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Talk to Me About Being an Equine Vet

Off Course
,
#1

Hello all–
I am a HS student and long time horse lover who has always planned on being a vet. I have gone back and forth on small animal vs large and have never been able to make a decision. I know I have plenty of time to decide, but I would love to have a bit more of a plan before going into school.

I have spent a few months shadowing at a non-emergent small animal practice to get a feel for the occupation. I enjoyed the work, but I learned that even though I love my dogs and cats more than anything, I don’t love every dog or cat to the same degree, and found myself wanting to avoid the particularly gross cases (blood and guts are fine, it’s just the smell that is my Achilles). I wasn’t appalled by it, but sometimes I found myself thinking, “a horse dental sure isn’t this gross” or “horse diarrhea is a LOT better than dog diarrhea” and wanting to step away. The vets and vet techs told me they felt the same way at first and it just got better. But I really, really, don’t want to spend 8 years in school (and $$$ in debt!) to end up dreading going into work each day because it grossed me out.

I have unfortunately spent a lot of time in an equine hospital with my personal horse and thought that what the vets were doing looked really fun. Horses will always come before dogs and in theory being an equine vet sounds like the dream.

However. Every equine vet I’ve talked to has said, “Don’t go into equine medicine if you want time for your own horses.” For me, having my own horses at my own house and having time to ride them is really, really important. If going into equine medicine really does mean little to no time with my own animals I would rather just do small animal. But I really love the profession and would enjoy hearing what it’s like first hand.

My main question is do you have time and money to have your own horses and ride/show regularly? Also, does making horses your career ruin having them for recreation?

TIA, I am really looking forward to hearing what you all have to say!

1 Like
#2

Not a vet here, but I know there are plenty of vets who have made it work to show, some at quite a high level. Fernando Cardenas (top level show jumper), Jeff Beshear (evebter), Lori Bidwell (https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/new-amateur-member-brings-her-veterinary-experience-and-focus-on-welfare-to-ushja-board/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR28t4SPoKMxiLJdRLZVyTJFFYS2-Oy248Blt2aDJhSVTletcA-oEM4geXU_aem_w8upvplj0_QDB1kasrsbyA&mibextid=Zxz2cZ), the vet who I believe does the Swan Lake shows in PA whose name I can’t remember….
Most of these examples have been in the veterinary industry a long time, and I imagine it’s harder for young vets who are just getting into the business to have serious time to show, but even one of the vets at our local practice has quarter horses in training and finds time to ride and show. So, it can be done. I bet you could probably write a email to their offices and see if any of them would be willing to give you advice

#3

If you want the time and the money to ride horses, and you want a career in a health care area, I’d encourage you to look at a career in either medicine or dentistry rather than veterinary medicine. My father gave me that advice when I was in high school, freshly back from a summer science program at the Virginia Tech vet school.

I have a daughter whose goal was vet school, like yours. But after being accepted at vet school she worked for that following summer in a law office, and that experience resulted in her turning down her vet school place and going to law school.

I applaud you for considering vet school, but at your stage in life keep a broad view of career options.

6 Likes
#4

not veterinarian medicine, but medical related:
I talk with my mom every day. Some days (especially when she feels down) we talk about her work and the impact - positive impact - she had on hundreds of people.
She was a nurse who ended up leading the nursing staff of a huge clinic for over 30 years.
Her career idea in her youth had been studying art or singing. Financial concerns caused her mother to push her toward nursing. ‘In the first 6 month I was grossed out to no end, then I loved it’
Frankly, one gets used to grossness. Medical students across the board are some of the grossest folks you might meet. Things you think would make you die from being grossed out become a matter-of-fact proposition .Like digging out poop from a waterer or fixed feeder with little more than a handful of straw. Cleaning a shaft, or dealing with abscesses.
The grossness with horses is much bigger than with dogs, naturally. Maybe see if you can intern with a large animal vet.
Of course, the college bill will be as high as if you studied human medicine.
It’s a tough, physical job with little monetary return.
I am not going to tell you not to do it, for one, the industry needs vets.
I can however attest to the fact that one can get used to things that used to make them want to throw up. (Small animal vets have a steadier income stream and a better chance to set their hours) Burnout is real, and yeah, as horse vet you’s need a big truck.

1 Like
#5

Second year vet student here! I think one of the things that makes veterinary medicine so great is the ability to make it what you want. I know vets that do emergency only, sporthorse/lameness focused and chiropractic.

