Menu

Stay in Touch
Sign up for ENews
Subscribe Now

Unlimited access >

Menu

Good Paying Equine Jobs

Off Course
#21

I want to share advice that I received when i was “About Your Age” - it was from a barn manager who was in her early thirties at the time, lived in a free cabin in exchange for yard work, and managed the barn and some lessons where I kept my pony as a teen. She was surrounded by horses and spent 24/7 working with them / for them. Ideal right?? Well…she couldn’t afford to own her own horse, and had very little in the way of job security or investments, should she get injured…

She said to me - do you want to work with horses, or do you want to own the horses? Her rationale was that most horse jobs allow you to work with horses, but don’t compensate enough to pay for what is quite an expensive lifestyle! It is rare that the one on barn manager / trainer salaries are the one can buy the big horses and do the circuits!

I can imagine becoming a veterinarian or farrier would be the best way to “own the horses” and work with them, but being a farrier is so hard on your body - not that being a vet is easy either - but day to day wear and tear that my horses take out on my farrier - and they’re pretty polite! And Vets give up their lives to do their jobs - bless them! So there are huge costs to both.

Anyway, FWIW I thought about her question a lot, and fast forward 20 years (ish)! I have a non-horsey career that I really enjoy and I can afford “own the horses” on my own little farmette. Did i miss out on a career as a trainer or coach or international rider? Likely not, as I wouldn’t have been able to bank roll it. And sure now I’m one of those annoying AAs who sometimes have to hire help to keep their horses going but…I love it. It’s a great lifestyle.

Good luck whatever you choose - there are lots of correct answers to your question.

4 Likes
#22

You are still young - at some point you will want to drive a decent car and live somewhere nice and go on vacation someplace fun (without your parents!). Lots of great advice already given by other posters. If you choose to pursue a career in horses, I’d recommend having a plan B - meaning a college degree - in a field where you can get a job making the salary you desire if the horse thing does not work out. I quit working with horses in my late 20s when all my friends were driving nice cars and buying houses and going to ball games and fun places while I drove a beater, lived in a dumpy apartment and worked weekends. It just was not the lifestyle for me. I was able to have a career in insurance/finance and own a show horse, which was fine with me. Best of luck whatever you decide!

2 Likes
#23

This is one of the best responses to this perennial question that I’ve seen. Couldn’t agree more.

OP, most of us here were you in our teens and asked this same question. I would guess that very few have found the pot of gold at the end of the horsey rainbow. If you want a good paying job that is horse-related (not necessarily working directly with horses), look into law (equine-related attorney- lots of high-income potential clients, if you can carve out a niche. Though I suspect it comes with a ton of work and long hours), biology or chemistry- equine nutrition, feed development, supplements etc. Those are big markets. Equine insurance adjuster? Lots of equine insurance companies- not sure of the specific training you would need. All of these will need a college degree, and likely beyond. Choose a college wisely so you don’t end up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before you even get to ‘start’.

Personally, I have an office job that I like and it pays decent. Do I sometimes stare at my pictures of me and my horse and daydream about riding, adding more animals to my farm, picking out a pony for my (not even 2 year old) son? Yup. But I also work regular hours, get good benefits and paid time off to live those dreams and an income combined with my husband’s to be able to afford a small farm and keep my horse (and mini donkey) in my backyard.

There are always going to be trade offs in life- part of the game is just figuring out what you can live with and what you can’t live without. Best of luck!

3 Likes
#24

My previous barefoot trimmer shared with me that he usually nets between $100k-$150k per year. :eek: Which is considerably more than what most equine vets I know make… and without massive student loan debt.

That’s also not factoring in the cost of equipment, vehicles, insurance of all forms, taxes, etc. And… horses need their feet done no matter what. Get injured? Need a vacation? That means no pay AND you need to figure out how those horses are getting trimmed when you’re not around. Or else you will have some unhappy clients who will likely spend their $ elsewhere.

1 Like
#25

While the farrier would bring in a nice paycheck, consider it is a 7 day a week job. Horses throw shoes regardless of the day of the week, and they love to do it the day before a big show. Unless you get into something like marketing for horse related products, you will not have a M-F job.

