The first sentence out of keynote speaker Buck Brannaman’s mouth was, “Being a horse vet is a dangerous job.” Well, we in the room are well aware of that! He asked how many people in the room–this is an enormous convention hall and every seat was packed–had been hurt by a horse sometime in their veterinary career. It seemed that every hand in the audience was raised; at least those who didn’t suffer chronic shoulder or arm injuries could raise it. That is pretty sobering. As a horse owner, you may not realize the incredible stress and toll that working on horses all day long takes on your vet and farrier and other members of your health-care team. And, that’s just when the horses behave.

He emphasized that most of what equine vets do is work around a horse’s head and their feet, both particularly dangerous spots to be positioned. We are often aware that owners select their vet based on how well they get along with the horses. But it strikes me that the owners don’t always realize that they have a responsibility to keep things safe not just for themselves but also for those professionals and lay people who work on their horses. Buck emphasized that horses should be prepared to cope with every eventuality. One simple example he gave was to pick up their feet and have the horse hold a foot up for more than four seconds since this is what’s required for a vet to do a proper lameness evaluation. We’re not there just to pick a rock out of a foot; we need to methodically go about evaluating a limb and perform diagnostic tests, as one example of what exercises a horse should be trained to accept. He explained that a horse may do well under normal circumstances but the horse must also be prepared for the unthinkable. It is the owner’s responsibility to have control of the horse and to teach a horse to be controlled.

To back it up a bit, he described a little about some misperceptions of