Page 124 - Speedhorse February 2018

Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
“We’re going to have over 300 meetings or events in this facility this year. That includes a few weddings, as well as meetings for people on and off campus,” Heird continued. “It’s become a major conference and meeting center for this area. We’ll have over 30,000 people who will
go through this facility this year, including
our equestrian team events. We also have a cross country course for our track and cross country teams. We built the course around
our paddocks with a half-mile straight-away at the beginning. I’ve had people tell me it’s the greatest cross country course on any university campus in America.”
Thousands of people had the opportunity to utilize the Dale Watts ‘71 Cross Country Course, as Texas A&M hosted the NCAA
Division I Cross Country South Central Regional Championships on Nov. 10. Texas A&M also hosted the regional championships in 2015, the same year it hosted the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships.
“The Texas A&M equine program gets national exposure because of this event,” Heird said, adding that ESPN was expected to attend the regional cross country meet. “We’re putting in a bid for the national championships. All of those events bring people here, and we expose them
to Texas A&M. It’s been a great opportunity to showcase our equine programs and facilities.”
The Hildebrand Complex, a $32-million endeavor, is the first of several new facilities Texas A&M hopes to build in the near future. Plans also call for an orthopedic surgery and
wellness center, a nutrition research center, and reproduction research and teaching facilities.
“We’re talking about $40 million facilities that have been built or improved, and probably another $35-40 million that we’re still planning,” Heird said. “The Dick Freeman center has been there since the ‘80s. We’re in the process of raising money to renovate that facility soon. We just spent about $1.5 million renovating the reproduction facility at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. What we’re hoping to do is create
the best equine facilities in the world at any university. That’s our main goal.”
The equine initiative is being funded primarily through donations. Because the project depends on the generosity of donors,
Texas A&M hosted the NCAA Division I Cross Country Central Regional Championships this last November and the 2015 regional championships and Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships in 2015 at their Dale Watts ’71 Cross Country Course, which was built around the facility’s paddocks.
122 SPEEDHORSE, February 2018