Quitting horses entirely? - vent (long)

[OverandOnward]

If you are stuck on one particular step, such as assistant trainer jobs … time to re-route without that step, still to the same destination.

What’s true is the “I” in “I am stuck”. “Stuck” is not a natural condition, it’s something we do to ourselves, mentally. Another term for “stuck” is “tunnel vision”. The situation is not the problem. Our approach to it is.

There is another way. Working that out is a lifelong career skill, and some people have it better than others. Those who aren’t adept at re-routing remain “stuck”, sometimes for years, sometimes decades.

You said you have worked with a career counselor for weeks. That should have helped … either not a good counselor, or what? What were you doing with the counselor?

I wonder if the jumping discipline schools us too much to take each obstacle in order. Career isn’t a course of Jump 1, 2, 3, and any deviation means losing. Career is Gambler’s Choice. Definitely have a plan, but if you miss a planned turn or if an approach becomes iffy, re-route … and keep going.

Also in this Gambler’s Choice, if you fall off, you can get back on and keep going. The course has no end, just keep riding.

There have been good suggestions in this thread and there will be more. Stop thinking about what is wrong with each one, because you attract what you hold in your thoughts. Of all the ideas that come your way, consider how you could make each work, tweak as necessary and pick the best one.

[technopony]

If you truly have no other passions… I would not quit! There are things you can do in the meantime that are horse related and will help you make more connections in the industry, and may help you land the perfect assistant/rider/groom job that you really want. Work in a tack store, as a vet assistant, freelance groom at shows, farm sit, exercise horses… I did all these things after college and eventually fell into an assistant rider position. But these jobs (especially the good ones) can be hard to come by and are also often found via word of mouth. My employer actually won’t even advertise when they need a position filled. Keep showing your horse, building your resume and having fun. And I assure you, it IS possible to compete at a high level while working full time if you want it enough. Give it more than a month, and see what happens. If it’s not working for you in 6 months or a year, reevaluate.

As an aside, I don’t condemn the OP for not being able to do stalls… I spent a LOT of my life from the age of 13 on mucking barns (and often the type of stall that isn’t picked regularly and needs to be stripped daily)… After about 15 years of this I realized the toll it was taking on my back. I see a chiro and massage therapist regularly, who have both advised me to stop mucking if possible (not possible). I’m easily able to manage my 3 stalls at home daily, pick out throughout the day at work, and sometimes muck 6-12 stalls at work though usually not more than once a week. But doing heavy mucking daily messes up my back to the point that it does affect my riding, which is not cool since I ride for a living! I have scoliosis and spend a lot of money on therapies to manage it and keep myself as straight as possible so I can ride as well as possible… Not worth messing that up for a mucking job when I could make much more money with a job that uses my B.S.

[MorganJumper848]

Have you thought of possibly working for a company with equine products? Maybe as a saddle rep or feed rep for a large company? Don’t count these types of opportunities out. You could even try a research position. I think training is great but it can easily get old after a while and many times you can’t make enough money unless you have special help.

[tabula_rashah]

Honestly, yes, quit whining and get on with it. I spent 20 years in the pro-horse world and worked myself up to the very top of the game. It doesn’t matter how “good” you are, you have to start at the bottom and that means doing the grunt work. I’ve gone through 100’s of resumes that read just like your first post. The ones that get hired and stay hired are the ones that are willing to work 6-7 days a week, travel at the drop of the hat, stay late on a moment’s notice and generally bust their ass working hard. There are plenty of jobs out there- you just have to be willing.

[Trakehner]

Phew, sounds like the all too common and normal horse career train wreck. Injuries, money, career, money and then injuries. The horse world is full of talented riders who have done a lot of wonderful riding. The horse world is full of people who went to college and now want a horse career. And, they won’t succeed.

Look at the top riders…mommy owned a TV network, daddy was a CEO of a huge company, trust fund babies…shows/trainers/board/bunches of horses cost a lot of money (yeah, I know, DUH). Sadly, you can do a great job, lots of talent and responsibility, be a true professional…and in not too long, you can’t ride anymore, you said you can’t do stalls, and there’s a new sweet young thing who will be the barn manager and you’re old, unhealthy, by yourself with no retirement.

The horse business world chews up people like the OP, and when they’re not 100% or more expensive than a new graduate of whatever school, they get fired.

[danacat]

So danacat: you never had to clean stalls at all back when you were starting out? You established your credentials without ever having had to pick up a fork and shovel? Nice!

Beck: Well that’s pretty rude!

If you read my post correctly you would see that my ‘advice’ to OP was from an experience that happened me “AFTER I stopped training racehorses and running my training farm.” My post did not circle around nor include any description of my experience when ‘starting out’.

But if you want to pick on me, I’ll say that I ‘started out’ when I was five years old. And I didn’t get where I am now by NOT picking up a pitchfork.