My advice to you would be to get as much experience as you can to see if this is really what you want. Also, do as well as you can in school, because it is very competitive. If this is really where your heart is, there’s no sense in doing something else.

Please reach out if you have any questions!

7 Likes
#6

My niece was the top student in high school, undergrad and vet school. She was driven from day 1 and completed her DVM in shorter than normal time. Had planned on doing equine medicine until she interned at a top equine hospital. I don’t know the details, but some of the elective procedures for race horses and show horses made her do a 180. She currently is a workaholic small animal vet. I often worry that she will burn out due to the hours she keeps, takes patients home to monitor over night and can’t say “no” to hopeless cases. I also know she is happy and loving her life 6 years into her career, has a young child and understanding spouse. So, stay open minded and do what you love - the rest will sort itself out.

7 Likes
#7

I’m a first year vet student pursuing equine practice! I’d definitely advise doing some shadowing with an equine vet to get a better feel for that side of vet med. It will both help you decide if being an equine vet is what you want to do and help your vet school application, as it’s a good idea to have veterinary experience hours with a variety of species.

The two equine vets I worked for prior to vet school had time to ride and compete their own horses. They both owned their practices and set their own schedules, which made it easier to get in time with their personal horses. However, I don’t think they had the same flexibility at the very start of their careers.

To answer your second question, I worked full time at an equine clinic before starting school, and I didn’t find that having horses as my job ruined the hobby aspect of horses for me. I still enjoyed riding and spending time with horses outside of work.

Best of luck to you!

2 Likes
#8

Also, keep in mind that lots of careers have very demanding schedules when you first start. I am an attorney and my first firm was a top international firm. I would leave home at 7am and get home at 8:30pm M-F. I worked plenty of weekends. I’d say it took me about 4-5 years to have enough “credit” at work to be able to work a more flexible schedule. I started riding as an adult so I would take lessons on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Everyone knew I left “early” on Wednesdays for my lesson. “Early” meant 5:30. :slight_smile: I graduated law school in 2002 so things may have changed, but with starting salaries being what they are, I highly doubt it.

On the flip side, paying my dues and living a frugal lifestyle early on means that now I work in-house with an incredibly flexible schedule, have a hobby farm in a lovely suburb, and have three horses at home with me.

My point is to not be daunted by the idea of A LOT of work right after you graduate. Once you get your feet truly under you, you can decide what changes, if any, you want to make in your career. My own equine vet has her own practice, works 4 days a week, and shares emergency calls with two other solo practitioners in the area, but I’m sure she didn’t start out that way. She finds time to compete one horse and have two at home with her. So it can be done!

4 Likes
#9

I’ve been a veterinarian for 36 years. I started out in large animal with the vast majority focused on equine reproduction. I’ve always owned horses but I did have to cut back on my showing ambitions significantly during vet school and my first few years in practice. I did get out to ride but it was sporadic and often interrupted. After signing up for a couple of shows one summer (I think I was 3 or 4 years out) and not making it into a single class due to client emergencies where everyone knew I was a vet (wasn’t the vet on call for the show) at the show grounds, I decided I needed a change. Several of my colleagues have managed to juggle their equine medicine/surgery careers, family and horses. I knew I would be happier if I separated my hobby from my work. For me avoiding the 24/7 grind doing anything else with my DVM was the key. I’ve juggled multiple roles including teaching, shelter medicine, veterinary and human pharmaceutical industry, technical editor and small animal medicine/surgery over my career (doing many at the same time). I honestly do not regret my decisions in the least (despite avoiding small animal land in school at any and every opportunity when given the choice). I took each job based on how well it paid, interest in the focus at the time, and flexibility of schedule for my riding. I am currently working at a small animal practice and love it though retirement is coming up in a few years. For me, veterinary medicine is my life but horses are my love. I do not in any way dread or hate going to work but much of that is because I have an awesome team of colleagues who are supportive and most also have horses.

5 Likes
#10

Without significant family support I don’t think there is a job or field out there that lets people straight out of the gate have the funds to purchase and maintain a horse farm, own horses, and show regularly. As a reference point you could look at your goal shows for the year to calculate that total price and use a mortgage calculator for a target farm on the market in an area you would like to live. Add 15% to everything because you’re looking 8 years down the road. Now multiple it times 2 because mortgage plus hobbies isn’t the cost of life. Multiple that times 1.3 to get a monthly pre tax amount. Multiply that times 12 for the starting point for an annual salary. This is the roughest of math but it is a start.

