Dr. Stephanie Valberg

Dr. Stephanie Valberg, Director ,
University of Minnesota Equine Center

Dr. Stephanie Valberg, DVM, PhD is head of the University of Minnesota’s new $14 million Equine Center (UMEC) on the St. Paul campus. She is a leading researcher in genetics and muscle disorders known for her work identifying causes of tying-up in horses, developing diets to cure muscle diseases and identifying the genes causing fatal diseases in foals such as overo lethal white syndrome in paint horses and glycogen branching enzyme deficiency in Quarter Horses. She and Dr. Jim Mickelson of the UMEC recently received a $2.5 million grant from the Morris Animal Foundation to lead a team of 18 scientists in 9 countries involved in identifying the genetic basis for common diseases in horses. Dr. Valberg works as an internal medicine clinician at the Equine Center and has a particular interest in neurologic and muscle diseases.

She’s not only a leading equine research scientist but an accomplished lifelong rider: she currently owns an appendix Quarter Horse named Brooke, a 16.1 h mare who came to the U’s equine clinic from Virginia where she had been a hunter under saddler. Brooke’s owner there discovered the mare suffered from “tying up” and contacted Dr. Valberg because she’d heard of her work in that disorder. She donated Brooke to the University, however, Brooke was soon cured when she was fed the diet ReLeve that Valberg helped to develop. The spirited bay who looks and acts more thoroughbred than Quarter Horse was not a good fit for the University teaching herd. Valberg obtained permission to adopt Brooke as her own mount.

Valberg rides early mornings before work and Saturdays and Sundays when possible at Brooke’s stable near Stillwater, Minnesota.

“Brooke likes to challenge a rider, she likes action, moving, jumping, and working,” said Valberg. ”She likes going forward, I think that is why we are a good fit, her patience is a match for mine!”

“I loved horses from the moment I knew about them,” said Valberg, who was raised in Kingston, Ontario. “We had a summer cottage in Picton, Ontario, and down the trail was a little horse place with a corral where rides were a quarter for three times around. And when I discovered that, that’s all I wanted to do. My parents tried to get me into skating, ballet, ceramics, swimming, art classes, some kind of culture, but they finally gave up and just let me ride.”

She rode daily after school from age six. For half a dozen years, she competed in three day eventing, she also reached her B-2 levels in Pony Club, competed in hunter-jumper shows and received her colors in the Frontenac Hunt, a drag hunt in Ontario.

Valberg went on to attend the Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph where she earned her DVM degree in 1983 followed by a doctoral degree at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden in 1986. Her post-doctoral work and residency from 1989 to 1991 was at the University of California, Davis where she subsequently taught for 2 years.

In 1993, she moved to the University of Minnesota as a faculty member engaged in clinical care, research and teaching in the Department of Clinical and Population Sciences, and in 2003 she was appointed Director of the UMEC.

“This state of the art facility will surely become the heart and home for the equine community in Minnesota,” said Dr.Valberg. “Eighty percent of veterinarians in the state of Minnesota are graduates from the U of M so the new equine center will have huge impact on the quality of equine veterinary graduates throughout the state of Minnesota for many years to come. The University of Minnesota has recognized the growing importance of horses in the state and has expanded its programs and facilities to meet the needs of our horse owners.” Its hard to describe the impact our new Equine Center will have on research, veterinary education and community services. Minnesota horse owners deserve the best and we are delighted to serve them in this world class facility.

Dr. Stephanie Valberg is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Medicine Internal Medicine