How do people afford to consistently show multiple horses?

[findeight]

I always liked her, nice people. Wonderful Hunter rider.

Please note she has primarily ridden other people’s horses and been paid for it because she is dam good at it. She stepped back from her own personal goals for some time to teach and train for the family business. Then went to work riding for somebody else to pursue her own goals. The horses she has in training now are largely funded by others.

Think Kent Farrington is a better example of starting with nothing. Middle class family with NO horse background. Started with weekly up down lessons, working student type. He has said one of his biggest challenges is finding the right horses, owners to fund them and hanging on to them. One of his current owners has been with him for a very long time.

You could put Mike Matz in that starting from nothing group but he took another path and married well. Very well and into a top horsey family.

[findeight]

OP, IIRC you were considering going to boarding school? Did that work out?

[julia.eq.h]

Unfortunately I can’t go to boarding school. It would disrupt my studies, and I need to focus this year because I have a lot of tests coming up. I still consider college in Europe though.

[vxf111]

It’s easy to think the grass is greener on the other side-- other people are at a better/cooler school and getting more opportunities, other people are showing more and with better horses, etc. But with age comes some perspective. There’s a lot of happiness to be had at all different price points and experiences. Would I be a happier person if I showed 5 horses on the circuit all winter long? Honestly, no. It’s nice to daydream about things like that, but when it actually gets down to brass tacks-- there’s a lot of happiness and satisfaction to go around but part of getting it starts with being realistic and not always feeling like bigger is better and more is the goal.

[GraceLikeRain]

I think that’s another one of our younger posters. OP was looking for braiding guidance to offset showing expenses but I don’t think she’s posted about boarding school but I may be misremembering.

[vxf111]

You could be forgiven for getting those posters confused (or thinking it’s the same poster with different screen names) given the similarities in their description of their situation/questions/writing style. But regardless, I think OP has gotten some terrific advice here.

[anon55755751]

Slightly OT, but interested to hear how others have experienced variations on this theme of moral/ethical conflicts at work, mainly how prevalent are they across the industries/professions suggested here and what is “normal” vs actually putting a person at personal/professional risk if they don’t leave?

While what you, mika, have talked about includes flat out illegal activity, I am really thinking more along the lines of resolving moral conflicts in greyer areas. E.g. as you go up the leadership chain in an org, you inevitably have to meditate interpersonal conflicts among staff - or decide to escalate to HR. Lots of fraught choices to make here.

I have been called pollyanna-ish on more than one occasion, not just related to work, and I get the impression my personal guardrails are too absolute. Most of my career, I have not had to worry about this at all, other than dealing with small amounts of sexual harassment directed at me, and I had trustworthy people in my corner for support, thankfully.

[GraceLikeRain]

I can’t remember the origin but there’s the quote: There is no such thing as an ethical billionaire.That amount of capital is only possible through exploitation: of the people, of the system, and of the environment

I feel like the same is true for large corporations and the further up the ladder you climb the more you are asked to make decisions that are morally gray.

[Trekkie]

@GraceLikeRain

I can’t remember the origin but there’s the quote: There is no such thing as an ethical billionaire.That amount of capital is only possible through exploitation: of the people, of the system, and of the environment

I feel like the same is true for large corporations and the further up the ladder you climb the more you are asked to make decisions that are morally gray.

This. For profit corporations are often in direct conflict with what is best for their employees or clients. When the bottom line is making money for shareholders or CEOs the product and the integrity is often compromised. When you become indoctrinated into the corporate culture you slowly lose your integrity to the product and the worker. This is a failure of what our culture of capitalism has become. Good in theory perhaps but corrupted as every other human ideology always is.

[findeight]

Even non profits get corrupted by greed despite starting with good intentions…or not.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

There was a poster who lived in Texas who was looking to go to a boarding school with a show team and horses on-site (I believe in Virginia) with very high tuition (something crazy, at least as much as going to college if not more). She would have had to have leased out her personal hunter to afford the school so she couldn’t do boarding school AND continue to show on the circuit. So she was hoping to find other ways to make money to avoid this dilemma.

[findeight]

Yeah, think that one also had an International background.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

I just remember that thread well, because some people were like, “you poor thing,” and all I could think of was that if that dilemma was posted anywhere else, people would be like, “girl…”

[DownYonder]

@anon55755751

as you go up the leadership chain in an org, you inevitably have to meditate interpersonal conflicts among staff - or decide to escalate to HR

That is the main reason why I never sought a role as a people leader. I was forced into that role some 30 years ago when I was the first person in my role to be hired but we quickly realized we needed more resources in that area and I was made the manager of that team. I then had to lay everyone off a few years later during an economic downturn. I have resisted climbing the mgmt ladder ever since - and esp. after watching multiple managers at multiple employers throw their people under the bus to save their own skin or ingratiate themselves with upper managers. No thank you - I will just stay in the trenches where I won’t be expected to stab my troops in the back to satisfy the whim of some UL manager.

[LaurieB]

I’ve been following this thread with interest. And debated whether to say something which is perhaps not germane to the question, but here goes.

OP, part of becoming an adult is realizing that you don’t always get what you want when you want it. It’s also realizing that spending your life on the show circuit with multiple horses isn’t the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Like many others, I had to stop showing horses when I aged out of juniors and went to college. Since the only good thing about my childhood was horses, I was desperate to get back to them. It took a while, but eventually I became that person for whom a really nice horse and shows every week was doable. I started riding again and got a nice horse–not WEF quality but wonderful for regaining my riding chops after years away. I started showing locally and thinking about next steps.

