PRINCETON, Mass. - In Princeton, a ranch owner and her daughter are helping people go back to a simpler time, when a family road trip meant saddling up on horseback.

Susan Connell and her daughter Julia have found a living in teaching newcomers how to ride horses, and Susan is particularly passionate about the history of horseback riding. Aside from the occasional off-roading adventure in her Jeep, she wouldn’t trade the saddle for anything.

“A lot of people probably resisted the change and didn’t want to give up their horses and wagons for automobiles, so it makes me feel honored to be able to keep that alive and educate people about it,” Susan said. “I try all the time to try and find out new things to tell people and share with them.”

Susan is about as off-the-grid as you can be in 2023. She said she rarely ventures from her 55 acre Cornerstone Ranch, but she’s more than happy to invite others into her family’s secluded corner of Princeton.

“I started 21 years ago with just raw land, no houses barns or anything and carved the horse ranch out of it,” Susan said. “It just progressed over the years into what it is, a magical experience”

In recent years, Susan and Julia have tapped into a growing crowd of people who want to give up their automobiles, at least temporarily, to experience the simple life. 

This week, Julia was instructing a group that traveled all the way from Orlando.

“Yesterday I had a new student and I asked her ‘How much do you think the horse weighs?” Julia said. “She said ‘Maybe about 300, 400 pounds,’ and I said ‘Well, this horse you’re riding is actually about 950 pounds!’ It’s really cool to see people and how they really don’t know anything about the horses.”

According to the USDA, agritourism revenue has tripled since 2002 when Susan started out, but interest really started to take off for her after the pandemic. During the shutdown, she had some extra time to venture into the marketing side of her business. 

She’s not really concerned about keeping up with the competition, she’s just happy to be following her passion and bringing folks along for the ride.

“The only thing that I really notice is from being here because I work all the time, so I don’t get off the ranch much to see what others are doing,” Susan said. “I try to read up on things and follow things that way, but it's really based on what we're doing, what we're hearing from our customers and trying new things.”

For more information about horseback lessons or other activities at the Cornerstone Ranch, click here.