Nursing Student, Future Olympian Mentors Pre-Nursing Student Inside the Classroom and at the Barn

Alexa Ehlers (left) with Mary Kate Klir (right).

Amistoso shakes his head, wiggles his ears and dances in place. When asked about his strange behavior, Alexa Ehlers rushes to his side and scratches an itch in a small spot near his left shoulder. “There you go, Ami!”

The horse stands relieved at her quick reaction. Ehlers, an undergraduate nursing student from Bartonville, Texas, and a member of the UK Dressage and Eventing Team (DET), keeps Ami and nearly 20 other horses boarded in her family’s farm situated beautifully behind Keeneland’s rolling hills. One horse, Mo, belongs to pre-nursing student Mary Kate Klir.

​Ehlers and Klir attended the same high school in Texas. “I was in band with her older brother,” says Ehlers. “He asked me if I taught riding lessons and I ended up giving Mary Kate lessons on my first pony. She’s like my little sister now!”

Although four years apart, the small-town Texas pair would reunite in Lexington during the summers while Klir was still in high school. “We’d just hang out and she’d help me with the barn and take care of the horses. I absolutely loved having her here,” says Ehlers.

“I made so many friends through Alexa when I visited,” she says. “I didn’t know I wanted to do nursing until I visited and I just loved the College of Nursing and the University too. This will be my first winter not in Texas, so we’ll see how I do!”

Since Klir’s arrival in Lexington, Mo hasn’t had much luck with his health. Klir visits Ehlers’s barn once a day to wrap his leg for two strained ligaments – a physically and emotionally exhausting setback amidst a whirlwind of pre-nursing obligations. Yet, she remains hopeful that soon she’ll be able to ride Mo once again.

“Caring for a horse takes a lot of responsibility, and it’s nice because I know how to wrap, ice and give IM [intramuscular] and IV [intravenous] injections. It isn’t exactly the same as caring for a person, but it definitely provides a foundation of knowledge that will help me as nurse in the future,” says Klir.

Although the pair shares a passion for nursing and riding, Ehlers, on the other hand, wishes to pursue riding professionally. She recently competed in the Hagyard Midsouth United States Equestrian Federation National Championship CCI* and, with help from Ami, placed sixth out of 50 competitors.

“From a very young age I’ve wanted to ride and be a professional,” says Ehlers. “But it wasn’t until my junior year of high school when my trainer’s wife suggested nursing as a profession to supplement my career as a professional rider that I really considered nursing.”

For Ehlers, nursing and riding complement each other in an unexpected way. “The longer I’m in nursing, the more I realize the skills I’m taught here can translate to riding, such as organization, time management, planning and critical thinking. Every time I step into the classroom, simulation lab or onto the hospital floor, my professors and instructors encourage me to further develop these skills, in turn making me a better rider.”

Back at her barn, Ehlers walks into a room of horse food and cleaning utilities. She points to a large, detailed chart to the left. “That’s what we use to clearly distinguish which horses need what nutrients. It’s helpful so we make sure every horse is getting what it needs – kind of like keeping track of what a patient needs.”

Despite the hardships that come with balancing both school and riding, Ehlers has maintained a positive attitude – even when she took a hard fall while riding and broke her back three years ago this past September. Ehlers was shocked at how difficult everyday tasks were as a result, including participating in her ceramics course at UK. “It turns out it’s really hard to do ceramics with a broken back – I had to do it standing up,” she says, laughing.

Now, Ehlers is determined to make the U25 Developing Riders List, an accomplishment that will get her to three- and four-star competitions around the globe and a spot on the U.S. Olympic Eventing Team. However, she’s just as determined to have a successful nursing career in an oncology setting – her dream nursing job.

“I would be the happiest girl alive, but we will see where God puts me!” she says.

Ehlers’s pediatrics clinical and classroom instructor, Vicki Hensley, PhD, APRN, has no doubt in her ability to get there. “What always struck me most about Alexa was her positive outlook toward her studies and life in general,” says Dr. Hensley. “She has an abundance of energy and passion for other people as well as horses, and she’s able to uniquely balance her studies with riding. She has a very promising future ahead of her as both a nursing student and a rider.”

“Alexa is a role model to me,” says Klir. “She encourages me to do better and not make the same mistakes she did and she would drop everything to help anyone. That’s just the kind of person she is.”