Just going to throw it out there that equine vet starting salaries are NOT good. Per AVMA average starting salary for equine vets graduating in 2013 was 47,806. Yes, that is pulled down because of people doing internships, but it is a lot lower than the average starting salary for small animal vets. Combine that with an average debt of ~$143k and it is difficult to afford your own horse if that’s what you want.
Don’t forget about other possibilities like working with nutrition/feed or pharmaceutical companies (R&D or sales) that focus on equine products. Not physically working with horses on a day-to-day basis but still a job that could help horses in some way.
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Actually, its great advice. I have 2 real estate agents and 3 electricians in my family that never got past high school and all are multi-millionaires. They make well over 200K a year. They work hard but don’t work long hours either.
You don’t need a degree to be successful, its nothing more than the check in the box now a days and a way to get a bunch of debt.
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I love when I get called BS this early in the morning…
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Are you brainstorming for the future? Is the farrier thing something you’re wanting to do part time now? The way I read your post – you aren’t even 16 yet. I’m not sure if you can even get the right insurance coverage to BE a farrier until you’re at least 18. 
I will disagree with the large majority saying you have to go to college. You don’t. In fact, a four year college degree is no longer a differentiator in the market. For resume purposes, graduate school and certifications are still the ways to go.
The horse business is HARD and it isn’t stable (No pun intended.) More and more families are getting out of horses, breeding numbers are down - and the middle class of horse owners is finding it harder and harder to pay a living wage to a trainer.
I’ve got a girlfriend who is an assistant for a large majority of the year, but has her CPA and immerses herself in tax work for January - April to stockpile money for May - December.
I’ve got another friend who is a trainer and recently shattered her leg coming off a young horse wrong. Thank god she has her judges licenses and can pick up some work judging shows while she cannot ride.
My roommate makes a living driving carriage horses - but she has to meticulously plan and advertise and make sure her horses and carriages are booked solid in order to pay her expenses. Thursday thru Sunday she’s up at 6 am and doesn’t get home until 1 am. Monday thru Wendesday she does all the vet visits, farrier work, carriage licenses, and admin work of the business.
My personal trainer is just going out on her own after being an assistant for the last decade. She’s already overwhelmed with eventually needing a truck, trailer, work tack, show clothes, insurance, etc.
The best way to enjoy horses is to be an owner, frankly. The best way to be an owner is to have a career that lets you have extra fun money and comes with health insurance. Doesn’t mean college - a gal I grew up with had a $5M home… her dad started as a plumber and then grew his business over the years to an entire fleet of plumbers and several states coverage. Some friends that have a phenomenal breeding program run a very successful auto body repair shop.
Good luck!
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You could consider a job as an equine insurance agent. It would be an office job versus hands-on with horses (although some who are self-employed are more “out in the field” to drum up business) but still in the equine field.
How many real estate sales people do you actually know? How many of them are easily making a 6 figure salary? How many got licensed and then went back to their 9 -5 jobs when they couldn’t make a go at it? Cause I know half a dozen who fall into that second category up here in the Boston market. I know three who kept at it and they’re functionally using it to supplement their spouses’ 9 to 5 jobs. If it was just them, they couldn’t afford to do it and still pay a mortgage themselves. Apparently the average wage is roughly 40,000. Just like the horse world, there are outliers and super stars but implying a kid can make $200,000 if they just go into real estate is as bad as telling them “just go into selling high end horses”.
This anti-college education view that keeps showing up is short sighted and detrimental to both the kids & our country’s future. The problem is not college educations … it’s the “follow your dream, go to college for what you love” thing that encourages kids to get $200,000 into debt with a degree in art history. Does the world need 10,000 art historians? Of course not. Basic job supply & demand.
Are some degrees not worth it? Sure. Do some people make good money without one? Sure. Hell, one of my friends dropped out of college to start his own tech company and is now a multi-millionaire. But he seriously already had the skills that college was trying to teach him and he had wicked good luck on startup and selling before the dot com bust. I know dozens of guys who tried to do the same and failed and ended up with no degree and restricted job prospects because of it.
