Marlena Hartz / Avalanche-Journal / Nov 5, 2007Little clouds of dirt, translucent and fleeting, rise wherever the animal's hooves beat against the ground. Kris Wilson observes the horse and rider in silence.

The Texas Tech assistant professor of animal and food sciences blends into the scenery here, at the university's equestrian center near Brownfield Highway and Upland Avenue. He leans against a metal fence, the brim of his cowboy hat shading his face.

"He's probably ridden more horses than you and I have ever seen," said Robin Morris, one of his four graduate students.

Wilson, 29, has been around horses his whole life: His father is a horse trainer who keeps as many as 25 stallions on his Texas ranch. He gave his son his first horse, a Shetland pony, at the age of 3.

"She was really stubborn," Wilson remembered.

He grew up in Stephenville, a city 100 miles southwest of Dallas that calls itself the cowboy capital.

Years ago, as a recent high school graduate, Wilson turned down a chance to play football for an ivy league school, the University of Pennsylvania. "It was football or do horse stuff," Wilson said.

He paid for graduate school by training the animals. One family he worked with hadn't touched its horse for seven years, he said.

"(The horse) was wild. They were scared of it," he said.

Wilson quickly trained the horse, a feat that can take one month to three years, depending on what the horse is being trained for, he said.

"They proclaimed me as the horse whisperer of the world," he said. "It's just reacting to the natural behavior of the horse. There's nothing magical about it."

Wilson serves as an adviser for Tech's Ranch Horse Team, which he helped establish, and the Horse Judging Team. The teams travel around the country for competitions. The horse judging team placed first in the nation at the 2007 Arabian National Championship held on Oct. 27 in Albuquerque. They competed against 13 teams.

Tech junior Allison Rogers is a member of the Tech judging team. Horses have always been a part of her life, too, but she said she's learned a lot about the animals from Wilson.

"He's great with horses. He's done everything from roping to riding," she said.

Wilson and his graduate students are researching digestive differences between young and old horses. They've found horses ages 15 and older can better digest pellets of food that have been steamed.

In the last decade, the population of older horses in the U.S. has grown, Wilson said. More people are keeping them as pets and a 2006 law bans their slaughter.

"Horses ... are kind of majestic animals," Wilson said. "We hold (them) on a higher pedestal."

IN BRIEFKris WilsonEducation:" Texas Tech, Ph.D. in animal science, December 2006" Texas A&M University; M.S., equine nutrition, 2003; B.S., animal science-production, 2000" South Plains College; associate's degree in animal science, 1998

Some awards, honors:" Texas Tech: Staff Member of the Semester for the College of Agriculture, spring 2005" Texas A&M: First place Nutrition Graduate Student Competition ENPS Meetings, 2003; Runner-up team in Animal Science Academic Quadrathalon, 2000" South Plains College: "Most Outstanding Student in Agriculture," 1998; "Most Outstanding Student in American History" Award, 1997