Full Circle Equine Wellness
Holistic Equine Veterinarian Dr. Allison Faber Marshall together with many terrific guests discuss all aspects of keeping your horse healthy, happy, and sound. We explore aspects of equine wellness through interviewing equine professionals and bringing to light non-mainstream approaches striving for optimum health and performance for horses. We discuss, nutrition, hoof care, supplements, chinese medicine, and many other holistic veterinary perspectives to help keep your horses thriving!
Full Circle Equine Wellness
Supporting Equine Vets and Horses
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This topic may sound a bit boring, but as many of you know, there is a lack of veterinarians entering into equine practice and no one to fill the shoes of the veterinarians headed into a well-deserved retirement. What this means to horse owners is that in the future, there will be less and less options for veterinary care across the country. Take a listen to this quick episode exploring the Foundation for the Horse, and arm of the American Association of Equine Practitioners and learn what is being done to address this issue, and support our equines in ways that may help you and your horses in the future.
Good morning, everybody. This is Dr. Allison Faber Marshall, and you're listening to the Full Circle Equine Wellness Podcast. I am an Equine Holistic Veterinarian in Richmond, Virginia. My co-host, John Langwa, is with us today, and he is an equine veterinarian, holistic equine veterinarian in North Florida, the Ocala area. And so the two of us together try to bring new and interesting topics to the horse world that would be in the veterinary realm, but maybe something that horse owners and horse veterinarians have not had a lot of exposure to in mainstream medicine. So hi John, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_00I'm good and thank you. And thank you. We're uh just starting to thaw a little bit, although I cannot complain about our weather here in Florida compared to the rest of the country.
SPEAKER_01In our last uh teaching session, first week of February, and for those of you who don't know, they're veterinarians that come and learn acupuncture at Cha University in Ocala. That's where John and I teach. One of my students was from Colorado, and she said they have been in a such a drought that they've had no snow out there, and it's been like 50s, 60s, 70s, and it's actually a pretty critical situation out there that they've been warmer than usual. The whole West Coast, I think.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and during that session, we had two from Canada, and they wish they had brought their heated vest with them because they were freezing.
SPEAKER_01There is nothing like North Florida dampness to make the cold chillingly cold, like obstacles. I remember. I I have learned now to bring my puffy coat, even if it says it's gonna be 40, because the wind picks up and it goes right through you. Anyway, I'm so glad uh we're back in action, John. I'm so happy to have you today um on our podcast, we have a beautiful human named Summer Wyatt. When I went to the AAEP, which stands for American Association of Equine Practitioners, when I went to my meeting in the fall, um, it is the largest association for equine practitioners in the world. So we have um a lot of veterinarians, and I'll ask Summer if she knows the numbers. I think we have three to four thousand veterinarians every year, equine veterinarians that come from around the world for continuing education. And I happen to talk to Summer Wyatt because her organization, Foundation of the Horse, is pretty fascinating. So I thought that it would be really neat to um have more of our horse population, horse owners, horse veterinarians, really understand what the Foundation of the Horse does. So welcome, Summer. Thank you so much. I so appreciate the beautiful introduction and just being here today. I'm really glad you made the time for it. I'm really grateful. I know that's kind of your job as representing the the Foundation of the Horse. And I don't even know your job title. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do, how long you've been doing it before we get into what the foundation actually does.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. So I have been with the Foundation for the Horse for five years in May, so almost five years, which it has just flown by because it's such incredible work. And I hate to sound like um like I'm putting on, but it is just so incredible working with horse owners and knowledgeable veterinarians and people who just care about horses and veterinarians every single day. It's really amazing. I am a development officer, not a very exciting title, but what that basically means is that I try to go out and talk to those folks that I just spoke on to raise more funds so that we're able to put more funding out into the world through our various programs.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. I crack myself up because all of these job titles like just escape me. Like I'm a veterinarian. And there's so much out there in the world of management and business that you know the titles are like, huh? Okay, great. I love it. So what you do on a daily basis is to reach out to horse owners and uh try to get people involved in Foundation of the Horse. Tell us more about that.