PrintU of Minnesota's Equine Center
EnlargeWhen a roping horse sprints after a steer, a cutting horse squats down and faces up to a cow, or a reining horse spins in dizzying circles on his haunches, it’s a breathtaking thing to see. But sometimes there can be consequences of this explosive activity that mean a visit to the veterinarian.
When that does happen, Western equine athletes with injuries are increasingly heading to the University of Minnesota Equine Center (UMEC) on the university’s St. Paul campus. The $14 million center has state-of-the-art technology, including computerized gait analysis and high-speed cameras that show you exactly where your horse has the hitch in his gitalong.
“Western performance horses develop lots of muscle problems, and they are predisposed to a number of lameness issues because of stresses and strains,” says UMEC director Stephanie Valberg, DVM, Ph.D. “For example, cutting and reining horses rotate and fracture certain bones more than others, and their work makes them predisposed to hock problems.”
Nicknamed “the Mayo Clinic for horses,” UMEC treats hunters, jumpers, driving horses, and dressage horses as well as Western performance horses. Its 60,000-square-foot Leatherdale Equine Center, built in 2007, houses an indoor arena, a modern high-speed treadmill where horses can gallop up to 30 mph, an underwater equine therapy treadmill, the most powerful equine MRI equipment in any veterinary hospital in the world, and custom-designed evaluation areas devoted to lameness, surgery, and reproductive issues.
In addition to diagnosis and treatment of sport-horse injuries, UMEC offers other expertise of particular interest to Western horsemen and -women. Ten percent of quarter horses and paints (the two most popular breeds for Western riding) are affected by “tying-up” (exertional rhabdomyolysis), a disorder characterized by muscle cramping and sweating. A form of polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM), tying-up is a painful muscle condition linked to a sugar-metabolizing defect that affects many breeds besides quarter horses and paints, including appaloosas, draft horses, Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and warmbloods.
Valberg, a leading researcher in equine genetics and muscle disorders, along with her colleague Jim Mickelson, Ph.D., received a $2.5 million grant from the Morris Animal Foundation to lead a team of 18 scientists in nine countries to try to identify the genetic basis for common diseases in horses. Valberg, who had previously developed a diet called Re-Leve to help prevent tying-up, was able to successfully discover the genetic cause of the condition with the help of her team.
“If you exercise PSSM horses daily and don’t feed them grain, they don’t have a problem, but some respond better to that management than others,” says researcher Molly McCue, DVM, MS, Ph.D., a member of Valberg’s team. “There is something genetically about some horses that is modifying their response,” McCue adds. “We have now found a second gene that makes some PSSM horses worse.” But that PSSM mutation is nothing new — according to McCue, researchers have traced it back to a single horse that lived 1,200 to 1,500 years ago.
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Center director Dr. Stephanie Valberg. Photography courtesy University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine
Valberg also put UMEC on the international equine-care map by identifying the genes that cause fatal diseases in foals, such as overo lethal white syndrome (OLWS) in paint horses and glycogen branching enzyme deficiency (GBED), which affects both quarter horses and paints. The center used pedigree analysis to discover that GBED is linked to the quarter horse foundation sire King. That kind of research has made UMEC a leader in equine genetic research and is one of the reasons the center is attracting some of the foremost veterinary clinicians in the country, including experts in equine reproduction, lameness, surgery, orthopedic disorders, and emergency care.
It’s no accident that UMEC is an outstanding facility: Minnesota has the ninth largest horse population in the country, with more than 155,000 horses (and nearly 500 equine state and local horse clubs). Among the state’s many horse enthusiasts are University of Minnesota president Bob Bruininks and his wife, Susan Hagstrom, who both own and show American Saddlebred horses and who took an active interest in creating the world-class center. They were assisted by major gifts from other horsy Minnesotans, including Doug Leatherdale, former president of the American Hanoverian Society, and Cindy Piper, former president of the United States Pony Club.
In Valberg, the center’s founders dis-covered not only a leading equine research scientist but also an accomplished lifelong rider. Raised in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, she rode daily after school from age 6. For six years she competed in three-day eventing, reached B-2 levels in Pony Club, competed in hunter-jumper shows, and received her colors in the Frontenac Hunt, a drag hunt in Ontario. She currently owns an appendix quarter horse named Brooke — a hunter-jumper show mare who came to the clinic suffering from tying-up — and rides early mornings before work and weekends when possible at a stable near Stillwater, Minnesota.
“I’ve loved horses from the moment I knew about them,” says Valberg. And that’s precisely what underpins all the hours invested in the groundbreaking research and the 365-days-a-year equine center she directs. To be improving the equine gene pool and preventing suffering in thousands of horses — besides a great ride, what more could a horse lover ask for?
“Mayo Clinic For Horses”
That nickname of the University of Minnesota Equine Center says it all: If your horse has a problem, this place has the expertise.
help for horses
• For more information about the University of Minnesota Equine Center (UMEC), visit www.cvm.umn.edu/umec; the website has information on genetic disorders, clinicians, and treatment options. 1801 Dudley Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota, 612.624.7414.
• UMEC has licensed the University of California, Davis to perform some genetic testing for these disorders. To test your foal, stallion, or mare for GBED or OLWS, contact the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at www.vgl.ucdavis.edu or www.vetgen.com.
• Your veterinarian may also submit a muscle biopsy for evaluation at UMEC. Call 800.605.8787 to obtain appropriate forms.
• For horses with tying-up, a high-fat, low-starch diet results in less muscle damage during exercise. For information on Re-Leve, the diet formulated by UMEC director Stephanie Valberg, DVM, Ph.D., to treat horses with this condition, see the UMEC website or www.re-leve.com.
