What’s the most common path taken for riders after their junior years? What I seem to see/hear commonly is that they go to college and often ride on the team, but if you want to stay in the horse world, what do most people do after college?
Do they keep the horse that their parents bought them in their junior years and continue to show with that said horse?
I know one path is to become a Grand Prix rider and try and get sponsors, and the prize money from that will sometimes cover the bills, but what if you don’t want to necessarily jump 1.60m classes to keep money rolling in so you can have a roof over your head?
Or is it more common to see people leave the horse world until they get a nice-paying job, and eventually come back to it as a “hobby”?
i hope this question makes sense…once again thanks to all the people on here who always answer my pointless and never-ending questions!
So the answer is it depends and it’s different for everyone. I went to college, rode on an IHSA team, and was fortunate to have the financial support of my parents to continue boarding and showing the horse I had as a kid. Now I was not a high level circuit rider as a kid, so we’re not talking big jumpers or hunters, but I was doing occasional A or local shows in low level (3’ and down) jumpers. Kids whose parents would not financially support it stopped riding in college. After college, I started paying for board and expenses myself. I showed a whole lot less at first and that slowly ramped back up as my take home pay increased from work. Mind you I never had any intentions of going pro, I just wanted to keep riding.
You don’t have a lot of Tori Colvin’s in this world, who were uber talented working students as juniors that finish, immediately go pro, and have great owners and strings of good horses to show at the highest levels. Most people hope to work their way up to a fraction of that level. There also aren’t a ton that just jump straight to doing prixs and competing internationally. You either need major sponsors and good owners (unlikely fresh after juniors) or significant personal finances to back that up (that’s how the ones that do manage that are able to do it). The tippy top group of junior riders may go that path but most don’t or couldn’t even if they wanted to.
I do know one young pro in the midwest who kept her top junior horse and started doing low level prixs with it and turned pro right out of her junior years and has quickly built a nice business for herself. She had considerable financial backing from her parents I suspect as well but she also worked really hard as a junior to get her jumper to the top level of young riders specifically with the goal in mind of turning pro, so kudos to her really, she must have some natural business savvy or good parental guidance also.
Many go to college and continue to ride in whatever capacity they can afford. Some for an NCAA team if they can get on one, some for an IHSA team, many will keep their favorite (or all of their string if their parents will support it) horse from their junior years to continue competing. If they can’t afford it, they stop until they can afford it again, if they want to do it again. If they want to be pro and they can’t afford to set themselves up (many can’t) they find working student positions and work their way up that way. Working students who know they want to be pro sometimes skip college entirely and go straight into doing that full time. Some do the working student thing in the summers and then full time after college. I’ve seen it every which way.
Many become happy amateurs who figure out how much horsing they can do and want to do around living a full adult life which could include significant others, jobs, children, travel etc. Many who thought they wanted to go pro become amateurs instead. In fact I’d say the most common thing I’ve seen is people either stop riding in college because they can’t afford it without their parents paying for it (or they’re burned out), or they considerably decrease how much riding they are doing, many that owned as kids do not own horses through college or try to lease their horses out during college, and then after college most go through a slow ramp up of what they do with horses based on their slowly increasing income. That is what I did after college, that is what most of my other ammy friends did. Some of us were lucky to have parents who chipped in to help us buy new horses when the time came since we were covering all the other expenses until we reached a point we could afford to buy what we wanted ourselves (which looks like that came around in the early 30’s for several of us, YMMV). Some buy cheap and green and try to flip them to buy something more expensive. All depends on your income.
Then you have those that totally stopped riding and came back around to it many years later. Which is also totally fine.
So like I said. Totally depends on the person.
This will depend in large part how deep your parents pockets are, where you go to school, and what level of competition you are riding at as a junior.
As in all sports there is wider participation by teens and then they divide into a small percentage of pros at the top end and a bigger percentage of ammies and weekend warriors.
If your parents can afford to keep your junior horse through your college years, if you are in college in a horsey area, or if you are on a team, that’s wonderful.
