Hello! I have a 14-year-old daughter who wants to start making money. She refuses to work at any fast food places that hire at 14 and has come to the conclusion that she wants to work at a horse barn. I have always just had my own little private farm, so I’m not sure how barn owners that offer boarding and such do things like hiring. I am not even sure if barn owners would want to hire a 14-year-old. Does anyone have any tips for her getting a job? Is it possible? Should we just call around to barns in our area? Thanks.
Does your area have a local horse group on Facebook? That’s always a great place to start!
I have had high school age people working for me for about 35-40 years --most start freshman year and work until he/she graduates. The young people find me and ask for the work because I pay well and allow the employee to work when he or she can, adjusting for sports schedules. I do require that employees have their own transportation with parents or being able to drive themselves.
But your question is how should your daughter find someone like me [kindly elderly lady who pays cash] to work for? Suggest she search on the computer (with your help/supervision) for horse facilities near you. Help her create a resume – brainstorm with her on references --who other than family can speak to her having good attendance and being punctual? Teacher? 4-H Leader? Someone she’s babysat for? Next is the big step --contacting the owner --if it is a larger facility, there will be a phone number or email. A simple message to the owner or barn manager: I would like to speak with you about employment, when is a good time? At this point, especially if by email, the owner or BM has no idea your daughter is 14 years old. Hopefully, you and she are given a time. Practice with her on presenting herself well to the BO or BM --resume in hand, of course. See if you can find a neighbor or other adult to role play with her. Practice is important. Before the first contact, remind her that generally it takes 10 interviews to land a job. Oh, she should dress for barn work, but neatly. No sandals!
Ok,she meets with first BO/BM (make sure you are close by —but not answering questions for her --you are a support person assuring the employer that you will provide transportation. [of course don’t leave your kid with a stranger in a barn for any reason] If the answer is an immediate no --for any reason --not hiring, too young, no experience, have her prepared to ask what is the youngest he/she will hire; who else might be looking for barn help; and does he/she have any suggestions on how she could get a job like what she wants.
A couple of more things —I NEVER hire young people who ask me if I need help riding my horses. That’s not the kind of worker I want. I hire the kid who asks if I need help with mowing, fence painting, putting up hay, or cleaning stalls. The most recent barn girl I found at a 4-H Saddle Club Meeting. I put an “help wanted” flyer on the table asking for someone 16-18 who wanted to work on a horse farm, no riding, but horse care and general farm work. Current employee (been with me 3 years now) emailed and said she wasn’t 16, she was 14 but she wanted to try for the job. I gave her a stall to strip. It took me 15 min to do a similar stall. I busied myself around the barn while she worked. In 15 min she had done a perfect job, and swept the walls, and washed and filled the water bucket. I hired her. She works 6 to 8 hours a week --about 2 hours, sometimes 3 a day. I pay at the end of each day, cash.
She is the first barn girl I have ride the horses --she is a good rider and I have a horse I don’t ride enough. She keeps him going --rides him a couple of hours a week. She also is a whizz at washing horses and cleaning tack. She works hard. She hates painting and weed spraying --so when she has to do that, I do it with her.
Sources for employers: ask a vet or horse shoer if he/she knows of anyone who might need help around the farm. 4-H leaders might help too. She could print off her own flyer and hang it at feed stores, tack stores, or other places where horse people hang out. If she has friends with horses, see if they will post that “a friend is looking for a job at a stable,” and forward the contact information to her --for you to check out first.
My worker’s mom and dad both “hung around” and came early to chat with me about her day’s work when they came to pick her up for awhile until they were comfortable that I didn’t eat kids for breakfast and would never ask her to do anything dangerous. I always asked parents if ok if she used tractor or mower.
20 Likes
My youngest daughter was the same person. At 15 she started a summer riding program.
Like you we have our own place, horses at home and well, she started a summer camp and riding program. I do not suggest you do the same however she learned a lot about Business doing her summer camps.
She did it all, business bank account, designed a logo, marketing, class curriculum (which was so encompassing that other stables started using her curriculum) , she did it all the whole works. She leased our horses from my business who actually owned the horses, borrowed a few who needed attention and suddenly had a complete group of horses… and ended up with a waiting list of students. Hired a couple of her school friends to help. (Side note, all of the summer camp instructors have become school teachers).
She ran this camp for five years, earned enough to almost pay for her college education at Texas A&M College Station
Trying to tell her No is not a good idea as she is fearless, she was taught to seek solutions and no really wasn’t an acceptable answer so we sat down and wrote up what she wanted to do.
Thank you so much! This was extremely helpful considering the fact that I have a small, private barn and never had experience with this.
