Trail blazing with Dr. Jean-Yin Tan

“If you have gained the trust of a horse, you have won a friend for life.”

The original source of this quote is unknown. However, as any equestrian and horse lover will tell you, it remains true to this day.

But for people like Dr. Jean-Yin Tan, horses are more than pets, friends, and beautiful creatures!

They are patients, too.

As an equine internal medicine specialist and instructor at University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, she works about as closely as is humanly possible with horses – literally healing them from the inside out. From medical issues related to the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, and nervous system to muscles and organs, this Cornell University graduate is committed to improving the health of horses everywhere.

Vet Candy is excited to have had the opportunity to interview Dr. Jean-Yin Tan.

So, without further ado…

Introducing, one of Vet Candy’s Veterinary Inspiration Award 2022 winners and horse healer extraordinaire, Dr. Jean-Yin Tan!

Making Space for All in Veterinary Medicine

Did you know?

Modern veterinary medicine isn’t very old.

In fact, as a field of professional study, it was not until 1761 that Claude Bourgelat established the first ever veterinary school in Lyon, France.

Of course, we have come a long way in the past 260 years!

Yet as one of 0.4% of Asian Americans in the equine veterinary field, Dr. Tan feels it’s important to engage in diversity, equity, and inclusions efforts.

She explains:

“My hope is to make things a little easier for the people who come after me. I think the veterinary world needs to make space for individuals from marginalized identities and be willing to listen and to make compromises to make change. I have so much hope for the next generation and my dream is to see more equity in the veterinary field before I retire.”

Indeed, perhaps one of the biggest problems facing the veterinary field today has to do with the concept of exclusivity.

“Too often, people in the industry discount potential veterinarians if they didn’t grow up living, breathing, and competing with horses,” Dr. Jean-Yin Tan tells us. “Meanwhile, there are many outstanding equine veterinarians, including people like Dr. Rood of Rood and Riddle (one of the largest equine practices in the world) who did not grow up around horses. There is a crisis where there are not enough equine vets, yet the idea of exclusivity discourages new people from joining the profession. Think of how many Rood and Riddle’s we would have in the world to provide top-notch care to horses if we fostered young vet students’ interest in horses.”

By engaging in DEI conversations, we can all live up to Dr. Tan’s mission in life:

Leave the world a better place than when you entered it.

RELATED: The Mystery of the Coughing Quarter Horse with Dr. Jean-Yin Tan- listen now

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask “Dumb” Questions

Additionally, Dr. Jean-Yin Tan wants vet med professionals to know that it’s okay to make mistakes, learn, and grow.  

When asked what advice she would give her younger self, she replied:

“I would tell myself not to focus so hard on trying to be perfect all the time. When I was a student, I would focus so hard on trying not to appear as though I didn’t know all the answers, that I would expend my energy covering up my deficiencies rather than allowing myself to make mistakes and to learn from them. My educational experience would have been so much better if I had allowed myself to ask the ‘dumb’ questions, to answer my professors incorrectly in public, and to try things that I was bad at.”

She adds, “I think I would have improved much faster if I had allowed myself to use trial and error and to make mistakes.”

She’s right, of course!

Dr. Tan has been a practice owner, educator, Chair of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) Advanced Continuing Education committee, winner of the 2019 AAEP Good Works for Horses award, was named one of Avenue Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40, and much more.

Imagine if she had allowed fear to hold her back? None of these amazing accomplishments would have occurred.

Dr. Jean-Yin Tan’s final words of advice?

“Everything turns out in the end,” she says.