Horsepeople

Southport

by Alessandra Mele

Chris Salko is the second-generation owner of Salko Farm and Stable in Southport. He and his wife, Jane, run a bustling lesson program out of the farm, fondly calling it “Fairfield County’s best kept secret.” Chris has seen a lot of changes over the years, but the farm, which he proudly maintains and improves day in and day out, remains his passion. Chris recently spoke with Community Horse writer Alessandra Mele about his life with horses.

Jane Salko

CH: Tell us a little about growing up, and how horses were a part of your life.

Chris: I’ve spent my whole life on this farm and grew up around horses. My father, Andrew Salko, bought 10.5 acres here in Southport in 1948, before I was born. He built the place and ran a successful boarding stable with my mother, Anna. The place was always filled with horses. I worked on the farm throughout high school, and also worked across the street at the DuPont Estate. I still work at both places today, except now I am the owner of Salko Farm and Stable. When my father turned 65 in 1973, I took over the farm at age 19. It’s been a work in progress for me ever since, and I enjoy improving it and making it a beautiful place to enjoy horses. CH: You’ve certainly invested a lot of time into the place. What sort of improvements have you made?

Chris: It’s been a slow progression with steady work put in over time, but we’ve accomplished a lot here on the farm. I started to rebuild all the barns in the 1970s, which took a lot of work but really improved the facility. In 2001, I built our indoor arena. Before that, we had really just been a boarding facility, but with the

indoor arena we were able to start offering riding lessons year-round. A few years later, I built another ten-stall barn to accommodate more lesson horses, and then in 2018 we made the indoor arena even larger, extending it an additional seventy-four feet. We also updated it with LED lighting and TraveLite footing. Today, we have 30 stalls altogether.

Jane Salko

CH: It’s a beautiful facility. Tell us more about the lesson program.

Chris: The lesson program has really grown in recent years; it’s sort of a phenomenon. Salko Farm and Stable was once primarily a boarding facility; today we have just two boarders and 25 lesson horses. The focus has really shifted to teaching riding lessons

and we love it. We have super nice families that come here regularly to enjoy the farm. We teach more than 200 lessons a week, with the help of Jane and our skilled trainers, Jenna Frascatore, Corrie Collins, and Michelle Nardini, who are all wonderful horsewomen. We run summer camps, which I’m pleased to say are filling up quickly for 2021. We focus on hunt seat riding, and enjoy seeing the progress all our students make, from children just learning to ride to adults who may be coming back to horses later in life.

CH: Do you get to ride very often?

Chris: Occasionally. We have a lot of wonderful schooling horses and sometimes Jane will get me out for a ride. But mostly you can find me on the tractor.

CH: What goes into a day’s work around Salko Farm and Stable?

Chris: Each day we put the horses out in the back fields where they have about eight acres to stretch their legs, and I bring hay out there with the truck when there isn’t much pasture. Otherwise, I’m doing maintenance most days, whatever it takes to keep this place running and in top condition. I don’t like to stand still for very long.

CH: The hard work certainly shows as the facility is immaculate. What do you think sets your farm apart?

Chris: We’ve carved out a bit of a niche for ourselves. There used to be a lot of backyard barns in this area; this part of Fairfield County was mostly farmland and just about everyone had horses. These days, most of the farms are gone and the land has been developed, and I see it disappearing more and more each year. I’m really glad we’ve been able to preserve this land and keep it a place where people can come enjoy horses, a place where anyone can come and learn how to ride and care for horses from the ground up. During the pandemic especially, parents have wanted to get their kids outside doing something healthy. We’re fortunate we’ve been able to offer that, with plenty of space and horses to keep the kids busy and safe. It makes me happy to see people enjoying it all.

CH: What do you envision for the future for yourself and Salko Farm and Stable?

Chris: We are launching a new program this spring here on the farm focused on therapeutic groundwork with horses, and we’re all very excited for that new chapter. It will be a nonprofit program that explores the way horses enable humans to work through conditions like anxiety, addiction, and PTSD. Jane is currently working on certification to facilitate workshops here on the farm, learning from expert and author Kathy Pike. We’re also working on installing a new infrared heated and enclosed round pen, where most of this type of work will be done. Otherwise, I just turned 67, and I really want to keep it all going as long as I can. I’ve still got plenty of work ahead of me and I feel ready to do it. I would like to keep the place running at a high standard and continue to grow the lesson program so that more people can come enjoy the horses, the facility, and learn how to ride.

