That would be a dream come true…but how do I get from where I am now to being hired as a groomer when I have little experience?
Well even as a “Canadian” you might have to worry about health insurance if you live outside of your Province for 6 months a year. Just saying…but I would definitely NOT quit. Take an unpaid leave of absence from your present employer. Try the horse thing if you honestly think you want to give it a try. Perhaps take a position with a top trainer in whatever discipline you are interested in but hang in there. Full time positions, with good pay, benefits and a pension for life are very hard to come by.
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emmo, I quit my “real”, extremely stressful, unfulfilling job a number of years ago to follow my dream of becoming a professional rider. I worked for a MNT (Medium Named Trainer), got paid a lot less than minimum wage, rode a ton of horses, worked 70+ hours a week, and lasted exactly 10 months. I was exhausted, poor (especially after having a pretty decent salary), got hurt several times by client horses that no one else would ride, and truly missed my days off. I went back to the real world and focused on making a career for myself that gives me time for the things I truly want to do.
All that sounds negative, but if you can swing it, I would take the time and do it. Otherwise you’ll always wonder WHAT IF. In my case, I found out that my dream wasn’t what I had hoped, and I rarely ride anymore. But I don’t spend any time wishing that I worked in a barn full time.
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Get proactive.
Research the nonprofits and the environmental engineering firms in your region. See what kind of projects they do. Try to guess how well your skills would fit in.
Then do some informational interviews. Meet for coffee with people in the field. Make it clear you aren’t asking for a job but are wanting to know about how you could transition into that niche within several years.
Are there some courses you could take? Skills you could learn? Professional organizations you could join? Conferences? Background reading on environmental issues or development issues? Volunteer work you could do to build skills or contacts in that area? Etc.
Then do the things people suggest and keep an eye on the job market.
Feeling stuck is an orientation to the world not in most cases really an objective situation. If you tend to feel isolated and stuck you will feel that way in your barn job too.
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I loved being an FEI groom, but generally even at that level the pay isn’t super. There are some grooms who do end up working for the same great rider for decades, but there is also an incredible amount of turn over and merry go round and highly variable pay and benefits.
But I had extensive experience as a professional rider and instructor and barn manager when the opportunity to move to Europe to work for a particular rider became available. The pay wasn’t great but I did get to travel and work with and ride great horses and meet lovely people.
I had a lifetime of spending money on lessons and training before I ever took a job in the industry.
working student positions generally will not get you the experience you need to do much. You might not be qualified to be a groom or rider for anyone who isn’t awful.
my best advice is take a lot of lessons and talk with trainers you work with about opportunities to expand your knowledge and skill set. That is how you find better and better opportunities in the industry.
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If money is really not an issue, it would be AWESOME to take 6 months or a year or whatever to go be a working student for a good trainer. A local BNT, a not-BNT but an excellent trainer with good horsemanship, or a top pro (see Beezie comment above). This would get you a great education and connections.
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Where?
John and Beezie are on the road most of the year, but home base is Cazenovia. However, they posted that they were looking for experienced grooms - if you are serious about grooming (former groom here and I wouldn’t recommend it, but I also make 700% more money than I did grooming… That’s not an exaggeration, I actually did the math), I’d recommend getting experience with a few barns that just do regular A shows, and then moving on to an FEI operation. Because you don’t want to be the inexperienced groom who uses the wrong topical accidentally and gets your rider set down for a year.
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For starters, learn the lingo. Dogs have groomers; horses have grooms.
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There must be something else you can do with engineering that you would find more fulfilling that would be more stable and lucrative than a stablehand job
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Know two civil engineers, one a rider, who work in the government arena, local and state levels which would be Provincial level for OP. They both find the job meaningful and fulfilling, if sometimes less then stimulating, think one is in planning and the other in something to do with the environment. Can’t remember exactly.
Think you have ended up working with and for asshats who think it’s OK to act like that at work. Not all business tolerate that.
BUT if you had trouble feeling like you fit in while in Australia in a structured work environment? What do you think is going to happen in the barn environment??? You think some of those you deal with now act like lunks? What do you think some you work a 10 hour day doing physical labor are going to act line in a barn with no boss right around the corner or expectation of at least civil behavior?
If you want to leave where you are now and try it, go ahead. But IMO, you are unlikely to find things any different in a barn…fact they might be worse.
