Yeah, and it would be comprised of people like me who only work with barns and trainers that we know fairly compensate their staff/help/workers.
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There is a recurrent theme on this board that concerns the USA’s lack of success in International competition. Success will only come when the horse “industry” is taken seriously in the USA. That would involve; educating all those involved, regulating those involved by way of qualifications, conforming to labour laws, etc…etc… This would also involve funding properly when necessary. You have only to look at the Countries who continually succeed, to see what is required. They all now have legitimate INDUSTRIES with clear paths to success. In the USA it’s a bunch of rich folks fooling about. The days of the plucky individual from nowhere reaching the top is long gone.
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And a great many of today’s horse owners would not be able to afford a horse. Like me.
Sounds like Equibrit assumes that when the U.S. adopts a European-style government, these horse industry problems will all be solved. And we’ll have gold medals. The vast differences between the continents, geographically, demographically and economically notwithstanding. Not sure I’m convinced that gold medals are really the ultimate goal. .
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I do not recall mentioning any form of government, and I do not follow the logic of your first statement. Please explain.
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Horse sports, in total, are a very minor sport in the United States. 99% of the US population knows nothing about horses and all and don’t care. You are never going to see it get funded beyond what happens now. It’s not a industry/career path where you are going to make much money. If you want to comfortably have horses find another career and make horses your expensive hobby.
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Being an “assistant” back in the day (70’s 80"s) was considered a stepping stone/learning experience and many of us jumped at the chance to get something on the resume` and practical experience. It wasn’t thought of as a “real” job. Benefits were unheard of and pay was usually weekly or daily, not hourly, so many of us worked for less than minimum wage. No one thought they would get rich rubbing/riding horses (unless you married one of the clients,LOL).
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Hehe. Sounds like The Horsey Set is so priced out that it would take a more Socialist kind of government to produce winning Olympic teams. I can’t tell whether Karl Marx would applaud or puke.
It is fascinating to see what happens when poverty moves up a class or two from the inarticulate to the newly disenfranchised middle.
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I think the question/ideas were two:
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Where does the money come from for that nationalized-sounding industry? Apparently Laissez-faire Capitalism isn’t producing it here.
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Some Americans leap from regulation of any industry to an entirely micro-managing form of government, (Not that we don’t benefit every.single.day from things like our own Food and Drug administration.)
But that’s just my reading of OverandOnward’s POV. But I might be wrong! Maybe she will return to explain.
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So in those grand old days, where did that “not a serious job” phase of life fit into your lifeplan? How did you explain to the relatives at Thanksgiving what you were doing and why? Was it that you would eventually get married so no job had to be a career one? Was it that you’d one day inherit enough money to be a trainer anyway? You were doing something like the “gap year” after college before settling down to building your real career?
I’m just curious about how it is/was ever possible to take a dead end job like this. There are so, so many benefits to spending time working in a professional program, even for people who will be life-long ammies. In other words, give me some rhetorical ammo to use at the Thanksgiving table!
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Ok the key here is that this law was blocked by an injunction. I make less than $47,000 in my non-horsey job (a lot less) and am an exempt, salaried employee. I was all excited to make overtime so it was a nasty blow!
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I think the ability to follow the BNTs on Facebook and social media as well as their own use of those channels as a recruiting tool makes the turnover more noticeable - the rate of change/longevity of employment may not be much different, but we the general following public are more aware of it.
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Acosta Suggests a Threshold ‘Around $33,000’
The Department of Labor’s controversial 2016 rule expanding the number of workers who qualify for overtime pay should be updated to match inflation, according to President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary.
“I believe the salary threshold figure would be somewhere around $33,000” after figuring for inflation to the cost-of-living since 2004—the last time the regulation was adjusted—said DOL Secretary nominee Alexander Acosta, during a March 22 confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Acosta indicated that once confirmed, he would first decide whether the department would continue to appeal a Nov. 2016 federal court decision that halted the Obama-era rule on overtime pay. The nominee did not say which way he was leaning on the pending litigation, but indicated that the DOL will review and possibly revise the rule.
“Something that needs to be considered is the impact on the economy, nonprofits, and geographic areas with historically lower wages, but I’m very sensitive that it hasn’t been updated since 2004,” he said.
Blah de blah de blah …
This is sad to hear.
