Yes, I definitely get that this might not be what I want to do the rest of my life! So I could always decide to ride horses more as a hobby
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Yes, absolutely I plan to make my education a priority either way.
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Essentially, that’s what I’m doing now. At the barn all day at weekends and after school. I get on anything I’m asked to, even if it’s not “fun”.
I think for someone like me, who isn’t riding at a high level compared to a lot of people, being willing to work is especially important. Honestly, I genuinely like working, even on the more miserable days.
I’m definitely going to try and get my license soon, and maybe shoot for a working student position next summer.
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I take lessons from some exceptional riders that do ride at top levels even though I stink.
The overwhelming feedback I get is the devil is in the details and getting the little low level stuff perfect and makes the big stuff easier.
You don’t have to jump high or ride at a high level to have smooth, quiet transitions, perfect circles, focusing on ground poles and cross rails, and having an independent seat.
Just focus on making the horse better each ride.
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No advice, but I just want to say that it’s nice to see a well written, articulate post from a junior. We don’t always see that. I’m not a big fan of young riders who use the word “like” several times in a (run-on) sentence. So, thank you! Keep up the good work and studies.
Good luck.
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The best working student jobs IME are with the trainer you lease/board with. It’s really hard to be a good WS when you’re bouncing between barns - if your home barn is not serving your needs, I would consider other programs full time. You’ll have more opportunities if the trainer also has you as a paying client - it’s not always worth it to invest in a student for a summer that is just going to go home and ride somewhere else during the school year.
Alternatively, look around for a reputable sales barn in the area and see if they’re looking for a pony jock. I got a LOT of saddle time as a junior riding at the sales barn in our area. This wasn’t an auction place, but a consignment program catering to the local Channel 2 (B/C shows) type of horse and rider. I rode all sorts, and could have had show opportunities if I’d wanted. This wouldn’t have taken me to the 3’ and beyond on its own, but it made me a good IHSA/catch ride type.
Following all that, if it’s in the cards to take a gap year (or graduate high school early and take a year) to fully commit to a reputable high end working student position, I’d definitely do that. You’ll get a real feel for how it is in the pro world - a lot of people realize this ain’t it! Even grooming at WEF for a season would be valuable.
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There is some great advice here.
I would add, don’t take on the working student role or persona at the expense of your studies. The best thing you can do for your riding career is to prepare yourself for a working career that is well-paid and flexible in hours and location. Riding is not a sport that you have to get to the elite level as a teenager in order to be successful - or even to turn pro. Having the time and money to ride in your 20s and 30s and the independence to seek out the best instruction you can will get you farther than a few years as a teenage working student.
In the meantime, never pass up an opportunity to learn - auditing clinics, reading books, watching videos, and even from all kinds of different disciplines. Best of luck to you!
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I will repeat the advice I heard Mike Page give MANY years ago.
Ride as often as you can, and ride as many DIFFERENT horses as you can. Good ones, bad ones, big ones, little ones, trained one, green ones. talented ones, incompetent ones. Just a many as you possibly can.
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If you get the chance to try other disciplines, DO IT. Go XC schooling. Take dressage lessons. Ride working cow horses - actually good western lessons are amazing for you as a rider! Depending less on your hands and having a different balance can do wonders. You also learn buttons that will do you GREAT when you get handed an ex-Reiner at an IHSA show and you get all the leads and swaps. Ride Saddleseat horses (you learn to sit chilly). Ride with different trainers.
If opportunities present themselves, take them. Be smart about it, but you’ll learn to take what helps you and leave the rest.
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Have you talked to your trainer about your goals, and had a conversation about why you aren’t moving up?
Some barns simply do not have the horses available to allow people to move up past the ~2ft range with leasing or owning, but it sounds like leasing is an option for you.
Even though you enjoy riding the green horses - I would highly recommend trying to lease an older, experienced horse (and ride other people’s green horses for experience whenever possible). Green/problem horses can teach you a lot - but they can also cause you to pick up bad habits and/or lose confidence, and this is especially true when it comes to jumping.
