Making Life Choices that Make Being an Equestrian Possible

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@RainWeasley

Yup. Instead of going into an animal-related field as I originally planned, I decided to get a degree in engineering so I could afford horses and keeping them at a decent facility. I do have a decent amount of debt from school, I was incredibly stupid and blew my full ride because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, took me like 6 years to finally figure it out. A lot of that was the way I was raised, I love my parents but they really didn’t give me the best upbringing to be successful in life, let me get away with a lot, and my mom is absolutely not the best role model when it comes to handling money. And I’m still figuring out the whole money management thing to this day.

But, that being said, having at least one horse the whole time through college up to now taught me a lot of the things I had been missing, especially self discipline. I am still getting control of my finances (which would be MUCH EASIER if crap would stop happening that I have to pay for), so I have a decent bit of debt still, but I have a pretty good job now that is letting me get it under control while still keeping a horse. I have no intentions of having kids, so not worried about that.

I do feel like a bit of a failure, I’m getting close to 30 now and I have made so many mistakes that I regret so far in life. But the horses is definitely not one of them. And I’m glad that I made the choice to get a well paying degree (even if it cost me a ton of money figuring that out) so I can keep the things I love as a hobby, not a profession to get burnt out on.

As far as my next job, the one I have now doesn’t pay as well but is incredibly flexible. My next job will either have to be as flexible, or I have to make a LOT more than I make now.

And we take into account distance from the barn, or at least other decent barns, when we look at places to move to. Renting an apartment now, but the plan is to get a house within a year or so (boyfriend is the one that is smart with money, he is the polar opposite of me in that regard and I am SO glad he is).

I too, pursued a career in engineering. It has proven to be rewarding so far, good salary, some weeks with long hours, but some weeks with regular hours. The odd call to confirm something or report a problem. But ultimately, it has allowed me to purchase my very first horse at 23 and also have the time to ride.

I did make sacrifices to make it happen, though! I gave up riding for the entirety of my university career (did not have the time or financial ability), and even a few years later so I could save my pennies. I also made getting out of my parent’s hair a priority so that had to come first. All said and done, I have my own home and fancy warmblood baby.

Mind you, my specialization is in mining and mineral processing, so it can occasionally get pretty dirty as I am on the operations side. I also have to keep in mind location, I am lucky enough to live in a city that has ample competitive equestrian facilities with competent professionals. Others that work in mining, out in the boonies, do not have this luxury. I had a bit of luck that worked in my favor. Ultimately, I chose the career to make me a living and also to afford my horses. Without horses as my drive, I’m not too sure where I would have ended up!

[greysfordays]

I’m a portfolio manager for a large mutual fund company. I took 15 years off from horses between college, working on wall street, business school and post-business school to have the funds to ride.

At this point in my career, I’m well-established and have been at my firm 7 years with good performance. I have excellent work life balance, they totally understand that the horses keep me sane. I’m lucky to work at a human focused firm, that is for certain.

I specifically chose finance because I knew it would be lucrative if I put my head down and it seemed like it would intellectually stimulating. I had no idea if I would really like it or be any good at it. I don’t love it, but luckily I am good at it. I had to work my a$$ off in very challenging jobs with 100 hour work weeks in the beginning and I graduated business school during the financial crisis, so I wasn’t making much initially.

The hard part for me now is I’m pretty bored with my job and would prefer something that is less introverted (picking stocks is a pretty solo endeavor). But because I have horses and love showing, I feel a bit trapped to stay for now. Particular with a full time nanny for our son.

It’s funny bc if I could do anything, I would pack up my kid and move to Europe to become a groom. My husband isn’t keep on this plan, go figure! I love the physical care aspects of the horses and the idea of supporting a rider is really appealing to me. My trainer has a really top class groom who has been all over the world and we laugh that I’m the best 40 year old barn rat she’s ever had. Also the only :lol:

I try my best to hold onto that barn rat mentality and cultivate my horsemanship. I trailer in to my trainer’s barn for lessons and she keeps one horse and I keep the other. For the horse that stays near me, we have grooms, but I push myself to do as much care as possible and ask ALL the questions. When my kid isn’t at the show, I’m there all day to help out. It’s taken my groom some time to get comfortable with that, but now she knows I’m here to learn in addition to riding. So I think it’s possible to still grow as a horse person even if you’re not doing all your care, all the time. Not every barn will let you do this so YMMV!