Blair Matheson is not your typical physician. “Some doctors play tennis. Some doctors play golf. I rodeo,” says the rural surgeon, a professional rodeo cowboy of 10 years.
Matheson lives with his wife, Peggy, and their two young children on a cattle ranch in North Dakota. He also hosts Stanford equestrian students on his ranch. While at Stanford six years ago to give a presentation for the Beyond HumBio program, Matheson walked around campus to see how it had changed. He came upon the Stanford Red Barn and starting chatting with members of the team. “At the time, they didn’t have a strong western program at all,” Matheson says. “They had a good English team, but they didn’t have enough equipment for a formal western program.” Matheson began donating equipment and horses for the western program. But his most appreciated gifts to the students are the weekends spent up on the ranch. For the past five Memorial Day weekends, Matheson has hosted as many as 16 students at his ranch to teach them the ropes of ranching and to give them some respite from competition.
The students ride horses into the backcountry, go off-roading on four-wheelers and help brand the calves, a traditional Memorial Day activity on the ranch. The Mathesons have provided financial assistance for several students to attend, and some students return in the summer for two to six weeks to work as ranch hands and to practice their riding. It’s a help to Matheson—who rises early and works late on the ranch in addition to his surgeon duties—but it also has inspired several students to pursue veterinary school.
Last year Stanford’s western team qualified for the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Nationals for the first time. Ashley Hoffmann ’08, assistant coach of the western team and Miss Rodeo California 2009, attributes much of the resurgence to Matheson. “More people in the [Stanford] area ride English,” Hoffmann says. “It’s nice to have a cowboy from out in North Dakota supporting us in Palo Alto.”
BRIAN ANDREW is Class of 2009.