As someone else mentioned, the best opportunities you will get will probably be with your trainer, so if you don’t feel like where you are currently at has the opportunities you are looking for, don’t be afraid to try out a different barn. I was in a very similar situation around your age, and it took me a bit to find a place that was the right fit for me, my goals, and my budget.
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I already know why I’m not moving up as much as I’d like, because I can’t afford a horse to do it on. I’m limited to a half lease, and currently I am leasing a great horse. But I know I won’t be able to move up past the local 2’6- potentially 2’9 level on her.
My trainer is amazing, and has done so much for me. But she focuses on more local stuff, and does not have riders showing at a high level.
There are no barns near me (or anywhere really) that are going to have me jumping high on a horse I don’t own or fully lease. Which is completely understandable. I cannot do any lease situation that requires me to pay unexpected vet bills, farrier, etc.
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Ah. Limited budgets make this harder BUT look at it this way: the basics are the basics whether the jump is 12" or 1.50m. Get REALLY good at flatwork. At the smaller stuff. Take advantage of any opportunities to ride outside your discipline, with other trainers (clinics!), etc. Look into IEA - it’s a great way to get saddle time and isn’t that expensive.
Build a reputation for reliably hacking horses safely - you don’t necessarily want to Train other people’s horses. But if you can hop on anything, adapt to its style, and put a good fitness ride on without messing with the training, people will be more willing to give you rides. In general, people with too many horses who are looking to give free rides are NOT looking for a training guru or UL phenomenon. They want someone with soft hands and good instincts who knows how to get the best out of all kinds of horses. This will serve you well as you get older!
Start researching WS programs now before you’re ready to pull the trigger. Know who has a good reputation, and DIG around - check the SafeSport lists and look at social media. But my ultimate advice is to get a good, steady job (something remote is helpful, but you often have to work for a few years to score those positions), and fund your horse habit yourself. Going pro tends to take all the fun out of riding unless you’re actually funded by someone else behind the scenes!
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I’ve been the junior who could “only” afford to half-lease, so I get your frustration. I think the fact that you’re realistic about your situation and are looking at how to work within your constraints instead of focusing on how unfair things feel puts you miles ahead of a lot of your peers. The horse world is rough and having a good sense of perspective and self-awareness is going to help you out a ton whether you go the pro or ammy route.
I think you’re doing the right things right now, especially since you’re still in school and can’t drive. My advice would be not to get too far ahead of yourself. Long term plans are great, but circumstances change and horses like to ruin all the best plans, so sometimes it’s ok to just focus on the season ahead of you. You describe yourself as competent up to 2’3, but your horse can potentially do 2’6/2’9 - I’d start there. Spend this season working to get really solid at 2’6. No point worrying about how to jump higher before you get there. If you master 2’6, then you can have the conversation about whether 2’9 is realistic for this horse, and by that point there may be other lease options available.
Beyond that, as others have said there’s a lot you can work on without jumping super high. Good basics are good basics. If you primarily ride hunters, try out the jumper ring and start adding in more technical courses even if you drop down a bit in height. Lean into dressage and challenge yourself to develop super solid flatwork (and if you think you have solid flatwork already go take a lesson with a dressage instructor and test yourself). Keep working with green horses when you get the chance. Just be open to whatever opportunities come your way, be grateful for the opportunities you do have (which is more than a lot of people get), and remember that there’s a whole life ahead of you after graduation which will open up a lot more options for pursuing horses if that’s what you choose. It can feel like your junior career is the peak of your riding life when you’re in it, but I guarantee you it’s not. This is just one part of a longer story.
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Do not want to waste time repeating all the excellent suggestions, this advice is in addition to them.
