Salty Horse Ranch

09/01/2025

The girls did well today in their grid work!! My heart is full ♥️♥️♥️
(Cianna had senoir pictures today so now pics of the Tanner 😢)

08/19/2025

I would highly recommend that everybody follow this page, no matter what discipline you ride these are important exercises for your horses to know how to do. All those things that people ask me to help them with, or snot leaning in, overall balance, accuracy, these exercises in particularly this one will help you with that! Remember that when you come out to ride come out with a plan not just to ride around

Training Tip Tuesday. The Ring Exercise is perfect for working the horse’s lateral suppleness, straightness and impulsion. When ridden correctly, the horse will not only carry himself better, he will also show equal bend in each direction. This is also an essential exercise for demonstrating that the horse is between the rider’s aids. If the horse is not adequately connected and placed between the rider’s aids, the straight centerline will not happen and the horse will deviate from the circle lines. This exercise will help the horse to build strength by stretching the outside neck muscles and increasing the angles and carrying capacity of the inside hind leg.

Begin riding down the long side and turn up the centerline at C (could also start at A). When you reach G perform a 10 meter circle to the left. At G, continue on centerline to I and perform a 10 meter circle to the right. Continue alternating between left and right voltes at each letter along the centerline until reaching D. At the end of the centerline track left and change direction across the diagonal line. You can maintain the gait or ask for a lengthening or extension across the diagonal to test the effect of the exercise. You can begin the exercise again at C or move on depending on your horse's needs.

It is imperative that the rider pay extremely close attention to the geometry of the voltes as well as the centerline by not allowing the horse to fall through the shoulders or drift with the hindquarter as these evasions will minimize the effect of the exercise. The horse should remain bent around the inside leg and nicely connected to the outside rein. The change of bend will happen on the centerline halfway to the next volte to allow the horse time to rebalance and connect to the new outside rein. This can be performed in the walk, trot or canter with simple or flying changes (2nd Level horses and above).

08/12/2025

As soon as the raining stop we run and ride 😂😂😂 sometimes we don’t even bother to put a saddle on! Lol 

07/03/2025

Please please please listen to this video! Lots of times we get real excited about riding the horses and especially horses coming off an injury that have atrophied top lines you don’t need to ride them! You need to find somebody that knows how to do the ground work in hand and help that horse build its top line with exercise exercises with no Saddle and no Person on it!
In our rehab program we have been staunch supporters of doing it this way and quite successful I might add! So listen to this video !!!

06/30/2025

When you are working with or particularly showing your horse out of competition, take a minute and seriously ask yourself how this benefits your horse? Although you are winning a ribbon what is your horse winning? Can you honestly say that he enjoyed the endeavor? I’m not saying we should not compete that we shouldn’t ride but at least seriously contemplate this thought and see how you can do better to help your horse enjoy the process.

Gotta be a team game 🏇🏻

06/25/2025

I will probably die on this hill! But the number of horses that are needing such extensive injections prior to eight years old now is so concerning. I ride across multiple disciplines so the finger pointing should stop every discipline is riding their horses too hard too early and we all know it. Watching people pull on their horses faces and put them behind the vertical and stress their neck and spine is not humane. If you have to pull hard on one rain and then the other and then the other rain and see saw your horses head back-and-forth and force “contact” then your horse is not your main concern…. 

Many of us have been conditioned by industry that once a horse hits 4, they're an adult and should be ridden. Some industry practices dictate that horses should be started as young as 18 months - 2 years old and many breeds have been selectively bred to look more mature at a younger age.

But maturity on the outside doesn't indicate maturity on the inside -

A horse’s skeletal development depends on growth plates — areas of cartilage at the ends of bones that allow them to grow longer. Once a bone reaches its full length, the growth plate turns to bone and fuses. Until then, it remains a weak point within the bone.

We need to remember that not all bones mature at the same time -

The bones in the legs fuse earlier - between 6 months and 3.5 years. This gives your horse their height - a red herring that they've finished growing because "look how tall they are!"

But the spine - the bit we literally sit on - doesn't finish fusing until much later - between 5 and 6 years approximately, though depending on height and s*x, it can be as late at 7 or 8.

And equally, the pelvis - an area which receives the forces from the hindlimbs and transfers it to the spine, is formed of multiple pieces which don't finish fusing until the horse is approximately 4.

With all of this in mind, it’s worth asking:

Should we really be sitting on horses whose growth plates are still developing?

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"Should I be riding my horse right now?"

Join Integrative Equine Podiatrist, Beccy Smith, and I as we discuss this topic through a variety of lenses: combining evidence-informed practice and research to give you practical skills to assess your own horse's wellbeing so you can answer the question for yourself.

30.06.2025 19:00 BST

Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️

https://www.yasminstuartequinephysio.com/webinar-should-i-be-riding-my-horse-right-now

06/09/2025

I have my own opinions about Jumping Horses… I was taught very early in my life that every Horse only has a certain and very finite number of jumps in it. I was also taught not to jump Horses whose confirmation confirmations don’t support it. It’s really too bad though! 😂 Boone is NOT built to jump … but he looks so cute with Charlee doing it!!!

06/05/2025

This is becoming a hot topic. We have horses that have poor x-rays and are already needing injections by the time they are four or five years old. Horses needing maintenance at five years old is an interesting concept to me and I will leave it at that. But I do not have the same feeling as the rest of the sellers that buyers need to “get over it” and stop expecting to find the perfect horse. In good conscience as a trainer I am not going to advise a client of mine to start with a four year-old that even has mild arthritis in both fat locks. I’m not going to do it especially the money that we pay for Horses these days. I also in my rehabilitation journey see lots and lots of horses who had perfectly fine x-rays and end up with significant injuries and end up at my facility. Horses are a liability in general. However, as a seller you cannot expect buyers to take on known issues no matter how small you think they are. I hope in the industry will start to do better soon.

06/03/2025

Little bit, by little bit our dream of having a 15 acre conditioning track with great views and in the shade of big oak trees is coming true ♥️ if your dream is so big that you can’t believe it could ever happen then it’s a dream worth having. It’s really nice to just relax and spend time with family when it’s just too hot to do anything else. We just go out and move sticks! 😂

06/02/2025

The old man (Blue) our stallion is back to work!!! Well riding work anyway!