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So uh we are obviously, as you said earlier, very lucky to have an amazing membership base with the AAEP, with all of those veterinary members, student members, retired members who are very involved with the AAEP and therefore most of them with the Foundation for the Horse in one way or another. Maybe they're like you and they give us an opportunity to speak to clientele and horse owners. Maybe they have us in their will. Maybe they have our brochures in their um in their clinic office. Uh, there are so many ways to support the foundation, and there's so many ways that the foundation in turn supports the veterinary profession, and we'll speak about that later. Uh, obviously, also speaking to people who just love horses. You know, there's such a population of people in the world and here in the US, especially, that um maybe they had horses at one time, maybe they always wanted to ride or have horses, and it's just been a sparkle in their eye, but they appreciate and love that the majestic animal that is the horse. And then there are the horse owners, breeders, managers that work with these animals every day. And it's such a huge part of their life. They want to give back to an organization like the foundation that does so much for the horse and for the equine veterinarian. So I work with all of those populations, whether in person, on a podcast, on social media, at an event such as Live Oak International in Ocala or another horse show across the Eastern Seaboard, to um introduce and then further talk about what the foundation does and how they can be a part of it. And the most wonderful part I think about the foundation is that everyone can choose something about it that they love. And there's really nothing to be mad at, unlike a lot of um nonprofit organizations that may have naysayers. I haven't found one yet in five years, and that's been a pretty amazing part of uh working for the for the foundation.
SPEAKER_01Knowing what I know, I'm not surprised. I think the foundation is pretty neat.
SPEAKER_02I think so. We're very um we're very original in that we are the philanthropic arm of the AAEP. We've been around for now 30 plus years, and we are governed uh by equine practitioners, which I think gives us such a huge impact when speaking to these groups that we've talked about, horse owners, horse lovers, breeders, managers, et cetera. Um, our board is the same board as the American Association of Equine Practitioners. So those are the same people making the choices for our financial um spending, for our hiring, for for our administration, and all of that. And I think that just gives us such a big impact. And um it's it's so incredible to talk with talk about that with other veterinarians and with horse centers.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I found it interesting that I think what 2019 they changed the name of the foundation from the AAEP Foundation to the Horse Foundation. Um kind of more to reflect the purpose of serving the horse. And so that name stands out even in better light that our per the purpose of the foundation is to serve the horse. And the idea that the AAP is so interconnected and and the official charitable arm that this organization offers, uh, I I love that it's called the The Horse Foundation.
SPEAKER_02And I love that you brought that up. It's it's so interesting and it makes my job easier because most people who have never heard about the Foundation for the Horse and we're at, you know, a horse show or something, they'll, you know, they it's an obvious question. Well, what does that mean? What do you do? And um other people who have been around for a very long time, they all say, you know, it's such a great, um, such a great decision for you all to change your name because yes, we were the AAEP foundation. And then we went through some changes and some conversations before my time with the foundation to change the name to the foundation for the horse. And I absolutely agree with you. I think it encompasses we're all here for the horse. And obviously that touches other populations, especially of humans that we've talked about that are very important to the horse. But at the end of the day, that's why we're all connected.
SPEAKER_01I know there's a bunch of different branches of what the foundation does. And so if you could give us a little window into the inner workings of that, I think it's really awesome for having horse owners understand how much the foundation actually does to support the veterinarians that take care of those horses. And I, you know, I'd just love for you to talk all around those sorts of things for us.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And I'll try to be somewhat concise, but explaining things too. That's we have a lot, we have a lot going on, which is a great um quote unquote problem to have. So we have um we have a few different programs, and I'll try to go over those in a meaningful way. So, first and foremost, um, scholarships and research scholarships. So our scholarships exist to provide third and fourth and early practice veterinarians, or third and fourth year and early practice veterinarians with scholarship to pay for their education as an equine veterinarian, and then research scholarships to help pay for research projects that will help positively affect the lives of equines out there. So we've in the last year done a little over uh $500,000 in equine research scholarship grants and $545,000 in scholarships for those third and fourth year students and early practitioners that I spoke about. And most of those dollars come from the veterinary industry, so meaning our drug and pharmaceutical companies that are sponsors, horse owners that you know know that we have a um we have a critical time in the in the veterinary um profession right now where uh young veterinarians are choosing maybe to go into small animal, or maybe they're choosing to go into another path, or maybe they're choosing not to go to veterinary medicine for some reason or another. And if those horse owners and industry and AAUP members and others can support our scholarships and give that student a fighting chance and keep them in the profession and they see how incredible it is and keep on supporting them through their profession, through being an AAUP member, we want to do all that we can. We also have student programs that we sponsor, whether that's a farrier class or dentistry or business or finance or what have you at AAEP conference and other places and times throughout the year. We really exist to promote and support our students.
