St. Croix Trail Blazers

12/03/2025

Baby update: we’re an independent little (8 month old) dude! Momma is off living with cows and horses with a friend while Philippe gets used to being on his “own” (he’s supervised by uncles Rowdy and Mister). It’s easy to forget what a blank slate babies are, everything is NEW to them, good or bad. Kellie says she is enjoying the privilege and challenge of turning him into a well rounded young man. It will be a few years before he can start under saddle training, but he’s currently working on walking nicely on a lead rope, picking up his feet, not using those baby teeth to chomp humans, and to respect people’s space and verbal commands. The updated pic was worth a little celebration because he hung out in a stall by himself while everyone else was in lessons AND he walked down the aisle (with all kinds of shadow monsters and things and noises) with zero hesitation and without using anyone as a ladder. We can’t wait to see what color he turns out to be this spring when he loses all his winter floof!

(Pic of Boo for good measure)

21/11/2024

“I've been at St. Croix Trail Blazers for four and a half years now. When I first started, I was hideously burned out when it came to the horse industry. Luckily, I found a small group of some of the most dedicated, hard working, and passionate horse people I've ever met. Our mission and goals have remained consistent and aligned with the collective ethos of our organization. I think Baby Phillipe represents this the best. We (I) found him separated from his mother at less than 6 hours old. He'd missed the window to get his colostrum, and ended up with a horrific infection as a result. We weren't planning on having a baby, but since he'd arrived in the world with us, with us he would stay. It would have been cheaper and easier to have just said "Enough. We don't need a baby, especially a sick one". But that's not how we do things. Little Gibblet the Nibblet got his surgeries (yes, plural) and drained our accounts while his curly little butt was schlepped back and forth between the barn and the equine hospital. But at least we know he'll load in a trailer, and he was halter broke by the time he was 6 weeks old, and he's very good for oral medications! Our small community rallied around this little guy to ensure that we wouldn't have to choose between saving his little life, and feeding the rest of our herd.
I know there are many equine-based non profits out there, and many have set lofty goals for themselves for today. Our goal has always been fairly modest for Give to the Max. We've got 15 horses to feed and care for. But these 15 horses provide an incomparable experience to our riders. Our riders love these horses more than anyone. I can't tell you the number of times one answered "Ellyn! How's the baby? And Belle?" while my volunteers and I get them up onto Mister, or Cooper, or Bear, or Zip, or Willow, or Dodge, or Rowdy, or Nova, or Watson, or Epic, or Rogue, or Rio before lessons. Any donation helps us ensure that Mister, Cooper, Bear, Zip, Willow, Dodge, Rowdy, Nova, Watson, Epic, Rogue, and Rio, along with Belle and Phillipe, and Peach and Clancy, can continue to do their work of supporting and teaching our riders day in, and day out.”

-Ellyn Thompson, Instructor

21/11/2024

There are only a few hours left for Give to the Max day!

Give to the Max started in 2009 and is now Minnesota’s largest day of donating to non-profits like SCTB. Your contributions to charities like ours help non-profits continue on their mission to make Minnesota a better place to be.

Contributions to SCTB on this day go directly towards our mission, new development, and to providing top notch care for our equine partners.

Special People Needing Special Horses Nestled 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...

19/11/2024

Come on out to a super unique fundraiser next Sunday! So many came forward to help out with baby Philippe, we thought it would be fun to incorporate a meet and greet into our fall fundraiser.

Philly isn’t the only guest star; some of our other equine partners will be here to meet your family and friends too! We’ll have a silent auction with lots of fun items to bid on as well.

All proceeds go towards funding our programs and caring for our amazing horse partners.

11/11/2024

Celebrating all who have served today. Thank you for your sacrifice!

25/08/2024

25/08/2024

06/08/2024

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!

04/08/2024

…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

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!

26/07/2024

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!

24/07/2024

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