@Sugar and Spice My original reason for hiring barn help was to do morning feeding. As a high school teacher with three little kids at home, morning was the time I could get to work early and do my grading/planning. DH had the morning duty of getting the girls up, fed, and on the bus. That left horses to feed. A neighbor family had foster kids --one was in my class. He was a big, quiet fellow with a rather profound speech impediment. His work in my class was exemplary, his attendance perfect, and his attitude great. I asked his foster mom if he could feed for me in the mornings. She said yes. Soon the daily morning feeding became more with Saturday hours too, and after school hours, and summer hours. Both my husband and I loved having him there to be an extra set of hands for whatever project we needed done. And we could travel, knowing he would care for the horses/dogs. As time went on, he graduated, another foster child took his place, then two sisters, also foster kids.
We moved to a different farm in the same area --but the word was out. Kids would wait for one of my workers to graduate and start angling for the job. Mostly it went through families --one brother or sister would be followed by another . . .my current barn girl has THREE younger siblings so I hope to have help until I’m 90! My key to keeping young people working is 1) pay well, in cash, daily. Kids don’t want to wait a week and be handed a check. 2) Be flexible on scheduling --often young people have no control over their commitments --parents make plans, coaches schedule practices --kid has no say. 3) Never ask an employee to do something you wouldn’t do yourself --although one huge boy who worked for me, on his own, used to do projects like roof sheds, repair fence --he’d give me an estimate on materials, then just do it --but he was a rare bird. 4) praise often --to child AND to parents --they don’t hear enough how great their kids are. 5) accept that they are children. If a job isn’t done well --assume you didn’t explain it well enough. Apologize and show how you want it done, again. If still not up to your standard, let it go --find something the child can do well --and do it yourself. As I said, my barn girl does not like to spray weeds --hot, boring work. So, rather than flog a dead horse, we do it together with two sprayers, make it a bit of a game, or talk about life while we do it. She has other things she does incredibly well --so ok, some years my weeds don’t get sprayed. She’s still worth her weight in gold. She does like to mow, so sometimes I just give her a choice --mow or spray --she’ll do one, I’ll do the other.
You might ask why I didn’t “make” my daughters do the farm work --they had jobs --just not with me! I’ve found that my kids don’t work well for me --but they will work great for other people. Youngest set up a riding program (had 16 students at one point) here using our horses --she made more money and had more fun than she would have had working for me as a barn girl. Anyway --that’s what worked for me. FYI --more than a few people have asked how I get/keep my great barn help --Pay Well, Be Flexible, Praise often. I visited with the vet once --he was watching the barn girl mowing --he said, “I can’t get help. Young people these days are lazy.” What he didn’t know is that I had a number of his previous workers in my classes —he had a breeding operation and hired young people. What I heard from them was he paid poorly, was never around to answer questions, and constantly found fault with their work when he did drop by. I wouldn’t have worked for him.
6 Likes
. Youngest set up a riding program (had 16 students at one point) here using our horses --she made more money and had more fun than she would have had working for me as a barn girl.
our 15 year daughter did the same, she learned how to run a business by setting up a summer riding program, she ran it for five years earning almost enough to pay her her own college education. She hired a few of her school mates who knew horses to help. This was not a hop on horse and ride program but a complete learn about Horses with four hours of classroom study each day (this allowed her to double the number of students by having a morning and afternoon session working with the actual horses…and gave her an option for rainy days since we do not have a covered arena).
She did the whole thing, set up the corporation, had a bank account, designed her Farm logo, wrote the camp class curriculum (using Horse competition notes) leased the school horses from us and my business who own a few of the horses our kids showed… She had a waiting list of want to be students… even had kids who had moved out of state to make their parents allow them to come back for a few weeks summer camp. All of the camp instructors are today school teachers, they learned they enjoyed teaching
here is one week’s class with one of her instructors
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10697950}[/ATTACH]
9 Likes
In college I actually reached out to several smaller barns in the area asking if they needed help. My primary motivation was just getting my horse fix while focusing on my studies. I lucked out and the local barn who did the college riding classes hired me. It was all maintenance work and basic care such as tacking up the lesson ponies, holding for the farrier or vet, feeding, cleaning tack, stripping stalls and things like that. But I learned so much and I got to be around horses!
As Foxglove said I would not go into a barn job expecting to ride. I got lucky and after several weeks there was asked to take the schoolies out on trail rides so they didn’t burn out with their jobs. This was asked of me, never something I asked for.
My biggest recommendation is that once your daughter obtains a position she asks if she can observe the trainer work. After being on the job for a few weeks I asked the trainer if I could arrange my lunch breaks around her training sessions or clean tack in the viewing area so that I could watch. She was happy to allow this and I learned so much from observing her. Several times a week I would haul the school tack over to the viewing room and clean while she worked a training horse. We reached a point where she would wear her mic so that I could hear her talk to the horse and instruct. These lessons are now carried over to my own work with my horses.
