Throughout this magazine, you find references to the AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners). Those of you who have been subscribers since The Horse came into being probably understand the relationship between the magazine and the AAEP. But for the thousands of new readers, I would like to tell you what the AAEP is, explain how our two organizations work together, and detail what that means to you as horse owners, and to the health and well-being of your horses.

The American Association of Equine Practitioners, headquartered in Lexington, Ky., was founded in 1954 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the health and welfare of the horse. Currently, AAEP reaches more than five million horse owners through its 6,500 members worldwide and is actively involved in ethics issues, practice management for its members, equine research, and continuing education in the equine veterinary profession and horse industry. (The group has a web site at www.aaep.org.)

The Horse originally was started under the name Modern Horse Breeding 15 years ago. That magazine, which was a very well-done publication for a small niche, was bought by The Blood-Horse Inc. (our non-profit parent company) with an eye to expanding its focus while keeping the highly detailed articles designed for hands-on equine professionals. At the time of the magazine’s purchase, the AAEP was beginning to take on a new role of promoting client education. The Horse and the AAEP found themselves walking down the same road, and thus decided to develop a working partnership