Part-1

Valor is an 8-year-old mustang from the Choke Cherry HMA in Utah.

A few years ago, he was diagnosed with EPM.

He was treated with diclazuril and levamisole for 30 days, while also being supported with an intensive nutraceutical protocol over the following six months.

After treatment, he spent the next 18 months turned out with two geldings in a pasture with rolling hills and varied terrain. That environment became an important part of his recovery. The natural movement and social interaction created daily opportunities for proprioception, coordination, and neuromuscular awareness.

When it came time to start his formal rehab, it was clear that a holistic approach would be most effective.

I evaluated mineral balance and adjusted his diet to address underlying physiological stress patterns. His sodium was low, along with his sodium-to-potassium and sodium-to-magnesium ratios. He also showed borderline low cobalt, which can point toward digestive inefficiency.

We addressed those areas through dietary changes, including increased sodium and the addition of a comprehensive probiotic.

At the same time, we began incorporating Equine Hanna Somatics to address the motor-sensory amnesia and compensatory patterns that he had developed to cope with EPM.

His default posture strongly reflected what we refer to in EHS as a Green Light pattern: high head carriage, a contracted back, and camped-out limbs.

We also incorporated the BTMM pillars into his groundwork. He found pillar one relatively easily and showed a good relationship to connection, which allowed us to begin introducing pillars two and three. Shifting his center of gravity back and improving spinal organization became important pieces of his movement work, particularly within lateral exercises.

What Valor continues to reinforce for me is that these systems do not exist in isolation, and in many cases, progress comes not from a single intervention, but from the way multiple supportive pieces begin working together.

Over the next few posts, I’m going to break down each part of his rehab process in more detail because there’s far more nuance inside each of these pieces than can fit into a single post.

**I also want to acknowledge that this before and after is the beginning of a much longer process.

Valor still has significant strengthening and unwinding ahead of him as his body continues to relearn how to organize itself with greater efficiency and ease. 

What I’m sharing is the early stages of what becomes possible when multiple systems are supported together over time.