, and now I’m graduating. It’s very exciting. A little nerve-wracking, but exciting.”