5 Likes
I suspect she will have an easier time finding a barn that will let her work in exchange for lessons or riding but no money. She might have an easier time finding someone who will pay her by asking at small or privately owned farms and not riding/boarding farms. My son worked at our neighbor’s horse farm for a few hours per week for a while. He worked for another neighbor baling hay and doing yard work. Both of those were great because I didn’t have to drive him anywhere! After he got his license, he found work doing barn/horse care for a small time race horse trainer with 6-8 horses at a local farm. He spends a few days each summer weedeating for my farrier.
See if she’ll branch out into what she’s open to doing. There’s more out there besides fast food and horses. I did two seasons picking grapes at a vineyard when I was 13-14, and see ads for a local one near me still hiring pretty much anyone, for any hours, to do the work needed in the fall. There’s always care/walking of pets and children, lawn mowing, gardening, etc. Do you have any neighbors who might need a little extra help with things? That’s always a good plan for the parent of a non-driver.
@Mango20 has great suggestions, but one I disagree with: exchanging work for lessons or riding time but no money. This has never worked for me. The few early employees I tried it with, felt there was never enough riding time, and I felt there was never enough work done to earn the riding time. Further, I would not allow anyone to ride my horses without me present --that put me in the position of having to give up my own riding time to allow someone else to ride --and as a teacher, the LAST thing I wanted to do on my time with my horses was teach. @clanter 's daughter is one impressive girl! My kid only lasted two summers with her riding lesson program --like me she found it cut into her own riding time. By the time she’d done her 4 daily lessons, she’d had enough of horses and heat for the day.
Perhaps some can manage the balance between riding in exchange for working, but as I said, it never worked for me.
If she wants the job, shouldn’t she be calling the different barns and finding a job for herself? I had several barn jobs as a kid, but my mom never called for me…
4 Likes
@Moonlitoaks RE: Calling herself v mom calling local barns: the OP wrote “we”—so this call would be a “coached” or supported effort – a few years ago I had a class of high school sophomores with various reasons for having failed the previous year’s classes --or the school failed them --whatever. After working with each student to achieve the necessary level of achievement through the school year, our next focus as a class was summer jobs. Using various search engines we made 3x5 cards of “places who need summer help” and phone numbers in our area --we had about 100 so each of the students was given 5 cards randomly (wait, there’s a point here). Using the classroom land line, one by one with classmates watching, the student was to read a scrip :
Hi! This is a Northview student. As a class project, I would like to know if you are hiring this summer? What is the minimum age? Is the application on-line or one that needs to be picked up? What is the deadline for the application? Thank you so much for the information!
Amazingly to me in this phone-glued-to-the-hip generation —there were 4-5 students who couldn’t/wouldn’t make phone calls (cold calls). All good --for the purpose of the class, anyway. Their friends offered to make the calls for them to gather the information.
My long-winded point is that cold calls are hard for some young people. Since no information about the student is offered in the initial phone call, the mother OR the student could gather the information. It would be best for the student to do it herself, but either way would still be a plus.
In my class project (5 years ago), students did apply on-line and I gathered a number of paper applications that were filled out and mailed. All but one student received a job offer --about half ended up working at one of the places we contacted. Others had already lined up jobs, were working for family members, or took summer school. The one who did not receive any kind of job offer had no transportation possible. It was a fun project.
2 Likes
I’d also suggest you as the Mom should do your due diligence on any barns/property/owner where your daughter may be working.
My out of state young -grandniece was taking lessons at a local barn- a junky cowboy type place. Parents were total newbies and non-horsey. I’d heard some rumors that owner who leased the property might not be too upstanding so I did some snooping. Yikes, scarey stuff I found not only about BO but also about some of tenants on farm who were troubled teen boys
and had their own questionable records. So be careful out there.
3 Likes
really the primary point should be teaching the young girl how to be successful on her own… I agree if she is not the one actively seeking the position there is a lose of a learning point.
We used our Horses as a tool to teach our kids how to deal with life, the horses were not a prized luxury pet but an opportunity for us as parents to subject the kids to real life in a controlled environment. Each of our kids learned how plan, set goals, budget, have the feeling of success, and of course …the big one failure. To me their learning about how to deal with failure was the most important as at least with the horses the kids were were in contained small world where we could oversee with confidence.
They learned to set goals that were high, they had good horses that would do the job if the kid did their job.