SPEAKER_01I think it bears speaking about there is a real problem with lack of equine veterinary students or lack of veterinary students going into equine medicine right now. And here on the East Coast, I don't think we're feeling it quite as heavily as they are on the western half of the United States. For horse owners, there is a periodical called The Horse Magazine, which is put out by the AAEP and it's got really wonderful information. This is a little more veterinary related and it really talks about your horse's health rather than riding in tack and that sort of thing. But one of the articles that I read, I bet two years ago, was talking about the situation of having a a paltry or a lack of equine veterinarians throughout the country, and they were saying that there were places in those big Western flyover states where the only veterinarian a horse owner had was three hours away, and that person was getting close to retirement, and there was nobody to take their place. So I think it's a it's a real problem with our profession in general.
SPEAKER_00I know that the AAP in 2022 did their commission on equine veterinary sustainability. How could they keep the equine veterinarian in the profession and how could they actually get young pre-vet or interested people to get into the equine program? And this is not just a US problem because I've seen uh all kinds of surveys and studies done in Britain and in the Netherlands and in other European countries to say the same thing that the difficulties that equine veterinarians endure, not only during veterinary school, but after veterinary school, is something that we have to continue to address to try to encourage and support as a veterinarian. And I know I've spent the last 18 years focused on uh traditional Chinese veterinary medicine, and I've been in a number, a number of camps and groups, talk to people in anywhere from 12 to 18 years of age to try and inform them about what does it mean to be an equine, what does it involve, and but also them to support once they get into practice, because so many veterinarians that actually get to that point of being in an equine practice after five years, they change their course. They either go into small animal or some drop out altogether because of well, uh a myriad of reasons.
SPEAKER_02You're absolutely right. And I have been very proud of the AAP and horse owners for being so knowledgeable about this. I'm so surprised on a weekly basis about the knowledge that horse owners have about this issue and that they're in their worry, not for themselves and their horses, but for their equine veterinarian and for those who may or may not become an equine veterinarian because of this. I've been very impressed with that knowledge. And the AAP for the last uh five years has made it a real priority, if not the number one priority, to find real solutions to these issues. Um and we at the foundation obviously provide scholarships and student programs and continuing education and you know, funding for students to attend the AAP convention and things of that nature. But the AAP has really dug in and done studies and talked and really tried to get to the bottom of some of these issues. And some of them are parts of the profession that are are tough to change, others are top level. Um, but I am proud of the work and I think it would behoove um us to in some and in the future at some point to talk about these if if though if there's enough interest in um what's being done and what uh is still left to be done as far as these issues go.
SPEAKER_01I would agree with that. And being uh I'm I'm blessed to be uh on my second term for three years on the AAEP ethics committee. And that whole situation that you just talked about has been a real topic of um what the ethics committee is talking about, trying to help make the culture of an equine veterinarian's life a little bit better. And, you know, I came into the profession 30 years ago. John, I think you got me by a couple years on that one. And it's kind of mind-boggling what changes have been made, but what those veterinarians sort of bought into, you know, 30 or 40 years ago. And people are now hoping for to have a life outside of their career. People talk about, oh my gosh, my my veterinarian is so expensive now, you know. It takes money to buy big modalities and it takes money to pay back your very expensive veterinary education. And, you know, there's there's that whole quandary of issues for sure.
