From the Editor

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I was told many years ago to “be careful what you ask for, you may get it.” Obviously that statement can have different meanings and be used in many life circumstances.

That brings to mind a recent evaluation of a program here at the University of Kentucky. We had asked some external stakeholders in our program to provide some honest feedback regarding how the program was going. As we anticipated, many of the comments were quite positive and encouraging. However, one of the external reviewers emphasized the need for the scientist to communicate with the average horseman and horse industry. In some ways, for those of us in academics, we have the impression that if we publish papers in refereed journals of good quality often enough, we should be rewarded and everyone satisfied. Unfortunately, that only satisfies the administrators of the University but does little to endear ourselves to those in the horse industry.

This particular reviewer made the comments that the typical researcher has valuable information that needs to be put in a format that can be shared with the average horseman. However, she did not realize how difficult that is for the average clinical or basic scientist, because we are not trained to tell a story to an external audience.

The options are to do what I have done, and that is to hire someone with experience in writing for horse magazines and newspapers. The more painful option would be to take training to learn how to write your research for a lay publication. With the shortage of research dollars and the need to obtain funding from the horse industry and private sector, it may pay for all of us to learn how to communicate with the lay audience.

It is never enough to publish only in a refereed journal. This information needs to be repackaged in a format that is easily read by the external audience, therefore reaching more individuals in the equine industry.

Ed Squires

Editor, JEVS