CH: That sounds like a good plan. What keeps you going? Why do you love this life with horses?

Chris: It’s become a lifestyle, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way. This is a wonderful place to be, the people involved are great, and I genuinely enjoy the work I do each day. There’s nothing like it in the summertime. We have a big garden along the side of the house, and another out back where we grow vegetables and flowers, and beyond that the pastures are green with grass and filled with horses happily grazing. It’s a beautiful picture, and I feel truly blessed to have what’s here. y

Alessandra Mele is a freelance writer and designer in Wilbraham. She enjoys spending time with the horses on her family’s farm, especially riding her Quarter Horse, JoJo. To see more of her work, visit thehomegrownstudio.com.

by Alessandra Mele

Jamila Jackson is a storyteller, dancer, poet, and facilitator who explores the integration of African-rooted dance and wisdom with horsemanship. Through her own projects and the work of her organization, the Embodied Leadership Project, Jamila is bringing to light important similarities between the ceremony of community dance circles and the language of horses,

which can offer us all an opportunity to experience deep healing, connection, and love.

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CH: Tell us a little about your background. How did your journey lead you to horses?

Jamila: I’m originally from California; I was born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley. I didn’t grow up with horses, but I always had a strong passion for dance. I studied at Howard University and then at Hampshire College, and during that time I was on a journey researching ways that dance can teach us how to connect with ourselves and each other, and how to heal by understanding the stories that move through our bodies and being present with them. Through this journey I met a woman, Lori Halliday, at a dance workshop and was really taken with her ability to listen. It felt so loving, pure, and connected, and it really struck me. I asked Lori where she had developed this kind of attention, and she gave me an answer I wasn’t expecting. “I have a herd of ten horses,” she said, and invited me to come out to her California

ranch. This is when I first became hooked on horses and started to realize their connection to the kinds of questions I was already exploring with dance.

CH: What did that connection look and feel like to you?

Jamila: I had a powerful experience with one of Lori’s horses, Pepper. I was actually kind of scared of horses at that point; I’d only ridden a few times and they had been scary rides! I really felt their aliveness, and it was intense; I didn’t understand their language. One morning, Lori took me out to the pasture to sit with the herd. I sat there doing nothing, just observing the horses in the morning

sun. After about 30 minutes, I felt this kind of magnetic draw pulling me toward one horse, Pepper. My fear dissolved and I naturally moved toward him. I paused a few feet away, and then felt him draw me even nearer. Close to him, I began to feel that same magnetic draw start to pull out all this grief within me. I began crying and shared all this emotion with him nonverbally, and he just listened. At one point I thought Pepper might walk away, but he just laid down next to me, and continued to listen. I felt this wisdom being shared in the stillness between us. I was amazed at the power of this experience and was hooked on horses from that point on. I understood what Lori meant by horses teaching us how to listen, and I began studying this a lot more and integrating it into my dance studies.

CH: What are the connections you’ve discovered between horses and dance?

Jamila: All of the social neuroscience I was studying around dance and bodies fit in so perfectly with what I was observing in horses. I was amazed by the way they communicate with one another; the way they process sensory information, express emotion, and engage in deep witnessing and listening. These are all concepts we explore in dance too. In spending time with horses, I’ve realized that the way they teach each other and connect is really the same way we teach African diasporic movement. The way I learned to dance is also the same way I am learning to be with horses. Essentially, there is a ceremony that is happening in most African and African diasporic dance, which is rooted in community circle. There are many levels of witnessing and listening that are happening between the drums, the movements, and one another that are based in sharing, empathy, and connection. There is also a profound mastery of polyrhythm, which is when more than one rhythm works together. When horses interact in their herds, they are using the exact same principles to communicate and develop a language that allows the herd to stay safe, peaceful, and together.

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CH: How have these connections influenced your work and how have you put them into practice?

Jamila: Horses are helping me to understand my own ancestry and are giving me a deeper understanding of the dance practices that I grew up learning. They are helping me understand the depth to which those practices can go, and how they can help us all process traumatic experiences and experience joy. I recently had an exhibition at the Northampton Center for the Arts that explored these connections using film, writing, photography, and performance. I told my story and used images of the horses out in the field with me and other women of color working with them and dancing with them. It was a great opportunity to authentically express the liberation that horses can offer all of us.

CH: Tell us about the Embodied Leadership Project. How does this organization explore the connections you’re talking about and make them accessible to others?