That was when I realized that I didn’t really want to spend my winters in Florida, or my summers travelling from one showground to another, and only seeing and talking to the same people week after week. There is so much “real life” you have to give up if you want to do that. Money, sure. But also time, relationships, travel, cultural and educational opportunities, etc. Over the years, I’d watched friends do that (talented amateurs on HOY horses). Eventually I’d also seen them get tired of the grind and give up riding entirely.

I ended up staying with my local shows and having a ball. Now (because I’m old) I have racehorses. OP, please think seriously about whether you want showing horses and living on the show circuit to be the biggest single priority of your life. My vote would be no. You’re young, you have plenty of options. Choose a career path you think you’ll enjoy. Don’t be saddled with a degree or a job you dislike just because someone tells you it might bring in enough money to take you to WEF.

[kenyarider]

I agree with this post. I’ve watched the “big time” show jumpers for many years, too many to count, and been around lots of show barns with “assistant” trainers or, years ago “working students”. Yes, there are the Beezie Maddens, McLain Wards, Laura Krauts etc. but there’s also a lot of others who came and went. It’s a tough life and it may look good when you are young, have no real worries and no real responsibilities, but juggling a life, a horse show life, a family life, and a work life is a lot of work. The rewards are few and far between and you will hear over and over again from the big names that it is hard. Amy Millar did a piece recently about there being very few moms at the top. She’s right. But, as I told my sons, “if you have big dreams, you can’t add a bunch of other things, so think carefully about the cost of that big dream and other things”. Lastly, I don’t think if you don’t have deep pockets or friends or family with deep pockets, you can “work your way up”. The days of going to a barn and going from stall cleaner to rider are probably gone, if they ever existed. I also don’t think if you are “average” in income and opportunities you are going to get the kind of high paying job that can let you do that. Not to say that it can’t happen, but even the folks who get those jobs had advantages and a whole lot of luck. The American Myth of the poor boy making good is a myth, always has been; and even those who made good almost always had some advantage (right school, right contacts, Luck) that helped them. If you’re interested, the NPR podcast on wealth inequality and how it impacts life choices is worth a listen. I can’t recall the name but they looked at entrepreneurs who had large (parental) financing and those who didn’t, and discovered that if you had a whole lot to lose, your gambles in your business were not as risky and thus, not a rewarding. If you had a soft landing, your risks paid off better. Just saying. . . .

[Scribbler]

It’s true. When you are a teen, and you have a big hobby or sport, it can be the one area of your life you experience freedom, self determination, accomplishments. That’s why it’s so important to have a passion as a teen. But at the same time, it can make that passion seem all there is to life, and also it’s usually funded by adults and often controlled by adults acting in what they think are your best interests.

Once you grow up and are launched into college, career, relationships, maybe marriage, family, home ownership etc, your whole life can be the panorama upon which you experience freedom, self determination, fulfilment and accomplishments, meaning also that you need to bring realism, responsibility and the ability to compromise to your life. You might find that other aspects like study, career, travel, love etc are more compelling than horses, at least for a while, and that you need to make choices. You may find that when you return to horses that you value other aspects of horses more than specifically competing at A level hunter shows.

I agree with being smart about career choices to maximize your adult earning and satisfaction levels, but this is to provide the flexibility to let you do whatever you decide to do with your life.

Another aspect is that if your career locks you into working in a huge metro area like New York City, it will be very hard to find time to ride.

[Madison]

@LaurieB

OP, part of becoming an adult is realizing that you don’t always get what you want when you want it. It’s also realizing that spending your life on the show circuit with multiple horses isn’t the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

LaurieB your whole post is spot on, but I want to echo this part in particular. The sooner we accept we can’t always get what we want, and we are not entitled to it either, the sooner we become truly content with what we actually can do. It doesn’t mean to give up hope, it just means recognizing that it may or may not be feasible, and some people’s situations make it easier to manage than others.

This past year was the first time in my now-middle-aged adult life that I was able to do a winter circuit. I really enjoyed being in Florida and out of the rainy dreary weather at home, but a lot of the reasons I really enjoyed it were completely unrelated to showing, like being close enough to the farm to take a lesson at 8:30am and be on a work call by 9:30, which would take an extra hour at home. Competing at WEC was a treat, and I felt lucky that the stars aligned and I was able to manage my work seamlessly, which would not always be the case depending on what I’m working on. But if I can’t work it out to go back, I’ll still have a great time time enjoying the shows I can get to, and be grateful for what I get to do, because the universe doesn’t owe me a winter circuit lol.

[clanter]

@Madison

LaurieB your whole post is spot on, but I want to echo this part in particular. The sooner we accept we can’t always get what we want, and we are not entitled to it either, the sooner we become truly content with what we actually can do

the reason we got horses for our kids we knew showing horses is often unfair, we used the aspect of showing these horses to teach our kids how to deal with failure (perceived or real).

The kids learned how to not just deal with it but how to accomplish their goals.

[findeight]

@Amberley

spending 8 weeks in a truckstop parking lot in the middle of nowhere.

At least truck stop parking lots are paved, fairly well lit, access to flushing toilets and 24hr hot food.

ETA truck stops usually are not in known flood zones. So no 2am phone call that your 17.2h 1.4m horse is at the county fairgrounds in a 10x10 pipe pen surrounded by auction steers because the A circuit show barns flooded taking everything loose into the creek…tack trucks do float for awhile but leak.