1 Like
#26

Are you sure it was net not gross earnings? Farriers (and trimmers) may gross high dollars, but because they have to pay ALL THEIR OWN EXPENSES, the actual net pay is much less onice those dollars are deducated in a well run business. Unfortunately Farriers and other horse specialists may be poor business people in managing their earnings, do not see the “big picture” for needing a savings account for retirement, paying their taxes, having good health insurance, etc.

I see the Farrier School ads that talk about earning those huge dollar amounts, but never say how many hours a day or week are spent to earn it. Or if that high dollar amount is the gross or net earnings. Or if that Farrier has a real life with a family, normal activities or just lives to work. Maybe he or she has a string of broken relationships that are job related from work being their priority. Women Farriers also face no income should they wish to have a child. Working pregnant until delivery time is very unsafe, but then they are not making money to lIve on.

1 Like
#27

$100k plus is not impossible but highly improbable, my son who majored in photography was hired during his summer internship between junior and senior years. The offer was too good to refuse being in the low six figures, now he is in the upper six figures (he is not photographing horses)

The reason he went for photography was an offshoot our other kids being highly successful in the show ring, he wasn’t. I had taken a lot of photographs along the way and he become interested in the camera work but took the interest way beyond the next level

1 Like
#28

There is no such animal as a good paying horse job unless you are at the top of the top, and you get there by slaving fort pennies most of your life. Get a good job outside of horses so you can afford them after college. :wink:

1 Like
#29

Disagree. Go to a trade school and learn a skill. Degrees suck, lots of debt and no job. Learn to be a welder, plumber, or electrician. You will be making $50+/hour within five years and can start picking your own jobs. Being a welder goes along with being a farrier, you can start with being a farrier while you learn to augment your income, then swap as the welding thing becomes more steady… but keep doing the farrier thing and start selling horse shoe art on top. Bam.

8 Likes
#30

OP I was like you once. I wanted to have my own boarding barn with a lesson program and train horses and teach lessons and go to shows. My trainer at the time threw me on every thing that walked through the barn and I worked there. It was awesome. When I wasn’t in school I was at the barn. I ate slept and breathed horses. Until one day reality hit me in the face. I had barely any time for my own horse and maybe 2 nickles to rub together after rent, my horse’s board bill and the rest of my bills were paid and I somehow I had to put gas in my tank before I got paid next. It was a real eye opener.

Fast forward many years I have a college degree and cushy M-F desk job with health insurance, 401K, a pension and plenty of time off and, most importantly, the funds to keep my two horses at home.

My mom gave me great advice when I was your age. Have a back up plan. She’s right. Do what makes you happy OP, but know that in order to make a million in the horse industry you have to start with two million.

2 Likes
#31

I really like the comment about working with horses Vs owning horses

#32

I’m going to go against the advise here and recommend you lean towards becoming an equine vet. It is going to take a lot of time and cost a lot of money but so are a lot of the other options. As a vet you will have the ability to work in an established office, with good pay, insurance, time off, etc. The starting pay should be decent as well.

That being said, I would recommend you do any horse related job that you can get your hands on in the mean time. The farrier course sounds great but you will need some practical experience to back it up before people will start trusting you with their horses. Try to intern or work for minimum wage for a trusted local farrier on nights and weekends around school. During the summer see if you can work as an assistant barn manager for a local barn. You don’t want to just be mucking stalls and turning out horses but let them know you want to learn how the business is run (i.e. expenses, insurance, marketing, etc). Go work for a trainer for another summer. Even if it is for minimal pay, just the experience of seeing everything the trainer has to go through with different clients and horses will give you valuable experience. What you want is a broad experience with horses. Just working daily at the same barn for years won’t get you there. People treat their horses like their kids. They want to know that the person they are trusting their horses health to has a broad enough experience to see and recognize things that others may not.

If you decide a vet isn’t for you and would really rather go the route of running a farm I would recommend at least getting an associates degree in business. The best run barns can still go bankrupt if the business side isn’t run correctly. There is a lot more to it than just collecting monthly boarding fees.

Keith

#33

Here’s the thing- I made my living off the horse world for 20 years before recently switching to the plant/landscaping industry because an amazing opportunity fell into my lap. The horse industry is hard and for most people who work in it- the job is pretty much 24/7/365, most jobs don’t pay much and don’t have many, if any, benefits attached. BUT I’d go back to that a million times over before I’d ever take a corporate office type job. And there are an awful lot of people out there who do make their living in horses. Almost all of my friends and professional contacts are career horsemen/women.
You have to know yourself and if that’s really, truly what you want to do. If you KNOW that’s what you want to do as I did, go for it and ignore the nay-sayers. If you’re at all wishy-washy about it, find something else. There is no rule in life that says you’re not a successful person if you don’t exist within the corporate box.