My guess is that you are only going to find niche mid career industries capable of pulling that salary. We have a lot of people on here with a household income of $200k+ talking about it being a struggle to board one horse and show locally a few times a year. If your family is situated to buy you a farm when you finish school or sees buying you show horses as a “family business” your timeline may look different.

For the rest of the world, the transition to adulthood is accepting that for the next 5-15 years post graduation there will be more sacrifices than you envisioned to have the future life you want.

If you do want to pursue horses, the equine vets I know with the most flexibility became specialists. They can work established hours and are salaried at a hospital. The Independent equine vets do not have the schedule flexibility to regularly compete and often have significant start up costs for diagnostic tools and an expectation of weekend/night emergency hours.

6 Likes
#11

As much as I’d like to encourage ANYONE! to become an equine/large animal vet (my area has a serious shortage) it’s a huge commitment of your Life.
My vet is early 40s & has already had a work-related injury that affects her ability to some extent.
Aside from the physical aspect, are you prepared to deal with (examples my vet has shared, both with me & on her FB clinic page)
*Clients who “wait & see” with a condition, resulting in something that could have been nearly a non-issue with prompt treatment becoming a dire situation.
Any eye injury comes to mind.
*Non-client calls for Emergency treatment at any & all hours, any day of the week.
The shortage here guarantees panicked calls at any time.
How do you prioritize, not knowing what you may be walking into?
*Clients unprepared for any sort of emergency or even routine care until a vet can get to them.
A friend of mine (I am not a vet) once called asking for my vet’s # for a colicing pony.
Her own vet wasn’t licensed to practice in our state - she’d used him for a horse she boarded.
Another she called hadn’t returned the call.
My vet was out of town. Friend didn’t have any meds, so I ran her over some banamine.
Drawn into a syringe for P.O., I’d guesstimated the dose, later approved by the vet she finally got to come out.
*Established clients ignoring requests for respect to guidelines scheduling services
*Established clients failing to pay for services.
*Disgruntled clients venting to everyone & now: on SM :unamused:

AFAIK, my vet hasn’t been able to show, let alone ride her own horse in years.
She also has a herd of minis owners “gifted” her when they could not or would not care for them properly. All dwarfed or otherwise compromised.

Bless you, OP, if you complete your DVM & establish a practice.

3 Likes
#12

I’m not a vet, but a long time horse & small animal owner. In the vet practices that I use for my horse, one of them has 5 vets on staff. Everybody gets a day off, a vacation, decent hours, decent pay. One of the vets has 2 small children. Everybody takes turns being on-call. This includes the newbie vets!
My point is, depending on location and type of clinic situation you get into, you can have a life.
OTOH, my other vet, would like to finally sell his practice and retire but can’t find anybody “who wants to work”; in other words, 100+ hours a week like he does. With a lot of travel time since it’s rural and a lot of his calls are farm calls.
Another vet I know around here ran her practice, showed, raised both children and horses, eventually took on partners and has now sold to them and moved on to other aspects of life.
Then there is the specialist vet, who keeps regular business hours, no emergencies, no routine anything, just lameness stuff only.

So. It “all depends”.

3 Likes
#13

I’m in about the same boat as you OP, except I’ve shadowed my equine vet and haven’t had an opportunity to experience small animal medicine yet. My equine vet is very encouraging, but also quite honest. She does mixed practice (not because she loves the small animals, but because she needs the small animal money). She does two days a week of small animal and two days a week of equine. She doesn’t show, but she does own a young horse. One of the greatest things she emphasized was work/life balance and being able to leave your cases behind when you go home, especially the ones that end in euthanasia. She was very honest about the debt, but she thinks it was worth it because she loves what she does. Despite the debt she lives in a nice house, has a great family, and owns a horse. I’ve been quite encouraged by her, and I hope you and I’ll be able to make our vet dreams come true. One great piece of advice I received from a veterinarian (a small animal one, but also a very high level eventer) was to not be discouraged by the negative things one veterinarian says or experiences from one particular place. If you need encouragement I found reading these articles helped.

https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/dvms-vs-vmds-vets-cut-loose-in-friendly-eventing-rivalry/


https://eventingnation.com/dr-ashley-taylor-balances-career-with-competition/
3 Likes
#14

One of the highest rates of suicide is found among veterinarians. There are a number of sources of pressure that can become unbearable for some.
Good luck!

#15

Have you encountered the delight that is gastric reflux in an enteritis case yet?

