First veterinary class: Claire Godwin endures as clinician, surgeon and horse rider

Claire Godwin DVM '84 has displayed endurance in her veterinary career. Endurance is the goal in her passion outside work, also.

Godwin, a graduate of the first class from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984, founded the Laytonsville Veterinary Practice in Laytonsville, Maryland, in 1988. The small animal practice is still going strong with five veterinarians. 

Godwin is an active endurance rider, traveling across the U.S and beyond, riding one-day, 50- to 100-mile endurance races on her Arabian horses.

Animals have always been a passion for Godwin.

“Animals were who I was growing up,” Godwin said. “I always had dogs and I spent my high school years at the barn with horses.”

Godwin considered going into landscape architecture, partly because she was told in high school that it was almost impossible for a woman to get into veterinary school. But after one interview with an out-of-state university for landscape architecture, she knew that she only could really consider one career path.

Her advice to young students: “Don’t let anybody tell you what you can or cannot do with your life.” 

Originally envisioning a career in equine theriogenology, Godwin decided during her veterinary school years to focus on companion animal general practice, with a special interest in soft tissue surgery.

“After a few years of veterinary school, I realized a few things about myself,” Godwin said. “I realized that number one, I hate being cold, and standing outside in winter was not going to work for me.  Number two, I'm too short.  I'm 5-2, which makes palpation tough, on the taller horses. Number three, there was so much more variety in small animal practice, particularly soft tissue surgery, which I was very much enjoying. And number four -- this is before GPS -- I realized how bad I am at directions.  I figured I'd be driving around all day, looking for the farm!” 

Now a sole practice owner with 40 employees, Godwin says her days are always busy.  

“My husband, Pete, quit his job at the University of Maryland agronomy department and oversaw the building of the new hospital building in 2000,” Godwin said. “In 2000, our kids were in sports. And so he was running them around, and we were getting more and more horses. And that's a part-time job right there. So he's never gone back to work.  

“Without the support of my family, there would be no way I could have run the practice and enjoyed life outside of work, too.  I have been so very blessed by having such a supportive husband, who also is just a really nice guy.  All the clients and the staff love him.” 

Godwin has been competing in endurance rides for over 30 years, amassing over 24,000 miles in competitions.

“I started doing endurance because it was a way to stop working 24/7 on my business,” Godwin said. “I think that young people these days are very much into the ‘work-life balance.’ But I think they need to know that just sitting at home on the couch on their days off isn't going to be helpful. They need to have a need to have a passion, a healthy passion. Something that gets you out and gets your blood flowing. To me, that's how to maintain a balance.”

While she admits that she likes the adrenaline rush of the race and likes to win, she fully supports the motto of the sport, “To Finish Is To Win,” acknowledging that it is a lot to ask of a horse to cover a 100-mile trail in 24 hours.  

Godwin is known for keeping her horses competing well into their teens and 20s, holding course records for oldest horse to finish both the Old Dominion 100 in Virginia and the Tevis Cup in California, both rides on a little horse named PL Mercury, who was 27 years old at the time.  

This year, she is competing three horses, including 23-year-old Reveille, who is still winning and getting the coveted Best Condition awards after more than 8,600 miles of competition.

Like many 1984 graduates, Godwin has embraced being in the first class at the veterinary college at Virginia Tech. 

“Rather than feeling like we didn’t have enough exposure to a huge caseload at the new school, we felt like we had so much individual instruction and involvement with the clinicians and professors,” said Godwin, echoing a theme other 1984 veterinary colleges have also expressed. “We all loved being the first class.”

Education of the next generation has become a priority for Godwin, and she proudly reports that six of her technicians are currently in veterinary school.  

“That’s an all-time high, and we are all enjoying the summers when they come home and bring their enthusiasm and new knowledge back to the practice.”