2 Likes
#34

More food for thought - I made a decent living running a local boarding/training/lesson business. I had health insurance and Worker’s Comp. And I had paid help and an occasional working student, so I had some work/life balance.

One of the keys was that I found a profitable niche. I was a step up (and more expensive) than group lessons at a big lesson barn. I only did privates and semi-privates so kids progressed much faster and I could justify my higher cost. The rest of my niche was I had a knack for finding the right first horse or pony. So clients came to me after doing group lessons at a big barn, made lots of progress, leased or half leased a horse from the barn, and then I helped them find their first horse and sometimes their second. This was a GREAT niche because the BNTs with big show programs didn’t have the time to work with this type of client. We did a lot of local shows, but only 4 As a year. We also evented, trail rode, fox hunted and Pony Clubbed. If someone wanted to show more extensively or really do the As, I passed them only to another program that did that.

I focused on horsemanship and developing independent horse people and having fun.

I believe this is a business model that would still succeed, because there is definitely a need for exactly this type of program.

Downsides? Well, I had to work my a$$ off to get there. I paid my dues, mucked a lot of stalls, and did without insurance or work/life balance while I was learning.

And making time for your own horses and your own riding is always a challenge. I managed to carve out time and resources for that, but it wasn’t easy.

It’s still running a business - some days the part time help didn’t show up to feed and muck; sometimes I rode the tractor instead of my horses; sometimes the clients made me crazy; sometimes the weather was bad and I didn’t have any lesson income for weeks.

So a decent living can be made with horses with care and planning. Two things I wished I had at the beginning instead of learning painfully as I went along - business knowledge and customer service training. I took a business accounting class early on and it probably saved me. And I could have avoided a lot of mistakes in dealing with my clients if I had some formal training in that when I started.

Best of luck to you, whatever you decide.

1 Like
#35

It’s really tough to make a good living in the horse industry. Many horse professionals have outside support–a spouse’s job with better pay and benefits, a facility to work out of provided by a family member, lifestyle supported by a spouse, other family member or an inheritance, etc.

If you look closely at the finances of horse professionals, yes, there are some who do well–but that is the exception, not the rule. For example, a rare high end trainer with a stellar reputation and backing from loyal high end clients/customers, or a farrier who has made a name and a following for themselves and can hire apprentices (inexpensively) to do the work but charge the customers the same rates. Also, IME, a certain percentage of trainers who do well do so by supplementing their income with shady sales practices (hidden commissions) or cheating/drugging to ensure their clients’ horses win.

Care and planning isn’t enough. I’ve seen many hard working and talented young people devote themselves to the horse industry only to realize that they are making peanuts for their effort.

You don’t need to be a genius to be able to predict this. A young person might look at a pro making $50 or $75 per lesson and think that’s great. But then look at how much it costs to have a facility where you can teach lessons. Look at how much it costs to keep lesson horses. Look at how much insurance is. To have enough clients to have a steady cash flow, you probably need to have your own barn filled with client horses. But, unfortunately, boarding is a loss leader–it typically costs YOU money. Plus, a barn has to open early in the morning to get horses fed, but many clients want their lessons in the evenings or on the weekends due to work constraints. That’s a LONG day.

A young person might look at a trainer flipping a $2000 horse for $10000 and think, wow, that’s great. But that horse might have easily eaten up $8000 in board, training and a few shows over the course of a couple of months. And a certain percentage of the time, resale horses don’t turn out the way you want–behavior issues, soundness issues, etc. Sometimes trainers end up giving away resale projects that didn’t turn out.

Personally I think that it is largely a fantasy to think that you can expect to make a decent living in the horse industry. Being a farrier or a vet are reasonable careers but require a large investment of time and training, are a lot of work, and also carry a lot of risk. Comparable careers in other industries almost always pay better.

2 Likes
#36

I did the math on this. To gross $100,000 a year you would need to trim 8 horses a day at $50 each and work 50 weeks of the year. If your clients were on a 6 week cycle you would need 240 clients.

