Virginia Tech lab horse retires to student's farm

BLACKSBURG, VA. — A long-time fixture at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine handed over her reins, literally.

Sugar, a 27-year-old Spanish Barb horse, is retiring after 24 years and helping more than 2,100 students at the college learn firsthand about equine care.

A former employee, Linda Correll, and her husband Gary donated Sugar to the college in 1984 after buying her as a riding horse, then discovering she was too petite for their needs.

First-year musculoskeletal lab and second-year clinical technique lab students often used Sugar to teach the proper methods for haltering and picking up a horse's feet.

Recently, the college placed Sugar with Class of 2010 student Shalyn Crawford's family. They have a 10-acre farm in New Market, Va.