#16

Definitely shadow an equine vet. I think there are some dimensions that affect how people experience their veterinary career:

  • Did they graduate with debt or are they starting with some money and financial security?
  • What area of the country is it?
  • What is the clientele? Show or pleasure horses, what discipline, do they have money for veterinary care? Do they treat their horses in a way that is compatible with your personal ethics?
  • What is the population of vets in the area like? Will you have colleagues? Can you find and keep at least one partner?
  • Solo practice is also about running a business, doing the billing, etc, and you must either hire that or allow for time for that, plus manage your cash flow
  • Group practice in small animal often involves VCA (I hear lots of stories…) or crusty older vets who don’t believe in work-life balance (also many stories!)
  • Getting hurt is a substantial risk and make sure you plan for at least financial security in such a situation.
  • How much driving you’ll have to do and what kind of driving it is is very much a function of your region.

If people know you are a veterinarian, you tend to get asked for free advice, and maybe “ask” is sometimes too kind a word, so having boundaries is important. There will always be more animals than you can help and setting that boundary is part of it too.

Don’t forget that as a veterinarian, especially in solo practice, that you’re dealing with people all day, maybe even more than their horses. People with limited bank accounts, people who won’t necessarily follow your directions, people who are frightened and bitey even more than the patients sometimes.

Large animal veterinarian hours tend to be daylight hours, so keep that in mind too. Because you are traveling most of the day, it may or may not be easy to visit your own personal horse even if you make a break for an hour or two, and then of course there are always emergencies.

My personal equine vet would love to have a second vet in her practice. She’s lovely to work with but it’s hard to get anyone and then they don’t always stay.

I know quite a few people who were equine vets and who left that practice, so there are also good options if it doesn’t work for you. As with anything, the best case scenario is if you have your own money going in, because then you CAN really set your own hours and terms, hire in help, etc. If you will be graduating $200k in debt and with no personal funds, that’s a much tougher road.

If you want flexibility, you might consider nursing as a job you can do literally anywhere and that can pay well that allows you to move around at relatively short notice. (It has its own problems, and can be a shit job too in the wrong circumstances, because health care companies are not known for their benevolence either.)

We definitely need more veterinarians and if this is for you, then go for it.

#17

I desperately wanted to be a ‘horse’ vet (back in the 70’s). That is until I did some shadowing of one of the local equine vets and had a 180. The work was hard, he was always getting hurt by his clients (horse) although I later found out he had a temper which he could not always control and so some of his injuries I would call self inflicted. The hours were very long. He eventually dropped the horses and went small animal.

I decided that I wanted my horses to be my hobby. I still enjoyed the medical sciences so I went into pharmacy. Very good pay, although the hours weren’t much better than the vets because I chose to work hospital pharmacy (had to be staffed 24/7/365) but I had finite hours every week and good vacation hours so always managed to work my shows and clinics into my schedule. Now you can even do veterinary pharmacy. I almost did that about 15 years ago but it was a start-up and it didn’t sound like there would be much backup at least at the outset so I kept trudging away at what I was doing.

#18

Thank you all for your feedback!! I am encouraged that it can be done but acknowledge that the majority of equine vets do not have my desired lifestyle and that the work is hard, the hours are long, and there is minimal monetary reward. That being said, I can’t really see myself doing anything else.

I have shadowed an MD and thought about law… I now have no interest in human medicine but think law could be a possibility… Debate is one of my favorite hobbies and being in a courtroom and in a highly competitive atmosphere sounds exciting and challenging. I’m at the top of my class and love the academic grind, but also appreciate that life is short and I would much rather be stuck at the 85th%ile with barn time than the 99th%ile with no life outside of school/work. The courtroom sounds fun but then I picture a life in a clinic helping animals and think maybe law isn’t so great.

The perfect job or perfect profession does not exist and all will come at a cost. But to me, working with horses or dogs is a real perk. It sounds like specializing is a good route to take for better pay and better work/life balance, so I will definitely look into that more.

Thank you all for your reply, this forum is always a gold mine!

#19

Most lawyers don’t get into a court room and debate. They do business, probate, contracts etc in offices. Even lawyers who do court cases don’t necessarily spend that much time in court compared to the rest of the job. Honestly lawyers are more often concerned with mediation, negotiations, making sure your client gets a favorable outcome but not necessarily through a trial.

Even for lawsuits the trial is something lawyers try to avoid usually for a mediated settlement out of court.

And remember that working with animals means working with the humans that own them.

#20

And this is why law is not very appealing to me. People I think I can tolerate. Endless paperwork and being stuck in an office, not so much.

1 Like

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