Depending On the Team

Who is responsible for the horse, and what are that person’s limits morally and legally for making decisions about his/her horse’s health, care, and well-being? Being a responsible horse owner, you tend your horses daily in a way that ensures they are well-nourished, exercised properly, and that their general health is looked after in the means you think best suits yourself, your horse, and

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Who is responsible for the horse, and what are that person’s limits morally and legally for making decisions about his/her horse’s health, care, and well-being? Being a responsible horse owner, you tend your horses daily in a way that ensures they are well-nourished, exercised properly, and that their general health is looked after in the means you think best suits yourself, your horse, and your particular set of circumstances. Because of that, you probably have established a “team” of people on whom you depend for horse health advice and services, the leader being your regular veterinarian.

In that team you at least have a farrier in addtion to your veterinarian. Many horse owners today also have several other people, including veterinary specialists (reproduction, surgery, lameness, internal medicine, chiropractic, critical care, acupuncture, cardiology, etc.), a nutritionist, and perhaps non-veterinarians who do manual or modality therapy on your horse.

There is controversy about a new “model practice act” being put forth by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). Some say it will save our horses from unscrupulous people who call themselves practitioners of some sort. Others say the AVMA is trying to get states to “lock out” anyone but a licensed veterinarian to do anything to your horse. The truth is somewhere in between.

As a simple explanation, each state has a practice act that outlines what is considered veterinary medicine in that state, and limits what non-veterinarians can do. These are designed to protect horse (and other animal) owners from charlatans

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Written by:

Kimberly S. Brown is the editor of EquiManagement/EquiManagement.com and the group publisher of the Equine Health Network at Equine Network LLC.

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