In 2020, we published a feature exploring the reasons behind practitioners’ departure from the equine field. In it, we relayed the results from a 2019 survey of 647 veterinarians (bit.ly/3QLmYKW). Five years later, we distributed a follow-up questionnaire to the closed Facebook groups Women in Equine Practice, Equine Vet-2-Vet, and AAEP Member Vet Talk. More than 1,200 veterinarians completed the survey, which was open for 12 days.
Respondent Demographics
In both surveys, we gathered demographic information about the respondents, including the percentage of equine work the practitioner performs, year of graduation from veterinary school, whether the respondent was an associate or an owner, and the size of the practice. All the questions allowed the veterinarians to include comments explaining their decisions. The questions asked the doctors to answer based on the equine practice where they were currently working or where they had previously worked before leaving the career. Most of the 2025 respondents (63%) reported that they were currently or had formerly been at a 100% equine practice, followed by 20.4% that reported their practice was 75-99% equine. This was very similar to 2019 demographics.
In both studies, we grouped together individuals graduating in 2009 or earlier and grouped more recent graduation years in three-year increments. Thirty-three percent of 2025 respondents graduated in 2009 or prior, compared to 50.8% in 2019. The most recent decades were well represented in each graduation year segment (see Figure 1).
| Graduation Year | 2025 % Respondents | 2019 % Respondents |
| 2022-2024 | 7.3% | N/A |
| 2019-2021 | 16.2% | N/A |
| 2016-2018 | 16.5% | 12.4% |
| 2013-2015 | 14.8% | 19.5% |
| 2010-2012 | 12.3% | 17.3% |
| 2009 or Before | 33.0% | 50.8% |
In 2019, associates outnumbered owners 64.6% to 35.4% among all respondents. In 2025, 48.6% of respondents identified as associates, 42.6% as owners, 6.5% as academics, and 2.2% as public or other practice.
As was the case in 2019, the 2025 respondents were fairly equally distributed among different sized practices, providing a view of equine veterinarians across a variety of work settings. While 25.6% reported being solo practitioners, well below the 63% of solo practitioners represented in the 2024 AVMA/AAEP Report on the Economic State of the Equine Veterinary Profession, 31.3% and 24.6% reported working in practices of two to three and four to six veterinarians, respectively. Just 18.5% reported working at large practices with more than six doctors. Over a third of those who had left equine practice (37.1%) had been employed at practices of two to three veterinarians, followed by 28% who’d worked with four to six and 19.2% who had been solo. Just 15.7% of those who left equine were at large practices with more than six doctors, indicating practice size might have at least a minor effect on veterinarians leaving equine practice.
Veterinarians Are Still Considering Leaving Equine Practice
The most important survey questions were those focused on leaving the profession. The first (see Figure 2) asked:
Which statement is true for you?
- I have never considered leaving equine practice.
- I considered leaving equine practice but decided to stay.
- I am currently considering leaving equine practice but have not decided.
- I have left equine practice or have definitely decided to leave equine practice.
In both 2019 and 2025, only about a quarter of the respondents had never considered leaving the profession. This differs from the results of the 2024 AVMA/AAEP Economic Report, which stated that 44% of respondents had never considered leaving, alongside 23% of associates and 12% of owners who were considering or had definitely decided to leave equine practice.
The good news: Although slightly fewer 2025 respondents have not considered leaving equine practice compared to 2019 (27.1% vs. 28.1%), a 3.4% gain was seen among respondents who considered leaving but decided to stay. Further, we saw a 1.7% decrease in respondents currently considering leaving equine practice and a tiny 0.6% decrease in those reporting they had either left or definitely decided to leave. While the equine veterinary industry would love to see more dramatic improvements, these findings at least seem to indicate the bleeding has slowed.
In this 2025 study, 34.7% of respondents who graduated in 2009 or before had never considered leaving. Of the 285 respondents in 2025 who were within five years of graduation (2019-2024), 22.5% had never considered leaving equine practice, and 40.7% had considered but decided to stay, leaving a shocking 36.8% currently considering or definitely leaving equine practice. Data from the 2024 AVMA/AAEP Economic Report support this, stating “of those considering leaving equine practice, almost 30% graduated in 2020 or 2021, and almost two-thirds graduated in 2000 or later.
