The snowbirds who I’ve had as clients here in FL have either been retirees who have budgeted Florida winter training into retirement plans or people with jobs who are able to work from anywhere via internet. The work from home clients often have to do a bit of traveling back to the home base during the season but still enjoy the majority of the winter in the sun.
The thing many people don’t understand is that bringing a horse to FL for the winter can be done at many price points. You can get a dry stall in Ocala, do all the work yourself,camp in an RV park and trailer to a trainer for lessons. Or at the other end of the spectrum, you can go all out and spend $3,000 per month in a full service Wellington barn and rent an upscale condo for yourself.
Florida winters aren’t just for the very wealthy.
Among both adults and kids, many commute - Thursday-Sunday most weeks, or Wednesday-Sunday every other week.
Among those who stay down, they either do work/school remotely (or with a tutor), or don’t work.
I’ve done the Thursday/Sunday commute and worked remotely on Fridays (or not). I ultimately decided the stress and expense isn’t worth it for me unless I have a horse ready to do the CDIs. I’m fortunate to work at a firm that has a Fort Lauderdale office - so provided I don’t abuse it - I could probably stay down for a longer chunk of time working from that office when the time comes.
The vast majority of people in my area send their horses down, and either commute or stay from December through March.
I’m going for a month this year, for the first time. I’m an amateur with a full-time non-horsey job and I make well under $100k. I can take overtime in leave and it accumulates from year to year, so I’m taking 5 weeks of paid leave. I spent days finding stabling and an Airbnb that are affordable (by Wellington standards). I’m shipping my two horses down myself with an overnight layover. I keep them at home so I don’t have to pay double board. My hay and training costs will increase while down there. One lesson a week is the norm at home but if I’m going to be with my coach for a month solid, I want to take advantage, and I will also clinic with at least one BNT.
I’m using savings to pay for it and I plan to live simply once down there. One of my coach’s other clients will pay me to take care of her two horses and I’ll be on the lookout for any other such opportunities.
I personally couldn’t justify the expense, except that I have a horse I want to compete in CDIs and there aren’t any in this area until next fall. This horse is terrific and who knows when the opportunity will come around again. Life is short, right?
My husband is very supportive and will fly down to visit once. (We have both separate and joint accounts, and I’m paying for everything with my savings from before we were married, if that matters.)
I’ve not ever spent the season, but I do go to visit my trainer/good friend in Wellington/Loxahatchee most years. My experience is largely that everyone there just has a TON of money and, if they’re working, have jobs that are flexible on where they are physically located and which pay a lot more than mine does. Seriously, I grew up in the very expensive part of NJ around Oldwick/Bedminster and I now live close enough to Middleburg, VA to know what monied horse people look like. Even all of that didn’t prepare me for the overwhelming wealth that is on display all over Wellington. I’m reasonably well off, and definitely upper middle class. My job would likely, at least on a 2 month basis, probably allow me to work from anywhere in the country, especially in the winter. But I know the chance of being able to afford a season down there is likely always going to be beyond me!
I am self employed and my business is slow in the winter. I have tried getting a job bar-tending while in FL but they do not want someone short term. I am single. If married it would be more difficult to do but I know many married people some happily some not that go with out hubby. Mostly retired people or people in the horse business go there. I am up north in Ocala though so I am sure Wellington is different.
My mare went down last winter as a ‘last ditch’ effort to get her head in the game. My trainer was in Loxahatchee so much (much!) more affordable than Wellington. I went down for one weekend every month and stayed with a friend who works down there in the winter. I stopped putting into my 401k and spent hardly anything on anything else but training fees. It was worth it, she came home a better mare for it and we enjoyed an excellent show season.
This year my trainer is in wellington and my mare is staying home. I’d have to sell a child to afford wellington.
Remember when we used to give the horses time off from showing during the winter months ?
Yes!!!
and now, depending on your chosen discipline, Florida in the winter may be really important in order to get ahead.
And racehorse stallions used to have only one breeding season. Now many get shipped to the opposite hemisphere so they can keep on breeding year-round.
I can do it easily and I’m not megarich. The most difficult part is paying for the two houses (one for me in FL, one for him back home) and the cost of shipping and bringing enough hay with me because hay is BS expensive in FL. That and finding housing. I pay board in either location so it’s nbd to pay it in FL. Paying for full training is a short term expense that is doable.
We paid off our original mortgage on the MA property this year so now the costs have become quite reasonable and I am planning to go once my young horses are old enough to make it worthwhile. We will be looking for a farm next.
I work from home, so I keep working from there.
It’s entirely possible to set yourself up to make it work without too much effort, if you want it enough. It’s easy to say “only the rich can do it!” but it’s also not true.
Ooh. Any tips on shipping hay? I was planning to suck it up and buy some down there (I have a couple leads that might be less expensive and it’s only for two horses for a month) but if I can find a more economical way to ship it, I’d be interested. There’s only so much I can fit in the bed of my pickup truck and my two-horse trailer will be fully occupied.
