After two decades in the veterinary medical field, I’ve witnessed countless treatment protocols, diagnostic advances, and management trends. Yet nothing has transformed my understanding of equine health quite like muscle myopathies. These complex conditions—PSSM1, MIM and its variants, MFM, MYHM, and so forth—have become unexpected catalysts, revealing fundamental truths about health that extend far beyond the horses they affect.

What makes these conditions so instructive isn’t their complexity, it’s their honesty. Unlike many equine ailments that respond to pharmaceutical intervention, muscle myopathies strip away our comfortable reliance on medical management. They demand something more fundamental: a return to species-appropriate nutrition, natural movement patterns, and collaborative care that honors the whole horse.

When Medicine Meets Its Match

In my years as an equine nutrition professional, I’ve consulted on hundreds of muscle myopathy cases. The pattern is strikingly consistent: owners arrive having tried every supplement, every medication, every promise of a solution. Their horses continue to struggle. Not because the veterinary care was inadequate, but because these conditions require something medicine alone cannot provide.

This is where beauty emerges from the burden. When conventional treatments offer minimal relief, we’re forced to examine our husbandry practices and whether our convenient systems serve the horse or ourselves. The owners who succeed with these horses aren’t just compliant—they become educated partners in their horse’s health. They learn to read subtle changes, track patterns, and understand that every management decision carries weight.

This transformation in owner engagement represents something profound. We’re moving from a model where health management is something done to horses by professionals, to one where it’s cultivated with horses by informed teams. The distinction matters, especially as our industry faces unprecedented challenges.

Currently, the veterinary profession faces what can only be described as a crisis. Communities across the country struggle to find large animal practitioners. Those remaining are stretched impossibly thin, expected to be experts in everything from emergency surgery to nutritional biochemistry. It’s an unsustainable model, and muscle myopathies have exposed its limitations with uncomfortable clarity.

But within this challenge lies opportunity. Human medicine long ago recognized that optimal outcomes require specialized expertise working in concert, the Mayo Clinic model being perhaps the most well-known example. Muscle myopathies are forcing equine medicine toward the same evolution: the veterinarian provides essential diagnostics and medical oversight. As a nutrition expert, I analyze feed, balance minerals, and design protocols specific to that horse’s genetic variants. The bodyworker addresses compensatory patterns. The farrier adjusts trimming to support altered movement. The trainer modifies exercise to build fitness without triggering episodes. Each professional brings irreplaceable expertise, but the magic happens in the collaboration.

This isn’t about replacing veterinary medicine—it’s about surrounding it with complementary knowledge. When veterinarians can focus on what they do best while being supported by specialists in nutrition, biomechanics, and training, everyone benefits. The horse receives truly comprehensive care. Professionals find sustainable ways to practice. Owners gain a support network rather than fragmented advice that is frustrating to wade through.

The Bio-Individual Behind the Diagnosis

Most practitioners still feed horses based on weight and workload, a practice muscle myopathies have exposed as dangerously simplistic. Walk down any barn aisle and you’ll find the evidence: the easy keeper who stays fat on air while her stablemate needs double rations just to maintain weight. The Thoroughbred who thrives on higher-starch feeds beside the one who ties up on anything but fat and fiber. The senior horse flourishing on alfalfa next to another who develops kidney stress on the same diet. Each horse processes nutrients as individually as humans do, yet we persist in feeding them as if they’re machines with uniform requirements.

This recognition of bio-individuality extends beyond specialized cases. Every horse in our care deserves nutrition tailored to their genetics, metabolism, and environment. The principles I apply to muscle myopathy cases—analyzing individual response, adjusting based on biomarkers, and considering evolutionary needs—should be standard for all horses.