SPEAKER_00Several years ago, and this goes back quite a number of years, I went to an AAEP conference and they had us an hour-long session on uh recruiting uh uh veterinary colleagues for your practice. And there must have been 30 or so veterinarians in there, and they all spoke of the veterinarian that aspires to be in an equine practice has a much different perspective now. They don't want to do what perhaps I did, maybe you did, in coming out, and that they were paid very little. We worked seven days a week for a year or so, and um, you know, days off were not hardly a thing. And they want a balance of life. They they want to know how many hours they're gonna work. They don't necessarily want to work emergencies all the time. They want a support system and a culture that will both support their general well-being mentally and physically. And I see a lot of young kids that have 15, 16, 17, 18-year-olds that would make great equine veterinarians. They're involved with the equine world, but they're choosing to be engineers, they're choosing to be a medical doctor for humans, they're choosing other things because the idea of becoming an equine veterinarian is not that attractive to them. And um and the pay is one thing. And you you mentioned about the West Coast. I get uh some information each month about job opportunities in small animal practice out there. And some of the starting salaries are $225,000 a year. Wow. You you won't see that in the equine world. Sure.
SPEAKER_01I'm uh it's really wonderful, Summer, that we're trying to fix that at every level, right? In the AEP. We're just really putting a lot of effort into um trying to make that happen. And I'm sure that the people who you all give the scholarships to are super grateful for that.
SPEAKER_02It really is incredible to meet these young people. And uh I am one of those people that cry for other people. So I'm sure at convention they're like, oh, the crazy lady. But it's you know, it's so incredible to um to see and to speak to these young people and to see the support that they're receiving during convention and really being um involved, but being welcomed with open arms. I think that's a very important part of it. I was just speaking with a veterinarian from Idaho about this last uh week at a veterinary uh convention here in North Carolina. And uh, you know, they they're seeing it too. You know, they're seeing that the students are being um involved and that what the what the the how important the work of the foundation is, and it's just really incredible. But we have a we have a long road a hoe, as they say, around my neck of the woods, and we will keep going because we really appreciate veterinarians, and that's why we're here. That's wonderful. So I spoke about scholarships and research scholarships, and we also have grant programs. And so our grant programs mostly surround a program we call horses at risk, and that's obviously very broad. Um, and that covers horses, mules, and donkeys around the world, but mostly here in the US. And that can be horses, mules, and donkeys in disaster situations, um, whether they're in, you know, they're in the past of a tornado, there was a fire. Here in North Carolinas, we had Hurricane, Hurricane Helene would be about a year and a half ago. Whether that may be providing forage because all of the hay and grain is gone, transportation away from the fire, repaying vet bills for horses that had lacerations, burns, et cetera. And what's really wonderful is we have created a partnership with so many universities, vets, uh, disaster animal response teams, so that we're in talks with them sometimes before the disaster even happens. And we can make sure that if there's something that they need, that we can get that to them, or then we can repay on the back end. Um, and that's something that we're we're known for is um helping those animals in disasters. We also have a working equids program. So that's providing grants to groups like the Equitarian Initiative and Brooke USA and others that go to third world countries for the working equids and even here in the US on the native reservations to help provide very, very vital and necessary farrier care, dentistry, vet care, and husbandry care awareness and education to those that are uh owning and caring for these animals. And those programs are just incredible. They will surely bring a tear to the eye if you ever see photos or talk to a veterinarian who has done this work. We also have in our, in the last couple of 18 months, had our first million-dollar gift. And the family that that did this, who I consider friends now, they're so wonderful. They're the mallets from Pennsylvania, they made it possible to expand our horses at risk programs and provide grant opportunities for horses, mules, and donkeys that are in nonprofit organizations. And maybe they're seizing a law enforcement seizure and they need immediate vet care. Maybe they're need to have a successful adoption to then be able to bring in more animals into that situation because they're at risk. Uh, whatever it may be, we have developed four programs under that umbrella for from their gift that will help these horses, whether it's an emergency or whether it's vet care to be able to transition, get better, and maybe go into an adoptive home. And all of these horses and other ECWs are within the care of a 501c3. Um, and it has so far been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with these organizations. And through that, we also have um Merck Pharmaceuticals has a vaccine program that last year provided over 7,000 doses over 38 states of necessary vaccines to horses within these 501c3 organizations. So we have a lot of support through our partnerships, through our donors, through our pharmaceutical companies to Help get necessary vet care to these animals that are quote unquote at risk.