Jamila: I feel as though I’ve been gifted with incredible resources around emotional intelligence that are so rare, and I genuinely want to share this with people. The Embodied Leadership Project, a trauma-informed mindfulness, wellness, and inclusion organization, came out of this desire to share. Our mission is to use story, contemplative practice, rhythm, and movement as a way to invite community members to experience the authentic expression, deep listening, and languages of belonging inherent within the African diasporic community dance circle and the wisdom of the equine herd. Right now, we’re in a lot of collective pain. Society is out of balance and disconnected, largely because there are so many emotions we all experience but don’t have the education on how to feel, heal, and learn from them. People are longing to feel connected to themselves and one another, and the Embodied Leadership Project

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offers a space where they can do that safely and honestly. Through this program I’ve been able to work with kids, college students, and adults of many races, genders, and backgrounds to explore ways of being in our bodies, listening to one another, and telling stories. Dance and horsemanship are important ways of teaching that.

CH: What are some of your plans for the future, with the Embodied Leadership Project and otherwise?

Jamila: I feel very committed to horses as they’ve helped me learn to heal, how to teach, and how to be better with one another. I want to talk more about how we can be better to horses, and how we can be better with them, learning how to care for and relate to them in a way that empowers them. I have a vision for a program that offers a gateway to horsemanship as a sacred practice. I have a very specific perspective to offer not only horsepeople, but also people who have never considered engaging with horses but are interested in healing and social justice. I’ve already started exploring this with the young women in the Embodied Leadership Project, and I can offer even more that will benefit both horses and humans.

CH: Listening, witnessing, connection, and empathy feel more important than ever in the times we live in now. How do you think horses can help us heal, learn, and be better?

Jamila: Horses offer us an opportunity to reconnect with our ability to be in community with one another, across all differences. They do this through their innate knowledge of how to communicate with each other, and they generously offer the same connection to us. One of the things that amazes me is their ability to listen to us, and the ways they can teach us how to listen to one another. This is such an important, valuable skill right now.

This leads to something that’s constantly blowing my mind, which is how horses can teach us about navigating con-

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sent and power. When you are at liberty with horses, you start to work on consent by letting go of your own agenda, bringing awareness to your body, and trying to learn their language. It’s understanding when someone is saying “yes” or “no,” and that not only gives us the opportunity to examine our own power and privilege but also gives us a chance to acknowledge the marginalized and preyed-upon aspects that exist within ourselves. It teaches us about allyship and how to respect one another, which is also especially important in this moment. Anyone who has spent time with horses knows how much love they are capable of. Horses know how to be close, without even touching. It’s something unlike anything I’ve ever yexperienced before. It’s pure grace.

Alessandra Mele is a freelance writer and designer in Wilbraham. She enjoys spending time with the horses on her family’s farm, especially riding her Quarter Horse, JoJo. To see more of her work, visit thehomegrownstudio.com.

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East Greenwich

by Kara Noble

Rhode Island riding instructor and horse trainer Amy Lynn Smith has a broad range of equine experience, from starting green horses to teaching human students the essentials of horse care to helping riders refine their seat and position over jump fences. She has managed horse farms and served as an assistant manager at Dover Saddlery. Recently, Amy used her horse and business skills to launch Topline

Equestrian, a riding and equine training program based in East Greenwich. Community Horse writer Kara Noble recently spoke with Amy about the path that led her to start this program and her goals for the future of her new business.

Bentley David Hammond

CH: How did you get involved with horses and how have your interests with them developed over time?

Amy: I am Rhode Island born, raised in the South County area. My mom rode when she was young, and she introduced me to riding when I was five years old. We started taking lessons together and eventually bought a leopard Appaloosa pony named Liam. I went from him to my first show horse, a Quarter Horse mare named Bobbie Socks. Mom had a Thoroughbred gelding named Chance — who she said I was never supposed to ride. He was awesome. When I was 12, I pulled him out of field rest and started riding him all the time.

I was big into the show circuit as a kid. I rode with some of the larger farms in the South County, including Hunter Ridge (Ashaway) and Smithbridge Stable (South Kingstown) and trainers like Jennifer

Tillinghast and Kristen McKenna. Now I’m more interested in teaching and training.

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CH: When did you realize you wanted to make a career out of working with horses?

Amy: I got my first green horse shortly after high school, a two-and-a-half-year-old Thoroughbred mare named Montana that I bought from a woman who bred Thoroughbreds and sold them to trainers on the track. When she started Montana, she decided that the horse wasn’t going to make a good track horse.

