Saw that now more top ‘right hand people’ are leaving their established barns. I don’t fault anyone as I know exactly how hard this life is, but this seems like a rash all at once.
So my question to you, is the lifestyle of being an event barn employee still a tenable position in the modern era?
Thoughts?
Emily
I’ve missed the articles. Or does one need to be personally in the know?
I was Jennie Brannigan’s assistant was leaving, and that Courtney Cooper was looking for a new head assistant. But that’s all I know!
It isn’t feasible. Even in top barns the pay is shitty, the hours are long, there are very few benefits (health ins, sick time, paid leave) and rarely in those positions is there enough time in the day to work on YOU and your own personal drive and dreams.
It’s not a permanent thing. Nobody wants to be a permanent assistant, people move up to assistant rider positions as the last step in preparation to go pro. Not new or exciting.
Since I’m currently between jobs, I’ve tossed around the idea of getting back into the horse industry. Then I saw the pay.
A major competition and breeding farm was advertising a head groom position - $20,000/year.
Another notable breeding and training facility needed a manager and advertised $10/hr.
No housing and almost no benefits on either of these.
I’m not sure if this is typical for all eventing barns today, but I was making more than both of those positions when I left the full-time horse industry 12 years ago. I don’t know how they expect to attract anyone decent at those rates, let alone retain them.
Absolutely correct.
Assistant rider isn’t seen as a permanent position either by the top rider OR the aspiring young pro. It’s more like a residency - a chance furthur their skills under an expert mentor. Turnover is expected, another up and coming rider will move into the spot, also to move out on their own when the time comes.
Now, after the big spring events, is a common time to change staff, and it gives everyone a chance to settle in to new positions before the fall season.
My daughter was a stable manager working with some 4 star horses for an owner known to have high turn-over after college. When she showed me the compensation package, I told her that was slave labor. She told me not to ruin it for her, so I shut up. Three months later, she left. For someone with education and options, it is hard to stomach. I am sure that most trainers treat their employees better than these folks did, but I cannot see anyone staying for long with the combination of extended hours-- way past what would be expected at a regular job and poor pay. Add in sanctimonious bosses, and you can see why the place had high turn-over.
One of our local barns placed an ad for a groom/assistant… they had to have substantial horse experience, be comfortable riding young/untrained horses, willing to “pitch in” with everything from grooming to mucking, willing to work as needed 6 am to 6 pm… all for the “opportunity to learn from an experienced horse professional” [not a BNT] and a “possible small stipend for the right individual.”
At first I thought it was a parody of an assistant ad… but no, it was real. Insane. There is a myth in the horse world that people should be willing to enslave themselves in the hope of getting a big break or at least some great instruction. It’s a romantic notion but it doesn’t take into account the realities of modern life --health insurance, car insurance, the cost of housing, student loans… it is really only a position that could be taken by someone who is independently wealthy… but how many of those folks want to bathe horses and ride spooky youngsters 12 hours a day?
See now in 2007-2010 I worked here in Chester County as a paid Hunt groom. I made $30k a year. I had health insurance and I worked 6 days a week. Some benefits included hunting with Cheshire for free, clinics and showing (on their horses) for free. Downsides included being a sporadic chauffeur when they flew anywhere. So taking them to Philly and JFK airports. But I was still paid for my day even when I was driving them around.
I left that job and took an office manager position for a management consulting firm for $55k a year, 5 days a week and I paid for my own insurance. Not hard to do with that salary. The treatment however was worse than anything any crazy horse lady (and I worked for plenty) had ever put me through.
I think there are ups and downs to horse world jobs and I agree that it’s unusual to last for a career, but given how long many of these #2 in charge people changing out now have held their positions I was surprised.
~Emily
I saw Courtney Cooper’s ad and it does not at all sound like a job for someone who’s about to turn pro- it sounds like she is willing to take someone with some fairly minimal riding skills actually. I think people have some pretty romantic ideas abut these positions.
I know when I was a young assistant trainer in the US I and most of my peers quit shortly after we got our first big health care bill, did the math and realized were were working 16 hour days to put ourselves in life long ill health and debt. I have a friend who has a gimpy knee from a horse falling on her and busting her ACL that she couldn’t afford to get fixed for 5 years or so. One of the hunt clients who knew her was a doctor and he came to the barn and drew the fluid out of her knee with a needle for free because his practice wouldn’t let him treat people for free at the office. Then she wrapped it up and went back to work. People wonder why the Europeans horse industries are more successful? That is why, right there. That’s also why so many pros used to quit after a divorce- they had health care through their spouse. That was a common thing in the 90s.