SPEAKER_01It's amazing to me when people step up to the plate like that and can make those kind of donations for the wellness of the animals in general.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's it's just incredible. All of us, as we've talked, all of us have a connection to the horse. That's why the name is what it is. And that's why we're talking today. Um, and that's why all of us, I think, from the horse world and the veterinary world, no matter where we're from, what our experiences have been, we can all get together and talk and agree on a lot because the horse brings us together. And no matter if it's a million-dollar gift from the mallets or it's a $5 gift from a student, that it all comes together to provide these really incredible programs, grants, and scholarships. And I'm just so proud to do this work. And I just cannot tell you, we have such amazing supporters. We have AAP members who are supporting us through different various programs. Like we have a memorial program that a lot of AAP members and their practices support that when they unfortunately have to euthanize a horse, that they then honor that horse through a gift to the foundation. And then we at the foundation send a handwritten note to the owners and let them know that a gift was made in memoriam of that animal. So that is something that helps both the clinic and the veterinarian, but also us. We have vet the vet direct program. This is one way that we help owners of owned horses. This was originally an ASPCA program and we partnered in it for a while, and now it's totally under our umbrella. And so AAP members can do like a it's like a 15-minute orientation and learn about the vet direct program, get signed up. And if they come across a horse, mule or donkey, and the veg is or the owner says, I just can't pay for you to, you know, stitch up this laceration. I just can't pay for you to look at this eye that's clearly infected. Then they can dip into that fund that is the vet direct program and help that owner to keep that horse in their home and to be able to facilitate that vet work for that animal. So there's so many different programs that we have, and I'm just so proud of all of them.
SPEAKER_01That's so truly amazing. So cool. It is there a way that horse, all my horse owners that are listening to this, let's say that they would love to do some philanthropic work and volunteer. I um I love that you mentioned all the equitarian stuff. It's like a doctor with doctors without borders, correct? All of those are veterinarians that donate their time and sometimes their resources to go into underserved areas and work. Is there a way that horse owners can like volunteer to go do that and work alongside the vets and help out?
SPEAKER_02So the Equitarian Initiative and Brooke USA and others that we funded in the past are separate organizations from us. But I believe that as long as they have some horse knowledge, or especially if they're a veterinary technician or a veterinarian themselves, if they reach out to those organizations that I'm sure they would love to have their help in one way or another. I can't speak to that because they're, like I said, a separate organization. But the the stories from the veterinarians and the other people on the ground there are just life-changing. So I'd say if you have an opportunity to do something like that, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01I agree. I've heard some of those stories too. And it's just, it's so beautiful the the life-changing experiences that we get as humans helping other people. You know, that's really the bottom line is we sort of think, oh, we got to keep all this love for ourselves because I I if I give it all away, I won't have enough. And it's a very um human way of thinking, right? We need to think superhuman and realize that the more we give truly, the more we get.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I have to have to share a little bit. My my dad, he passed away about six or seven years ago, and uh he made a decision along the way that he was going to, he was a uh work for Pfizer for 35 years and became one of their vice presidents. And he would tell his uh four children, four boys, I've decided that I want to leave some of the money that I was going to leave you. Two places. One is hospice because they cared for my mom so well for so long. And the other was Rensselaer Polytech, which gave him the education to be a wonderful engineer, to know that you know, um, through your will, through your trust, you may be able to small amount, large amount, it doesn't matter, um, give to the foundation once you appreciate actually what it does for the interest of the horse.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I appreciate you bringing that up. The the commitment um for a will or trust is huge, and it's so important to so many nonprofit organizations. At the Foundation for the Horse, we have a legacy program that has over 50 members now, and that program is named for Helena Leonard, which is the reason that we started the Foundation for the Horse over 30 years ago. She um loved her thoroughbred race horses, she loved her veterinarians, and she left some funds um to be dispersed. You know, I could we could talk for a day about how all of that ended up happening, but I think it was, you know, $100,000, $200,000 was then put into the care and trust of the AAP. And here we are 30 plus years later at the Foundation for the Horse, awarding over $3 million a year. So that important decision to leave funds behind for, you know, organizations and causes that you care for, I think, is of the utmost importance. And of course, we welcome those conversations every day.