No, really, only the rich can do it. You don’t need to be a billionaire but, you do need some significant financial capitol to afford it. That places you above low class/minimum wage.
Since I’ve wintered in Aiken I’m acutely aware of how expensive it is. Aiken is way cheaper than Wellington and Ocala… Board for snowbirds in Aiken is $600-800/month. Add in weekly or biweekly lessons, add in clinicians, add in the rent of wherever you’re staying in Aiken (usually $400-800 depending on area/luxury), add in the $800-1600 in shipping and you’re looking at easily $2,000 dropped in to a Snowbird venture the first month alone. And you still have to pay rent at home, etc…
Don’t you have a thread about buying a $80,000 Land Rover? I would constitute that as “rich”. Homeowner that has paid off their mortgage? I’d say you’re doing better than a significant number of the population already.
I am not trying to target you specifically, but this is a luxury sport. It’s expensive. Most people making minimum wage, even people making twice minimum wage, can’t really afford to not work for 2-5 months. They still have bills to pay, mouths to feed, family logistics to plan for, etc…
It’s kind of insulting to see someone say it’s “perfectly easy/not too much effort, if you want it enough.” That just isn’t true. Not everyone can work from home and not everyone can afford to just up and leave…
The last time I did it, I split a load with another barn. I think this year, I am going to convoy down with a friend - I will take both horses and she will take her trailer full of hay.
Once we buy a farm I will ship a full tractor trailer load down and just store it down there/sell what I don’t need from the farm.
Sorry to burst your bubble but we are decidedly not rich. There is not a divide that says that anyone who makes more than minimum wage is rolling in it.
We don’t spend a lot of money on wasteful things and we work hard. Anyone can lease a Range Rover for $450/mo. Just go visit your local mall to verify that claim. Our primary home was very inexpensive for this area and we renovated it ourselves. We live affordably so we can have what we want in other areas. Are we poor? No. Are we buying $8m farms in Wellington? Also no.
I am paying board at home so paying it in another state does not magically double my costs.
If you’re making minimum wage, then you’re correct, riding isn’t for you, and I doubt the person who posted this thread meant to find a way for someone making $10/hr to afford to winter in FL, horses or not. The same thing can be said for pretty much any hobby short of scrapbooking - if you want to go skiing every weekend, then you’re spending thousands of dollars on equipment, lift tickets, and hotel rooms.
I never understand why people bring up minimum wage workers in this context. So because the minimum wage doesn’t support completely extraneous expenditures, it’s somehow relevant?
If you truly want to have horses and ride them, then you will find a way to afford them. That is what I meant by my statement. Similarly, if you really want to winter in FL, you can also find a way to make that happen, be it saving up enough money to take 3 months off work once in your life, or working as a working student, or finding a remote/temporary job. Heck, make it a goal to marry rich if you want. Things don’t just happen to people just because they want them without finding a way to make it happen for themselves. I spent years of my career setting myself up to be able to do this.
I also have spent years in a career setting up the opportunity to train in Wellington. Definitely a career I don’t love, or even make 6 figures in, but it happened to have headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale I could commute to (albeit 1.5 to 2 hour commute one way). I have family in the area I stayed with one year for free. Boarded on the fringes. I had a once in a lifetime horse that I think had CDI potential and was schooling GP. Never even got to show, my horse became unrideable due to a neuro disease 6 weeks into moving here and I had to put him down.
“anyone can lease a Range Rover for $450.”
Ok. I think that says enough that it probably isn’t worth pursuing a debate on this subject with you since there is obviously a huge disconnect. There are people not in your shoes, who work just as hard, if not harder, and can’t see wintering in FL becoming a reality. :rolleyes:
I don’t understand. Isn’t that exactly what happens? 
If someone is paying board year-round in MA and decides to take their horses to FL for three months, that’s double board payments for those months: board in MA + board in FL… Right?
It’s not like the mortgage doesn’t need to be paid because one’s house sat empty while they took a vacation. MA barn still requires board payment, maybe at a dry stall rate.
A story about someone who wintered in Wellington - though w/out the horse. Dressage trainer, small in stature. Had connections w/ some hunter trainer. She schooled his clients’ ponies on the flat early in the weeks, and got some pay. She helped out at a tack shop vendor at shows later in week/weekends; made a bit on this also. She rented a ROOM in Wellington, not a whole apartment. She got to ride, spent next to nothing and had a ton of fun. And did some shopping for a new dressage horse while there.
It can be done!
I live in MA. The barns I know require you still pay board even if the horse is down south. Usually they do a “dry stall” rate but in MA that is still $600-800… Since board is usually $1100+ here…
For the “average” person, I think having a job that allows for remote working is key.
My current position, if my company approved it, is set up to allow me to work from any location as long as I have an internet connect (IT project manager). My DH’s parents both work for companies that allow them to always work from home when they are not traveling (they aren’t horse people though). I know a trainer who works for the government as some sort of project manager and they allow her to work remotely for a few weeks during the winter, so she goes to Aiken.
