Meet Our Founder
Scott Cieslar has 20+ years experience as a professional nutritionist, receiving an MSc in physiology and nutrition from the University of Guelph. He started working on a PhD, but put his degree on hold to run Mad Barn.
Scott has nutrition down to a science, but he’s not just book smart; he’s got horse sense too.
Scott grew up surrounded by horses at the “B” tracks of Ontario. He has dedicated his life to better understanding the nutritional requirements of horses and helping horse owners put the latest research into practice.
I did not start out with the intent to sell equine nutrition products, instead formulated the mineral and vitamin premix because I wanted the best nutrition for my own horses.
It wasn’t that there was a shortage of options in the market place, but it seemed that the well formulated products were prohibitively expensive or used ingredients I did not want to feed.
The myriad of supplements on the market are often formulated to target an ailment and therefore would have very high levels of a few nutrients and be completely devoid of others, which simply creates imbalances in the diet and leads to other issues.
The solution, formulate my own completely balanced mineral and vitamin premix. Seeing the improvement in condition and performance of the horses in my care, naturally, people asked what I was feeding. They started purchasing my formula and from there a business was born.
Scott Cieslar
Why Mad Barn Exists
On the exterior, we may look like a lot of other supplement companies, but let us assure you, we are not. Our primary purpose is not to convince you to buy products, it’s to advance the practice of equine nutrition by:
- Funding research to better understand how nutrition impacts the health of your horse.
- Developing technology and feeding solutions to make it easier to feed your horse what he or she needs.
- Providing education and support to horse owners and the broader equine community.
Nutrition is the cornerstone to equine health, well-being and optimal performance. Our nutritionists are always available to answer your questions or help you formulate a balanced feeding program for free.
We fund all of our activities through product sales. So if you feed your horse Mad Barn, thank you for helping us achieve our mission.
Our Team

Scott Cieslar, MSc
CEO & Chief Nutritionist

Sharifa Darani
Chief Marketing Officer

Dr. Priska Darani (Stahel), PhD
Director of Research

Dr. Christine Latham, PhD
Lead Equine Nutritionist

Dr. Emily Gilbert, PhD
Business Development

AJ Moore
Retail Sales Director

Dr. Ana Mesa, PhD
Equine Nutritionist

Melissa McGilloway, MSc
Equine Nutritionist

Linaya Pot, MSc
Equine & Dairy Nutritionist

Elise Lafleur, MSc
Equine Nutritionist

Sophie Stratton, MSc
Equine Nutritionist

Tori Smurthwaite, MSc
Equine Nutritionist

Dr. Brittany Perron, PhD
Equine Nutritionist

Jaime Thomas, BSc
Content Creator

Kirah McCafferty, DipAgr
Customer Happiness

Camryn McNeill, BBRM
Customer Happiness

Sarah McEwin
Logistics & Inventory Manager

Sadia Saif, MBA
Operations Manager

James Pinder
Production Manager

Elissa Blowe
Customer Advisor

Julie Vigneault
Customer Advisor

Bivek Joshi, M.Eng
Web Developer

Dr. Emily Leishman, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Cara Cargo-Froom, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow

Patty Kedzierski, PhD Candidate
Feed Bank