Dr. Troy Trumble

Dr. Troy Trumble

“The second I saw a horse on a treadmill it had me,” said Dr. Troy Trumble, DVM, PhD. “Standing next to horse running 30 mph is a very weird feeling but a powerful feeling as well. I was hooked from then on.”

Today the UMEC sports medicine program is led by this internationally recognized expert, who uses the treadmill along with force plates and high speed cameras to the diagnose and treat the most subtle lameness and performance problems.

“I really connected with animals although I did not grow up with horses-- I rode rarely, but I always enjoyed them,” said Trumble, who was raised in Algonac, Michigan. “It was dogs that first intrigued me, particularly our family Samoyeds. When the dog born at the time I was born became 14 and needed to be put down, my father let me make the decision. From that day on, I wanted to be a vet.”

As an undergraduate at Michigan State University, Trumble sought a job around animals, which first meant mucking stalls and cleaning cages. Then he saw ad to assist with research conducted by Dr. John Stick and Dr. John Peloso performing motion analysis of horses on a treadmill.

“I had no idea what it was, but it sounded phenomenal,” he said. “I applied and got the job even though I had no horse experience. They were fantastic because they trained me to work with horses, and I worked with techs who had horses, and everyone took time to teach me. I started looking at lameness in horses from day one.”

As a vet student at Michigan, Trumble continued to work for Dr. Stick and ran the treadmill for clients whose horses needed upper airway endoscopy or lameness exams. He also watched Dr. Stick perform lameness exams, trying to match Stick’s expert diagnoses.

“The power and athleticism horses and their anatomy fascinates me,” he said. “They are built for a purpose, and part of that is power, speed and agility, yet the way they are built predisposes them to injury: they are standing on their middle fingernail, so it’s not a big surprise they are prone to injury.”

“A lot of hidden parts allow them to have spring, energy and forcefulness to generate power and agility,” he said. “Their reciprocal apparatus is fascinating: for example, they can stand up for long time and not get tired. Those things drew me in. The lameness and orthopedics –solving the mystery of it draws me in. No two horses are the same, and I enjoy trying to figure out what I see and how can I help each one.”

Trumble did an internship at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky under Dr. Larry Bramlage, one of the top equine orthopedic surgeons in the world, and followed that with a residency at Colorado State University with Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith, another top orthopedic surgeon, earning both a masters and a doctoral degree there with emphasis on arthritis.

In-depth research on equine arthritis has really progressed over the past 40 years, he explained.

“We are understanding arthritis better and have better diagnostics and treatments. We know more about its causes: conformation, amount and degree of use, the surfaces they are used on, experience of rider and trainer. Lots of hoof problems predispose to arthritis, we don’t manage horses’ feet well, and we use them in arenas and areas their feet are not meant for.”

Dr. Trumble came to UMEC from the University of Florida in Gainesville where he cared for some of the best sport horses in the country.

“The idea behind UMEC is we have the best of the best in terms of diagnostics,” he said. “This facility gives us access clinically to a force plate and motion analysis system and the 3 Tesla MRI magnet not found anywhere else. In a lameness exam, a horse trots on the force plate wearing reflective markers on the bony areas of the leg and passes cameras; we collect the data, perform nerve blocks on the legs and reassess the lameness to see if it improves.”

“This system allows us to measure the difference and put numbers to changes. We will have a specific diagnosis, can recommend a specific treatment and rehabilitation that we can continue to monitor for return to soundness. We can compare results not just visually but objectively. It really made it attractive to come to Minnesota.”

What impressed Trumble most and drew him to work at UMEC is the dynamic change in orientation at the University of Minnesota veterinary school from food animals to horses.

“The University has put emphasis on the horse and making this building happen. That means enough people, interested parties and horse owners out there want it. The only way this happens is because the whole community is behind it.”