Elevated Equine

09/12/2025

A little bit closer to the big reveal!

09/11/2025

Heads up Delaware!

The Office of the State Veterinarian has confirmed the first two cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) in Delaware horses this year.

09/08/2025

HUGE announcement coming soon!
In the meantime, you are going to want to get yourself some new Elevated Equine merch!
One person who purchases merch before the announcement will get a very special gift from me!

Store of Elevated Equine.

09/04/2025

Heads up!

🚨 The Maryland Department of Agriculture has confirmed new strangles cases in our state. This disease spreads quickly through barns and shows. Watch for fever, nasal discharge, cough, or swollen glands. Quick isolation and good hygiene are essential.

08/28/2025

Heads up!

⚠️ WARNING: URGENT ALERT FOR ALL MARYLAND HORSE OWNERS

An important health warning is spreading through Maryland's equestrian community today. The Maryland Department of Agriculture has placed a Baltimore County boarding facility under official quarantine after a suspected outbreak of Strangles, a highly contagious equine disease. Currently, 17 horses at the facility are suspected to be positive, and another 28 have been exposed.

This is a critical reminder for every stable, farm, and horse owner in the Cumberland tri-state area to be on high alert. Strangles is caused by the Streptococcus equi bacteria and can spread rapidly through direct contact or contaminated surfaces like buckets, tack, and fences. Key signs to watch for in your animals include fever, nasal discharge, coughing, and swollen lymph nodes under the jaw.

Officials are urging all horse owners to reinforce their biosecurity protocols immediately—especially quarantining new horses and maintaining strict hygiene. Let’s work together to keep our local animals safe and prevent this from spreading into our community. Share this alert to inform every horse owner you know.

08/19/2025

Always setting new goals around here! With that being said, we are super close to making our top one a reality so stay tuned for a HUGE announcement coming soon 😉

It’s important to me to keep it in sight. Front and center.

“I’m going to have setbacks, I know. But if I’m feeling bad, that doesn’t mean I’m doing bad. That doesn’t mean I am bad. That doesn’t mean that still, I can’t take some action. Because nothing changes, if nothing changes…”

I want to start this off with some small goals, as it’s important to learn to keep promises to yourself. ✔️

I like to have big goals and small goals, short term and long term goals, then I get a plan!

➡️Write down a few things you want to accomplish. This can be anything!! With horses, with life, weekly tasks, absolutely anything that you need to focus towards.

💜For me, we set a goal to make the finals.

💜 I want to grow my other businesses.

💜 I want to finish building my place. (When I finally get home.) 😂

💜I want to consolidate my breeding program and I want to have a few good prospects coming up.

>>>>Those are big, time consuming goals.

So next, I set some small, attainable goals.

💜I want to make sure when I enter, I pick one thing to improve each time.

💜I want to set an arena record somewhere.

💜I want to go through and declutter my trailer/tack rooms.

💜I want to continue to learn new things.

💜I want to know every run I did athe absolute best for my horse.

Ok… with these goals… HOW do I get there? I need a plan.

If I want to improve each time, I need to be working on that in my daily riding. Working towards consistency and being able to replicate the same run, again and again.

If I want to declutter, I need to set a time…. Ex: In the next 30 days, I’m going to set aside a day and go through things.

If I want to learn new things, I might make sure I listen to a podcast or read a new book/article, once a month. I know if it’s more than that, realistically I may struggle, I might do 10x more than that, but I don’t want to break a promise to myself so I start small.

If I want to break an arena record somewhere… well I just have to go, and keep working on improving. Step by step, my other goals will allow me to get closer to that one.

Some other goals you may have is to ride 3x a week, or haul somewhere at least once a month. It might be to save $100 a week or start making choices now to buy your dream horse in the next 3 years.

You might have to skip your daily coffee or skip a race here and there to help pay for an extra trip to the vet.

Sacrifice now allows you to have those things later.

Make SPECIFIC goals. Put it out there. Be accountable. Have a friend that checks in.

Some goals will need adjusting throughout… and that’s fine too. It’s not quitting if you need to readjust.

My goal has changed this year with Adios, I want to haul with a strategy… not just to go. That doesn’t mean my goal is to “win” every-time, but a “win” to me may be placing in the rounds and average consistently.

So here is your format!

✨Biggest Goal✨

One thing that’s the biggest craziest thing you want to accomplish. That should be at the TOP of your list.

✨5 yr goal✨

One thing you want to see different about your life in 5 years. Maybe your living situation, buying a house, changing jobs, dream prospect, whatever it is… write it down.

✨Yearly Goals✨
3 things you want to accomplish this year. Give yourself this hard date.
(Goal & 3 steps to accomplish said goal)
WRITE IT DOWN!!

✨Next, write down several things you want to work towards this year… small things.✨

Winning a jackpot.
Placing in 5 averages.
Paying off credit card debt.
Paying extra on a mortgage.
Finishing school.
Listening to a podcast every week.
Saving some money.
Riding more often during the week.
Taking some lessons.
Cutting back some friends that are holding you back.
Listening to more positive people in your life.
Saying one positive thing a day.
Saying “no” more.
Saying “yes” more.
Selling a horse.
Making tougher choices quicker.
Not lingering on bad things.
Looking for more positive in bad situations.
Having more encouraging friends. (You are who you hang out with!!!)

