Just wanted to clarify that I am not expecting the stars to just magically align one day, and I am very much a realist. But on this specific site I often see the same few things that @Amberley mentioned repeated over and over, and they are not necessarily true for everyone, so it is sometimes frustrating to see it as canon here that if you just keep at it things will work out when unfortunately that isn’t always the case. At the end of the day I think we all just want to enjoy our jobs and make enough to support our horsey lifestyle and real lives outside of that and that path looks different for each of us 
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I completely agree with that! I think for many, things have worked out because the concept of what “working out” looks like changed over time. It may have gone from multiple horses to bring up the levels to 1 horse going BN successfully and competing in between work trips.
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Corporate job and professional job are two different things. There’s lots of middling jobs with not much room for advancement in all corporations.
As far as COL, where I live your basic 3 bedroom suburban bungalow is $1.5 million. A decent 2 bedroom condo is likely up to about $750 K. Horse acreage is now more like $5 million in the metro area. And wages are not that high. Not really sure how it all keeps afloat. Generational wealth transfers, off shore money, low down payment and low interest rates.
Buying a condo on a single low 6 figure income could be a financial stretch.
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Or, if you are like I was/am, you consign yourself to really mediocre apartment living not home ownership. All the while socking money away in investments and having a horse in modest circumstance ( not "A " barn, off breed choice) .
For me it was choice and it started with dropping the American Myth of the house with the picket fence
the house could come later when other things are played out. I suspect I may buy my first home next year at age 66
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Ain’t that the truth. My parents married young in the mid 60s. Dad worked his way through finishing college at Georgia Tech, mom quit college and raised three kids as a SAHM. They bought a small house in a small town outside of Birmingham AL. On Dad’s salary as an inside salesman in the paper mill parts business, they bought us all cheap starter cars, and I got a horse at age 10 and rode and showed all through high school. All of us went to 4 year colleges with no student loan debt save for my sister who went to Middlebury ($$). My parents had nice cars, took trips to Europe and out west, we all went to the beach in the summer, and my parents weren’t drowning in debt. All of us had such an easier start in life.
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I left a very lucrative 10 year corporate career to a lucrative (sounds crazy, I know) career managing an upper level eventing program. It can be done - it just takes some strategy and knowing what you want. One caveat up front - I do not compete anymore or own my own horse. I learned over the years that I was not good enough or driven enough to go 5* and that I didn’t want to make my money in that extremely hard way. I still hack when I feel like it, and there are riding opportunities at my farm for trotting, schooling, galloping, etc after you have proven yourself.
I would highly recommend being a working student for a reputable program to test the waters. It is how I got my start, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I was a WS for 6 months then went to getting paid and then to freelancing during my corporate career. If you can afford your expenses for 6 months to a year (food, health insurance, horse expenses, etc), absolutely do it. If you don’t have a horse, absolutely do it as that makes it a bit easier to afford. Your riding may not progress as much, but you will know very quickly if you can make it in the industry. I also know of WS gigs that pay a stipend if you are good enough (~$200/week). A lot of people like to go on and on about how terrible it is to be a working student, but do your research, go for a trial period, and know what you are getting into. The good gigs are out there. I’ve been working in eventing for 12+ years, and I have yet to have a bad experience, but I have been very selective about who I work for and what I am willing to do. I don’t come from money either so that’s not a necessity. Happy to answer any questions about how I did it or any PMs about who I would recommend or my thoughts on certain gigs if anyone wants it.
I will also say that my body has never been happier since it has been moving all day every day. I worked out, went for walks, rode, etc in my corporate job but nothing compares to fresh air all day and walking 13+ miles every day. I’ve gained so much muscle and lost 50lbs while eating a million calories of delicious food. I have the odd aches and pains, mainly in my elbows and shoulders, but overall I feel so much better.
One last recommendation if anyone does leave corporate America in their 20s is to still invest for retirement during your gig in horses. You just can’t catch up the compounding interest when you’re older. Drop money in an index fund or open an IRA.
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I’ve know a few people who made a career change - 1 made a successful transition from law practice to trainer, another went from corporate career to barn manager/trainer which didn’t really work out too well. I think the thing to remember is many of us gave up riding for awhile and got back into it when we could. For me, it was an overbearing boyfriend that got me back in the saddle again. I wasn’t making a ton of money but managed to find $ and time for 1 lesson a week, then eventually twice a week. From that point on I never stopped. Unless you want to be a professional I think you should stick w/ your corporate job, enjoy happy hours with friends and you’ll eventually find yourself getting back in the saddle.
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I think Lauren Chumley is looking for somebody for FL and if it works out when they come back to NJ. I get the feeling that it is work hard/play hard kinda barn. But you will gain a lot of knowledge. She works hard to so expects those around her to work. Lots of nice horses, Fjords and pizza. Mostly dressage but some eventing.
I worked in corporate for 31 years. I became an alcoholic, burned out on corporate and Covid with WFH was the nail in the coffin for me. I became sober and a few months after that quit my corporate job to become a WS for an FEI level dressage rider. I had been her client for a few years. I worked 6 days a week M-F and Sunday were normally 7 am to noon or 1 pm and Monday I came back for about 2.5-3 hours of PM chores. I got full training which was full board and a combination of lessons and pro rides 5 days a week.
