Covering the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Annual Convention is one of our major undertakings here at The Horse and TheHorse.com. Every year, typically the first week of December, our team members hop on planes and converge with as many as 7,000 veterinarians and horse industry professionals. After five nonstop days, we head home with a bevy of newfound equine health information. This year, we’re in Las Vegas Dec. 5-9.

Prior to joining The Horse I worked for other equine breed and training magazines, so I knew about the convention (which we refer to, simply, as “AAEP”). But you really can’t understand the scope of AAEP until you’re here, on the ground, navigating standing-room-only auditoriums with lectures about how to safely sedate an aged equine for surgery in the field or prevent the spread of deadly viral infections at horse shows and races.

Covering AAEP is a big undertaking for us at The Horse (two of my coworkers are covering no less than 30 lectures each!), but it’s also something that’s pretty routine (I’m on AAEP No. 4, while our editor-in-chief, Stephanie Church, has attended the convention the majority of her 16 years at The Horse!). But a few days ago, as I entered the convention schedule into my calendar, it dawned on me just how cool attending AAEP is for a horse owner like me. As a horse-nut working in the horse industry, I’m a little spoiled. And sometimes, I find myself taking it for granted. I know it’s not something everyone gets to do. So, for those of you at home, here are some AAEP highlights from my perspective as a horse owner:

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