Reasons for Leaving Equine Practice
Respondents were asked to choose all the factors contributing to their consideration of leaving equine practice, and the results were similar between 2019 and 2025. Nearly 7% more veterinarians selected lifestyle and work hours in 2019 than 2025 (73.7% in 2019 vs. 67% in 2025), with a nearly identical percentage citing emergency on-call duty. Emergency on-call duty has become a slightly more important factor than lifestyle and required work hours in 2025. Low salary was noted by 4.4% more respondents in 2019 than in 2025 but remains the third-most frequently chosen factor. Mental health and stress are still fourth (see Figure 3).
| Contributing Factors to Leaving Equine Practice or Consideration of Leaving | ||
| 2025 | 2019 | |
| Low salaries & compensation | 61.8% | 66.2% |
| High educational debt | 29.0% | 29.2% |
| Culture of equine veterinary industry | 48.3% | 46.8% |
| Culture of my practice | 34.7% | 36.4% |
| Physical injuries or wear & tear | 34.8% | 31.2% |
| Mental health & stress | 57.1% | 56.9% |
| Having children | 29.4% | 33.8% |
| Needs of elderly or ailing parents or family members | 7.0% | 3.8% |
| Other financial stress | 13.2% | 12.8% |
| Desire to work part-time | 12.6% | 13.0% |
| Emergency on call duty | 68.3% | 67.8% |
| Lifestyle & number of work hours required | 67.0% | 73.7% |
| Other | 8.5% | 8.1% |
| Total respondents | 942 | 506 |
Interesting developments materialized when we asked respondents to identify the primary factor in their decision to leave equine practice. Lifestyle and required number of work hours remained the No. 1 factors for both surveys, but the prevalence dropped from 27.4% in 2019 to 19.9% in 2025, with emergency on-call duty close behind at 18.9% compared to 18.3% in 2019. These shifts in the reasons for leaving equine practice might be indicative of the innovations that have occurred in progressive practices—the move to four-day workweeks and the increasing prevalence of emergency cooperatives and emergency-only practices—as well as the need for additional gains.
Also in 2025, low salaries and compensation increased 2.7% as the third-most important factor, despite the meteoric rise in new graduate salaries over the past five years. Importantly, practice culture ascended to the fourth position of importance, followed by mental health and stress, a primary factor that was the third-most chosen in 2019 (see Figure 4). The primary reasons for leaving equine practice were similar to those found in the 2024 AVMA/AAEP Economic Report, with 19% choosing lifestyle and required number of work hours, 17% choosing challenging work-life balance, and 11% each for emergency coverage responsibilities and low salary/compensation.
Industry Trends and the Path Forward
| Primary Factor in Decision to Leave Equine Practice or Consider Leaving | ||
| 2025 | 2019 | |
| Low salaries & compensation | 13.2% | 10.5% |
| High educational debt | 1.6% | 3.0% |
| Culture of equine veterinary industry | 8.1% | 6.6% |
| Culture of my practice | 11.7% | 9.1% |
| Physical injuries or wear & tear | 4.2% | 3.8% |
| Mental health & stress | 11.4% | 10.7% |
| Having children | 5.3% | 6.2% |
| Needs of elderly or ailing parents or family members | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| Other financial stress | 0.5% | 0.2% |
| Desire to work part-time | 1.1% | 1.0% |
| Emergency on call duty | 18.9% | 18.3% |
| Lifestyle & number of work hours required | 19.9% | 27.4% |
| Other | 3.4% | 3.0% |
| Total respondents | 938 | 503 |
Many individuals, associations, and practices have been focused on educating and advocating for transformation in equine practice. The strong emphasis on new paradigms in the equine veterinary industry might be contributing to the changes seen in these results over the past five years. The movement among the primary factors that cause the loss of equine practitioners might be the beginning of a turning tide.
More equine veterinarians are judging the cultures of practices where they work or the culture of the equine veterinary industry with negativity (increases of 2.6% and 1.5%, respectively), adding pressure for change. As four-day workweeks have emerged as a commonality at progressive practices, fewer equine veterinarians cite lifestyle and work hours as primary factors in their decision-making. Practices resisting change might have difficulty keeping associates in the future. Because the cost of housing and inflation have risen since the pandemic, low salaries and compensation have risen 2.7% as primary factors. Managing educational debt became much less burdensome in this period with pandemic forbearance, so the 1.4% decrease makes sense. The increase in mental health and stress as a primary factor might be tied to the extraordinary pressure veterinarians experienced during the pandemic and are continuing to experience in a profession that is losing members to retirement and transitions into other sectors with higher salaries, lower work hours, and no emergency responsibilities. More work demands are placed upon those who remain.
The results of this 2025 survey hold out hope that the industry’s many sustainability efforts are beginning to have an impact. They also encourage continued changes in equine practice to mitigate the pain point and, in doing so, allow equine doctors to thrive rather than simply survive.
Related Reading
- Equine Veterinary Sustainability: Making Higher Compensation Possible for Equine Practitioners
- The Business of Practice: 2024 AVMA AAEP Report on the Economic State of the Equine Veterinary Profession
- Parenting as an Equine Practitioner
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