If you want to associate with better horses, figure out a way to ride with a better barn, even if it is less saddle time or a different discipline. You reach a point where you need quality, not just quantity. Need to ride something besides leftovers nobody else will get on. Yes, these horses can teach you something- survival abd trying to avoid explosions. But they are not going to help you advance the subtle use of correct position, balance and aides as you are too busy trying not to get bucked off, stopped off, spooked off, spun off, run off with etc,
For example, all of my trainers ( over 50 years worth in several disciplines/breeds) were barraged by young people looking for rides whose resumes highlighted their skills working with assorted unreliable horses to downright POS types with every know vice.
My trainers pointed out they do not have any horses like that and they need a rider who can deal with a nice, good horse which is, basically, what they and their clients have. Not that they are perfect…far from it…but they don’t take on bad horses, they do not have time. The idea is to produce safe, competitive horses their Ammy and junior clients to enjoy and those would be the likely rides they would have for a a WS type when clients cannot get out. And it would be flatwork, flatwork and more flatwork so the better your flatwork the more opportunity might present itself.
Just sounds like from your description of where you are with your riding now, spending more for fewer lessons from a better trainer on a better horse would be the best move.
Trying other disciplines has been mentioned but I will repeat that. The jumps themselves greatly increase the price to operate a H/J operation, different disciplines are, well, different but the basics are the same and you need to learn to feel how the horses body works and where it’s feet are without looking in order to advance your flatwork skills.
Always recommend looking at a good Western operation for this. Yes, there are differences but they are less expensive and you will learn FEEL and finesse that will transfer to H/J if and when you want. As a bonus, you get to see what good ground manners look like and learn how to install them, on anything.
I never had any money or parental support, rode Western with good trainers in medium quality barns for 20 years. Trust me, everything carried over to Hunters with just a little readjusting on my part, my flatwork was very strong and I got extra rides on nice horses because of that.
It is a journey and there really are no shortcuts.
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Another avenue to pursue is finding independent ammies on the circuit who can use help. I have always had a kid or two each summer (well, up until my own kid got old enough) to help me hack my horses. I’ve had kids with a range of experience from teens like you (jumping 2’3" and not getting enough saddle time) to young adults who have shown over big fences, and everything in between. I’ve given them all the opportunity to jump with some regularity and big(ger than they’re used to) on my horses. My kid who was doing the 2’3" got regular time at 3’6" on one of my mares, and others have jumped around up to 1.40m on my bigger horses.
I recognize that I’m not the norm, but there have always been a decent number of independent (meaning not affiliated with any particular barn) adults around who keep horses at home in every area. There used to be a lot more of us, but I think more have disappeared from the show scene than have disappeared from the horse world entirely.
I agree with the suggestions to perfect your flatwork as much as possible. But I will also add that I don’t want someone to “train” my horses. I want someone who can maintain how they go and not influence the horses in any direction. And that is a skill set unto itself.
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Become obsessed with the details. Learn to meticulously groom a horse, the basics of body work, noticing where their feet are in a showing cycle, precision with adjusting tack, etc. Know the basic locations of soft tissue structures, how to remove a loose shoe, what constitutes an emergency. Be someone who both is and is known for being a deeply thoughtful well rounded horse.
Rider A - utilitarian grooming, smacks horse for pinning ears, tacks up, hops on horse who seems a little up, goes out, has a tense ride, walks away saying “horse was bad today”.
Rider B - notices how the left shoulder seems tight with some subtle grouchy faces. It is windy and horse is very alert. Rider spends a few extra minutes grooming and letting horse settle. At the mounting block rider waits thirty seconds until horse is truly settled and standing square. From step one rider is thinking about that shoulder soreness to detect any unevenness of gait, think about whether there could be a connection, and ways to warm up very methodically to ensure the horse is truly even before beginning work. Horse responds well to the extra time and has a relaxed engaged ride. Rider makes notes to track what they observed, looks back at past notes, and develops a plan for next ride.
The people whose opinions should matter to you will see rider B every time. Maybe not in a single instance but someone who shows up thoughtfully and with care will be rewarded. It doesn’t mean you’ll get the reins to a top horse and a clear path to becoming a pro but it might mean a working student opportunity or getting to hack horses while someone travels. Become the person you would want to entrust with your horse.
