[QUOTE=Janet;6088123]
If you are planning to BE a trainer, you are going to have to give up your amateur status at some point.[/QUOTE]
Very true, but LeandraB is suggesting that riding on the team and riding trainer’s horses on the side for free lessons is a viable option to prepare for a career. When DD was riding on an IHSA team, the coach really grilled her on her working student activities to make sure she wasn’t violating ammy rules.
I may have posted this on one of the OP’s other threads, but I want to reiterate the importance of networking in the horse world.
Earlier this year, I found out I was pregnant and got grounded early on due to some issues with the pregnancy and being olde. 
I have a lovely hunter – not a $$$$$ horse, but flashy and funny and cute as a button. Although he can be a little bit of an ass, he’s fun to show. Now, I was looking for someone to keep him going and was asking around amongst friends and internet strangers.
It turns out that a nice young lady a little younger than the OP had moved to my state from across the country and was looking for a place to take lessons, but wasn’t having much luck. She was recommended to me very highly as a sweet, hard-working girl who was a very nice rider. She rides the pants off my horse. My trainer LOVES her because she has such a great attitude and is a lovely rider and he has been trying to figure out how to get her more saddle time. If it works with her school schedule, she’ll be getting to go to a few rated shows on my dime this year.
What I’m trying to say is: Lose the attitude, groom when it’s offered, work hard, learn as much as you can from whomever will teach you, get a good reputation, and you will get opportunities. Initially they will be small, but if you do your best people WILL notice.
I’m really glad there was no internet when I was 16. Holy cats.
Thanks, meup. I was picturing really embarrassed riders and could not figure out why they were such. Were their gloves the wrong color? Was their hair not tucked correctly under? Did they wear the wrong CO helmet?
[QUOTE=Muggle Mom;6088187]
Very true, but LeandraB is suggesting that riding on the team and riding trainer’s horses on the side for free lessons is a viable option to prepare for a career. When DD was riding on an IHSA team, the coach really grilled her on her working student activities to make sure she wasn’t violating ammy rules.[/QUOTE]
Just for the record, unless it’s been revised since 2009, there is nothing in the IHSA rulebook stating that you have to be an amateur in order to compete. NCAA has very strict requirements.
[QUOTE=Peggy;6087631]
No, the mom, probably named after one of their horses which are named after artists. Her dad does do something in the art world, which PonyPenny will probably remember the specifics of.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Peggy. I was just trying to emphasis that if you want the real story on Zazou, it is probably better to ask her mom instead of speculating. Andy Warhol and Balthus were both home bred horses of the Hoffman family.
[QUOTE=supershorty628;6088228]
Just for the record, unless it’s been revised since 2009, there is nothing in the IHSA rulebook stating that you have to be an amateur in order to compete. NCAA has very strict requirements.[/QUOTE]
I had no idea you could show on any college team and be a professional. This is why COTH is so great!
I think I have the solution to your problem, OP.
Finish high school, go to college, get a GOOD degree, find a job, save up money, then pay your way though the equestrian world as an amateur. Oh right, and marry rich.
Problem solved.
[QUOTE=AdultAmmy;6088291]
I think I have the solution to your problem, OP.
Finish high school, go to college, get a GOOD degree, find a job, save up money, then pay your way though the equestrian world as an amateur. [B]Oh right, and marry rich.
[/B]Problem solved.[/QUOTE
HEck yeah, don’t we all need to?
That’s what I call a plan!
[QUOTE=Trixie;6086222]
Um? There is no way you can be an English major if you can’t read five pages of bulletin board responses.[/QUOTE]
^:lol:
[QUOTE=LeandraB;6087949]
Look at college as an opportunity not as a hinderance
Most college teams have at least a few horses that have been retired from the Big Eqs and are capable of jumping at least 3’-3’3". This is a great aspect of college riding for you considering that you said you havent had the opportunity to ride a horse that is capable of 3’.[/QUOTE]
On the other hand, I’m on a team where we rarely jump above 2’6’’. I show on my own in the summer in the 3’6’’ and the 3’9’’ and then come back and jump cross rails. So I’ve done the height and the competition you want to do, but I have to tell you I’ve learned MUCH more jumping smaller jumps on green horses with my team Coach.
Emily:
Look into maplewood stables. They have an intern program that might fit your needs.
[QUOTE=Rel6;6088350]
So I’ve done the height and the competition you want to do, but I have to tell you I’ve learned MUCH more jumping smaller jumps on green horses with my team Coach.[/QUOTE]
This really ought to be up in lights.
