Is being a working student worth it?

[Sakey]

hello!

My (hopeful) future consists of taking a gap year after high school and become a working student in the hunter/eq world for a year showing, grooming, and getting experience. However, I don’t know anything about the working student world, where I would start, or if it’s good idea.

to start off, is this even a good idea? It is literally my dream but I want to do everything I can to make sure I am successful in the future. I still have no clue what I wanna do for a career, out of everything I would love it to be something with horses, but I know that’s not always a possibility. so really what i’m trying to ask is, is taking that year off to be a working student worth it? i don’t know much about working students but i would love to relocate and get more experience.

thanks so much!

[Scribbler]

What level riding are you at now? Do you have a horse? Have you competed?

What do you hope to get out of the working student year?

From everything I’ve heard and seen, ws is more working than riding, more grooming than training. It is not going to get you access to top horses to show on. You are going to be there as support to the paying clients. If you already ride well you might get to hack out their horses.

[chukkerchild]

Hi! I’ve been a working student multiple times and did so twice internationally. I think it’s definitely worth it if you find the right program. There are definitely some places that advertise for working students but really just want free labour. But there are plenty that are legitimate. If you can, I’d look for a vetted place that has an established WS program.

I’d also consider what kind of experience you want to get. Do you want to work with young horses? A sales barn might be a good fit; you’ll likely get more riding opportunities, but the horses will also be greener. I was a WS at a breeding and sales facilities for a few months and while I rode as many as 10 a day, some of them could be tough and fractious as they were all young and green. At a barn like this, youll learn about riding youngsters but not necessarily about riding made horses (which are two different skills imo).

If you do want to learn to ride/show made horses, finding a show barn might be better. Keep in mind you may need to fight a bit more for riding time here. If you have your own horse and could make an arrangement that includes board for him/her in the position, then a show barn could be a great fit as both you and your horse will benefit from the program. If you don’t have your own horse, a breeding or sales barn will likely give you more saddle time for the work time you put in.

While I found some of my WS positions really challenging, all of them gave me some great skills for my toolkit. I would just recommend talking to others who were in that WS position before you to get the real scoop if you can. Decide in advance what you’ll accept as a challenge and what is a deal breaker. For some, very difficult horses might be fine but yelling and tough training is a no no. For others, they might be okay with a hardline trainer and long hours but want to ride more made horses. Also remember that it is a job, so make sure that you’re getting adequately compensated for the work! I was lucky; I rode with great trainers who always made sure I got my lessons and training in exchange for the grooming and mucking work, plus I had accommodations included in both cases. For my WS position in the usa, i calculated that with my horse’s board, full training for me and my accomodations onsite, it’s highly unlikely that I’d be able to afford to replicate that experience even on my salary today! So quite priceless.

If you can, I’d go for it! Ask your trainer to recommend you and put you in touch with barns and programs he or she knows as well – word of mouth is a great way to get trustworthy leads. Good luck

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

I think by “worth it,” you have to ask what you want out of the experience. Personally, I wish the American system of education was more geared to having students take a gap year to work, as is common in the UK. If you’ve been accepted to a college and want to take a year off before beginning your freshman year to be a working student in a good program, I personally think that sounds like a great opportunity to mature and reflect on what you want in life, gain some hands-on skills, and, if nothing else, appreciate the value of being an ammie rider! It can also give you skills that will benefit you as an amateur rider that may save time, money, and heartbreak in terms of horsemanship.

I agree with others, though, if you’re interested in pursuing horses as a career path, finding a reputable program that will offer you the types of opportunities you need can be challenging, and will take a great deal of work (specifically talking to people who are veterans of those programs).

Given the current world situation with the pandemic, that’s another thing to think of, too. Many students have spent their entire first semesters taking online classes, so taking time to get work experience until things are more normalized (whenever that it), isn’t necessarily a bad idea. On the other hand, the working student program itself needs to be safe. That’s not just pandemic-wise, but also in terms of the obligations and duties you’re expected to perform. For example, are the horses you’ll be working with within your capabilities to handle them?

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that just because someone is a great horseman or horsewoman doesn’t mean they’re a great boss. Another reason why asking former students, not just pros, about the quality of a program is so important.

[Sakey]

I have over 10 years of Hunter Jumper experience experience, I’ve owned multiple horses along with me currently having a horse who I am bringing up right now and I have lots of experience training and breaking in green horses. I do show in the summer, and on the b circuit, but I know I have the talent, training, and potential to become a working student.

I would really just like to get more experience in the horse world, whether it’s riding showing or even just helping out at a higher end barn.

[Sakey]

Thank you so much! I would love to work with either green horses or made horses, I have experience with both and I love both. Now, did you decide to make horses your lifelong career? Did you take a gap year?

