Equine practice demands resilience. Long hours, emergencies, challenging cases, and demanding clients are part of the job. But what happens when the greatest source of stress is the people we work with?
In a 2025 survey of more than 1,200 equine veterinarians, nearly 37% of those who had graduated within the past five years said they were considering leaving or had already left equine practice. One of the Top 5 reasons was practice culture: How people communicate, interact, and handle conflict.
The AAEP Professional Conduct and Ethics Committee and Healthy Practices Committee addressed this concern in an Oct. 8, 2026, webinar on incivility in equine practice. Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, DACVECC, author of A Compassionate Calling: What It Really Means to Be a Veterinarian, explained how to recognize harmful behavior and build healthier workplaces.
Conflict, Incivility, Bullying, and Harassment
Colleagues may disagree about diagnoses, treatment plans, or workplace expectations. Healthy conflict focuses on an issue, not the person. Not every disagreement is bullying, but small acts of disrespect can become serious when repeated or tolerated.
Holowaychuk defines incivility as low-intensity rudeness with ambiguous intent. When recurring, eye-rolling, sarcasm, or dismissive or belittling responses can erode confidence and trust.
Bullying involves repeated negative behavior over time, often accompanied by a power imbalance related to seniority or status.
Harassment involves conduct based on a legally protected characteristic, such as sex, race, or pregnancy, or behavior that is threatening. Not every uncivil interaction meets the legal definition of harassment, but it can still be unacceptable.
These distinctions help determine whether to talk directly to the person behaving negatively, document incidents, and/or seek formal intervention.
The Cost of a Toxic Culture
Holowaychuk noted that client incivility contributes to exhaustion and burnout, while incivility from colleagues, especially those in senior positions, can drive turnover and push veterinarians out of the profession. According to the AAEP, more than half of new graduates leave equine practice within five years. In a U.S. focus group study of current and former equine veterinarians, 76% described experiencing bias, most often related to gender.
A practice’s culture reveals who is valued, respected, and included. Examples of practice philosophies that pose problems include maternity discrimination, negative attitudes toward part-time work, expectations of constant emergency availability, limited opportunities for advancement or salary growth, and disregard for work-life balance.
Equine practice includes added pressures that make it difficult to manage incivility. Solo ambulatory veterinarians might not have any witnesses or backup during abusive encounters. Seasonal caseloads and on-call demands complicate work-life balance. New graduates might be told to “pay their dues” because senior colleagues endured similar hardships. Powerful clients, trainers, and horse owners might pressure veterinarians to tolerate disrespect or bend professional boundaries to keep their business.
When these pressures combine with tolerated disrespect, veterinarians may feel forced to choose between their well-being and their careers.
How to Respond
Holowaychuk encouraged veterinarians to consider how uncivil behavior changes over time, paying attention to four factors: intent, frequency, power, and focus. An ambiguous comment may become deliberate; a single incident might become a pattern; and disagreement or lack of respect might turn into a personal attack directed at an individual’s character or identity.
For conflict or incivility directed at you, she suggests a nonviolent communication approach: “When you …, I feel …, I need …” To address incivility you witness, she recommends the SBI approach: Situation, Behavior, Impact. Identify the situation, describe the specific behavior, and explain its impact without making assumptions about the other person’s motives. An example of a response to conflict: “During this morning’s case discussion, when I was repeatedly interrupted, it was difficult to finish explaining my treatment plan.”
“I” statements can address possible bias: “I don’t think you intended it this way, and yet I heard you say …” or “Perhaps I misunderstood …”
For discriminatory behavior, a firmer response using “It” might be appropriate: “It is discriminatory to make that assumption because …”
With outright bullying, clear boundaries become important, with “You” as appropriate within the response: “You don’t have the right to speak to me that way.”
She urged practitioners to match the response to the behavior and the circumstances. Direct confrontation might be unsafe, for example, if powerful people involved could retaliate.
Holowaychuk cautioned that bullies thrive on causing fear or hurt. Focus on their behavior and its consequences rather than your emotional reaction.
