With a generous donation from Suzanne and Glenn Youngkin, Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (EMC) can now provide enhanced sports medicine to equine athletes of all kinds.

When horse owners call up Sam Gubera, they expect to hear a man on the other end of the phone. In this case, Sam is a woman and a farrier. At 27, she’s one of the few women in the job field in the San Francisco Bay area. Having taken horseback riding lessons since she was a kid, Gubera’s break from horses in college made her miss being around them. After a quick call to the farrier who serviced her childhood horse — also a woman — Gubera enrolled in the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School in Plymouth, Calif.