When she traveled and I picked up extra shifts I got paid cash. I learned a lot.
She moved out of the area so for the last year I have been a barn manager but I only work 4 days a week.
Because I am married with no children and was well set up due to being in corporate for so long I only need to cover my horse expenses- board, training, saddle pads, blankets, vet bills.
I have known this trainer for 20 years. She is very flexible with my schedule to accommodate my husband’s medical issues.
This is a hunter trainer and I am learning a lot here too. But it is not a W/S position. I do take lessons from her.
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If I were younger I would work for Lauren LOL. The students get to ride and she is a lot of fun!
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Whatever you do make sure you have good insurance coverage including short term/long term disability, AFLAC whatever. A friend pretty much lost her job after suffering an injury working for a less than compassionate boss. That’s the other thing, you can have an amazing work situation or you may find yourself in what you thought might be a wonderful opportunity only to find that it’s not that great of a deal.
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On what planet?
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Rereading some posts on this thread, I’m wondering if the differences in middle-class lifestyles and economic brackets are to do with which generation the subject parents were/are.
It was not so in my time, with parents of my parents’ generation (the Great Depression). I grew up middle class, in the South, my father with a good job, good salary and benefits; both my parents were college graduates, my mother quit working outside the home to be a full-time homemaker.
Not one single friend of my age had a family that owned “a few horses;” none of the parents rode even in the families where one child rode. I only knew about half a dozen kids my age who had a horse, and all but one of those were backyard horses living without a stablemate.
I did know a few girls who boarded a horse at the barn where I took lessons; they were private-school kids but not even their parents rode and they certainly didn’t own a few horses.
Maybe one difference was geographical. I grew up in the Deep South, in a city. Maybe in other regions “middle class” meant a different income bracket; I don’t know.
Come to think of it, we did know one family who owned 2 horses; they lived on a farm and they didn’t hunt or show, so didn’t have those expenses.
“Tone deaf” is a good description, I agree. It certainly hasn’t been the reality for any of the working people I’ve ever known.
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I think it’s more the area you lived in. I’m 70, and grew up basically middle class. My parents were both college graduates, but my father’s degree in English and irregular work ethic didn’t serve him well. We lived in a rented leaky farmhouse on 10 acres in the outer suburbs of Washington, D.C.
We had a motley assortment of horses and ponies starting when I got my first horse at age 12; many neighbors had horses, too. All for the kids; few adults rode.
Some people, usually the more “farm”-type, had horses on their property they didn’t use. Horses were agricultural items that kids had fun on, not expensive hobbies for adults.
We lucked out buying a 13 hand pony for my little brothers to ride that, when the drugs wore off, turned out to be quite unsuitable for them but with lessons at home turned into a very nice hunter pony. I showed a LOT. All local shows, my friend’s family had a trailer and we went together. It was very exciting when we made the Chronicle of the Horse magazine show results!
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It’s only worth it if the education offered by the working student position is top notch.
Working for free for a yahoo with mental health problems who goes in the GP ring and gets a 46 and makes you ride every single horse in the program long and low 100% of the time? Not worth it.
Getting eyes on your riding EVERY DAY, opportunities to ride legit horses, the trainer gets good competition results and horses leave the program selling for more than they came into it, usually in at least the high fives but sixes are certainly also a regular occurrence? AND ALSO nobody is an abusive psychopath?
Worth it.
Also much, much harder to find.
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I bet it was! Belated congratulations! The farmhouse and 10 acres would have seemed like heaven to me in those days. As it was, we had maybe 1/4 acre in the suburbs, with a storm ditch running through the back – the neighborhood boys’ football practice field and show ring for the girls’ invisible hunters and jumpers. The ditch gave us an outside course as well as the “ring”
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Where I grew up, there was a tiny boarding farm where a few kids had horses and a couple of homes had enough acreage for a couple of horses but that was it. Most of the kids I knew that had horses growing up were “middle class” but they did all kinds of barn chores to help off-set the cost of their horse’s board/upkeep. There were a couple of classmates who took lessons at Jane Dillon’s Junior Equitation School. There wasn’t a big trainer business where I lived.
Back to the subject of career change - I always thought / wanted my retirement job to be somehow equine related - but what does that mean - vet practice, therapeutic riding, equine insurance.
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One of my favorite horse books is Jane Dillon’s Form Over Fences.
I disagree. I owned a farm and had a great ammie horse by the time I was 26. Now, I own a better farm and 2 nice UL horses that I compete and work full time. Husband also works.
But these were the decisions I made when I graduated college. Get a great corporate job that would allow me the ability to do the things I wanted to do with horses. I may not have had horses right away after college and it was 3 or so years after college until I could have a lesson/ compete again, and there were other sacrafices, but I did it and am able to do what I want to do with the horses, have a great flexible corporate job.
I think in todays world, people don’t want to sacrifice. I see this one “influencer “ who complains that she doesn’t have money, and she is a starving corporate job/ side gig professkonal, but than eats out most of her meals, spends $$$$ on designer clothes and is constantly spending money left and right, yet constantly complains she has no money. It’s a generational thing, imo. They don’t understand how to save, or go without that designer shoe/ dress/ handbag if you want something more.
I sacrificed, I didn’t go out to eat, I brought my lunch everyday, but it afforded me the goals and things I wanted in life
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