And he's off! JIM DAY The Guardian

Atlantic Veterinary College student Christy Coulson is shown the ropes by Dr. Ian Moore, a well-known Island veterinarian who is taking a six-month leave of absence from the college to train horses in Florida. Guardian photo by Heather Taweel

The pace has become too much for Dr. Ian Moore.
Balancing his time between teaching vet students and training horses, an exercise that typically stretched into 18-hour workdays, has left Moore choosing to let go of the reins at the Atlantic Veterinary College. That is, at least for now.
Moore, 55, of Winsloe is taking a six-month leave of absence from his long-running post at the AVC. He will be setting up shop over that time in Sorrento, Fla., to train up to eight horses he seeks to own with partners.
“The biggest thing was it just became totally unsustainable,’’ he said of juggling constant travel for his heavy involvement in harness racing with meeting his teaching commitments at the vet college.
“The sad reality of it for me is I enjoy both worlds but I can’t do both worlds . . . I only need one job and one thing to manage.’’
Moore, who has kept a dizzying pace in the harness racing industry as a vet, trainer, driver and owner, once told The Guardian he would most likely leave his vet work and teaching before walking away from his passion to be a player in the harness game.
“I’ve always wanted to train young horses,’’ he said in a lengthy interview in August, 2006.
“There is a lot of satisfaction and gratification taking an unbroken yearling and making them into an Astronomical or whatever — making them into a race horse . . . When you see them race, it’s quite a feeling.’’
Astronomical, now put out to stud in Ontario, earned almost $800,000 in his racing career. Just last year, one of Moore’s horses, Shadow Play, won the prestigious Little Brown Jug in Ohio. Moore says running a business in horse racing is very difficult in P.E.I. Despite improved purses thanks to major racetrack upgrades in Charlottetown and Summerside along with the addition of casinos, the money is still not good enough for Moore.
“In the horse industry in North America, purses drive the industry,’’ he said.
Born in England, Moore’s family moved to Canada when he was four. He grew up in Summerside.
In 1984, he started his own equine clinic on his property in Winsloe out of a mobile vet vehicle. He ran the clinic for about a dozen years before agreeing to work at the ambulatory equine service at the AVC, where he has been for the past 14 years.
“Well I’ve enjoyed it all — and I’m not leaving it,’’ he said. “As it stands, I’m coming back in May.’’