I am just agog at the number of people who want a made competition horse to practice on so they can “work on me,” ESPECIALLY when they have hopes of one day being a trainer.
Additionally, people feel they are wasting their money when they are paying a lesson and end up “paying to school the trainer’s green horse.”
Are they kidding?
If they want to learn how to be professionals, or even if they just are amateurs who simply want to learn to ride as well as they possibly can, they are going to have to learn how to MAKE UP a horse. It is not intuitive based on riding someone else’s finished product how to get there yourself with your own.
All of this “Where are all of the made horses I can ride around so my star can shine bright” is completely missing the point.
Your star shines bright when everyone sees a horse that, the last time they checked was looking scruffy and doing nothing in a field and before they can say “who dat?” it is going around in full bloom nicely executing a pre-green round. Your star shines bright when someone who couldn’t enjoy their horse now can ride it happily because you showed them how. Your start shines bright when you can look at a training problem and quickly give the correct advice to the rider to fill in the missing piece. Your star shines bright when you can improve the lives of riders and horses, not just give them something pretty to look at from the rail. This of course means doing your riding largely in the services of the horses first and their owners second, with yourself and your own aspirations a distant third.
To be able to do all of these things you need to know where all of the ingredients go in the horse and how to implement the plan that makes it gel. You have to have gone through the process on as many UNMADE horses as you can possibly get your hands on, and take as many lessons on them as you possibly can, so that you have a wide array of tools and past experiences at your disposal.
Very low on the totem pole is riding a made horse around the horseshows, and if that is all anyone wants to do they will never develop the skills necessary to actually do it.
[QUOTE=meupatdoes;6088407]
This really ought to be up in lights.
I am just agog at the number of people who want a made competition horse to practice on so they can “work on me,” ESPECIALLY when they have hopes of one day being a trainer.
Additionally, people feel they are wasting their money when they are paying a lesson and end up “paying to school the trainer’s green horse.”
Are they kidding?
If they want to learn how to be professionals, or even if they just are amateurs who simply want to learn to ride as well as they possibly can, they are going to have to learn how to MAKE UP a horse. It is not intuitive based on riding someone else’s finished product how to get there yourself with your own.
All of this “Where are all of the made horses I can ride around so my star can shine bright” is completely missing the point.
Your star shines bright when everyone sees a horse that, the last time they checked was looking scruffy and doing nothing in a field and before they can say “who dat?” it is going around in full bloom nicely executing a pre-green round. Your star shines bright when someone who couldn’t enjoy their horse now can ride it happily because you showed them how. Your start shines bright when you can look at a training problem and quickly give the correct advice to the rider to fill in the missing piece. Your star shines bright when you can improve the lives of riders and horses, not just give them something pretty to look at from the rail. This of course means doing your riding largely in the services of the horses first and their owners second, with yourself and your own aspirations a distant third.
To be able to do all of these things you need to know where all of the ingredients go in the horse and how to implement the plan that makes it gel. You have to have gone through the process on as many UNMADE horses as you can possibly get your hands on, and take as many lessons on them as you possibly can, so that you have a wide array of tools and past experiences at your disposal.
Very low on the totem pole is riding a made horse around the horseshows, and if that is all anyone wants to do they will never develop the skills necessary to actually do it.[/QUOTE]
Great post. This is the truth! Once I grasped that my riding improved ten fold. Once I could actually do it? Riding sky rocketed.
I actually thought this stayed pretty civil. Just too bad some of these kids just look at the top of the ladder and give no thought to all those rungs/steps they have to tread on to reach the top.
The fact that at least 2 of the blown off posters ARE professional trainers who potentially could have offered some leads, one has a famous rider offspring and many of the rest of us are in big barns and own some of those fancy 3’+ horses seems to have escaped OP. But she split, not so tough and willing to do anything, except groom, I guess.
Forgetting you cannot start at the top dooms the overly ambitious. You get older, you see it more and more. But you can’t tell them.
This OP even has back up plans-an author or an English professor-that assume way too much and skip a lot of those rungs.
Kind of a shame because that will eventually kill any ambition.
If OP is still looking in? Go buy a green horse and train it up with that trainers help. OP can keep the horse easier then most,maybe get a part time job. Prove what YOU can do then ask for work…and you will have to start at the bottom step even then. Grooming.
I agree 100% , but it’s the trainers who have everyone convinced otherwise. They MAKE their clients think that they really need a packer for everything, they make them believe that they don’t have what it takes to ride a green bean. Sadly, most of their clients have the money to comply.
