Career in the equine world? help......?

Question

I am 15 and have applied for work experience in a stables. I am confused about which career to do when i leave school. I would love to be a groom but they dont get much more than the min wage. I really want an equine career but i dont know what to do. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

I live in the UK and i have to go to college in a year. I have found a college that do equine studies but i dont know what to do.

I live in the UK and i have been riding for a year and a half.

Answer 1

Look here first if you are serious about this.
http://ag.arizona.edu/impacts/2002/3_6.html
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=racetrack+management+program&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ques&x=wrt&u=ag.arizona.edu/landandpeople/spring2005/article9_l%26p.pdf&w=racetrack+%22race+track%22+management+program&d=Jb6BhEVuN0k2&icp=1&.intl=us

Then find a way to work wtih horses and gain experience for college. Horseracing actively searches for young horse lovers who are serious about a career within the industry.

I wish you the best of luck in reaching your goals!

Murph

Answer 2

Working at the track is tough for a lot of people. You have to genuinely love what you do. You get up early in the morning (4AM) and sometimes work late into the night if you have a horse running in the "midnight handicap" and then get up the next day and do it all over again. There are no holidays; it's a 7-day-a-week job. You work in all sorts of weather. Now; having said this, I worked in the racing industry for over 20 years. I was everything from a groom to an exercise rider to a pony girl to a trainer. I would never change that part of my life for anything. I still find it difficult not to get back into it. I'm now semi-retired and own and operate a boarding farm in SC. As you're 15, you have plenty of time to research different horse related industries and figure out which interests you the most. Good luck.

Answer 3

There are lots of different jobs in the equine world. In horse racing there are trainers, assistant trainers, grooms, hotwalkers, exercise riders, jockeys, vets, pony persons, outriders, etc. Other equine jobs are vet techs, equine massage therapists, farriers, equine reproduction (breeding farm), equine dentistry, horse boarding facility, trail riding facility, etc. There are lots of options. Starting out at a stable now will give you insight on the different jobs and help get your foot in the door. The more people you meet the more helpful information you will receive such as what kind of schooling or training, yearly salary, costs if any, etc. If you would love to be a groom why don't you try it for a summer. Some of the most enjoyable jobs aren't what you get paid but how much you enjoy it. I've been working as a groom on the racetrack for 5 years. I love my job because I get to handle the horses everyday and I play an important role in the life and career of a race horse as their caretaker. It is my responsibility to see to it they are well taken care of from feeding, stall cleaning, leg work, knowing when they are sick, etc. A grooms pay depends on the amount of horse they are given to take care of, quality of work, the knowledge the groom has to do tasks such as leg work, etc. Trainers most of the time gives a bonus for wins. Feel free to e-mail me if I can aswer any questions.

Answer 4

In the states you acn find a good job doing show braids in the big fancy barns. It invovles staying up most of the night to sew them in before a show but if you do it well it's good money and you travel. You could use braiding as an extra income with grooming. You might look into the Equine studies and a buisiness degree and get a job as a barn manager which can also pay very well and have an apartment supplied.

Answer 5

First of all you are only 15...which means you are probably a freshman or sophmore in high school, so youve got time. take it.

Here's what I would reccommend:
First off get as many connections you can in your local "horse world" this will help you no matter what, people always have chores they need done, horses that need to be excercised and as you get more experienced you will be offered more challenging horses, you will be offered younger horses to train and people will offer to let you show their horses for them.

Generally, there are a few large areas that you can focus on. Like you said groom...there's training...or teaching....there's jockeying which is limited to the certain type of people, also in that area, you can be an exercise rider.

Grooming-like you said, you will get paid barely anything unless you get lucky with who your employer is. The hours will be very hard, if you are a big show groom (which is not hard to find a job as) you will probably be getting up around 4 am every morning and staying at the shows until 10-11 pm. You will be waiting hand and foot on rich girls that have their own 100k+ horses. Personally, I would never think about this line of work.

Training- This kinf of goes hand in hand with teaching, as its hard to be only dealing with the horse, but if your focus is on training you will have less contact with the owners then if you are teaching. You can choose to specialize in a breed or discipline or you can do natural horsmeanship or general young horse breaking...lots of choices here. You can generally be your own boss and as yo make a biggern and better name for youself your price tag will grow.

Teaching-Not quite as big a pocket book as training as lots of the students you may have would be beginners and they would not be as serious as if you were training for big show horses. This can be very rewarding but is not right for everyone.

You can also choose to merely run a barn and board, but this is VERY hard to make a decent income on.

But seriously...you are young, experiment with different things and see what suits you the most and you think will make you happiest. but things coudl change. dont get stressed that you dont know exactly what you want to do with your life. There are plenty of seniors in college that still dont know what they want to do. so take it slow.

Answer 6

I am an Equine Sports Massage Therapist by trade. I wasn't born into the "horsey set" but I began my love affair with horses at the age of 3. After I took the Equissage course (TM) I started out working with show horses in my area, but my heart was into racing.

The laws about massage very from State to State, but more trainers are coming around to the benefits of massage. As more "show" people move into the racing world, they bring along their therapists for the horses.

Personally it was the one way I saw of getting into the racing world short of being born into it, or marrying into it...LOL! I have peace of mind, am my own boss, and I get paid a pretty penny too boot!

Answer 7

Hey Hey!

Get on a horse, working at a stable isgreat but if you want to work with them you need to get on and ride.

Grooms at better stables make a good wage and sometimes get living accomidations.

Vets specializing in Show horses make good money.

Trainers if you are good make okay money depending on the sport you choose and how good you are.

Coaching, Again, depending on how good you are you can make $100 for a 1 hour class.

Journalism, there are tons of horse magazines out there hiring writers to learn about horses and ride then write about it.

You are young get on a horse and ask your coach!

Answer 8

The best people to anwer this are the ones already in the racing industry. You said you have a job at a stables, talk to the people there, see what they think. If you have a racetrack in your area, think about a summer job at the track. This will give you a bird's eye view of the industry and will put you in contact with many of the people who will be your future associates. Keep your eyes and ears open, ask questions. It won't take you long to figure out what direction you want to go in.

Answer 9

You're only 15, so you have lots of time. Stay in school and try hard.

But there are lots of careers you could look at, and it's not too early to start thinking about them.

Something around racing:
A lot of trainers started as grooms. Get on the backstretch, keep your eyes and ears open, learn as much as you can.

You could also be in marketing at a race track.

You could be a vet. I know someone trying to get into vet school, and she says they are very competitive to try and get into. So get good grades.

You could buy some land and start a boarding stable. Horse owners who don't own land need to keep their horses boarded somewhere. Depending on where you live, land could be cheap or very expensive. You could work at a boarding stable and learn about operating one.

There are plenty of others: jockey, exercise rider, jockey agent, trainer agent....

Good luck...

Answer 10

A good place to start. The money isn't bad, but the work is hard and nasty. Go for it. You will get an idea of what is is about.