SPEAKER_01I think it's pretty fascinating that really investments like that are, you know, what um keep the foundation going, you know, so it doesn't matter how what how little someone can give, every little bit gets put in the pile. And then I'm assuming that the dividends are really what get given away at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02You know, and that's a very important thing to bring up. We do have quite a few scholarships that are endowed. And so that endowment, of course, is much larger than the amount that we give out on an annual basis. But because we have that fund to it's sitting there in an endowment to be able to uh gain funds through our um amazing financial um astuteness that I am glad I'm not a part of. I get that. Um we are able to guarantee so many annual gifts, um, however long into the future. And um, I'm really grateful for the the folks that have entrusted us with funding that can sit and and gain those funds.
SPEAKER_00You know, and back on back on my little story with my dad, you know, we as as brothers, we were like, dad, do you know how big the endowment is at Rensselaer Polytech? Why would you give them money? Um, it makes every sense in the world to give back to those that have given you the information and knowledge and training throughout the years.
SPEAKER_01I can be pretty um altruistic and and um Pollyanna in my approach to life, but I really feel as though the gratitude that we have as we age, being grateful for those people and animals and situations that taught us big things. And it's it's just important because someone along the line was grateful, and that's why I got the experience that I did. I can think of a lot of situations where vets older than myself mentored me along and created the knowledge base and the practice that I have now. I couldn't have done that in a pickle jar by myself. It's a lot better, and we get a lot further working together. I think gratitude is the wave of the future. I think that's really where we're starting to turn as a culture. And so I think it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00I agree.
SPEAKER_02Well, and that is a great point and it's and it kind of a segue into another program that we have that has just is another tearjerker. Um, but we have a my mentor wall at um at the Foundation for the Horse. And the majority of the mentors on the wall or nominated to the wall have been veterinarians. There are others that are they're horse owners, et cetera. But the majority of these are people in academia or, you know, people who had interns, et cetera. And the wall is just an incredible array of people who have inspired others. And they may still be with us and they may not still be with us. But the my mentor wall through the Foundation for the Horse is a wonderful way to honor a mentor that helped you through your career or in horse ownership or what have you. And it's amazing the people that come out of the woodwork to support the my mentor nomination. Um, so the way that it works is that uh an initial gift of $500 plus is made to nominate this person. And then they're in the nomination pool. And once they reach $5,000 plus of funds towards their nomination, they are then placed on the wall. Um and we, you know, we celebrate these people throughout the year. We really celebrate them at convention, AAP convention. And it's a really amazing way to have um, you know, people that have been affected by them, family members, et cetera, to celebrate these people and send the notice around, whether it's through email or printed invitation or um Facebook, who knows, um to honor this person. And like I said, the people that come out of the woodwork, uh, you know, I went to college with this person, or um, my son played T-ball with this person's children or what have you, and they give to further that um my mentor award has just been incredible. So that's another way that um members and others can nominate people and and help the foundation at the same time with that gratitude that you talked about.
SPEAKER_01And so why don't you share with our listeners how if they have a fabulous veterinarian that they would like to nominate, how how can you make that easier for them?
SPEAKER_02Yes. So there is a page on our webpage. If you don't want to do that, if you don't want to search for it or write it down, you can just simply email me. It's swyatt at foundationforthehorse.org. And that goes for anything you've heard today. Um, if you're interested in our programs, I love to meet people and talk to people about what we do. That's why we're here today. Um but there is a um there is a donate button on our website, foundationfor the horse dot org, and there is a my mentor button under the giving button uh or the donate button. And you can go in and there will be a drop-down menu to choose to you know start a new mentor uh nomination or add to, et cetera. Um, but I'm happy to facilitate you know any questions that you have about that program.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I was noticing, you know, on the site, you don't even have to go to donate. If you're on the support our efforts, there's a direct button for my mentor program. So it's right, it's right there for them.