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You’re getting excellent advice. I spent many many years in your position and when I finally had the money to afford something nice it was so easy to move up to bigger jumps because I always rode anything I could swing a leg over, I rode as much as possible without stirrups and in my 2 point, and I studied all information available to me.
There is such good information available online these days. A clipmyhorse.tv subscription is a little pricey but has endless hours of clinics and horse shows to watch. I believe you get access to a lot of it with just a USEF membership though, so look at the details because that would be cheaper. Watch the every horse mastership clinic on repeat, watch the Beezie Madden flatwork demonstrations from the last several years over and over. The big FEI classes are fun to watch but I find there’s more to learn from watching some lower level open classes, where you can watch, for example, a good pro take a spooky horse around the 1.0m ring. In the junior/ammy classes you can often hear the trainers yelling from the in gate. All free lessons!
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Amen sistah.
Any readers looking to pick up rides need to make a sign and hang it where they will see it every day. THAT is the skill set that can get you extra rides. Working with the horse as the trainer/owner requests.
Watch as many horses as you can and develop an eye for their body language so you can assess what you have that day for that ride. Hang around the schooling rings at shows, watch lessons at your barn, LEARN and remember. LISTEN and remember. Everything and anything. File it away in your brain. Only costs your time and willingness to watch, listen and learn. Beware it takes a long time and you never stop learning.
And if asking about extra rides, stress your willingness to follow owner/trainers direction, be on time and leave that horse and tack showring ready when you are done. Stress your eagerness to learn and willingness to adapt your riding to that horse that day the way that owner/trainer wants it ridden. Do not brag about your ability to ride bad horses, owner/trainer with a good horse needs a rider to stay out of it’s way, not stick a buck and possibly light up a horse with no intention of misbehaving by overusing leg and hand.
And say thank you, often. And for gosh sakes keep your mouth shut about anything negative or there will be no more rides😉
Reputation is everything in this business and horse people never forget. You are young and can build a good reputation over time.
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First, I still think it would be beneficial to sit down with your trainer and discuss your goals. If your lease horse can do 2’6 at local shows, you should ask for specific guidance and direction on how to get there from where you are at currently.
However, ultimately I think that @findeight gave you great advice in terms of doing whatever you can to ride at a better barn. Maybe that means that once you can drive you get a non-horse related job to pay for lessons, or, ideally - you could find a higher level barn that would let you work off lessons.
At your current level, I would not approach barns with any suggestion of trying to do extra rides or “training” rides, I would really focus on getting lesson opportunities, and once trainers are comfortable with you, the extra rides usually follow suit. Also, if you are interested in showing - going along to be a groom at shows is great experience.
At your level you will learn so much more from good quality instruction on a horse who knows what it is doing - even if that means riding 1x a week vs. riding a green/problem horse without instruction 3x a week.
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Need to caution here that the working off lessons by doing barn chores is far less common then in years past. Many reasons, some liability questions that could cost the barn big time bucks. Some related to past experience with well meaning young people who underestimate the time requirements and physical demands.
Keep in mind, in most barns, group lessons are going to start anywhere from $35ish to $75ish with private lessons starting where groups leave off. That is NOT including use of a horse and any tack or equipment supplied by the barn.
Thats a lot of mucking stalls, sweeping aisles, scrubbing water buckets and such. How many hours of barn work can you regularly devote to barn chores for each lesson? What rate is the barn willing to credit to your lessons? $10-15 an hour? Or something like 5 hours of work equals one lesson on a barn horse? Don’t forget many, if not most, barn chores are morning and early afternoon 7 days a week which does interfere with school hours.
Have to weigh that against non horse gigs like dog walking/sitting, cleaning other peoples houses, good old baby sitting where you can make more for the same amount of your time. When you get a little older you can get a part time server with tips job as I did. Easier and much more then I could make mucking.
Anyway, working off lesson costs at the barn is not much of an option any more with barn operating costs so very high. Plus …you do tend to get what you pay for instructor and horse quality wise.