[Sakey]

thank you so much! I unfortunately do not go graduate until 2022, so hopefully the pandemic would be gone by then. I wish I would be graduating this year because it would be the perfect opportunity to take the gap year without worrying about much.

[AltersAreUs]

Short answer - no*

Long answer and less sarcasm - it depends on what you are looking to get out of being a WS.

If you are looking for hands on experience with something like a breeding farm, then yes as long as the mentor side understands that you want more from the experience than what you’d get from just being an employee.

If you are looking for mentoring in order to start your own business, either training, boarding, etc, then maybe but you should really round it out with some quality business classes somewhere.

If you are looking to get riding experience with a particular professional, you’d be better off working a couple “real” jobs and just paying for the lessons.

*And the reason I say no is that very few of the working students I know were completely happy with what they got out of the experience compared to the amount of work they put into it.

Most of my friends/acquaintances who were WS saw it as a path towards getting access to higher quality horses and instruction than they could afford out of pocket while learning the back end of the training business.

Most found that they were putting in massive amounts of hours for relatively little instruction time - that their “mentors” expected that just having the WS around while said mentor rode/taught/etc was enough to fulfill the mentoring side of the contract. And all of the ones who got housing as part of the WS deal very quickly found out that, if the housing was at the farm, then they were effectively on call to be working 24/7.

[Scribbler]

I think a working student job at a good barn could be very useful if you want to become a barn manager or a groom. I don’t think it is that useful if you primarily want to ride and show and take lessons.

The catch about being a WS is that if you don’t enter with riding skills commensurate with the general level of the barn, you might not get the chance to improve enough to ride the horses there.

If you are say showing 2 foot 6 at local schooling shows and you are a working student at a barn that competes in the 3 foot 6 and 4 foot level, it would be a wonderful opportunity to groom and observe how the top end works. If you’re lucky you might get to cool out a horse or hack him on his day off training.

But I can’t see you having many or any showing opportunities because your riding experience won’t be at the level needed to be a catch rider or show sales horses at the level the barn operates at.

So if what you want to do is ride, have saddle time, you are much better off getting a nonhorse job and paying for good lessons.

At a lower level barn you will likely rate as a better rider and have more opportunity but you won’t necessarily go up anyevels if you are just helping out at another kiddy lesson barn.

[MissIntent]

I think WS experience can be useful for just about anyone, if you want to know the nuts and bolts behind a barn and how to take care of horses. I was a working student as a teenager, and I learned so much (including that I didn’t want to do horses professionally). WS skills meant I could keep riding as a broke college student - I already knew how to get on anything that I could throw a leg over, and how to work in a barn - and now in my late 30s I keep my horses at home and those WS skills come in handy. I went to college and have a professional job unrelated to horses, but I’m very grateful for what I learned back then.

[chukkerchild]

Hey! Yes in both cases I took gaps in my education, one of the positions I took during undergrad and the other I took between undergrad and grad school. I am not working as a professional now and in fact it was the WS positions that taught me I didn’t want to pursue it in that way — I realized (somewhat crushingly at the time) that I’m not a talented enough rider to get rides on great made horses, and I don’t have the mental fortitude to deal with the tough ones day in and day out. That leaves a pretty small Niche which a lot of people are already clamoring for! I finished grad school in 2016 and am working a non-horse related job that pays decently well and I ride as an amateur If you’re considering the pro route, I do think WS positions give you more insight into the realities of it. For what it’s worth, of the four other WS I worked with during my stints, 3 out of 4 are now professionals and the other is a very capable amateur jumping big sticks (and then there’s me, I switched to polo but am bumbling along happily enough!) If you find the right position, you can learn a lot, and it might be the key to helping you on your career path.

To echo what others have said, I think if your goal is to move up the levels, ride and compete, your best bets would be:

1. Find a top trainer and top horses and pay the big bucks to pursue it full time as an amateur (the dream!!! But not feasible for most)
2. Find a WS position at a good, solid barn, build up some experience and cred there, and then either try to go pro or finish your education and become a serious amateur (the downside of the amateur life is the 9-5 makes it hard to devote the same amount of time to the sport, so you’ll always feel like you’re not progressing at the rate you could. The upside is that you don’t need to worry about still having to get on that feisty 5 year old stallion in training when you have a flu and fever and it’s -5 out but the owner is coming tomorrow so he really needs a school beforehand… etc!)

The challenge really is identifying that barn that will provide a good, valuable WS experience in exchange for the work you put in. As everyone else here has said, a bad experience can be really bad and disappointing! Since it sounds like you’ve been riding and competing for a while, maybe your coaches/trainers have some connections. If you can find a good one, I would still recommend it!