Number of stalls I’ve cleaned? Take your age, multiply it by 2000 and keep counting. And as for that shovel? Use your imaginationon as to what you can do with it.

[Beck]

Since the OP is just starting out, surely applicable advice should apply to her current situation and status.

Maybe your point was that you found a second career after having ‘paid your dues’ and establishing yourself as a horseman. Maybe it was too subtly stated: you seemed to be implying she could go straight from where she currently is to where you find yourself now.

[LadyJ526]

My 2 cents…

Take risks.

Coming from someone who is 33 and now wishes they had been braver when pursuing careers after college and considered something outside of their comfort zone…you should take a risk. If you have horsey connections locally then surely someone must have contacts/knowledge of a reputable barn in Europe or somewhere else in the country who needs a working student. Even if you find ads on your own for barns outside of your current area, Google is a magical tool where you can find out just about anything that someone is trying to hide!
Also, in my experience in riding with one trainer who never left the area vs. my current trainer who spent years working at different barns in Europe before returning to the US, my current trainer has taught me so much more!

[Willy_Von_Whompers]

I would assess your own physical state first before jumping into a career with horses. Working with horses is tough on the body…period. Never mind doing stalls (which I’ve done since I was 10 and I’m in my 50s now…never found it that tough…even with a broken arm and a broken leg, I managed, albeit slowly)….

But you get slammed against walls, stepped on, hit by forelegs and hind legs as they kick at flies, feet squished, ribs squished…this is just general day to day working around them. No matter how careful you are stuff happens over the course of years. It just does. Not even counting spectacular falls, or just tumbles out the side door. It all adds up. You need to be basically tough physically and mentally just to push thru and keep on. Some people no matter how good they are in the saddle just are not cut out for the day to day grind.

If you are young (and it sounds as if you are) and can’t do stalls now (or sling hay, or unload trailers or whatever)…it’s not going to get better in 10 years or 20 years. I’d really say if you aren’t fantastically well off…stick to horses as a hobby. You wouldn’t be in my “hire” pile either. Sometimes you need someone who can sling bales or fix a fence or hold an unruly horse for the vet. You are just going to wear yourself down and you can’t walk in and start just riding. I don’t know anyone (unless rich) who did that. You start in the barn then you start on the babies and spoilt ones, then they let you near a good horse. Unless you let money let you bypass some of the steps.

If you are still hung ho…work on getting another language German or Dutch under your belt and head off to Europe. In hindsight I wish I’d done that. The only way to “get” their system is be immersed in it. And as a dressage rider (I know you are jumper/hunter so it may be different) that IS the system. You have to immerse yourself in whatever is the system for your discipline and that means going to them.

[CenteredRiding]

Aren’t there so many different ways to be a trainer?

For instance: there is an abundance of OTTBs needing to be re-trained to hunter/jumper. What about flipping horses? Buy OTTB (they’re cheap), train it to hunt/jump, sell it. Have some kind of part time job to make ends meet if necessary.

Train other breeds, cross breeds, start 3-yr. olds, then sell them. Awful lot of pasture puffs out there going to waste because no one has time train and sell them.

Rescue horses. At FB page of our local rescue, people keep asking if such-and-such horse can be ridden. Answer is always no because the one person who runs the place doesn’t have time. These are people saying they’d buy that horse if only he was ride-able. Rescue them, train them, sell them.

Use your horse eye to find the gems. I’m betting there are gems in rescues just as there are in folks’ back pastures. Sometimes the stone takes more polishing. Sometimes it just needs love.

I still believe Valegro was created by love. Everyone said he was ugly, but Charlotte fell in love. It changed how he carried himself. Do that for a horse and you could get a reputation.

[ladyj79]

Ok i said it on the other thread, I know nations cup riders in Europe who clean boxes. Lots of pro riders clean boxes. And I don’t just mean their own. to suggest you can go be a ws or groom in Europe without cleaning boxes is not really realistic.

If you can’t clean boxes, don’t go to Europe.

If you are a good enough rider, you should be looking in Florida now. There will be a lot of turn over throughout the season and you can find a lot of flatting/hacking gigs, even if you have to work two or three of these jobs and live somewhere sketch.

These jobs are not coming to you. You have limitations that thousands of other people don’t do you have to hustle way way more if you want to find a foothold.

[Twisting]

Have you tried modifying how you do stalls? Americans seem head over heals for the pick method. I hate it, it’s killer on my back. When I lived in England I found using a manure scoop and small rake to be much easier on my back. No hunched over bending involved. You do need to find a rake that is long enough, but then you just flick manure in the scoop. Care when dumping it into the wheelbarrow can take a lot of strain off your back. I also find it works better for picking out a paddock. The tines of my fork are always getting stuck in the grass.

Work smarter?

[scheherazadetbmare]

I can list the # of barns I have boarded at where barn staff, particularly barn managers, thought that it was beneath them to clean stalls.

