This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of EquiManagement. Sign up here for a FREE subscription to EquiManagement’s quarterly digital or print magazine and any special issues.
Equine practice is transforming, but the pace is slower than many early-career veterinarians would like. As they look into their futures with educational debt to pay, families to start and nurture, and relationships with spouses and aging parents to support, positions in other areas of veterinary medicine might seem like better, more responsible choices. The desire to be horse doctors is strong, but sometimes it cannot overcome competing responsibilities.
All practices must think carefully about how they are being part of the solution. Large practices with national name recognition must not rest on their laurels simply because they have a plethora of applicants for their internships and associate positions. Have they adopted new paradigms to decrease on-call responsibilities and foster a life outside of work? Five years later, are those doctors still in equine practice? Midsize practices might attract associates with shared emergency duty and a four-day workweek, but do they offer flexibility for families, part-time work, or opportunities for partnership? Five years later, are those doctors still in equine practice? More than half of equine practices in the U.S. have two full-time equivalent doctors or less. The owners of these practices must create financially viable businesses that will support early-career veterinarians with mentoring and a professional wage. This can be a tall order. In five years, how many of these practitioners are still in equine practice?
Year after year, study results show that those who have left equine practice or are considering leaving equine practice repeatedly cite the same issues. These issues—lifestyle and number of hours, challenging work-life balance, emergency-coverage responsibilities, and low compensation—are findings that were first reported at the 2019 AAEP Convention. All are difficult to address within the equine industry due to multiple factors, but the bottom line is the efficiencies, utilization of technicians, and higher fees in companion animal practice allow a higher wage for fewer hours of work, with limited emergency responsibilities.
Despite the obvious cultural differences between the two, equine veterinarians and practices are wise to look at the companion animal model as they contemplate being the change that is needed. Higher revenue that allows increased wages might require better scheduling of ambulatory work, increased use of haul-in facilities, better delegation of tasks to technical staff, and use of AI for medical records. Embracing emergency cooperatives or choosing to be an emergency-only practice is another avenue. Higher fees might be necessary to support the changes needed to keep a supply of horse doctors into the next generation. For a higher value to be delivered with those fees, good mentoring of early-career veterinarians is essential.
Every veterinarian involved in the equine industry must be a part of the change. The way we’ve always done it will no longer work. What change will you make in your practice to help equine veterinary medicine thrive into the future? How will you give back to help those coming behind you? Make this your resolution for 2025!
Related Reading
- Understanding the Next Generation of Veterinarians
- Veterinary Wellness Briefs: Communicating Boundaries in Equine Practice
- Equine Veterinary Sustainability: How Leaders Create Psychological Safety
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.