I have been working part time at a race barn making $12 an hour as a simple stall mucker. I saw the exact job I think you are referencing for $10 and was shocked. I did see a barn in VA offering $25,000 housing and board for 2 horses so I think there are options out there.
Polo grooming can still be a decent job, though opportunities are better in massive horse areas (think Ocala) or overseas.
Example from over in HJ land circa 1998. Stabled across from top BNT with long time assistant that rode Hunters extremely well, winning big and also handled marketing, sales presentions and negotiations on mid 5 figure to 6 figure horses, BNT had the final say but assistant did all the legwork. Assistant spoke to BNT about a cut of the commissions on these sales and a raise, answer was no.
Assistant vented loudly that evening, everybody on either side of that barn aisle learned assistant was making 35k after 6 years with BNT and had handled sales of over a million a year for the last 3 years. Assistant left and became a BNT within a few years. Always wondered how they treat their assistants…
It was no different on the breed show side for my friends who went into that and assume it’s no different for assistant trainers in Eventing. It sucks.
CRE is also looking…
Have these people never heard of the Fair Labor Standards Act. ? Why would ANYBODY accept a job when the terms of employment are downright ILLEGAL ?
Anybody who earns less than $47,476 per annum has to be paid properly for overtime. I am in a similar business where I have to comply with this.
"Employers, beware: In May of 2016, the Department of Labor handed down new regulations that could greatly affect how you pay your employees. A temporarily injunction blocked these new white-collar overtime rules from taking effect on Dec. 1, but you need to plan for the changes to eventually take hold. And you can be assured that the DOL, which has already increased its investigative force by 33% since 2010, will put employers under even more scrutiny in the months ahead.
For years, the DOL has continued to issue a somber report card on employers for violating the FLSA’s wage-and-hour rules. For example, in fiscal 2014, the department’s Wage & Hour Division recovered nearly $241 million in back wages for employees, up 22% from fiscal 2004. The top mistake for employers—and the most costly one—is wrongly labeling employees as exempt from overtime pay, according to the DOL.
For employers, the stakes are high. Employees misclassified as exempt can be eligible for two years’ worth of back wages (three if the violation was “willful”) at 1.5 times the hourly rate, plus liquidated damages equal to the unpaid wages. That means employees can collect up to three times their regular rate of pay."
Workman’s Compensation Insurance is another thing.
Equestrian industry’s dirty little secret is that they often use undocumented workers and they routinely violate the overtime rules by claiming “farm worker exemptions”. If we all had to pay our stable hands etc. living wages, the horse industry would be a whole lot smaller.
I presume you mean the Agriculture Exemption;
In order for the agricultural exemption from overtime to apply, the workers’ employment must come within the meaning of the term “agriculture” as defined under section 3(f) of the FLSA, 29 U.S.C. 203(f). The definition of “agriculture,” under the FLSA, has long been recognized as having two distinct branches: primary agriculture and secondary agriculture.[SUP][4] [/SUP]The primary definition includes farming in all its branches and specific farming operations enumerated in section 3(f) such as the cultivation and tillage of the soil; the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities; and the raising of livestock.[SUP][5][/SUP]
Raising of livestock is defined as the “breeding, fattening, feeding and general care of livestock.”[SUP][9][/SUP]
The secondary meaning of “agriculture” in section 3(f) includes “any practices … performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such [primary agriculture] farming operations …”[SUP] [10][/SUP]
I think we would be better off, in some ways, if the horse industry got smaller. It is REQUIRED to pay employees living wages.
She’s a little unique because of her high volume sales model, and that she has only 1 upper level horse
I can tell you with certainty that very few if any top riders are looking for assistants with “minimal riding skills” as you claim. Working student sh!t shovelers maybe.
edit: I just read the ad also, and it says the person needs to be comfortable jumping 3’6" courses as well as rising babies and difficult horses. Yea sounds like a job for someone with “fairly minimal” skills.
3’6" is slightly smaller than the lowest level of amateur jumpers in the US federation. It’s the minimum you’d need for someone to be useful as a rider at a sales barn at all, it’ s hardly someone who is ready to go out as a pro on their own. Source: was rider at sales barns for years. I’m sure it’s a great job and you get lots of experience there but it’s no surprise people don’t stay in equine jobs.
The equine industry has always relied on the enthusiasm of young people. I was one of those, once, and enjoyed every aspect of it. There just comes a time, though, that you have to move on unless you are one of the ones who rise to a level where you can be the one doing the hiring. It’s nothing new.
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