When younger daughter set the goal to be the national champion youth competitive trail rider she went after that goal… loosing by a faction of a point. Not a happy daughter, especially once it was disclosed the winner had competed in four rides where either her parents or close relative were the judge. I set her down, we reviewed to Rule Book, there was nothing within the rules to prohibit what the winner had done. What was the next set? I had her write a Rule proposal to revise the rules to not allow a rider to earn points while competing in a ride that was judged by a close relative (father/mother/aunt/uncle). The rider could ride the ride but not earn points. Daughter sent her Rule Change Proposal to regional rep who agreed with her proposal then present the rules change proposal before the national board, who adopted the rule change. (Within those that know the rule was/is known as Aimee’s Rule)
So daughter was Reserve National Champion, but her horse… he was National Champion as horse and riders were judge separately
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10698572}[/ATTACH][ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“large”,“data-attachmentid”:10698573}[/ATTACH]
2 Likes
I’m a trainer who has had working students of various ages.
I would be VERY unimpressed with a kid whose mom contacted me about the kid working. To the point that I may respond with “position is filled”.
At most, mom could assist with initial email or text composition, and provide transportation to interview. My interest in a kid working at my barn is predicated by evidence of self-motivation, larger than normal horse interest, and willingness to work hard and not complain. None of these things are suggested by mommy being the person on point.
yes, parent should vet out the facility and trainer. Yes, ultimately the parent is responsible for transport in most cases in a kid that young, and he’s thats on the young side to be “hired”. Bear in mind that most barn cultures provide experience-trade and not dollars.
i have done the work/trade for lessons.
It works if there a school horses, and a standard lesson program that the worker can fold into. My trade is 4, 1/2 hours of work for one lesson. Once I am confident that the worker is competent, I will allow them to do lease rides as part of compensation if I am in the barn.
2 Likes
this what I failed to make note of in my above post.
OP needs to help their daughter develop a plan, then work with her on how to obtain those goals… not do it for her
2 Likes
I wasn’t suggesting she exchange work for riding, I was just pointing out that she might have a hard time finding a farm that’s actually willing to pay her money since most seem to acquire their child labor through work to ride schemes.
Also, I agree with you that it’s very hard for kids these days to actually TALK to someone one their phone. They don’t even talk on phones to each other, so talking to strangers is extra scary. We heard through a friend that someone was looking to hire for the summer and basically the job was my son’s if he wanted it. He was nervous about calling. I had to tell him how to start the call: “Hi, my name is ______, I got your name from _____ and hear you have a job opening”. Once he got started he was fine with the rest, but it was definitely out of his comfort zone. I recently witnessed another teen so stressed about calling in a Chinese food order that someone else did it for her.
To be fair, the OP never said she was going to be the one calling for her daughter.
2 Likes
I personally started working my first job (besides a paper route) at a barn, at 14 years old.
I was horse obsessed but my family could never afford lessons or a lease, I rode a bit with a family friend, mucked the stall on Sundays in exchange for a ride on her mare. One summer vacation I talked to my mom about starting volunteering at a local to us therapeutic riding center. I went with my mom to visit, spoke to the barn manager, and they let me start volunteering. I quickly proved that I’d do any hard work just to be around the horses, so within a week of me starting, the BM started picking me up at 6 am on her way in and 5-6 days a week I worked all day long with her mucking, turn in/out, grooming and tacking horses for lessons, feeding, everything else required during the week. After the summer break of doing that, as I was about to go back to school, they hired me on paid staff for weekend shifts. That position then lead to me, 2.5 years later, becoming the full time barn manager for another 4 years.
Might not be the same these days, your daughter may not want to volunteer, but that’s how I started out. I proved how hard working and willing I was, earned myself a paid position and it got my foot in the door to many other opportunities in the house industry.
I’d say get her volunteering 1-2 days a week at a rescue or therapy center if you have one local, to start getting some work references. That can quickly lead to word of mouth (which we all know the horse industry thrives on) and if she’s a good hard worker, could open the doors to paid positions! Definitely, at her age, I’d say you can accompany her on “interviews” and such, but try to have her do the talking with potential employers. It will show how mature and willing she is.
Good luck to her!
2 Likes
I agree with the statements above about the daughter doing the leg work with mom as support/coach. I get contacted all the time for girls looking to “exercise” my horses etc., but they never want to do the work.
Another thing to consider. IT IS HARD WORK. I have 18stalls but I realize there are smaller barns she can look for. Everyone in my area is looking for barn help so I’m guessing your area may be as well. I’ve had girls start, last about a week or so and then realize how hard it is. I pay well and the hours aren’t bad. On top of that, there is frequently the “days off” for other sports, school activities etc. I get how important they all are, but so is the job. Make sure the commitment is there on her part and that she has a responsibility to stick with the job if accepted.
Good luck and hope she finds an awesome job!
1 Like
Sorry for the late reply, but I think there is some confusion. I am in no way shape or form going to call around for my daughter and get her a job. I just simply wanted to know if there was a certain way to go about finding open positions. Then I would relate this info to her so we could sit down together, find some barns in our area, and she can call while I sit by her and be ready to talk on the phone if they need to speak to a parent. Thanks!
