Salisbury Farms

11/23/2024

This advice will NOT be popular with those who want it RIGHT NOW, but nevertheless, here goes---

If the goal is to become two things, a good rider and a good horseman/horsewoman, be willing to think in decades rather than in years.

That first decade, from whatever age you began, will take you only so far, and may even take you to the Olympics, but riding skill alone won’t give you all you need to know and be able to do. The next couple of decades will let three components, your physical skills, your control over your emotions and your knowledge, all intertwined to complement one another.

That’s why many of the best riders and trainers are in their 40s, 50s and in some cases in their 60s, even 70s. They didn’t get those tens of thousands of hours overnight.

There are ever so many riders and trainers who gave up too soon. They just needed to have hung in there another ten years, maybe twenty. Which sounds insane, but actually isn’t.

11/15/2024

Well stated description of the horse/human relationship.

Respect is critical to any positive relationship: friendship, partnership (business or personal), human/human, or human/animal.

Horses don't come with natural respect for the human, they come with natural fear. That natural fear though, keeps us safe: even in an accidental or unintentional 1000lbs vs 100lbs, the 1000lbs wins every time.

You don't teach your horse respect by making them do something, you teach them respect by being trustworthy:

1) By having trustworthy expectations: meaning you don't overface them.

2) By having trustworthy Pressure: meaning you don't overwhelm them AND YET you mean what you say.

3) By having a trustworthy release: meaning they learn that if they TRY, the Pressure goes away, it is released.

Slowly but surely a horse will learn to respect, and then we can expect them to respect. But it is always very much a teaching process in the beginning.

Conversely, we don't show the horse respect by treating them like a human, the horse has its own set of wants, needs and motivations, that are different from the human's. We show the horse respect by respecting their nature and their natural tendancies and sensitivities. By trying to understand the way they see our shared world.

This message is brought to you by OTTB Lacee and I... steady working on our partnership💪😉🙂

Happy Friday,
✌️Kalley

09/30/2024

Yes!

There’s much to be learned from this photo of a very young Kathy Kusner, and, no, riding without a helmet isn’t one of those things, but this was from another era.

The first is that in balance type sports like riding, skiing, skating, it’s far easier to start young, before you learn to have anxiety and the tension that accompanies that.

Then, riding ba****ck allows you to develop a feel for the horse’s motion and the ability to blend into that movement in ways that having the “crutch” of a saddle do not.

Next, scary as it seems to parents, over-protecting kids, often reinforced by liability laws, isn’t likely to help them develop confidence and courage.

Also, learning to jump without hanging on for dear life is also best done young.

Now, certainly, Kathy was an extraordinary rider by all measures, far more talented and gutsy than 99.999% of all who ride, and just because SHE could jump ba****ck and bridle-less doesn’t mean most can attempt this safely, but the fundamentals shown here still apply, only to a lesser degree for most.

09/13/2024

Great!

09/06/2024

Great thoughts

A few Pro Tips to remember heading into the weekend:

1) Let your horse do what you've Asked it to do, don't just let it do Anything, or you'll create confusion, anxiety, disinterest and/or dullness.

2) Letting a horse do whatever it wants does not built a bond, it teaches the horse that they cannot rely on you for leadership, or decision making. This builds a thought process of "taking over," and it always happens at the most inopportune or worst times... and it's our fault, not theirs.

3) A great Pet does not always equate a great Partner. A horse can Like you but not Respect you,. A horse can Like you but not Trust you to lead it to safety... much less anything else, like a maneuver, skill or job.

4) Horses are not Humans. This might seem like stating the obvious, but as a society we have evolved into a more conscience way of training horses (etc) which is good, up until the human overlays human wants needs and motivations on top of the horse's. The horse has its Own set of wants needs and motivations... full stop. That's how we honor them to the fullest, and treat them the best.

✌️ Kalley

08/17/2024

The art of riding is being an easy weight to carry!

When the rider is in complete harmony with the movement of the horse, the inconvenience of the weight of the rider will be minimal for the horse. However if the rider is against the movement of the horse, ie. if he loses his balance often or if he falls backwards or forwards, then he asks a great deal of adjustment from the horse.

08/13/2024

Cute

08/04/2024

Pretty bad---

I was recently talking with someone who leases out lots of horses to various riding programs, summer camps, boarding school and college stables, trail strings, whatever.

She told me that they have stopped sending horses to places that teach jumping because, so often, those horses come back sour, sore and generally used up from being over-jumped.

Think about jumping, and how much physical effort it takes, and how “slamming” the landings are, and have some sympathy, empathy and some of that rare commodity, common sense and decent horsemanship, before jumping the holy living snot out of some poor horse.

Sure, it’s “fun” to jump, but before you say something truly stupid like “my horsie LOVES to jump,” consider which one is having more "fun", the one sitting there, or the one doing the work.

Jumping is OK for horses when done carefully, but lots of humans don’t know the difference between careful and too much. Or, worse, they do know, and do too much anyway.

Some riders would jump 7 days a week if you let them, and they never give a thought to what it does to the horse,

03/30/2024

Great image and visual!

01/27/2024

Sugar Pie, our pony, is having a new adventure at a new location. She is here for more training, riding, and fun with this rider!
At Salisbury, we believe ponies need to be taken seriously in their training and riding schedules, this way ponies can do good work with little riders. Ponies are little and cute, and easier to push around than a large horse. Sometimes humans cut corners with ponies in training and expectations, then when ponies don’t behave they get a bad reputation. Try to resist the temptation to baby them or push them around—train your pony and treat them as seriously as their larger counterparts and you will have a fun and reliable partner for little riders!