SPEAKER_02You're right. And we uh we have helped a lot of folks to have kind of a campaign, if you will. You know, they'll say, Oh, I want to, you know, I want to honor Dr. You know, Dr. Doe. And we'll say, okay, and they want to make a whole thing about it. So we make a web page and a QR code and an invitation. Um, and sometimes it's it's not that, and they want to do things quietly and for it to be a surprise or what have you. So we're we're happy to do some work around that too, if they want us to help promote that and talk about it or take it off on their own.
SPEAKER_01I I love all of this. Part of part of my um chuckling, you know, in my late 50s now, I'm it's just so interested to see how brief life is and how it is um the connection with people. And certainly my job and my life revolve around horses. They're amazing animals and they do bring us together. And so when um I think mentorship in our field is super important. Medicine has to be learned from others. We can all have good instincts about that, but we level ourselves up so much better by having a mentor. And people who go into this profession, I still believe, love it so much that they give their lives to it. And it changes who they are as a person to give in that way. So it's I love sitting at our annual AAEP meeting. And you guys do great slideshows for those veterinarians that have really touched a number of their clients' lives. And I just think, oh, that's so beautiful that this usually it's a woman, of course, since 90% of our profession is female. I don't know, maybe 80%, but you know, this beautiful woman is just working so hard and changing the changing lives and changing the planet and bringing love back into our culture. And it's, you know, stay off the news, stay off all that stuff. Just go to that website and look at who's doing a good job in life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and some are uh noticed too that you know they have a memorial and honor gift program too, for, you know, whether there's a horse that was a favorite horse of yours, or whether there was a human or a vet or so forth, that you could put forth their name and even as little as $25 or as much as you want, um, to honor that person and then they come back with a message and so forth and and share that. So that's another little hitbit that the foundation offers.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and thank you for bringing that up. We can do that for obviously a lot of practices, submit those to us and do those for their for their clients that have lost a horse. But people also do that for a friend or you know, a family member who's lost a horse, or as you said, a person that has meant a lot to them that they want to do a memorial gift for. We do get those and we always send a handwritten note to that person letting them know that that that that animal or that person has been memorialized through the program.
SPEAKER_01It is indeed.
SPEAKER_02I think a couple of the things that I did not speak about that may be of some interest to some folks. One is the Chromatic Fund. And Chromatic BF was an incredible sport horse that was unfortunately lost in 2024 very suddenly at um at a world jumping finals, I believe. And so his breeder had come to us and we have now partnered with his breeder and the um USCF, US Equestrian Federation, as well as the AAP to create the chromatic fund. And what that is, is a fund for research dollars that will um look into performance horse-related research. And so far we've we've awarded two awards in that space. And when I tell you whether it's the chromatic fund research or other research that we that we fund, listening to these innovative veterinarians at convention and throughout the year, while it's 99% over my head, even as a biology major in animal sciences, I get that. It is the most incredible thing to witness that these people have just given so much of their lives to help these animals that we love so much. And it it is, you know, obviously it's things like lameness and colic that we all think about on a daily basis and we're so scared of as source owners. But it is also things that you've never thought about in the world and you're just thinking, wow, what an incredible thing. So I am so grateful for things like the chromatic fund and the research um dollars that come in because uh, you know, a lot of people don't think about research on a daily basis. Why would we? But if you know, if we, especially if we're horse owners, um, having people look into these issues that affect our horses' health and even cause our horses to to not be with us anymore is just amazing. Their dedication to these to these projects is amazing. And along those same lines, the EDCC or the Equine Disease Communications Center is also under our umbrella. That's a mouthful.