Very very few “good” jobs are open to people with a high school diploma. It’s going to get worse as more and more jobs are automated. Even in real estate, the days of an agent driving buyers to dozens of houses is long gone. Now, everyone does their initial sorting based on the properties’ online listings. So you can roll the dice and hope you’re one of the 5% or so who can make good money with nothing but talent and grit or you can weigh the scales in your favor. A degree from a great college in an expanding field is going to open a hell of a lot more doors than a HS diploma.
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As TheJenners and a couple other users have pointed out… definitely not BS. Lots of folks I know who work as HD mechanics, tree fallers, machinists, welders, and plumbers get paid a very fair sum of money. Available work and salaried or hourly pay will vary, but that’s true of a lot white collar or conventional jobs, too. Any job, though, has merit. It wouldn’t be a job otherwise. Whether someone goes to university, trades training, or works their way up the ladder with a company or in a particular field, is irrelevant. No one person has more value because they took a different route. Post-secondary school or a type of specific job training can ensure some security or more financial gain, but nothing is a guarantee. Jobs with horses, IMO, are quite unique since they are largely dependent on folks who work in other industries affording horses as luxuries.
The question of whether you want to work with horses or if you want to have horses is a good one. You may find a lot of personal fulfillment in training horses for work, and getting paid to do it. Or you may prefer picking which horses you swing a leg over without any concern about whether your career with them will suffer for it. OP seems to not have returned, but maybe this thread will provide some insight for other people who are considering a career with horses.
The thing to remember is that an income of $100,000 puts you in the top 10 %. That means 90 % of folks earn less than that and the average income is in the $40,000 range. Varies by state and region. Household income in a family is usually higher because there are two earners.
So for every real estate agent or plumber doing very very well there are the others who don’t do so well. Real estate agents in particular have a big attrition rate because many never get a niche in the market.
Personal qualities of smarts honesty energy and hard work are more of a determiner of success than the field you choose.
Also success tends to require that you make the thing a huge priority not a side line or second best in your life.
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This.
<edited because I went back and reread the initial post - I mis-read it initially where she said it doesn’t have to be a 6 figure job right out of college>
If the OP wants to be comfortably employed for her area, well, depending on the area, that could mean as much as $200,000 or as little as $30,000. Web sites like salary.com are a good place to figure out what you can realistically expect to make in any given career and US region.
Careers that require building up your own business from scratch are very VERY unlikely to be high returns until decades of working at it. No one starts up a plumbing business from the ground up and is owning a 5 million dollar home in the 2nd year. No, that happens 30 years down the line, assuming they survive. But since the failure rate of small businesses within the first 10 years in the US is over 60%, well, you have to be beating the odds in multiple dimensions to make that path work.
I don’t know that the OP was specifically discussing earning a six figure income. I will agree that the conversation, at some point, did start to go in that direction. What I took from the mention of $100,000+/year incomes is that earning that is possible, but not a standard, per se.
I do agree with Scribbler, and I think most folks will agree too, is that regardless of someone’s career path, hard work, integrity, and a can do attitude are requirements for success. Being one foot out the door at a job will rarely lead to a promotion. Turning in abysmal school work will yield oftentimes disappointing marks. You can apply the idea anywhere. Someone who shows up to a riding lesson ready to learn and has a good amount of try in them will ultimately, IMO, do better than the person who shows up to treat it as social hour. Some folks won’t acknowledge or reward a good attitude, but a lot will. For example, I worked one season at a racetrack for a large outfit. Most folks pulled their weight, but there was one gal that had a poor attitude. One foot out the door. She had taken some issue with me, which can happen in any workplace environment. Later I learned that she and one of the assistant trainers had gotten into it. He was always around but was a quieter type; we had spoken on rare occasion. She had a series of complaints, one being about me. He had defended my work ethic and ability, and essentially told her to shape up or ship out if she couldn’t get along with the team.
