Dr. Hilary Clayton, BRCVS, PhD, MRCVS

Dr. Clayton was appointed as the first incumbent of the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine in July, 1997. A native of England, Dr. Clayton received her veterinary degree from the University of Glasgow in 1973. She spent the next two years as an associate in a mixed veterinary practice in Kilmarnock, Scotland before returning to the University of Glasgow where she earned a PhD in 1978. From 1979 through 1980, she was a visiting assistant professor in Michigan State University's Department of Anatomy. She then returned to Glasgow for two more years. In 1982 she accepted a position with the University of Saskatchewan in Canada where she spent 15 years as a professor of veterinary anatomy before returning to MSU to fill the McPhail Chair.

Dr. Clayton is a faculty member in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences and holds academic appointments in the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and the Department of Materials Science and Mechanics in the College of Engineering.

As a veterinarian and researcher, Dr. Clayton's studies on the biomechanics of equine gait have focused on sport horses, including dressage and jumping horses. Some recent work has included videographic studies of Olympic dressage and jumping events from the 1992 games in Barcelona and kinematic and kinetic research with some of the world's top dressage riders and horses in the Netherlands. A lifelong rider, Dr. Clayton began her equestrian career as a Pony Clubber in England. She later competed extensively in eventing, show jumping and dressage.

Active in the sport of dressage at the highest levels, Dr. Clayton is a certified equestrian coach in both the UK and Canada. She has been a member of the Canadian National Coaching Committees for the sports of dressage, jumping and eventing, and has been involved in developing the coaching program at the highest levels.