It can be anything… but WRITE it down!!!
Questions? Drop them!! I can’t wait to see YOUR goals!!

03/07/2025

🌊🌊 Why Swimming isn't Rehab...🌊🌊

This is a topic we cover in my certification courses, but this morning I feel called to it in a post as well.

👉 There is a big difference in a rehab-focused facility and a fitness-focused facility.... And the results you'll get are very different.

Let's say you've hurt your back lifting something heavy... Why not just go to your local lake or pool and swim laps until the pain goes away? After all swimming is great exercise... 🤷‍♀️

You would glare at me with the squint everyone has when they're hurting and tell me to take a southern vacation to a place that's real hot.
Because you don't have to be a trained therapist to know that if you force yourself to do a strenuous activity that your back is going to lock up more, not loosen up. So the better option would be bodywork or stretching combined with controlled movement therapy like water aerobics. In water aerobics, different muscle groups are targeted at specific times so the body is never overwhelmed with a swim or drown complex that creates compensation and a flight response.

🔸 So let's talk about how facilities differ with horses....

Swimming facilities are typically fitness-focused and they run through a ton of horses in a day. Quantity is usually the standard in more of these facilities.

🌊Facts about Swimming:

- Your horse (or a human) should have some base level of fitness before you start a strict swimming regimen. It's a full body activity and if you don't have some fitness, you are at risk for muscle cramps, hyperextension injuries, running out of air, and muscle soreness.

- Overexertion in unfit horses in a pool can cause drowning, bleeding, ulcers, tie up episodes and colic. I know of at least 2 stories of each of these instances.
To add more content, usually the cause of drowning is muscle cramping which causes the horse to sink. Sadly this also happens often at lakes with human drownings.

- Swimming is contraindicated in cases of:
🔹Stifle injuries - because hyperextension causes too much strain on the joint
🔹Kissing spine - every horse swims with the head elevated and the back inverted. Vertebrae that are close or touching will become closer when the back is inverted.

👉 When you Google "What exercise burns the most fat?" Swimming will come up in the top 3 suggestions, because it's a difficult (but fun) exercise that involves the whole body.
Horses naturally burn calories and fat fairly easily with fitness so you really have to make sure you are re-supplying what's being burned off if you aren't trying to pull a bunch of weight off the horse.
A fitness-focused facility is going to get them "racehorse fit" which doesn't work for barrel horses because our horses have to have enough muscle mass to collect up and turn on different qualities of ground. And we're running our horses 3 to 4 days a week...
When they get too lean, their joints aren't supported and they'll get sore.
🔸 So nutrition is vital to keep the horse from dropping weight.

🌊 Facts about Rehab-focused Facilities:

- Typically these facilities are going to be owned and operated by professionals that have completed education courses and have an understanding of biomechanics, movement, and assessing the horse. Much like a person would work with a professional trainer or physical therapist.

- Underwater Treadmills are the preferred water therapy because you can control every aspect of the horse's workout. Horses can be 60% weightless in the water, but can still touch the bottom, so the equipment doesn't require a base level of fitness to be used safely. Water level, speed, head carriage, and amount of concussion can all be controlled instantly and safely.
🔸There are few to no contraindications with injuries because the speed and water level can be adjusted to the comfort of the horse. I've started off many horses on just a dry tread workout following surgery because the dry treadmill helps more with proprioception than just hand walking.

- Adaptability is what makes this equipment perfect for both rehab and fitness cases.

🤢It's also extremely easy to change the water in the above ground units. Miss catching p**p? No big, we can just drain and refill. S**t happens... Icky water should not.

- Most facilities are going to offer multiple modalities such as cold laser, PEMF, vibration plates, nebulizing, Bodywork, ECT... So even if your horse is just there for fitness the staff is monitoring and addressing muscle changes, soreness, posture, and general wellness of the individual. Most facilities have an attending veterinarian they can bounce ideas to, recheck injuries, and monitor progress.

🔹Multiple types of equipment give the ability to rehab injuries faster and with better quality of healing. It also helps with rest and recovery so general fitness progresses faster.

- These facilities typically don't house as many outside horses, because quality is desired over quantity. The cost may be higher, but your horse's success is a priority.

💥 Equipment is only as good as the Therapist.

I've said this a million times. Horsemanship is a big part of the success. If you can read a horse and know when to back off or when there is distress... Please pick a different career. Equipment training and experience is sooo important. You have to have both horsemanship and therapy knowledge to be a safe practitioner.

👉 Horse Owners: ASK FOR UPDATES!
A real facility will send no less than weekly photos and videos of your horse. Most send two a week. Ask for pictures. Ask your horse's protocol. Ask what they're doing and why. ASK QUESTIONS! Ask the education and experience of those handling your horse.

A bit about me:
I ran Superior Therapy for 7 years before selling out to teach therapy education full time. I have over 60,000 tread sessions under my belt since 2007. I promise you that there is NEVER an excuse for not putting the horse's wellbeing first in every situation.

01/15/2025

Entries for Salisbury, MD are open now until Sunday 2pm CST. Please call NextGen 903-287-7852 during business hours to enter OR can enter anytime via the NextGen App on your phone!! All slack has to be after Friday perf. Ranch Broncs will be added as an event it has $500 ADM all other events are $750. Team Roping is enter TWICE this weekend. Hope to see everyone there!!