Meet Meika and Mark

Meika has been involved with horses for a majority of her life. She inherited the love of horses from her mother, Mary Decher, who also rode from a very young age. Ponies and 4-H programs taught Meika the basics of horsemanship and it wasn’t until the Decher family moved to Germany, that she was introduced to dressage and eventually, eventing.

She started riding at FEI level in high school has developed horses throughout the years for eventing. She competed at the highest levels of our sport for most of the 2000s, and is still aiming high with her current string of horses. She was selected to ride with the USEF Developing Rider Team for 2 years with Blueprint and Goldfinch.

Horses have not been the only focus of Meika’s life. She met her husband, Mark Salser, in graduate school at UC Davis. They both share a love of ecology and science. Mark has his PhD in Entomology and was a past board member of The Nature Conservancy in North Carolina. He is a very successful beekeeper, gardener and manages the many fascents of running a big equine facility. Many of the XC jumps Mark builds can be seen on the Polestar and Washington State Horse Park cross country courses. Mark started eventing on Wally for several years but now he mostly enjoys regular lessons, participating in clinics and trail riding with Ivey.