Little Alexis Weaver got to take a tour of the inside of a horse on Thursday while shadowing veterinarians at Great Basin Equine Medicine & Surgery in Gardnerville.
The 10-year-old home-schooled Gardnerville girl, who wants to be a veterinarian, watched the doctors work to fix an umbilical hernia on a horse named Lily.
Alexis has been shadowing the veterinarians at Great Basin every Thursday for a while.
"I learned some parts of the body and what these people do to help horses and stuff," she said. "It was actually pretty cool."
In addition to the hernia, Alexis watched as the vets extracted some of Lily's molars.
"It was real interesting," she said. "We took out the wolf teeth or molars, that are worthless to the horse and can cause problems with the bit."
Alexis is the daughter of Daylene and Vince Weaver. Her father owns Weaver Homes but her medical interest may stem from her mother, who is a medical technician at Barton Hospital's emergency room.
Alexis is no stranger to horses as the family has four geldings, named Scamp, Sonny, Cash and Dash.
"I started in rodeos last year and I did pretty well," she said. "I even got a few all-arounds."
Alexis has two sisters, Mandy and Aleeah.
Her mother said Alexis asked to shadow the veterinarian after she watched work on a head injury sustained by one of the horses.
"It's great that they let her became so involved," Daylene Weaver said. "This is the sort of thing that can shape a kid's life forever."
Alexis knows that becoming a veterinarian will be a tough challenge.
"It's a lot of hard work and a lot of schooling, but it is a lot of fun," she said.
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