This one is for the equestrian professionals reading this. The trainers, the barn managers, the vets, the farriers, the judges, the breeders. The people who have built their lives inside this industry and know exactly what I mean when I say we have a pipeline problem.

The U.S. equine industry supports a $177 billion economy and 2.2 million jobs. It is one of the largest agricultural sectors in the country. And it is running critically short of trained professionals at every level.

The USDA declared 243 rural veterinary shortage areas across 46 states in 2025. That is the highest number ever recorded. Large-animal veterinarians are retiring faster than they are being replaced, and the pipeline that should be producing the next generation is not there. It is not that young people do not love horses. They do. It is that there is no structured academic pathway that takes a 14-year-old who loves horses and channels that passion into a definitive pathway towards a career in equine medicine, equine business, equine law, equine genetics, or equine technology.

Until now.

EACPA's curriculum runs five professional tracks, all of them designed to produce credentialed graduates who are ready for the equine industry. Veterinary medicine and equine biology, taught in partnership with a UC Davis-connected faculty member. Equine business and management. Equine law and ethics. Reproduction and genetics. Biotechnology in sport.

Every track ends with a credential the industry recognizes. We are in active partnership conversations with USEF, USHJA, ARIA, and RACE to ensure that EACPA graduates carry credentials those bodies accept. That is not a pipeline. That is a direct feed.

The school is the marketing. Every EACPA graduate who walks into a vet clinic or a barn management role is a proof point that the industry decided to invest in its own future.

If you are a barn owner, a competition organizer, a breed association director, or an equine business leader who sees what I see, I would love to talk to you about how EACPA fits into your workforce strategy. And if you want to put your name on something that will be producing equine professionals for the next twenty years, the founding donor campaign is open at eacpa.academy.

The industry built me. EACPA is how I pay it back.

Laura Bruner, Founder