St. Croix Trail Blazers

Donate to GoFund Philippe!, organized by Kellie Grayden We are the St. Croix Trail Blazers, a non-profit located in Stillwater, MN. We offer adaptive ridin… Kellie Grayden needs your support for GoFund Philippe!

…here we are again. Belle and baby hopped a ride back to the Anoka Equine Hospital yesterday afternoon.

Unfortunately Philly developed some swelling in one of his hocks in the last few days. Upon vet examination it was determined he likely had sepsis in the joint and should head back to the equine ER for urgent intervention.

The vet at the ER has surgically addressed the swollen joint and put him on some more targeted antibiotics that look like they’re working well. As with all of the complications he has faced, this condition is common in foals who missed the window to receive colostrum from their mothers in their first few hours of life.

We really hate to keep asking for donations. Everyone has been so incredibly supportive through Belle and Philippe’s journey! Philly is the sweetest, curliest, calmest (except for the occasional zoomie/buck combo) little baby. Through all of your donations we have almost been able to pay for all of the initial vet bills. This new hospital stay won’t be as expensive, but it definitely won’t be free.

We would really appreciate continued sharing of the GoFundMe page and Philly’s story. All donations are tax deductible. If online donations aren’t your thing we can also issue donation receipts to donations made in person or mailed to us. Info for the GoFundMe page and our address are below.

St. Croix Trail Blazers
6659 Jasmine Ct. N.
Stillwater, MN 55082

Donate to GoFund Philippe!, organized by Kellie Grayden We are the St. Croix Trail Blazers, a non-profit located in Stillwater, MN. We offer adaptive ridin… Kellie Grayden needs your support for GoFund Philippe!

Drumroll…

Welcome home! Belle and Philippe are finally back. Both are so glad to be out of the vet’s office! Belle about threw herself on the trailer and shut the door for us. They are being monitored closely and still have some recovering to do but we are so happy they’ve pulled through enough to come finish that at home.

A giant THANK YOU to all of our donors. We could not have gotten them the care they needed without you!!

You probably won’t be seeing Philippe around much for the next few years as his sole job now is to grow up. Don’t worry, lots of cute pics and videos like these will be posted!

Just a quick note: these two have had a very hard week! While we know everyone wants to come see and meet the baby, it’s going to have to be from a distance for now; they need to de-stress. This means the pastures (beyond the yellow chains near the arenas) will still be off limits for visitors. We’ll bring them around when they let us know they’re ready to make some new friends!

And we are on the home stretch! Belle and Philippe have been holding steady and showing improvement. Belle has a low grade infection that is being treated with antibiotics but this should clear up with minimal complications. We hope to be able to bring these two home sometime late this week ♥️

Your donations have been incredible and we thank everyone so much for helping us raise the funds to be able to give these two the best of the best! They certainly needed it. We have almost raised enough funding to cover all of the bills for their hospital stay. GoFundMe will remain open for another week or two as there will no doubt be some ongoing expenses to keep them healthy.

Please keep on sharing!

https://gofund.me/b549a873

An update on Belle and Philippe:

Mom is doing great, she seems to be recovering very well. Uneventful is good!

Philippe is stable and VERY slowly showing some signs of improvement. He has sepsis in his GI tract that is being closely monitored. The vet is cautiously optimistic for his recovery right now. We need his little body to take over and keep fighting!

Thank you for your continued financial support! You are literally making the difference in the odds Philippe faces and the quality of care we can approve. We will keep you posted with updates as they become available.

-Team Philippe

Hi everyone, we wanted to share an update on little Philippe. Your donations have quite literally brought some of us to tears and we are so thankful for you! It’s been a roller coaster the last 36 hours. Our staff is shocked, exhausted, worried, hopeful…all of the emotions.

After about 18 hours at the hospital Belle seems to be doing fine and Philippe has perked up a bit but is still very quiet. He’s had extensive testing done and the vets have determined that he has an infection in his small intestine due to not receiving vital colostrum from his mom in the first few hours of his life. He’s been on plasma and fluid drips since last night and is doing better in those regards but he’s in for a minimum 5-7 day hospital stay until (and/or-unfortunately-if) his body can clear the infection. While this is somewhat positive news, he’s not in the clear. The next few days are incredibly fragile moments for him.

I’ll be very candid as this is a pretty dire situation for the little guy. As with any emergency vet situation, costs add up quick and there hits a point where those costs are prohibitive to being able to continue life saving care. We have all been in or know someone in this situation and it’s an awful feeling. Your donations have been so incredibly helpful in knowing we can provide Philppe care for at least another day or two.

His week long stay is going to cost a minimum of $5,000-7,000 if all goes exactly as it should (does it ever?). We are shy of that goal now. We still need our community to help us raise funds to cover his extended stay and keep us away from having to make any difficult decisions due to lack of funding. If you haven’t already or have it in your heart to help him just a little more, it will go a long way in pulling him through this.

Thank you so much for all of your support to this point!

-Team Philippe

Donate to GoFund Philippe!, organized by Kellie Grayden We are the St. Croix Trail Blazers, a non-profit located in Stillwater, MN. We offer adaptive ridin… Kellie Grayden needs your support for GoFund Philippe!

A big THANK YOU to all who have donated so far. We appreciate you so much.

As of this morning Philippe is working on fighting off some infection and colic symptoms. He’s not out of the woods yet but every single donation makes a big difference in how much care we can continue to provide him.