[QUOTE=meupatdoes;6088407]
This really ought to be up in lights.
I am just agog at the number of people who want a made competition horse to practice on so they can “work on me,” ESPECIALLY when they have hopes of one day being a trainer.
Additionally, people feel they are wasting their money when they are paying a lesson and end up “paying to school the trainer’s green horse.”
Are they kidding?
If they want to learn how to be professionals, or even if they just are amateurs who simply want to learn to ride as well as they possibly can, they are going to have to learn how to MAKE UP a horse. It is not intuitive based on riding someone else’s finished product how to get there yourself with your own.
All of this “Where are all of the made horses I can ride around so my star can shine bright” is completely missing the point.
Your star shines bright when everyone sees a horse that, the last time they checked was looking scruffy and doing nothing in a field and before they can say “who dat?” it is going around in full bloom nicely executing a pre-green round. Your star shines bright when someone who couldn’t enjoy their horse now can ride it happily because you showed them how. Your start shines bright when you can look at a training problem and quickly give the correct advice to the rider to fill in the missing piece. Your star shines bright when you can improve the lives of riders and horses, not just give them something pretty to look at from the rail. This of course means doing your riding largely in the services of the horses first and their owners second, with yourself and your own aspirations a distant third.
To be able to do all of these things you need to know where all of the ingredients go in the horse and how to implement the plan that makes it gel. You have to have gone through the process on as many UNMADE horses as you can possibly get your hands on, and take as many lessons on them as you possibly can, so that you have a wide array of tools and past experiences at your disposal.
Very low on the totem pole is riding a made horse around the horseshows, and if that is all anyone wants to do they will never develop the skills necessary to actually do it.[/QUOTE]
Ahem, find8, I would NOT call ‘grooming’ the bottom of the ladder. That’s where all barn managers started at one point, hands-on taking care of horses, and that’s where you learn really how to take CARE of horses. And if you don’t know how to do up a barn, and how to take care of horses (and CARE about taking care of horses), you are just going to end up in the ash heap like so many other so-called professionals. Professional riders I would not call ‘top of the ladder’; they are just the most visible part of what makes a horse a good performer.
I groomed for top trainers, and it was THE horse-care education. It gave me the base to teach myself even more.
OP would be helped if she saw the chance of going to college – and what a relief she is seeking a broadening liberal-arts education – as a way to see that to be successful in the horse world, it’s about staying thoughtful and alert to your own instincts and intuition and open to what is others in the profession are doing (rightly or wrongly). That is what makes for a good trainer and for keeping the horse from being victimized by narrow-sightedness.
OP sounds very excited. She will do fine as long as she keeps her focus on what matters – the journey, not the goal. But, at this age, it is great to have goals and to be idealistic. As a poster said, good riding and horsemanship are always recognized by others. Always. And good horses come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but, again, it’s maturity that makes that clear.
So just do a good, consistent job. Horses are very fragile life or business partners, so enjoying every (or, most) aspects of them will keep you balanced as they go lame one more time, get sold, hate jumping, can’t get sold, threaten your financial solvency… no joke.
You should read the article on Archie Cox in this week’s COTH, where he tells potentional professionals to stay in school, ride later. And if you’re planning to make riding your life’s work, then you need to know all the business and marketing skills you can get as well. There will always be another horse to ride, get an education too.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=322127&page=12
Can we just bring this back here? FOR REAL? I’m on page 10 of reading this ENTIRE thread, post for post, (yes I have nothing constructive to do at work) and this is like some CSI ish. After reading this thread and ^that one, I would have to conclude skittlespony/propereq/xemily are DUN DUN DUN the same person. This is getting a little obsessive here.
Can we get an amen? Wish more people in the horse world thought this way.
[QUOTE=ponyface93;6088537]
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=322127&page=12
Can we just bring this back here? FOR REAL? I’m on page 10 of reading this ENTIRE thread, post for post, (yes I have nothing constructive to do at work) and this is like some CSI ish. After reading this thread and ^that one, I would have to conclude skittlespony/propereq/xemily are DUN DUN DUN the same person. This is getting a little obsessive here.[/QUOTE]
I thought this about 10 posts in. There were also a lot of other threads right at the same time where skittlespony/propereq/xemily posted and replied to to each other. It all seems very scripted. I think there were even a couple more alts lol. Gallopinggal sure has a similar writing style. Maybe it’s me but my first instinct was that they are the same person and that this thread was calculated to get the response it did.
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