Veterinarians must learn, somehow, to examine the inside of a cow. The definition of "somehow" is now broader than it used to be, thanks to Sarah Baillie‘s haptic cow hind simulator at the University of Glasgow. The official description of this device is almost lyrical:
Veterinary students are trained to palpate the bovine reproductive tract in order to perform pregnancy diagnosis and fertility examinations. These are difficult procedures to learn and require considerable practice to identify structures accurately. The teaching takes place both at university and during extramural studies (EMS) on farms with veterinary surgeons and students need to examine as many cows as possible to get the opportunity to develop skills adequately by the time of graduation. With regard to teaching, when a student is examining a cow the teacher is unable to observe the student’s technique inside the cow and therefore, it can be difficult to instruct the student in the procedure.