Silvers Stables:

Values, Mission, and Vision

 

Values and Principles:  There are multiple core values and principles that are the cornerstones of how the barn operates. 

 

First, at Silvers, we believe that good horsemen/women make good riders. Learning horsemanship and horse care is a huge part of our curriculum. At Silvers, you must learn to care for the horse through grooming, cooling, tacking, feeding, and cleaning stalls. Before and after each ride, the rider is responsible for his/her horse and barn chores. One can only learn so much about the horse from its back, its important fort he rider's growth to spend time alongside horses from the ground. 

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Second, we believe that better people make better riders. Self-awareness and awareness of how others feel is key to understanding how horses think and how riders react to horses. Personalities and weaknesses come out while riding. If someone is impatient, they will grow impatient with the horse while riding. If someone allows people to push them around, the horse will eventually test that and see if they, too, can push the rider around. Understanding how people work is important to helping them better their riding, to better understand the horse, and to even better themselves personally in the long run. Horses and riding can make weak people strong, hard people soft, impatient children patient, unfocused children focused and so on. At Silvers, we do not just allow the rider to work on riding, we ask the rider to consider how personalities, weaknesses, and strengths play a role in horse and rider development.

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Third, we believe in achieving mastery through scaffolded learning.  Over a period of time riders are learning different skills that span different levels of difficulty but build on one another through multiple types of drills and practice (all with varying levels of instructor support). Cognitively, everyone is different. We have a curriculum, but we do not believe in a one size fits all curriculum. There is flexibility in the route and speed of learning but never in safety; safety is always first. Sometimes, we will be focused on one exact skill in a lesson, sometimes two to three (or more), but always the lesson is focused on forward growth. The goal is that through differentiated instruction and practice, riders will master their skills (the canter departure, the sitting trot, the posting trot, driving their horse into the corners, trotting circles, etc).

*Never is a rider done learning as a rider; this we understand; but we do believe that attempting to master skills through multiple ways of learning helps riders achieve success in the saddle and in their personal life. 

 

Lastly, we believe in fun. Riding is fun and should remain fun. Learning and progressing should be fun. Through all the curriculum and learning, through competing if someone chooses that path, we believe the heart of it all should be fun. 

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Mission and Vision: When Silvers was opened, it was not opened without intent. It was not opened to just give lessons, to just train horses, to just have a show team. It has always been the vision of Kati and Justin to build a program that was best for the horse, best for the rider, growth minded, and family-oriented.

 

It has always been part of the plan that the barn be multi-generational, not just focused on adult riders or juvenile riders, as this sport is for all ages and can be enjoyed by multiple family members at one time. It is also an important focus of the barn to give back, this includes being involved with rescue and repurposing horses in need.

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The main mission of the barn is simple. The mission is to provide high quality instruction to each rider and to deliver that instruction based on what is cognitively appropriate, to foster the love of the horse, to develop a rider to their best potential both in riding and horsemanship, and to help a rider develop the skillset needed to work in the horse industry if that is what they desire to do.​​​