About Hilltop Equine Concepts

My unexpected journey began many years ago when I was a young, ambitious pre-veterinary student and riding instructor in Colorado. I was blessed with a life-long passion for all things equine, even through my childhood. Once I caught the "bug", I couldn't let go, and decades later, I find myself helping people and their animals in ways that I never could have imagined. 

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My plans for vet school were abruptly interrupted by a drunk-driver who collided into me as I was driving home from my parents' house on Fathers Day. In a split second, my whole world changed and so did my plans (insert God's plan here). I found healing through alternative therapies and this peaked my interest in how these therapies and remedies could help equines. 

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After learning to walk again, and by the grace of God, making a full recovery, my plans for vet school had evolved and I followed a path into equine massage and nutrition, and found myself amongst wonderful mentors who encouraged me to continue pursuit of a career with horses. I worked with mostly race horses and thoroughbreds at first, which gave me unique experience and perspective that I've been able to apply to my practice ever since.

 

Eventually, I found myself helping a couple of local veterinarians who taught me much as I continued my education. I believe it is important to pursue knowledge, and being a true "horse nerd", school felt like my second home. I came to help co-found and co-operate one of the fastest growing horse rescues in Colorado, with nearly 400 rescues in just the first three years. The experience and knowledge gained there was paramount to the unexpected path I'd find myself on just a few years later.

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I ended up working with horses at my own small ranch, and studying equine sports therapy, equine nutrition, and various modalities but I just wasn't convinced that the way horses were typically being managed was the best way. God gave me a deep longing to understand, a desire to learn, and surrounded me with wonderful experts to learn from. With the help of a couple amazing vets, I was able to develop a program that addressed ulcer-ridden horses and focused on equine gut health in a way that at the time was considered highly unconventional. (Back then if you said "no soy, no sugar, no starch" people looked at you like you had three heads). 

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As years passed I decided to tap into some of my mentors' knowledge which was heavily focused on holistic healing  -- looking at the horse as a "whole" rather than becoming hyper-focused on singular symptoms or "issues". Later, I re-located to beautiful northwest Arkansas to be closer to family, and opened a new kind of practice there. 

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I was mostly focused on balancing the physical equine body through integrative therapies such as massage, acupressure, and PEMF, but I wasn't satisfied with the outcomes as so many horses I touched were ridden with issues far deeper than what bodywork could address, and often beyond what traditional western medicine could recognize. A major factor limiting optimal equine health was 'standardized' equine management practices and an under-abundance of educational resources for the owners.

 

It didn't make sense to me. If you pull a muscle at the gym, you know how to care for that on your own. If you have a cold or a flu, you know how to remedy that. But equine owners had not been empowered to connect with their horses for systemic healing in the animal. (By no means am I suggesting that veterinarians are not an important part of that journey.) This led me to begin work to empower others to heal their horses one step at a time. I returned to my studies and mentorships where I could learn more about holistic healing, homeopathic options, herbs, etc.

 

In the midst of all this change, I found myself faced with an incredibly disappointing reality -- equine neurological disease and tick-borne illness of my own. I had no choice but to immerse myself in the world of EPM, Lyme, and others. God blessed me again with some incredibly helpful and open minded mentors around the globe and as I learned from them, I dedicated hundreds of research hours to educate myself, wrote articles, guides, and even helped co-author a book that would help thousands of people treat their horses. It wasn't enough. Neurological diseases are complex and aggressive, and so I had to be aggressive.

 

And so I decided (you guessed it) to return to my studies yet again in a way that will allow me to continue to address the epidemic that is EPM and its common comorbidities. I am presently studying iridology, more in-depth herbology, and homeopathy. I will never stop chasing knowledge when it comes to horses.

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I am an open book - dedicated to you and your equine partner(s). Chances are, if your horse is struggling and you just know something is off, I can probably relate as I have been where you are many times, seeking answers. Sometimes having a partner in the journey who understands that conventional medicine alone is not always enough, is the very thing that these horses are missing. Let's help you help your horses thrive...together. 

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Be well. Be horsemen. Be you. 

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xo

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Heather

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