At that time, I was on a mission to get into training and reselling horses. I bought the mare figuring I would get the walk, trot, canter done, throw her on the market, and call it a day. Not long after that I became pregnant with my son. I ended up

leasing the mare out, and then she had some time off. Eventually, I reconnected with Kristen McKenna, who happened to be teaching at a farm where I was looking to board Montana. Kristen told me, “You should keep this one. She’s going to be a real nice horse if you slow down and take your time.”

That was great advice and I’m glad I followed it. Ten years later, I’ve still got that mare. She’s my heart horse.

CH: What has Montana taught you?

Amy: Montana and I have been through the mill together, through lots of ups and downs, through lots of learning. After my son was born, I was at a barn that didn’t have a riding ring. Montana and I used to trail ride extensively, and I would practice flat work on the trails and on an abandoned baseball field in North Kingstown. As a result, nothing phases her. I got so I could take her anywhere and do almost anything.

As Montana matured, she was willing to take care of anybody I put on her. She’s 12 now and she is really awesome and super safe. She teaches riders so many things, but they are not afraid of her even though she is a big-bodied 17 hands. She’s calm, and handles everything with no preparation, no longeing.

I had great intentions of showing in hunters with Montana, but physically, she is too big for her own good, so we’re princesses on the flat now. She has a lot to teach, and I’d love to let other people learn from her.

My mare is the reason I fell so deeply in love with horses, why I want to want to make this my lifestyle. She taught me things no trainer, no person would have ever been able to teach me. She’s humbled me. She’s shown me the way when I couldn't figure it out on my own. Every time I look at her, I understand why I do this.

CH: You recently launched a new teaching and training program called Topline Equestrian. Where are you based?

Amy: I am working out of Spring Hill Farm, which is owned by Frank Fallon, a well-known farrier in our area. I boarded here before I had my son, and I found my way back here about four years ago.

During the past year, I’ve started managing the barn five days a week. It’s a nice property, very quiet and low key. We have 15 stalls and we’ve currently got 11 horses. There’s a lighted outdoor ring and an indoor ring attached to the barn. It’s a really nice farm and I’m so grateful that Frank offered me the chance to teach there.

CH: When did you open and what types of services do you offer?

Amy: We opened for lessons and boarding March 1. To give people a chance to explore the property and meet our barn family, we held an open house and tack sale in early March. Lessons are primarily hunter/jumper, with a dressage trainer also available on property. We welcome beginners and seasoned riders of all ages.

CH: Do you focus on teaching riders and training horses at Topline Equestrian?

Amy: I’m open to working with riders of all ages and I’m not restricted to discipline. I like to say I have a mixed seat. I’m a hunter/jumper at heart, but I have basic dressage training as well.

I’ve done a lot of training work with green horses and problem horses, and I’ve brought horses that have had time off for rehabilitation back into shape. I’d like to continue to do that, to build my knowledge to help other people and horses. As long as it’s within a reasonable distance, I’d even be willing to travel to do training.

If somebody wants to try something, I’m willing to consider it. The door is open and I’m flexible.

CH: Who will be (is) working with you?

Amy: I’m teaching with Montana and one of the boarders at the farm is letting me use her pony mare, Angie, for little kids. I’m on the lookout for one more horse to join my equine teaching team.

My right-hand man is my son, Bentley. He’s nine now, and he’s had his fair share of lessons. He’s very hands-on with the

horses. Every morning before school, he helps me feed and turn out horses. In the summertime, he gives horses baths, and he doesn’t mind hand-walking or grazing horses. Now and then when I’m riding, he gives me lessons too, and he’ll take pictures and video for me. He’s great.

Of course, all of this is possible because Frank has been so generous about letting me teach out of his farm.

CH: What do you think is the most important thing for people to know about how you work with horses and riders and about the program philosophy at Topline Equestrian?

Amy: One key thing is that, for the most part, this is a no-judgment zone. Everything we’re doing is to help horse and rider in any way possible, whether it’s confidence building, strength building, any type of goal setting. I’m here to help in any way I can.

This is a sport where we are forever evolving and learning. The best thing anyone can do for themselves is just to continue their education, no matter what direction it leads them in. I want to help people and their horses do just that.y

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Kara Noble is a writer and editor who lives on a hobby farm in Montgomery, Massachusetts, with her husband Jerry, an Icelandic mare, a Shetland pony, and a pair of very opinionated miniature donkeys.

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