Couple establish new equine residency at Michigan State

East Lansing, Mich.

-- There's a new equine medicine residency at Michigan State University (MSU), thanks to an endowment from an alumni couple.

Robert and Kay Ritchie of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., are funding the Equine Medicine Residency Endowment at MSU’s Department of Large Animal Clinic Sciences. The endowment includes funding for an unspecified number of “equine clinical scholars.”

“We really hope we can fund more and more people coming out of [MSU] that will stay in the academic professional arena,” said Robert Ritchie. “We hope our endowment ... will benefit Michigan and the greater equine medicine area.”

A start date for the residency has not yet been set, and the amount of the endowment will not be revealed, according to a spokesperson.

The Ritchies grew up and attended school in Michigan, and are benefactors of local causes, including MSU’s Evans Scholars program, the Humane Society of Michigan and the nonprofit horse adoption agency Horses Haven in Howell, Mich.