The Thriving Equine Professional | Career Connections, Equine Industry Resources, Career Advice. · JodiSpeaksLIFE: Speaker, Career Success Coach, Podcaster

66 | Dr. Melissa Siard Altman's Journey from Passionate Equestrian to Equine Science Professor at Asbury University

·50 min·3 clips

A Friday audit of equine anatomy and physiology led Dr. Altman’s professor to say, “you should come take my position.”

1. The Thriving Equine Professional episode follows Dr. Melissa Siard Altman’s path from a horse-crazy child in Knoxville to an Asbury University equine professor in Kentucky. 2. Host Jodi Lynch-Findley interviews Dr. Melissa Siard Altman, an Asbury University professor whose career matters because she built and teaches in the equine science pre-vet program. 3. The episode asks how a student who loved horses, science, and faith ended up returning to Asbury to shape the equine program. 4. Altman says she got the “classic horse bug” around age 8 or 9 and started riding near Knoxville after her parents could not keep a horse in the backyard. 5. She describes riding with a 17-year-old instructor in a rural setting, working bareback for months, and learning from a horse named Lexington. 6. Altman says Lexington was a 25-year-old thoroughbred pony cross and that soft-tissue injuries on that horse first introduced her to equine science. 7. She explains that she chose Asbury because a mailed Christian-school flyer had a horse on it and because she wanted a Christian college within about three hours of Knoxville. 8. Altman says a full academic scholarship helped settle the decision, and she notes that Asbury was then a place she had never heard of before the mailer arrived. 9. She says she entered college thinking about biology or equine, but the early equine program was still just equine management and did not match her science interests. 10. Altman says she took five math classes and five science classes in high school, and she adds that her mother taught her AP chemistry. 11. She says organic chemistry and physics in the same sophomore year were difficult, but she kept going because she felt she was supposed to stay on the path. 12. Altman says a professor steered her toward physiology because it was “the how things work of living things,” and she loved the class. 13. She says that physiology course required scientific writing, and her paper was used as an example for the class, which gave her confidence. 14. Altman says she realized during college that she liked college-age students and thought she might become a professor someday. 15. She describes her research internship with Dr. Amanda Adams at the Gluck Equine Research Center, where she worked on a Purina project involving more than 40 horses and multiple feeds. 16. Altman says that project taught her research methods, statistics, poster presentations, and scientific papers, and she later pursued a PhD after praying for an “open door and a closed door.” 17. She says her return to Asbury happened when a professor who had taught an equine anatomy and physiology class asked her to take his position as he retired. 18. Altman says she was already visiting that Friday class unofficially, and she believes her questions, note-taking, and attention changed the class dynamics. 19. Listeners who like equine education, academic career paths, and Christian college stories will get the most from this conversation. 20. Listeners who want fast pacing without scholarship, research, or teaching details may skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded career story that turns one professor's path into practical guidance for early-career equine professionals.

The episode tracks Dr. Melissa Syard-Altman from a horse-crazy start in Tennessee to her role at Asbury University in Kentucky, and it keeps that path feeling lived-in rather than polished into myth.

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Why you'd press play

You want an equine career story about research, grit, and a path toward teaching.

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