Horse Play

DESIGNATED FOR THIRTY-FIVE-PLUS acres in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, Green Mountain Falls Horse Wellness Meadow will provide performance horses with a healing haven and professional care.

The meadow, supported by a Kirkpatrick Family Fund grant, is a partnership between Elite Equine CO and the Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation, but the project was also born of community effort and support. Historically a “horse town,” Green Mountain Falls community leaders and citizens, including the mayor, have shown support for the meadow’s humanitarian revision of the town’s equestrian heritage.

Jesse Stroope, of the Historic Green Mountain Falls Foundation, has been instrumental in the process of establishing a quality horse rehab center in the town. “I was very impressed when visiting Elite Equine by the cleanliness of the facility, the friendliness of the leadership, and volunteers,” Stroope says. “I immediately knew that we had found our partner!”

The Colorado Springs-based Elite Equine is an all-volunteer organization with a deep roster of qualified individuals specializing in a range of equine-specific rehabilitation and therapy skills. EEC’s team particularly aims to provide rehabilitation, retraining, and rehoming for horses in danger of abuse, neglect, or slaughter. They plan to use the meadow for incoming rescue horses to detox, rest, and remember how to be horses.

While at the meadow, performance horses will have space to decompress and heal while receiving the care needed to transition to new careers and new homes. The facility will open in the spring.