More than 10 years ago, I quit my office job to go to Ocala with a Canadian show jumping barn for HITS for 3 months. I was the manual labour, groom, sh!t shoveller, etc. occasionally I got to exercise a horse.
It was a mental health break for me.
Yeah, we worked long hours, 6 1/2 days per week, and the work was demanding, but the barn I was with treated its staff fairly, and it came with wages plus per diem totaling about $600/week plus paid shared accommodation - not fancy but clean and decent and safe.
I would never do it again (I don’t think I could physically) but I loved every minute of it. Perhaps because I knew it was for such a short period of time and then I would return home, job hunting another office job.
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Yeah, I think we can all figure out how this is going to play out. Sorry pologirl!
For some historical perspective I groomed on the A hunter circuit in 1982 and 1983 for a summer job during college. I had the option of either a flat $100 a day and I paid my own expenses OR $50 a day and all expenses/food and lodging were covered. I did the second option. Minimum wage was around 2.50–3.00 an hour at the time. In addition I got nice tips at the end of each show from most to the adult ammies. Everyone took care of me and kept me fed. I’d eat wherever the whole gang of riders and/or the trainer ate and someone would pick up the bill–often in really, really nice restaurants.
Mr. subk, who has an economics degree from a “prestigious university” has a theory: you are either making money, spending money or sleeping. The more time you are making money the less time you have to spend it. (Brilliant, isn’t he?) I banked every dime I made those summers because I was working 12+ hours a day and went back to school with several thousand dollars in the bank. It was a ton of money at the time. A friend who braided all summer made enough to cover tuition and expenses at Vanderbilt. She’d braid 12-15 horses each night and crash in someone’s empty hotel room during the day.
I guess those days of hiring nice local Pony Club kids has long gone. It was a great gig for a summer job, and a great experience–it cured me forever of wanting to make a living off of horses! Being an 18/19 year old kid and managing a show barn with anywhere from 6 to 15 horses as well as managing additional grooms if they were needed was very educational.
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$50 in 1982 using an inflation calculator is over $150 in “today’s” dollars.
When I groomed at the racetrack in the early 70’s in MD looking after 3 horses and my days were rarely 12 hours I was paid the equivalent of over $1,000 a week in today’s dollars.
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The government calculator comes a bit different, but still the same principal.
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc…5&year2=201705
$50 in 1982 = $127 today per above calculator.
$10/hour. With housing and food paid? Absolutely reasonable/livable. For a four hour work week, that’s $20,800. I would not take a $20,000 salary for a 12+hour/day job in any industry. Nope. Slave labor.
The other option, still reasonable.
$100 in 1982 = $255 today.
$20/hour today; $41,600/year for a 40-hour work week. Perfectly livable long term.
Offering a job as described at the beginning of this thread at $20,000/year with no other benefits is laughable.
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Just as an aside, and not that I delved too deeply into these, but I don’t recall a time in the past where Yard and Groom had 4 pages of jobs in PA. There’s some good stuff out there too. Anyone looking should really check it out. Not to mention that those with no ties (House, married life, kids etc) there are some truly awesome international jobs open as well. Including the Australian team advertising for a Chef D’Equipe… but I digress.
Emily
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Yes, that’s what struck me–it’s the same dollar amount I made 35 years ago with zero adjustments.
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“funding”
What does that mean? Where does “funding” come from?
Around these parts, “funding” usually means “government”. And we’ve all been told again and again that the European riders, especially team riders, have a leg up on the Americans because of stipends. At least part of which originate somewhere within a government. But maybe “funding” means something else to Equibrit.
“recurrent theme … USA’s lack of success in international competition”
Actually that wasn’t part of the topic of this thread at all. You brought it up out of nowhere, Equibrit. And opened up a whole new discussion line that really belongs in a new thread as it doesn’t seem to me that it hasn’t anything to do with where this one was going.
How does the USA and international competition have anything whatsoever to do with barn assistants?
Everybody doesn’t have international competition on the brain. Most of the riders I interact with never think about it at all, some are barely aware it even exists. Out here in Fly-Over Country, which is the majority of land space on this continent, FEI divisions are rare at horse trials. No UL’s at most, a handful have Prelim. Most riders don’t aspire to them.
You derailed the thread, Equibrit, but that’s ok. :winkgrin:
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