Are you a travel nurse by chance? It’s not really related to your original question I know, but I saw the 13 weeks/3 days part and had to ask, lol.
From the original post.
I am always so impressed that people do this. I don’t know how you manage. Just as you get settled you are off to somewhere else.
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I did this and I’m also in the camp that it depends. You need to be a competent person who isn’t going to burden the trainer or staff. You need to be upfront and transparent about what you are looking for and what you’re will to commit to as far as their program goes. Know that your schedule might not always align and you may miss lessons or shows if they are out of town or doing Florida all season. If you need training rides who will get the horse ready before and after. Stuff like this can make or break a relationship. But I wish you luck and hopefully you find what you’re looking for.
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This does exist but it’s few and far between.
I do this but i keep my horses at home. Even with my set up finding trainers that can work in my system isn’t always easy. I actually have been lucky enough to find great trainers to come to me but I can’t always get help every week due to their schedules taking them elsewhere with their other clients.
I’m with you in wanting to buy a fancy prospect able to compete at big shows, but it is tough these days and extremely expensive and hard to swing without a trainer in the know, or even with a well-known trainer in their program, in my case. Most of the “fancy prospects” I’ve tried are not at all reasonably priced or relatively easy for your average/average plus ammy to ride (not saying you are one of these, I am), but referring to the occasional (ahem) chip, moving around too much, too much going on with the hands, coming back in the air somewhat after a hard jump, etc. Just a consideration maybe. Good luck! Thanks for being a nurse!
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This is exactly what I do, to the T. I bring my own Husky trunk along with my show trunk and stable at the end of the aisle. I don’t use anything except the freezer for my ice boots. I buy the guys coffee and they fill my horses water.
My trainer is definitely one of the top on the area. I used to work for a top trainer (WEF, produced medal finals top placers, rode for the US team on numerous occasions type) and she allowed this as well. And is honestly the reason I’m probably allowed to do it at my current barn.
I’ll echo that you do have to prove yourself in the self-sufficiency aspect. I make sure my horse is turned out to the nines, I know my course, my number in the order, etc etc.
My trainer gave me the biggest compliment last week at the show and told me I was the most low key part of his day. That’s how I always strive to be. Do that and you’ll be just fine! Don’t think you have to settle for a “lesser” program to obtain this lifestyle. It’s exhausting, but saves soooo much $$$.
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It is going to be highly dependent on the area of the country you’re in IMHO. In Ocala, for example, this is incredibly common. I have my own farm, I take myself to local horse shows several times a month, but I train with a BNT at the big shows. I ship in for lessons a few days a week and typically just ship in to WEC and HITS because I live so close. My trainer meets me at the ring, I school/ride, and home I go. The rare occasions where I do stay at the shows, she’ll typically get me a stall and let me do my own thing. If I need daycare or full care for some reason, the option is always available to me but I don’t have to use it. I pay for the services I want and nothing else.
When I’m in Vermont for the summer, things are a little different. My farm here is still under construction, so I board with my trainer up here (my trainer in Florida doesn’t come this far north anymore!). I am allowed to do whatever I’d like in terms of care, but the cost is the cost. It’s a full board/full training situation and whether I tack up or bathe or clean my own tack or get my horses from the pasture or I do none of these things, the price is the same. I still ship into the horse shows because my current crew prefers as much turnout as possible, so I don’t have any splits in terms of set up or tack stalls, but I have full grooming and training when I get to the show so I do like to take advantage of that, personally!
I don’t think you’re going to get a lot of push back in regards to DIY so much as wanting to DIY and pay for services a la carte. Like others have said, special circumstances always exist, but they may take awhile to find!
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Ugh, sorry for the lack of reading comprehension! I’m running on 2 hours of sleep so I’m not tracking at 100%, lol.
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It’s been a while since I was in the game so things have obviously changed, but this was and is So True. And from a trainer’s staffing management it makes sense. Most of the work is done by the grooms. An additional horse coming on and off the schedule could make the difference between bringing too much to not enough staff on the road.
In the years I did do some a la carte it was only with a trainer I had a long standing relationship with and what I generally found out was he was so overstaffed to meet the demands for Fri -Sun when the clients arrived that it wasn’t extra stress to add my horse to the workload T-Th, as long as I was there to resume full care of my horse on Friday. Even though times have changed drastically (no small part why I’ve moved on) it’s possible that arrangement might still work in some cases. But to the OP, it’s really hard to see it working if you are only in one place for a short time.
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If you live close to a rural community, where land costs are lower and there tend to be more hobby horse farms, you may find what you’re looking for. That’s the sort of community I live in and there’s lots of room for people like you. There are very skilled coaches out here who are just tired of the show circuit and aren’t really hustling anymore. But you may not find an indoor arena, and the place may be less shiny than you’re used to. I recommend talking to a vet or farrier to ask if they can recommend any of these hidden gems. Good luck!
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This. This x1000.
It’s easiest to do all or nothing. Either you’re 100% on your own, or you’re in the program and paying your splits and everything (except hauling, if you do that yourself).
Just look at all the threads about show bills and trying to figure out why the splits or fees came out the way they did. It’s easier as a trainer to simply not put themselves in such a position to have to explain why one client isn’t paying their part of the tack stalls and trainer bill, but is still using the grooms and braider and whatever.
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Exactly this–all of it. When I meet a trainer at the show I strive to be the least problematic client they can think of, from the way I care for my horses to presentation of myself and them, my timeliness, and my trainability. I know my courses, including the jump offs, I know the schedule, we are clean and neat and turned out as nicely as possible, I am flexible and patient with their other ring conflicts, etc. I bring cookies and ciders and make sure I am not a burden to their grooms, and so on.