SPEAKER_01That's cool. I didn't agree with that.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And so the EDCC exists to provide information about communicable equine disease across the US to anyone related to horses. So, you know, in the end of 2025, when the equine herpes virus was scaring all of us, um, they were putting out real-time alerts for, you know, for all of us to understand what was going on, you know, what needed to happen, et cetera. And so um they have put out thousands and thousands of alerts since the last um less than 20 years that they've been, um, that they've been an entity. And it is really an amazing thing that, especially for people like me who show horses and travel with their horses, to know what's going on in real time, that state veterinarians are reporting these items and that they are being reported to the horse owning public in real time is incredible. And then veterinarians are working together to get to the root causes and to teach people how to mitigate these scares is really amazing. So the PCC is another thing. If you don't follow them online, if you're on social media and you're a horse owner or you're a veterinarian, definitely follow them, but also maybe look into their programs because what they do is really important to those of us who own horses or who work with horses on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01And how can people follow them? You know, you mentioned the social media, but how how can people access the EDCC, which is an amazing group?
SPEAKER_02Yes. So their website is equine diseasecc.org. I'm also a big fan of just Googling things. So um, because sometimes you don't know. Like you might think, oh, it would be EDCC.org, but it's not. And so I, you know, on like a on Facebook, I do not have Facebook up right now, but if I was on Facebook, I would just Google or search Equine Disease Communications Center. Um, and their logo is a huge E D C C with a horse on the end. Um, I would definitely give them a follow. It's really incredible to um sometimes it's scary to see all of the things going on. Yeah. But if you think how many people travel with their horses, show horses, you know, ship horses to different places, it's so amazing to have an organization that's doing this work.
SPEAKER_01That is amazing. It's just so cool to see how so many people are involved in this industry, in this culture to keep us all having a really a fun time with our horses. I know I I look at my owners sometimes and say, you know, this is supposed to be fun. You need to make sure this stays fun. But, you know, they horses really, for those of us who have drank the Kool-Aid since in utero, you know, horses just make us tick and they um they help teach us the more important things in life if we let them, being the operative word there. So it's so cool to see how um how wide-reaching the foundation of the horse is. I didn't realize that the EDCC was under your umbrella. It's so cool.
SPEAKER_02Dr. Nat White is the leader of the EDCC, and I'm sure he could expound for a a while on the amazing work of the EDCC. And that is just his his wheelhouse and his passion. And the I know the AAEP is always on top of anything work related. When we have our staff meetings, it is spectacular to me as a horse owner and a horse lover to look into all the ways that we touch the horse industry and all the things that we're aware of, whether those have to do with veterinary medicine at all, but it it's incredible. Whether it's legislation in a state or a particular something that happened at a racetrack, we are abreast of it and always working to see how we should be involved and what could be the outcome of this, whether that's a disease issue or a welfare issue or what have you.
SPEAKER_00Very good. Yeah, I think Dr. White's been around as long as I have. So I know of him very well.
SPEAKER_01Oh, he's amazing. And I'm gonna claim him because he's Virginia Tech, by the way. Well, Summer, thank you so much for all of your information. I think in all of our uh bad news kind of thing that we get here and there, and all of the drama that's happening in our culture, it's wonderful to know on many levels, but this is one of those levels that we understand that um there is a silent majority that is an undercurrent of good. And um, here's one of the beautiful ways that horse owners can be participating in that.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. I'm so grateful for both of you and this opportunity and just your kind words. And believe me, I have done this type of work my entire career and I plan on it forever, as long as they'll let me. This organization is just incredible. Working with wine vets on a daily basis is just so uplifting and different than working with anything else in any other capacity that I have. And I'm so grateful for the work that you all do and allowing people like me to cap, you know, to have that connection with horses that are healthy and happy. At the end of March, working with events for the foundation for the horse. So anyone in that Ocala area is welcome. We are going to have a tailgate at the Live Oak International, and we will also have uh 5K in our honor at the Florida Horse Park on March 29th. And later that day at the Florida Horse Park is a polo match in our honor for Ocala Polo. So if anyone listening is interested in those things, they can email me, reach out. Um, but yes, I will be in touch because I would love to visit while I'm there.
SPEAKER_01Summer, thank you so much for joining us today. John and I have really enjoyed learning a lot about this beautiful arm of the AAEP, which is our lifelong professional organization, and all of the different ways that you all support, veterinarians and horses, and um just everything we do. I've really enjoyed my talk with you. And I know John will be around in Ocala when you get down there in the next couple of months, and I look forward to catching up with you very soon in Virginia. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Thank you all so much.
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