Regardless of what you pursue, horses or otherwise, commit. The idea of bringing in $100,000+/year is great, obviously, but shouldn’t be the indicator of success or failure.
Well it depends on if you want to be “hands-on” or in the equestrian field of business. I would venture to say the founders of Ariat are millionaires. So if farrier is of interest to you why not pursue some field of research and development? Or equine nutrition. Sometimes we think of being in the horse business as just pro trainers/riders or vets.But there are a lot of STEM careers that fall into equine/Ag careers - but again, those careers might not always be “hands on”
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I am a full time real estate agent in Seattle. Half the people who get licensed quit in the first 2 years. They don’t realize you will be working 60+ hours a week and have to hustle like no other. Plus the startup costs and don’t expect to make a paycheck for 6 months.
About vets, I think I am seeing a changing of the guard locally.
Every single vet over 40 is male, and owns his own practice. Some have clinics, some don’t really.
The new crop of vets coming along are all young women and they are all attached to the larger clinics. They are often on call for emergencies on the weekends.
Real estate prices have skyrocketed in the past couple of decades.
I don’t know what the salary arrangements would be for the younger vets or if they will go into their own practice or stay in a clinic.
The older vets seem to be doing OK but it’s hard to know because if you are let’s say 55 and sitting on acreage you bought cheap in the exurbs 25 years ago and have paid off, right there that makes you a multimillionaire 
The home based traveling vets don’t have huge overhead beyond truck and gas and travel time.
“Good paying, equine jobs”- is an excellent example of an oxymoron.
You have received some excellent comments already.
Anyone who thinks you must go to college to make a good living needs to spend a little time perusing the mikeroweWORKS Foundation web site (http://profoundlydisconnected.com/).
Look, I’ve got a PhD in a STEM field and thanks to that, I’ve got a good job with one of those 6 figure salaries people keep talking about. But science was my inclination, my comfort zone, my passion. College was my place.
Not everyone is like that. There are lots of people in college right now pursuing a 4-year degree who shouldn’t be there. People for whom higher education is NOT their inclination, comfort zone, or passion. College is NOT their place, but they are there because they have been convinced that everyone needs to go to college. Those people would be so much better off if they had chosen trade school or a two year degree from a community college.
Also, I think some people here are vastly overselling the income producing value of a 4-year college degree. I know what our 4-year degree technical support staff make. Their jobs are more pleasant and more interesting, maybe, than being an electrician or plumber or welder, but they aren’t really making much more money.
Finally, I have a handyman that I call when I need something done that I can’t handle myself. He has his own business, an LLC, but he’s a one man show. We’re about the same age, he’s a bit younger than I am. He also makes a 6 figure income. He’s very good at what he does, works hard, charges a fair price and has about a one month waiting list - I know that because today he put me on the calendar for December 20.
If you’re inclined to go to college, by all means go. But don’t go just because you think you need to in order to make a good living.
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I may have missed something, but I don’t think anyone has mentioned a solid savings plan to this young person. Most company 401Ks are worth nothing nowadays because companies don’t match the contributions. Therefore, a Roth IRA (they’re tax deferred) is usually a good choice for a young person beginning their career, whether they’re self-employed or not. (There are other savings options for self-employed people, too.)
This is just a link I found to a simple savings plan that begins when you’re 20 and ends when you’re 65 with a million in the bank (this is based on the assumption that you’ll get a 12% return, but 10% may be more realistic for today’s market): https://brightside.me/inspiration-tips-and-tricks/this-savings-plan-will-help-you-become-a-millionaire-by-age-65-273360/. You certainly don’t have to make a ton of money to follow this plan and accumulate a healthy nest egg.
To the OP: congratulations on being so young and for already considering your career and income options. It’s perfectly fine to want to love what you do and make money at it. And it’s perfectly possible. I see farriers, trainers, vets, equine dentists, chiros making a decent living every day - sometimes they don’t love every minute of it, but they buckle down, do the job and love it overall.
