The first time Shanda Meredith ever sat on a horse, she was one month old. Now 34, Shanda is passing the reins to her seven-year-old son, Logan. Shanda’s family has a long history of nurturing reciprocal relationships with horses and barrel racing.

“When you’re born into it, it never goes away,” Shanda says.

In March of 2022, a quarter horse from Mississippi named Kid showed up for sale on Facebook, and Shanda and her dad, Gerald Beatty, fell in love with Kid the first time they met.

“He’s perfect. I prayed and prayed and prayed for a horse like him. Now I know that all those times I didn’t find the right horse, it was because I was supposed to have Kid," Shanda says.

Before Shanda owned Kid, he was diagnosed with Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM), a neurological disorder that causes the horse's brain to forget how to tell the back feet what to do. This disease struck Shanda’s curiosity and in searching for a good way to treat it, she found a job representing Complete Equine Performance, a nutritional equine performance company.

Parallel to Kid’s health issues, Shanda’s son Logan was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome and five other defects in utero at 25 weeks. He had his first open-heart surgery at nine and a half months and now has a pacemaker. In 2018, the Merediths found out Logan is in heart failure.

"He physically is so limited, so this [riding horses] is something that he can do. It means so much to me and to my family and to see him want to do it. . . he loves it too," Shanda says.

Following the pandemic and the stress caused by these health issues, Shanda desired a place that was just for her– a separation between being a mom and being herself. This is when she picked up equine athletic massaging.

“A lot of people don't understand the horse thing and why I'm so involved and wrapped up, but I would lose my marbles without it,” Shanda says.

The cycle of nurturing and being nurtured by horses allows Shanda to refuel her energy and give more to Logan.