Several years ago, a special young woman named Rachel Gagliardi moved to North Carolina, bringing her unique passions and talents to our great state.
Rachel Gagliardi is a breakaway roper, barrel racer, horse trainer, breeding program owner, and veterinarian-in-training. As if she wasn’t busy enough, she recently defended her thesis and graduated from the PhD part of a dual doctorate degree program after doing groundbreaking research on equine osteoarthritis through NC State University. Now, she continues with the program for another two years at which point she will graduate again with her second doctoral degree, a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (DVM).
Originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Rachel fell in love with horses at a young age. When her eighth birthday rolled around, she begged her parents to sign her up for riding lessons. They agreed, with the caveat she would get five lessons in total. A coworker of her mothers had horses and her whole family rodeoed, so she became Rachel’s teacher.
After the third lesson, it became clear that five wouldn’t cut it—Rachel was crazy about it. Her parents joked about it, saying okay, but we aren’t buying a horse. After they bought a horse, they said, okay, but we aren’t buying a truck. Then came the truck, and the final resistance waned as they purchased a trailer too and became full-fledged rodeo parents.
As her riding progressed, Rachel competed in barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, and breakaway roping. Her first horse, Hammer, came from her riding instructor’s family, where he had previously been one of their roping horses. During these years, Rachel became increasingly involved in the horse world and various rodeo associations.
In fact, while competing in the Central Pennsylvania Youth Rodeo Association, Rachel was named the Youth Rodeo Princess, the Youth Rodeo Queen, and then later Miss Rodeo, and this fueled her fire for educating others about the sport and providing a welcoming atmosphere for individuals like herself who didn’t grow up in horse or rodeo families. She continued serving as an ambassador for the sport and refining her own skills, later in the Pennsylvania High School Rodeo Association, and then in International Barrel Racing Association events, jackpots, and other local rodeos. All of these experiences built upon her other childhood interest: the desire to be a veterinarian.
Since Rachel always knew she wanted to be a vet, she carefully approached school choices post-high school to make herself a competitive and well-rounded applicant. Although she received offers to pursue collegiate rodeo at Iowa State and Michigan State University, she ultimately decided to attend the University of Maryland when she discovered their amazing animal science department and the hands-on curriculum.
During her first year at the University of Maryland, she became involved in research on dairy cattle nutrition. Through this project, she uncovered a hidden love for research. Her next research project was neonatal nutrition and musculoskeletal studies with swine. By her junior year, she realized she wanted to pursue research further but in a different area with a focus on equine research. As there wasn’t a program for this at the time at her school, she began looking for another opportunity and found one through a summer scholars’ program at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. A well-respected professor there was doing equine osteoarthritis research, which fascinated Rachel. She reached out to the professor and soon found herself studying regenerative medicine alongside her.
By this point, Rachel was reviewing post-graduation options and began considering a dual doctorate that would blend the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree with her love of research. Her sustained interest in equine osteoarthritis brought her to NC State University to work in their lab and pursue her theories through their programs.
While completing the first part of the degree, she successfully created a new model to help with the study of naturally occurring, age-related osteoarthritis, a game changer for developing medicines for horses that have been suffering.
As she continues to pursue the second half of the degree, she has decided she wants to find a happy medium of both research labs and working in clinical settings and seeing patients. After she finishes her final two years of her DVM degree, she plans to get further experience through a one-year equine rotating internship, where she will be heavily mentored through different specialties from surgery, ambulatory, reproduction, medicine, and others.
When not studying or working on a project, she still rides and trains her own horses and has started her own breeding program. Her breeding program speaks for itself, as is the case with her young mare Pepto’s Little Hotrod “Lola”.
Rachel carried Lola and her older gelding Shorty to the WCRA rodeo in Tryon, NC, when Lola was just 5 years old. It was her first big outing at an event that size and when Shorty injured his foot in the stall, Lola was called on to help with the event. After doing the slack and pushing cattle for close to four hours straight without batting an eye, people started to notice Lola. As the event progressed, barrel racers asked Rachel to bring Lola to be their buddy horse in the alley. Rachel even got a call asking if Lola could be used for a promotional video where they were going to swing a rope off her. She’d never had that done, but Rachel swung one a few times then took her to the video shoot at which point 5-star Olympic eventer Doug Payne got on her and swung a rope as part of a cross-discipline promotional video. Lola handled it in stride.
That’s the mindset that Rachel strives for in her horses, and she’s cultivated one particular bloodline that is especially important to her to help preserve that attitude.
Rachel’s training ability is a talent too. In fact, she trained a horse for a young girl who went on to be in the top ten in hunter under saddle at Quarter Horse Congress. She currently works with her horses and trains under Rickey Moore at his barn in Mebane, NC, and speaks highly of his abilities and knowledge.
Her commitment to the industry and the health of animals goes even further through her new LLC, EQ Therapeutics, where she offers treatment through a dynamic air compression device to help performance horses.
With her depth and breadth of knowledge about the horse industry, Rachel has worked to help educate others. She was previously named Miss Rodeo NC and now serves on the board for Miss Rodeo NC. Rachel feels her perspective on the veterinary side of the industry can help educate people about the incredible care stock contractors put into their animals. In fact, during her time at NC State, one of the bulls that bucked at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas came in for surgery, along with other PRCA and PBR bulls, receiving world class medical care to keep them healthy and happy.
Rachel is always building up others personally and professionally. Her passion for her animals and their well-being is apparent. As she strives to improve each day, she lives with this motto: surround yourself with good people who know more than you.
Respective photo credit: Old Ford Fire Department Rodeo – Uhler Photography
Pink Outfit – Pam Cooper Photography
MRNC Horsemanship – Southern Poses Photography
Lola WCRA – Shannon Brinkman Photography
