Meadow Lake Equestrian Center

09/07/2026

Today was one for the Books! Thank you all who showed up and made this day sooo incredible! Let’s say that Labor Day was a true Labor of 💕 love! We are so incredibly grateful for our absolutely amazing barn family and all of our extended barn family through the lesson families! We are truly grateful, thankful and Blessed to have you all in our lives! 🥰♥️
If I did my math right, we had 93 people today!!!!
I could be off by one or two. But I will call it. A hugely successful win.!!

Tons of pics to come but here are a few that were sent to me already:)

09/02/2026

So interesting

Another great example of practical equine research coming out of CSU Equine Sciences!

A new study by undergraduate researcher Brynne Murphy and Dr. Devan Catalano asked a simple question that comes up frequently in horse management: Does it matter whether horses are offered salt as a block or loose in a pan?

Sixteen horses were offered both loose white salt and compressed white salt blocks over four 7-day periods. While horses tended to consume more loose salt (41 g/day) than block salt (32 g/day), salt form did not significantly affect intake. What mattered much more was the individual horse - daily consumption ranged from just 2 g to 135 g.

Perhaps the most important finding for horse owners: 9 of the 16 horses did not voluntarily consume enough salt to meet their sodium requirements, even after accounting for sodium provided by their regular diet. Water intake was similarly highly individual and was not affected by whether salt was offered loose or as a block.

The takeaway? Providing free-choice salt does not necessarily mean a horse is consuming enough. Knowing your individual horse, workload, and diet is important - and for horses that do not voluntarily consume adequate salt, adding the appropriate amount directly to the daily ration may be the more reliable approach.

We are especially proud that this work was conducted by an undergraduate student, highlighting the important role undergraduate research plays within CSU Equine Sciences. Giving students the opportunity to take an applied question from study design and data collection all the way through presentation and publication is an important part of training the next generation of equine scientists.

Congratulations to the authors on a great publication and a project with information horse owners can put into practice immediately!

08/06/2026

We are so grateful to have been able to secure some gorgeous Timothy hay today and for the foreseeable future! 🙏 Sometimes in these droughts it’s tough to find the quality you expect but is everything to our animals. IT has also been nutritionally tested! 🤩

07/26/2026

When it’s this hot you ride early! the suns up get your buns up🤣 so grateful for this barn family!

07/18/2026

Congratulations to Tracy and Paul on the 2nd addition to their equine family! Welcome to Meadow Lake “Luna” TBDT!! Absolutely gorgeous!

06/26/2026

If you know you know!

05/22/2026

Some morning fun with the baby! Before anybody gets mad, it probably weighs less than 6 ounces. It’s all felt.🤣🤣🤣 also she is not stressed out this is exactly what she does every time she runs🥰

05/21/2026

When one of your amazing clients sends this about their child and his breakthroughs you truly feel the power of what your doing makes a difference ❣️I can’t be more appreciative of my amazing students and their families!

I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes these rides of his so remarkable to my mind. He’s very capable, so it’s not the first time I’ve seen him pick something up fast (although arguably he’s unusually adept at riding for so green a rider)… I realized today that it’s how calm he is. Because of where/how his brain was injured, he has spent the vast majority of the past six years entirely in his sympathetic nervous system. He’s had big improvements with our healing strategies so for the last year or two, he’s had more frequent and longer periods with his parasympathetic nervous system overriding the sympathetic response (this might look like calmer mornings or evenings, or reduced anxiety for a week, or the ability to handle change), but the injury has made the sympathetic response his default. It’s exhausting, for him and for us. I’m pretty sure this is why he doesn’t like leaving the house, because it’s just exhausting to his brain and nervous system.
But, when he rides, especially when he is problem solving on Peter, he is so calm. Obviously the horse responds positively, but he gets a real break because of how the act of riding and working with the horse slows his nervous system down. It’s so good for him, physiologically and I’m sure for healing as well.
I just wanted to share this with you. It’s such an incredible thing to see happen, after so many long and uncertain years. It’s really important to me to tell you how you are doing something for him , and our family, that has an incredible impact beyond what is visible on the surface. I think it’s important to let people know when they are impacting your life. I really would prefer to say this all in person but I don’t want to cry in front of the kids. They would be thankful tears, but still.

05/15/2026

Happy 11th birthday Cruz!! 🎁🥰❣️😘 #11

05/04/2026

Today we had our first fire drill. It was a huge success. Thank you to all who came and participated as well as the volunteers who helped! Everyone was amazinG. We learned a lot and will be doing another soon.


Pic is of post drill meeting