The prevalence of horses in this issue of the magazine signals a big change in the College during the last few years. Equine research, extension, and instruction are a part of our brand and key to how the College is now perceived by the rest of the world, just as horses provide the Kentucky Bluegrass with a signature industry.

This has not always been the case. Although UK has a long and distinguished history of study on equine infectious diseases, the Gluck Center was not completed until 1987. Gluck is now world-renowned for equine health research, but for almost two decades it retained a near-exclusive role as the College’s link to equine agriculture.

The 1999 Kentucky Department of Agriculture report that horses had, for the first time, overtaken tobacco’s long-held rank as the largest source of farm income was a tipping point. This documented the enormous impact of horse farming in Kentucky and helped convince us that the College needed to grow its equine efforts proportionately.

Our own students can claim as much credit as anyone for leading us into a new era, as participation in pre-vet and animal science programs came to be dominated more and more by students with an equine passion.

Early in 2005, the College formally announced the Equine Initiative. Nancy Cox, as director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, and several current faculty stepped forward to lead.

A new undergraduate major was a cornerstone of the effort, with the first class of students admitted in 2007. Equine Science and Management is now a fully grown program attracting great students from all over the country.

New faculty and staff have been added, and many others have redirected their work to include equine projects.

If you drive past Maine Chance Farm and Coldstream, you will spot obvious evidence of our aggressive, but still unfinished, investment in world-class equine facilities.

This is the time to declare the Equine Initiative a success. We have assumed our appropriate place among the elite, comprehensive equine schools in the world. And by staking that claim, we are also committing to the hard work necessary to sustain it.