A desire to volunteer while visiting the Christian Veterinary Mission booth at the 1999 AAEP Annual Convention in Albuquerque, N.M., quickly accelerated into an annual pilgrimage to Mongolia for Dr. Tom Juergens, who for the past 20 years has introduced modern veterinary medicine to remote veterinarians and herdspeople to improve the health and wellbeing of the country’s horses.
Dr. Juergens, the retired founder of Anoka Equine in Anoka, Minn., and the September honoree of the AAEP’s Good Works, embarked on his Mongolian service in 2000. His 
goal was to train veterinarians in modern medicine and techniques as well as provide much needed veterinary support at the races, which draw up to 3,000 horses competing across the countryside under child jockeys at distances between 15 and 50 kilometers.
Accompanied by Dr. John Haffner of Murfreesboro, Tenn., the expedition began as a two-week mission composed of a three-day workshop of classroom and wet lab instruction on diagnostics and treatments for common ailments such as lameness, colic and respiratory disease; and on-site care at the races, which helped build trust by showing the effectiveness of modern medicine in a region where many treatment protocols were established 800 years earlier by Genghis Khan.
The mission has since expanded to five weeks in the summer; following the three-day seminar attended by up to 60 veterinarians, Dr. Juergens travels the countryside in a Russian four-wheel drive van to provide practical training and mentorship in the field while living with remote veterinarians and herdspeople. Following training sessions, Dr. Juergens uses the relationships and trust established to share his Christian faith.
“When we first got there, we didn’t know what to expect,” said Dr. Juergens. “There were going to be times when our treatment and education would be scoffed at, so that was difficult; and we didn’t know if we’d be allowed to come back a second time.
“But we came back the second year and then the third year, giving them education and access to quality medication. Then they really started believing what we were talking about. And when we’d go out and mentor them—whether in the Gobi Desert, up in the mountains or on the Siberian border—we were so welcomed and appreciated.”
To date, the mission has trained approximately 700 veterinarians in every province of Mongolia; some now teach at the country’s veterinary school, elevating the level of education for the next generation of Mongolian veterinarians. These trained veterinarians can also acquire Western medicines from a Mongolian-owned and -run pharmacy started by Drs. Juergens and Haffner to aid in the treatment of horses.
“Johnny and I have committed ourselves to this group of veterinarians and the care of their horses,” said Dr. Juergens. “We’ve been there enough that we’re able to make our training and education culturally relevant. We know what their capabilities are and then we teach within those capabilities.”
“They love their horses, which are an important part of their culture, and we’re seeing the quality of vet care improve not only for these horses but other species as well because of lessons taught on the horse.”