Please keep spreading the word and putting some positive thoughts out there for the little guy!

Donate to GoFund Philippe!, organized by Kellie Grayden We are the St. Croix Trail Blazers, a non-profit located in Stillwater, MN. We offer adaptive riding s… Kellie Grayden needs your support for GoFund Philippe!

Well, we have some BIG news! Welcome to the world our very own Trail Baby, Philippe! Unbeknownst to us, miss Belle was pregnant upon joining the program and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy early this morning. He is sweet, soft, and all legs.

Philippe had a rough launch into this world and is struggling a bit to catch up. He’s dehydrated and didn’t get some important immune support from his momma. He’s going to need some intensive veterinary care for, we hope, a few days to help get him back on track.

I’ll be honest in sharing that Philippe has already produced a few emergency vet bills just having joined us on Earth, and his trip the the hospital won’t be an inexpensive one either. There is a minimum $1700 charge for intake on top of his emergency bills from earlier today.

We are hopeful that our community can rally around Philippe and help us fund the care he needs so he can come on back to us healthy and ready to grow.

Please checkout our Go Fund Me page for more info, his story, and to donate. Your shares are also greatly appreciated.

Donate to GoFund Philippe!, organized by Kellie Grayden We are the St. Croix Trail Blazers, a non-profit located in Stillwater, MN. We offer adaptive riding s… Kellie Grayden needs your support for GoFund Philippe!

Beautiful night for a fundraiser at Lift Bridge in Stillwater!

Attention-SCTB has a new phone number! Please checkout your contact and save our new info.

☎️ SCTB direct line: 651-348-2786

Note: To make contacting us even easier the new main line includes extensions to contact Kellie, Karen, and the Treasurer directly!

Athletes get free tickets while they last.
Reserve athlete ticket click here-https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=3Q4kA7FZt0-cDGgMjTCM_q0sEVLuVZREvtfY3-y2o4JUMkgwNlJZQUxZOTlCQTI4NkVKUUI5MFFYTi4u

*Buy family & friends tickets, Use code: somn2024-https://sp6.glitnirticketing.com/spticket/web/logingroup1.php?&refresh=1709836175

Just Dodge and the stars ✨

Driveway rides on January 29 ☀️

Sweet Poppy - We let her cross over the Rainbow Bridge last night. She became really sick in a matter of two days. We learned her kidneys failed with no symptoms of being sick and there was little hope for recovery. Poppy loved her humans and was ready to greet them anytime. We’ll always have this beautiful soul with us in spirit. ❤️🌈

Calling all current staff, riders, and volunteers: RSVP for our annual holiday party by 12/13 and have some fun with us!

Save the date! 12/15 we will be hosting our annual Holiday Party @ Stillwater Bowl. More details coming soon.

Come on over to Lift Bridge Brewing Co. Stillwater on 11/21 for Townie Tuesday! What a fun way to help support our mission!

$1 from every tap beer of seltzer or $2 from every crowler/to go speciality bottle/12 pack of soda goes directly to our organization.

A big thank you to all who donated to our organization on Give to the Max day! Your contributions will be put to good use in all of our programs!

Thank you to all who have served!

Give to the Max day is coming up next Thursday, 11/16. This is the 15th anniversary of Give to the Max, help us meet our $5,000 goal!

Early giving has started so you don't have to wait until 11/16. Your donations help our non-profit cover expenses such as horse care and feed, program expansion, staff education, marketing, and so much more. Every dollar you donate goes straight to our programming!

Please check out the link below for information on donating online. Check and cash donations are also welcome on site. Thank you so much for your continued support of our organization!

Support St Croix Trail Blazers on GiveMN Special People Needing Special HorsesNestled in the trees on 29 acres in beautiful Stillwater, Minnesota, is Jasmine Meadows, home to the St. Croix Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers are a unique group of riders who share not only a love of horses, but also a commitment to...

Baby Epic 😍 Did you know Willow is his mom?

Cute overload with Bear and Laura

Everyone can always use a laugh!

Last night we escorted our sweet little Vanna over the rainbow bridge. Vanna was dealing with a minor leg injury and decided to lay down to rest. She was not able to get herself back up, and despite our best efforts, we were unable to help her either. Horses just aren’t built to be down for long. At the grand age of 25, she let us know when it was enough.

Vanna was a former champion show horse who competed on the World circuit. She had so many fancy buttons she earned herself the trademark of “Vanna Games” when her riders engaged the wrong buttons. This was coincidentally a fantastic way to learn horse-rider communication. She taught many a “little” to trot and canter and was a cornerstone of our lesson program for many years.

Vanna is going to be impossible to replace and her presence will be sorely missed. We hope she’s now off running the green grass with Onyx and Rocky!

Focus Features is offering a special screening of the new movie "Champions!" It's a hilarious and heartwarming story about a former minor-league basketball coach who is assigned to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities.

Wed March 8, 2023 | 7 PM

ShowPlace ICON Theatre
1625 West End Blvd
Minneapolis, MN 55416

RSVP for the screening: https://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/main/movie_landing/Q0hBTVBJT05Tc29tbg%3D%3D

With the rain and warmer temps the driveway and parking lot is again VERY icy. We’re doing what we can to help but unfortunately this is a part of the spring (yay!) thaw we can’t do much about. Please be careful!

FYI: With the rain and melting yesterday the driveway and parking lot are VERY icy. We have done what we can to get some traction down but please be careful!