I have been cleaning my own stalls both at home and in boarding barns since I was a child. Paying for full board at boarding barns, I was appalled that the BOs, the BMs, and all staff though they were “too good” to clean stalls. I don’t want my horses standing in manure. I spent years paying full board and paying for any extras that my horses needed, yet having to clean stalls when I got to the barn because the barn workers were too lazy to clean stalls. I have a graduate degree. None of my degrees are in the horse biz. But I think people need to get over the idea that they are “too good” to do manual labor.

[Willy_Von_Whompers]

I do my best thinking cleaning stalls. I agree it’s not demeaning, it’s just part of horses. I find it warms my body up after being in the office all day, so I’m more supple when I get on.

There is no way I see it as demeaning in any way. However…if that’s all you do as a job, day in and day out…it would be limiting.

I have done as many as thirteen stalls when i had my own boarding barn AND a full time job AND teaching at night That was soul sucking. I didn’t have time or energy to improve my own horse or myself. I just rode him on a long rein because I was so knackered. That’s the kind of thing that you can do short term but not long term. I can do four or five easily and work full time and have lots of time to ride. In my 50s still. You have to pace yourself. But the office job pays for the farm, make no mistake. Boarders are not my thing either. Privacy is worth working a little harder for.

In a way the mucking and physical stuff is a blessing. Most of my office colleagues go home and watch TV all night. So I think of the work as a blessing not a curse. It is a tough life and a tough mindset needed….I won’t lie that it is easy at minus 20 when you have to shovel a path to get to the muck pile before you wheel the poop out. And you have to bash buckets out, and if the pipes freeze you are carrying water from the house. Bottom line is mental toughness is needed for anyone looking at staying with horses long term.

[BigMama1]

I weigh 200lbs. I have significant back and neck issues from a car accident and from several horse related falls, along with cartilage loss and arthritis in both knees. I’m currently just back from 3 months off with a fractured knee. I go to physio every 2 weeks just to stay upright, walking and able to manage my jobs, kids, house and life. And I muck 16 stalls 2-3 times a week because it reduces the cost of my board and I need that in order to afford my horse. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

[Alagirl]

well, I am assuming you are American…
For now it is still pretty easy for one to enter Germany. Consult your consulate for visa requirements.

The really good part: The industry over yonder is VERY regulated. Not at all like the US.
And you get health insurance…and paid vacation to go, uh, travel, like Vienna, or Hungary…or the UK…
the risk is smaller than going across country to some unknown entety…

But frankly, you are at a dead end now.
If nothing but horses ever tickled your fancy, you have to go where the jobs are. You can always quit and get on the bus (plane) home.

I saw somebody mentioning Klimke, true.
He rode as a young man with other greats like Winkler, etc…then pursuit law and was able to afford many horses (some sponsored by various organizations, interested in keeping good riders in good horses)

there is also what’s her name, Lisa(?) Wilcox(?) the American lady riding the stallions for a German stud.
In Germany you can also advance and not only get your certificate as ‘Bereiter’, but go further as Master. That would allow you to not only run a barn (depending on specialization) but also train young folk in the industry, plus it adds a business aspect to your education.

[Willy_Von_Whompers]

If you are going to Europe I would urge you to get the second language that you will need. It doesn’t take long to get conversational in horsey German for example. You get so much more out of things if you can get the nuances and the off the cuff stuff. It’s really worth doing. I can understand tons of general horsey chat in German, can’t formulate a sentence back usually, but for a student teacher relationship…that’s OK. It works!!! Listen and soak it in.

Dutch would be worth learning too. Enough to get by at least.

[Sancudo]

If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life… probably because it’s not much of a job and it won’t pay the bills.

Sorry, I’m that 9-5er rushing home to clean stalls and train one horse, and you know what, I’m still progressing, and so are the horses. When every minute counts, you can be extremely productive in training and in life. It’s not the end of the world.

[SendenHorse]

Funny its the “ammy with the job” that has more time, money and fewer restrictions-- all the pros I know are too busy and broke to do much with their own horses…

JMHO. I can spend 4 hrs a night with my one horse… can most professionals do that? not likely. I don’t have any desire or wish to be a pro or compete other peoples’ horses.

Sure, I have to carefully manage my time and money, but so does everyone else.

[Heinz_57]

[QUOTE=Sancudo;9011488]
If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life… probably because it’s not much of a job and it won’t pay the bills.

Sorry, I’m that 9-5er rushing home to clean stalls and train one horse, and you know what, I’m still progressing, and so are the horses. When every minute counts, you can be extremely productive in training and in life. It’s not the end of the world.[/QUOTE]

This is probably not even in the OP’s mind right now, but you reminded me - OP, it’s important to remember that most of the 9-5’ers have retirement, health insurance, and savings. Most (nearly all) the equine pros I know have very little saved and no retirement. There is no sick pay, no paid vacation, and no weekends off. Regular jobs aren’t THAT bad, and nowhere does it say you must only work jobs doing things you LOVE.