[mmeqcenter]

I can’t answer specific to a working student position, but IMO it is absolutely worth it to wait a year before starting college. I think it’s ridiculous that we expect kids to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives at 18 years old when they’ve (mostly) barely experienced life. In my adult life I’ve learned about so many career paths that might have interested me at 18, but I never knew they existed then. Especially since, in the USA anyway, it cost SO much money to get a four year degree.

Take a year, meet new people, move to a new place, experience new things, learn as much as you can from real-life experience, and use that to help you decide where you want your career to go.

[Willesdon]

Depending on how bold you are feeling, how about coming to the UK and training for a BHS qualification? It is possible to achieve BHSAI in a year if you have an equestrian background and a lot if people do it in their “gap year” before university. The WS doesn’t really exist any more in the UK because it is illegal to work without fair compensation - which is minimum wage and a written contract at the very least. Have a look at the British Grooms Association website. It is an organisation working very effectively to raise the profile of professional grooms and it has plenty of info. PM if you would like to know more.

[Sakey]

what is a BHS?

[Scribbler]

British horse society

[Willesdon]

@Sakey

what is a BHS?

The British Horse Society (BHS) is a UK charity that provides a structured system of equestrian education for amateurs and professionals alike. The BHS professional qualifications are recognised world-wide for their excellence and can open many doors. A competent horse person can achieve AI (Assistant Instructor), the first level professional qualification, with a bit of work and many people do it in their gap year, before university. If one wants a professional equestrian career then the AI qualification is the starting point for continuing professional development in riding, horse care and teaching and coaching, culminating in the Fellowship (FBHS). Fellows include some of the legends of horse sport and they can probably walk on water. There is extensive information about training on the www.bhs.org.uk website.

[tohorse]

Not sure how it works visa/work-permit wise, but I’d recommend going for these sorts of jobs to Europe, in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands if possible. Those three countries are horse-central and you’ll really learn from the best. I think even if you’d end up grooming for a top rider (jumper, no hunters), you’d end up riding and even jumping horses on the regular.
As many mentioned the work can be crushingly hard, but doing it for a year or two gives you the sort of knowledge that lives on with you for life. I had a couple of friends who did this, one of them is now a pro, another is an equine vet and some are nationally competitive amateur riders.
Not to mention, the experience living abroad is priceless. It’s very fashionable for Europeans to do a gap year traveling abroad, but honestly, I think it’s even better if you get to do something that you’re passionate about and acquire new skills on the way. I never did a WS thing but first moved away when I was 17, and since have gotten three different degrees in three different continents and just moved again for the 4th time in 5 years! All of this also has helped get a job that more than pays for the pony hobby and even meet my husband (in another continent!). If you’re at least open to considering it, I’d highly recommend it.

[danhelm441]

I’m going to propose the alternative, probably unpopular perspective that a gap year can be a risky gamble. In HS, it felt like there was a “wave” you had to catch to submit your applications, get admission, and make plans to attend (and afford) a good school. Once there, it felt like another “wave” junior year to submit resumes for on-campus interviews, secure lucrative internships, and land a job offer before your last semester in college.

With both waves, I remember some peers seemed to miss the memo, or just weren’t in any hurry to figure it out, and for whatever reason, it kind of took them off path — either starting community college and losing motivation, or enrolling in too-expensive niche private colleges with easy admissions processes and racking up debt, or on the career side of it, spending a long time unemployed or underemployed after graduation. It’s certainly much easier (in some ways) to go with the flow and follow the usual college and career track. Also, a lot of the same opportunities don’t materialize as easily when you aren’t on the same recruitment cycle; you have to have the personal knowledge and motivation to put in the leg work, and frankly, I know in my case, I wouldn’t have had that knowledge. I benefited from having peers who (presumably had parents who) knew how to orchestrate the whole college and career cycle to land in a good career track. When you self-select out of that peer group, you lose that knowledge base and can only work from what you know—which depending on where you’re starting, might not get you where you want to go.

I could see how a WS position maybe seems like a short cut to a peer group that’s riding and competing at an aspirational level. But those people have money … and are likely following (or did follow) the college and career track to funnel them into the jobs that pay that kind of money.

Idk, I’m sure this sounds very doom and gloomy capitalist. And there are plenty of stories of people who followed “the track” and weren’t happy with where they landed. But I just wanted to put the perspective out there.

[clanter]

@tohorse

gotten three different degrees in three different continents

area of study, was it Geography or Geology ?

[tohorse]

Two were in science/engineering and then a professional degree - wanted to make sure I can eventually afford the ponies!