If your parents do not want to pay for your horse or you want to go to school in a place or discipline that doesn’t make riding time easy, students typically sell, lease, or retire their junior horse and pick up the pieces later.
What do you mean by involved in horses?
If college leads you to a good paying career and you settle in a horse friendly region (not Manhattan) then it is the easiest thing in the world to have a nice enough horse at a boarding barn, and ride and show as fits your time and cashflow and family obligations. For most of us that is the best outcome.
You know by now whether you are grand prix material, and whether you have the resources to get to the level that you could win cash prizes and be sponsored. That’s the top 50 riders in the world. If you aren’t well on the way there now you aren’t going there.
That said obviously there are lots of ways people make an income as coaches barn managers and trainers for kids and teens, which is the biggest part of the market. It is hard work, it is not glamorous, you will need to put your own competing on hold to shepherd tweens to the cross rails schooling shows. You will need to be a good small business person and count pennies load hay and muck stalls as needed.
Your parents aren’t sending you to college so you can run a kiddie lesson barn
Get a good degree and be the client instead.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I sold my horse when I went to college (in part to pay for college) and spent the 4 years of college “out” of the horse world (riding wherever I could, but not because I had to).
I bought a [cheap] baby (2yo) before graduating, though, and he sat at a friend’s house for a couple of years. I broke him at 4 and started riding/showing around the same time I exited college and entered the work force. I spent the next many years spending every spare nickel I had on getting him out to local shows while working my butt off at my job. My hope was that he would become my next GP horse, but he didn’t have the temperament for it…so after showing him through the 1.45m and taking way too long to realize that he was forever a 4(+)-faulter, I sold him for enough money to pay off my bills at the time and buy my next couple of [very cheap] horses. I had been working for 7 or 8 years at that point, had gotten married, and bought a farm.
Once I had the farm it was very easy to keep a couple (ha ha, my husband would love if I would just go back to a couple again!) and always have a green/baby (or 4) and then the one who was the “senior” show horse.
I’ve never heard of anyone taking the “just go Grand Prix” path. That’s not a thing. Maybe if you’re an heiress or have some weird “in” to the industry that might be an option, but unless you have access to a LOT of horses there’s no such thing as “just taking the path to GP.”
I remained focused on having a horse to show in the High AO Jumpers (and not every horse makes it to that), and then was happy to have one who could also show in the Grand Prixes (though the High AOs were still my focus since we weren’t in much danger of winning the big grand prixes).
But the whole time I’ve been showing (with the exception of a couple of years where I was lucky enough to get to focus on the horses only), I’ve been working and building/advancing my career. And in the background of the career, I have 2 horses at 1.40m (though one may become my daughter’s medal/eq horse), 1 (7yo) at 1.30m, and a 5yo taking the “slow path.” My other two belong to/take care of my young daughter.
But really, everyone takes a different path, and a lot comes down to how much of a priority the horses are in your life. I have kind of an obsessive-type personality, and I sacrificed a lot to keep the horses front and center. Most of my friends did not. And most of my childhood horse friends moved on to other things in their lives. A few of the “good juniors” became trainers and are still in the industry.
IMO, there are really two options - go the trainer route (which is a pretty difficult path) or head into a non-horse-related career and focus on making enough money to be able to pay for the horses yourself. I took the latter path and do not regret it.
We had a girl at our barn who went to college and found it wasn’t for her. She dropped out and found an “assistant” position with a well-respected local trainer who takes clients to mostly B and a few A shows. This young woman is working her tail off grooming horses, teaching beginner lessons, putting training rides on horses, and doing barn chores, and if Facebook is any guide she is also getting some good opportunities to show the younger horses.
She doesn’t make too much money and lives with her parents to save money, but she is getting incredible experience and pursuing the thing she loves.
There isn’t one common path. There are many paths and which one you take depends entirely on you and your individual situation.
