Barn Angels Was Created to Fill That Gap

Growing up in the horse industry meant I was never really sheltered from death or from what happened afterward. I will always remember the first time I truly understood it. When I was a child one of our horses had passed away and I watched him being hauled away by Mr. Perconi himself. Donnie was a good friend of our family, so the realities of death and what happened afterward were never hidden from me.

Back then, the choices were basically:
Rendering or burial.
That was simply what happened.
But even as a child, it was very clear to me that there was a major piece missing when it came to end-of-life care.
Skip forward roughly 30 years and here I am, meeting the love of my life and realizing I wasn’t alone in thinking that way. Wesley and I both had a shelf of urns from pets we had cremated and loved over the years. and we both wanted something different.
Something everlasting.
Something natural.
Something that didn’t just sit on a shelf.
Something that could actually give back to the earth.

Then I lost Running Tough.

Running Tough was my retired Adena Springs horse and my first real horse love. I loved that horse so much I have his face tattooed on my arm. The day he suffered a tragic accident, my heart was absolutely shattered. Even now, I still don’t really have the right words to explain what that loss felt like.
We called the rendering service that had cared for our family’s horses for years to come pick Running Tough up. Donnie was supposed to come. Instead, someone else arrived in the truck and told us that Donnie had passed away that very day and our farm would be the last stop of the day.

That moment has always stayed with us.

Not long afterward, the rendering service area changed dramatically, and suddenly, so many horse owners and farms were left without an option. There was a MASSIVE gap in the industry. We knew it because we were close enough to the industry to see exactly what was happening. Horse owners and dairy farmers needed somewhere to turn.

Families needed options.

Veterinary clinics needed an aftercare provider they could confidently trust with their clients.
Farms, rescues, sanctuaries and municipalities needed a dependable service that understood both the practical realities of animal aftercare and the emotional side of losing an animal.

Wesley and I kept coming back to the same thought:
Somebody needs to fix this.
Eventually we realized… maybe it needed to be us.
So, while quietly working in the background, we began researching, learning, planning, and figuring out how we could create something different.
Something we would actually choose for our own animals.
Something that respected the animal, supported the family and could ultimately give something back to the earth.
That work became Barn Angels Composting.
While Barn Angels has grown far beyond what we imagined in those early days, the reason behind it really hasn’t changed.
We’re still animal people.
We still know what it feels like to love them.
We still know what it feels like to lose them.
And we still believe that caring for an animal shouldn’t stop when their life does.

Still Founder-Led Today

As Barn Angels has grown, one thing has remained unchanged: we are still deeply involved in the company and connected to the communities we serve.

We are animal people, farm people and service people. We understand the bond between people and their animals, and we understand the responsibility that comes with being trusted during end-of-life moments.

Our promise has always been simple:
Show up when we are needed. Communicate honestly. Handle every animal with dignity. Treat every family with care.