If you charged $100 a trim you would need 4 horses a day and 120 clients.

Trimming is faster and perhaps less physically taxing than shoeing, but is still work.

The length of the working day might well depend on whether you had clusters of clients at specific barns or if you needed to travel to several barns in one day. Travel is nonearning time unless you charge a farm call fee like a vet.

Does this all sounds plausible given what your trimmer charges and what you know of his client base? Or is he pulling your leg? In some markets there may well be enough clients within commuting distance but in others it might be hard to find 200 barefoot horses.

2 Likes
#37

Same area as Texarkanna- yes, absolutely that trimmer could quite feasibly make that amount. 8 horses a day would a light day and a well established barefoot trimmer is definitely charging more than $50/trim. Not to mention a lot barefoot trimmers will also glue, do boot fittings, etc. The farm that I previously worked at had between 75-100 horses on property depending on time of year. That was split between two farriers. Most of them were barefoot and on a 5 week schedule.

#38

Oh, that’s such BS and downright bad advice. Sure, if you are hoping to make 6 figures with a degree in underwater basket weaving, a trade might be a better choice but frankly, very few trades pay that sort of rate either unless you’re looking at high skill, high health risk things like welding. Most of them require years of being an apprentice/peon before you start making those salaries and the hours are not kind.

My advice, if you enjoy math and puzzles at all, go into STEM, specifically software engineering. Pay is still wicked high right out of college and you can work nearly anywhere you like, geography wise. Much like learning how to use a hammer & saw means you can then learn to build anything from a bridge to a delicate tree ornament, learning programming allows you access to almost any field. Seriously, everything is computerized these days and if it isn’t, it will be soon. You learn the basic tools in college, then specialize into a narrower field where you actually like/want to work. If you’re clever, you could even make it horse related cause god knows we need some decent scheduling software in the dressage world. Or custom imagery software for 3D printing corrective shoes if you really like working with horse feet.

But like someone else said, the horse world doesn’t really support both working with and owning nice horses, not unless you are at the pinnacle of your horsey field. You want to up the possibilities of both a decently large salary and horses, choose a career that has more than 5% of the professionals making what you want to make. The horses come when you have pocket money.

#39

TheJenners is actually right. I’m sure part of it depends on your area but, for instance, one of my friends is a plumber in a not-very-great area and he makes $80/hr, with PTO, benefits, and pension options. He is home everyday by 3-4PM. He has a better work/life balance and is paid better than most people who went to college, myself included. He is not high skill, did not go to college for it, and it is not high risk. He started as an apprentice but it was paid (iirc, something like $20/hr which is still more than twice minimum wage in his state) and it was only a year apprenticeship.

Welding is not the only trade. HVAC technicians make great money and have good hours. So do electricians, plumbers, some mechanic trades, etc.

I went the equestrian college route. My graduating class was very small and I still keep up with most of them on FB. Every single person in my graduating class (other than the 3 that significant family financial backing) has either gone BACK to college for a real degree or they have gotten a trade job. Interestingly, out of the 30 or so that graduated, 4 have become LEOs, 10 of them joined the military/Navy, 5 of them are back in school now to be vets, and the rest either have trade jobs or got govt jobs that pay significantly higher than what their major-themed wage is out of college. Don’t pursue equestrian jobs/college… It’s a mistake that I regret incredibly, every day.

3 Likes
#40

very few trades pay that sort of rate

well, there are many trades were a person can clear a few hundred thousand dollars a year

Back in the early 80s I had an overhead door company (these are garage doors) that was just me and my BIL… we were doing over $2 million dollars in jobs that had a clear cash flow that was over 15%

It not unusual or uncommon for Joe Blow Residential Overhead Door and Gate company to be clearing way over $100,000 … just call one to see what they are quoting.

Most of them require years of being an apprentice/peon before you start making those salaries and the hours are not kind

all was needed was the coin to buy the product … as for those unkind hours… the billing rate is really unkind to the person/company that called you out in the middle of the night or weekends or holidays or when you really didn’t want to do the job you just quoted very high rates

Get your Digital Subscription here - only $21.95 / year

Subscribe here
See gift options

Sign up to our monthly newsletter!

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.

Copyright © 2023 The Chronicle of the Horse