I’ll weigh in since I’m still in this process. I had a nice junior horse who my parents were fortunate enough to keep for me through college. I never wanted to go pro. Once I was in college I continued to show actively on the A circuit, but I paid all my show expenses myself. I trailered and braided my own horse and we ended up going to Devon for the low A/Os. My parents paid his board, farrier, and vet expenses. My senior year of college was consumed with applying to law school so I leased him out since I no longer had the time to ride and show him. I’m in my second year of law school and he has been leased for the past two years. The money from the lease goes toward paying my rent and living expenses. I am excited to get my JD (and a job!) and give him a happy retirement when he’s ready to be done and I’m done with school. I also hope to have the time and money to get back to showing in the amateur hunters.
This is something I have thought a lot about and have been inclined to write some sort of article on the much needed changes regarding this. Our current set up is rather flawed and here is why:
You can stay an amateur, show on the weekends, go to college. This is primarily only an option with those who have financial support from their parents. It is NOT easy to work a non horsey job, go to school full time, and ride a horse at a competitive level (I would say near impossible). So this encourages two things: the wealthy continue showing, not hurt by the show schedule that makes professionals show during the week and amateurs show on the weekend. The not so wealthy, typically stop showing on the AA circuit at this point or only show during the summer. Once they graduate they either go to the corporate world or turn pro, but with four years of relatively little showing, it requires a bit of time to get back to their pre college days and can hurt their ability to find a good assistant job.
You can turn pro. Here is where it gets dicey. Turn pro and forego college, you can run the risk of becoming burnout with no backup option, getting hurt with no backup option, or any other reason you may need a back up option. If you go to college and turn pro, good luck showing. Class schedules usually require you to be there at least M-W, which means if you hope to graduate with good grades, you won’t be showing Wednesdays, which is usually the first half of the professional division. College students have plenty of time to show on the weekends, but if they pay for it themselves by working at the barn (the easiest way to pay for it during college), they can’t show on the weekends unless they are doing the grand prix.
I speak from experience on how difficult these issues are for someone who intends to be a professional once they graduate, but wanted a degree first. I wanted to continue riding during college, and my parents told me to pay for it myself, which I did by working at the barn as the assistant trainer. My young horse never got to horse show because of the lack of classes available for us to do on the weekends.
I am in big favor of developing some sort of “Young Rider” division where professionals between the ages of 18-21 can compete on the weekends. Run concurrently with the adult/AO Jumpers and adult/AO hunters. This would give A LOT of people the option to 1) continue riding and pay for it themselves AND get to horseshow 2) Limit the number of amateurs who are really shameuters. I can not tell you how many times I was told to keep my amateur card and just not train at horse shows on the weekends, and know of lots who did just that. USEF should be encouraging professionals to get a college degree, because it can only better the sport. I learned a LOT about running an ethical business in college, which I would not have learned had a foregone it.
I went to college, rode on the team, went pro after college, and quit riding altogether 3 years later from horrific burnout and compounding injuries.
I now compete on the local circuit as an ammy. I can’t afford the time or money to be able to ride at the same level I did in high school. I don’t care though because I’m having a blast.
Logistically though there are only so many classes that can go on the weekends. You would alienate a much larger group of paying customers if the amateurs got moved to the week vs the weekend.
For those you describe, the decision needs to be whether their future is teaching or riding? Are you trying to build a string of sponsored horses based on your results or do you have a clientele you teach and also ride those horses.
They do have the 25 and under grand prix series now
There is no same path for everyone, but there is a very common theme of “go to college and figure it out from there”. Most go to some sort of college (even community college or online school) but certainly not all. There’s so many different ways to balance horses and school and you would be surprised how college seems to kind of shuffle everyone around and send them down the right path. The ones who end up professionals six months or a year post grad are not always the ones you would expect.
That being said, there does seem to be a mid twenties moment where everyone has a “grass is greener” quarter life crisis. This is a prime age for young professionals, typically ones that didn’t go to college, to be burned out and go explore non-horsey options. I also see a few amateurs giving up their amateur status to see if maybe pro life is for them after all.
Make choices that seem right for you. It will work itself out.