Everyone Has a Role
If you are the target: Document dates, specific incidents, witnesses, and impacts on you, the team, clients, or patients. Seek supportive allies, request objective standards, and escalate persistent concerns to practice leadership.
If you are a bystander: Use the Five Ds from the bystander intervention organization Right To Be: Be Direct and address the behavior when appropriate. Distract by redirecting the conversation. Delegate by involving a leader or human resources representative. Delay by checking privately on the targeted person afterward. Document what you witnessed.
“I saw what happened. Are you okay?” helps someone feel less isolated.
If you are a practice leader: Holowaychuk recommends Listen, Act, and Support, a framework from veterinary nurse and researcher Helen Silver-MacMahon. Take concerns seriously, consistently address specific behaviors, and establish shared expectations for professional conduct. Create psychological safety so employees can speak up without fear of retaliation. Do not excuse disrespect because the person responsible is senior, productive, or financially important to the practice.
Resilience Starts With Practice Culture
According to Silver-MacMahon, as much as 80% of workplace resilience stems from the organization and practice culture, particularly what leaders do and do not tolerate, rather than from an individual veterinarian alone.
Resilience cannot compensate for an unhealthy workplace, said Holowaychuk. When bad behavior goes unchallenged, silence can signal acceptance.
Veterinarians facing repeated conflict behavior can seek perspective from trusted colleagues, AAEP peer networks, professors, and classmates. These conversations—kept in confidentiality—help clarify whether a pattern is harmful.
When the Client Is the Problem
Client incivility is a real concern, especially when veterinarians work alone, depend on ongoing client relationships, and face emotionally charged decisions about treatment, prognosis, and cost. Veterinarians can use their “superpower” of observational skills gleaned from working with animals to recognize warning signs such as a client’s raised voice, clenched jaw, pacing, or unreasonable demands.
“Slow down, lower your tone, ignore the words, and name the emotion,” Holowaychuk advised. Mitigate the tension with comments like, “I can see you’re frustrated. Let’s talk through your concerns.”
She also recommends using the Empathy + Boundary + Option formula to deescalate tense situations. For example, “I can hear how stressful this timing is. I’m not able to sign a certificate without examining the horse. What I can do is be at your place at 7 a.m.”
Holowaychuk noted that empathy does not mean surrendering professional judgment or tolerating threats or intimidation. Written client-conduct policies and consistent team scripts that outline how to handle interactions can help encourage adherence to professional boundaries. A reciprocal code of conduct (see the AAEP’s Veterinarian-Client Agreement for Effective Equine Care) clarifies that professional courtesy is a two-way street.
Take-Home Message
Equine practice will always have difficult days. Workplace incivility is not simply a matter of hurt feelings. It can influence professional confidence, job satisfaction, staff retention, and ultimately the sustainability of equine practice, said Holowaychuk.
A disagreement need not become disrespect, and resilience should not mean tolerating abuse. Retaining good veterinarians requires more than clinical skill and endurance, she explained. It requires a healthy practice culture of respect where people can learn, contribute, and build sustainable careers together and thrive.
Resources
- AAEP Healthy Practice Member Assistance Program: (800) 633-3353; AAEP.org
- AVMA Wellbeing Resources, including QPR mental health training: avma.org/resources-tools/wellbeing
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988; 988lifeline.org
- Reviving Veterinary Medicine podcast, hosted by Dr. Holowaychuk: Apple Podcasts. Episodes referenced in the webinar: Nos. 44, 96, and 97.
- Veterinarian-Client Agreement for Effective Equine Care (AVMA and AAEP): aaep.org
- Right To Be bystander intervention training: righttobe.org
Related Reading
- How Equine Veterinarians Can Conquer Incivility in the Workplace
- Business Briefs: Handling the Difficult Client
- The Cost of Public Judgment in Veterinary Medicine
Stay in the know! Sign up for EquiManagement’s FREE weekly newsletters to get the latest equine research, disease alerts, and vet practice updates delivered straight to your inbox.