The parallel to human health is inescapable. We’re experiencing an epidemic of chronic disease across species, largely because we’ve prioritized convenience over biology. The same processed feeds causing problems in horses mirror the processed foods compromising human health. The same one-size-fits-all protocols failing our horses are failing us. What muscle myopathies teach us applies across every species in our care too. Dogs and cats suffer from the same disconnection between evolutionary needs and modern management. We feed cats—who are strict carnivores—kibble full of corn and wheat, confine these natural hunters to lives of indoor inactivity, and wonder why obesity and diabetes have become feline epidemics.

The solution to these ailments isn’t complicated, it just requires critical thinking and conscientious decisions. Return to species-appropriate nutrition. Honor circadian rhythms. Provide natural movement. Address root causes rather than suppressing symptoms. These aren’t radical ideas; they’re biological necessities we’ve trained ourselves to ignore.

In my practice, I witness these transformations daily. The allergic dog whose years of ear infections and hot spots vanish on a fresh, species-appropriate diet. The insulin-resistant horse whose blood values normalize once we remove processed feeds and return to a forage-first approach. The diabetic cat who achieves complete remission when we replace high-carbohydrate kibble with moisture-rich, meat-based nutrition. And perhaps most tellingly, the clients who watch their animals transform and suddenly recognize their own struggles—realizing that their horse’s journey off processed feed mirrors their own need to abandon the standard American diet.

Building the Future Together

This evolution in equine health isn’t happening in isolation. Across social media platforms, owners share experiences with generosity born of desperation turned discovery. Companies like EquiSeq provide genetic insights that transform guesswork into guidance. We’re witnessing the birth of a new model—one conceived out of necessity where health isn’t managed but cultivated. Where practitioners collaborate rather than compete, where owners are educated partners rather than passive participants. It’s messy, it’s challenging, and it’s absolutely essential.

The timing couldn’t be more critical. As our world grows more divided, these horses remind us that complex problems require collaborative solutions. That expertise shared multiplies rather than diminishes. That listening, to our horses, to each other, to nature itself, creates possibilities that rigid thinking cannot imagine.

The Path Forward

For practitioners, the invitation is clear: embrace collaboration over competition. Recognize that your expertise, however deep, benefits from complement. Build networks that serve horses rather than egos.

For owners, the call is equally direct: Educate yourselves. Become students of your horses. Seek root-cause resolution rather than symptom suppression. Support practitioners who think systemically rather than narrowly. Your horse deserves advocates, not obstacles.

For our industry as a whole, muscle myopathies offer a template for transformation. They show us that when we’re forced to abandon quick fixes, we discover lasting solutions. When we collaborate, we achieve what isolation cannot. When we honor the individual, we serve the whole.

This isn’t just about managing muscle disorders. It’s about recognizing that the principles these conditions force us to apply—individualized nutrition, collaborative care, and respect for natural needs—should be the foundation of all health management. The horses with muscle myopathies may require what is currently considered “special treatment”, but in reality, they’re showing us what every horse needs to truly thrive.

The revolution has begun in barns and clinics worldwide. Practitioners and owners united by a simple recognition: what we’ve accepted as “normal”, never was. Now we have the knowledge, the tools, and the growing community to do better.

The question isn’t whether this transformation will happen, it’s whether you’ll help lead it. The horses are waiting. The community is forming. The future of health—equine, human, and everything in between—belongs to those brave enough to challenge convention in service of truth.

Will you join us?

About the Author:

With 22 years of clinical experience in the veterinary medical field and a formal education in human functional nutrition, Stephanie Carter applies an innovative, evidence-based approach to animal nutrition that sets her apart. Her commitment to species-appropriate, nutrient-dense real foods has helped restore health in horses facing complex health challenges. Now serving clients worldwide, she brings both clinical expertise and a profound love for the animals in her care. Every nutritional protocol she designs stems from a fundamental truth: the horse comes first, always. This philosophy transforms her work from a service into a calling, creating partnerships with clients who share her commitment to optimal equine health.

Learn more at StephanieCarterNTP.com or follow @indigoancestralhealth