At home I train and board with eventers, who are by nature more DIY anyway, so that aspect works well. Eventers, both pros and ammies, tend to have several different trainers, because of their 3-phases discipline, so me riding with other jumper trainers is never an issue. That makes it easy if my home (eventer) trainer can’t go to a jumper show, because I can usually arrange to meet another trainer at the ring. I have found a couple of show barns whose trainers will accept DIY clients, but again–I try my hardest to be a really good, lowkey client. It also helps that I have talented, rideable (um, usually!) horses so we don’t generally present a lot of problems for them at the show.
It can be done, but it can also be hard to find. I don’t think I could have my guys at a “normal” H/J barn right now, because I am so independent and have a somewhat different training approach that I have gotten from my eventer instructors, but I definitely need and appreciate professional help at the shows.
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It is totally doable if…
-your braiding is equivalent to a professional braider, and the rest of your and your horse’s turnout is impeccable
-your horse doesn’t need training rides and you don’t need additional training - meaning, you make it around the ring in a way that reflects well on the trainer with people assuming you are “in the program”
-you are comfortable with your stall being away from their stall block and not hanging out in their setup/lounge area
-you accept you might still be on the hook for some trainer splits for hotels/food since their presence is part of what you’re getting. Same if they have a groom helping set jumps for you.
-you know the social situation is going to be different for you than a full time client
This will not work if you can’t get yourself and your horse to the ring on time and presenting well. I know someone who tried this method for a long time and really, desperately needed training rides on her horses and didn’t get them, and the relationship fell apart for this reason.
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A bit of a tangent since OP didn’t bring this up themselves, but I’ve been surprised by how many people on this thread expect to do their own thing and still get the same sense of community as the boarders. Those relationships aren’t built at shows, they’re built making small talk in the barn aisle and getting to know people and their horses over time. Obviously it sucks to feel excluded and people should at least be friendly, but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect people you barely know to summon the same level of enthusiasm for you that they do for their barn friends. There are pros and cons to both DIY and being in the program, and the social aspect is a big pro for some people in favor of boarding.
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And not only that, it takes an outgoing, including person to bring newbies into the fold who also has the time to recognize the newbie and find ways to include. In the “hurry up and wait” world, that is not always going to magically come together.
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So true! It didn’t bother me too much since I put the I in introvert so there’s a finite amount of socializing I wanted to do… I had a few friends who maybe didn’t ride with the same trainer, but we were friends outside the show barn so back in the day I had fun at shows.
But what I can say is as a person who was a DIYer from the 90’s to 2015 or thereabouts, is that the entire business of showing h/j has become so much more insular and self contained. Where I used to make friends at a show back in the day and there seemed to be a bit more “cross pollination”, by the end of my time it was… different. Maybe because there are less DIYers, maybe because a lot of the people who used to do the hunters that I knew have left, maybe too many newbs who only know the group in the trainer’s barn maybe a bit of all of the above. But for me, it wasn’t as fun a vibe as it used to be.
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I’ve been guilty of excluding someone unknown to me when I was a younger amateur and insecure about my perceived riding ability. As I got older, I realized that people ride better than me and I ride better than some others, so I lightened up some at the shows and was friendly to the ship ins. I encourage others and if we go to dinner I invite them join our group. Doesn’t hurt me. They may or may not join but that’s their decision.
Otoh, I do not talk to anyone except my trainer when waiting at the in gate. Some Ammies will try to get in your head about how horses are spooking at the far end of the ring or about how big the single on the diagonal looks. No thanks. But after the class, I’m friendly.
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Sooo…a few things…
- Going south for the winter sounds dreamy, but recognize that boarding facilities and not full care are few and far between. You may find some that do dry stalls, but finding one that has paid workers and just boarders are becoming harder to find.
- Are you planning to ship yourself? Bc the shipping costs alone will make this tricky since a lot of barns will take horses home late Sunday and back on Tuesday/Wednesday. Some stay at show for full circuit, but keep in mind that it’s another $3600 for a paddock for the circuit at WEC along with $3600 for a circuit stall. So you’re already 10k in for the 3 months with hay/shavings, stall/turnout, and not including shoes, showing, lessons/training, shipping, general vetcare. Without paying daycare, who is watching out for your horse while you’re working 12 hour shifts? Who is doing night check?
- We are a healthcare family and we know plenty of travel nurses. Post-Covid, the travel nurse rates down in the South plummeted (I’m talking 1/3 of the hourly rate in 2020-2021). So if you’re coming from somewhere like Cali, brace yourself for some sticker shock at your contracts. In addition, some of the hospitals have started scaling back their travel nursing and canceling contracts early, so make sure you have a good rainy day fund. A lot of the contracts offered were nights, but maybe you’ll luck out.
- Hay and grain prices have gone up considerably in the past year and the south definitely is feeling that pain. Crunch some numbers and do your homework.
- I think a lot will depend on your planned career track. I know there’s a limit to how long you can stay in one area or contract, so I would map out some of the places that you’re targeting and what the current contract prices look like. Get some input from local facilities of costs locally and research housing. Factor in housing in each area, and also consider that horses will take longer to adapt… so going from one climate to another multiple times in the year will be an adjustment and may mean giving them extra time and extra meds/supplements to make sure the transition is smooth.
- The best move is to just start reaching out to trainers and asking how they’re working with off-premises clients. Expect that many may charge a premium for non-boarders. But price lists are a pretty normal ask.
Good luck!
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I second this comment - I would recommending eventing barns.
I am not as independent as the rest of the eventers even though my main trainer is the event rider - so sometimes I feel a little needy bouncing over to dressage and jumpers whenever main trainer is out competing and I am home.
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I do this model right now. It can be done- lots of excellent riders and coaches do not want to shovel crap for a living. You need an excellent freelance coach
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