As a side note, I agree with the folks who said a trade is a good career choice. Don’t be afraid to pursue owning your own business someday, either, whether you’re a farrier, vet or something else. Consult with a good CPA with experience in that industry first. However, as a college graduate myself, I do want to advocate for a post-secondary education because of the enrichment the experience provides. You don’t have to go $80,000 in debt to get an undergrad degree; if you’re thinking of going into business as a tradesperson, look into a business degree at a solid state school. Best of luck!!
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I want to ditto this ^^^^^ Many, many times over…from someone who has multiple degrees in engineering.
And as far as studying anything to do with software or computers…if it can be done remotely, rest assured your competition for jobs are in India, China, and soon Africa.
But when the toilets don’t flush, or the lights don’t turn on, you want the plumber or electrician here today. Those jobs don’t get outsourced overseas. I never met a poor plumber or electrician.
General Dynamics’ Electric Boat Division is the company that builds the Navy’s nuclear submarines. There was a recent an article in the Wall Street Journal stating that they are having trouble filling skilled trades jobs due to retirements.
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-e…212-story.html
Ditto for Arcelor Mittal (steelmaker) who could not find enough skilled machinists, millwrights, welders, mechanics…to work on their equipment and backfill their retiring workforce.
Interns make $20.40 an hour for a 40-hour week. Once hired, they make a $22.39 base pay and enter a one-year internal training program to build on what they’ve learned. They then become fully qualified maintenance technicians at a base rate of $25.91, but they can earn far more than that with shift differential, overtime, production bonus and profit sharing. In fact, the average pay at ArcelorMittal for technician jobs is $90,000, Norgren says. Bolden, says in his first year as a full hire, he’s earning “well above” that with all the overtime.
http://www.industryweek.com/STEM
I this day and age, I would heartily recommend young people study a trade as all the old “farts” are retiring and jobs are going begging.
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These are however very highly skilled trades, and in some cases the skills aren’t transferable, so you learn and earn at one company, but when they downsize you don’t necessarily move on to another job.
$20 an hour is about $40,000 a year. $25 an hour is about $48,000 a year. If you live in middle Tennessee that’s a fantastic income. If you live on the coasts, it’s not that great. Housing costs are one of the big differentials and the regional difference that determines the value of an income. Does a regular house cost $100,000 or $1 million?
That said, I do agree that trades are a good option for someone with a knack for it, who really does want to do the work, and is willing to work overtime to make the extra income. I do see a lot of kids in college that don’t have a clear path ahead, and aren’t brilliant enough at academia for that to carry them through to a professional job or graduate school. In general, some post-graduate work (law school, teaching certificate, Phd, medical degree) is needed to make the BA really pay off, and you need to do well in the BA to get accepted into those.
My comments in blue…
So…if I had to do it over again…yes, I would be a skilled trades person.
The going rate for an underwater welder is ~$200k. Don’t know any engineers making that kind of coin.
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I know several. Hell, both my husband & I are getting close to that and we both started out near 6 figures fresh out of college. If that’s your goal, though, you need to do one of two things - strike it rich with a start up (9 out of 10 startups fail) or do it slow way - come out of one of the top engineering schools in the world with decent grades, chase the jobs that pay and (most importantly) be willing to go where those jobs are. Low-middle 6 figures isn’t average where I’m at but it’s not so rare as to be surprising in a number of engineering fields… but I moved to a tech-centric city on the coast.
But it’s not likely that you’re going to be doing underwater welding in Podunk, Idaho. And even if you are able to, the average pay of underwater welding is 54,750 … hardly a guaranteed cushy lifestyle. Only the top 10% make more than 90,000. https://www.commercialdivingacademy…and-salary.cms
So moral of this story is that there are no guaranteed high paying jobs left … you need to be the top of your field, whatever it is, to pull in the big bucks.