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This sounds less like you need to take a job mucking out stalls than it does like you need to learn to network. If you’re not already, join a professional organization in your field, or a Women in STEM or similar group. Talk to other alumni of your alma mater in your field. Explore your options and how to make a career change within a field that will allow you the financial security to have a horse, rather than a minimum wage career shoveling horse poop.
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And don’t forget to tap into your college alumni association. Alumni are often very willing to share their knowledge with members of other graduating classes, make introductions, give advice, suggest resources, etc.
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OP, find some volunteer opportunities in a field that you are interested in - often volunteering leads to jobs in areas where you might be more interested. There’s nothing wrong with working in horses, however, the risk of injury is increased and if you’re laid up by injury often you don’t get paid… have had that happen to several friends,
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I’ve got to tell you that I wish I could get back to my boring office job…oil bust has had me out of work for 2 years. I’m lucky my BO took me on BUT working with horses is tiring…very tiring! And, not overly exciting, until all hell breaks loose and then it’s awful (eg going out to bring school horses in and seeing one standing there by itself not moving and realizing it’s leg is broken (happens faster than you can ever imagine) and after an emergency vet call, it’s euthanized 1 hour later…yes tha was my last Monday sob)
Horses have to be fed, looked after every single day, so no sick days for you…or weather days to just stay warm like office workers. Days off to have a long weekend with friends…you better get someone to cover your shift and that can be hard. You’ll get run over, kicked, bitten dragged! I come home tired and sore every single time (although the weigh5 loss from the hard work is fabulous). I love my BO and she’s extremely good to us, but my goodness I want to go back to that boring office job lol
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Just don’t. Seriously. I work in engineering and yes most days suck, stress is ridiculous, hours can be long, etc., etc., etc. And yes some days I wish I was in a barn then realize how bad the pay is, how there are no days off, no holidays, no sick days, no snow days, it physically destroys your body and its easy to get hurt!
There are good engineering companies out there. The hard part is finding one I know.
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When I was young, I wound up in a situation (due to budget cuts) where I had a half-time white-collar computing job and a half-time barn job. That, for me, was optimal - every day I’d be looking forward to doing the other job the next day. Eventually the colmputer job ended and I had to find a real job doing something that would put groceries on the table, but the experience was invaluable as my “what if”. Maybe you could arrange something like that?
But, really, don’t quit your day job until you know that you can get another one if you decide you’d prefer to have more income and fewer unknowns in the future. Being cash-strapped certainly isn’t boring, but it might not be the kind of interesting you’re after.
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Sometimes jobs are a means to an end. It’s all Hollywood and all to say that we all should be “doing something we love” and so current culture to think that our happiness comes from all source except ourselves.
But the reality is that most people work jobs they don’t love in order to make the rest of life work. As well, the grass is never as green as it seems. You may think that working in the horse business would make you happy, but I guarantee you that it has plenty of pitfalls as many others here have documented.
Find a good job where you feel appreciated and where you feel like you’re contributing because that is important. But make sure it’s a job that also supports your other life goals. If you really don’t care about any sort of vacation, savings, retirement, ability to have your own horse, then do the horse thing, but be honest with yourself about where that road leads. And if you want any of those other things, find a better engineering job that will allow you to do those things.
And realize that no job is perfect. Sometimes jobs are a means to an end.
I love my job 25% of the time, am fine with it 50% of the time, and truly dislike it 25% of the time. I consider myself lucky and when I get whiny about not liking it, I remind myself first that my happiness lies in myself, not my job, and that secondly it’s a good job and it supports the things I love to do. That in and of itself makes it worth it.
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I made a big career change in my 30s that let me become a professional in one of my areas of talent and genuine personal interest. In other words I get paid pretty well to do what I love to do anyhow.
And guess what. It changed my relationship to that area of interest. Going pro meant it was no longer a place of total freedom but had to be approached in a more structured way and involved tasks that wouldn’t exist in an ammie version of that activity.
So even in this best case scenario, doing what you love means what you love becomes a job.
When I was 17 and riding every day, a good friend dropped out of high school and went to work at the race track, which was close by. She came home at 4 PM every day too exhausted to ride, while I was just arriving at the barn after school to saddle up.
That was when I decided that I would never seek a job in horses because mostly you get paid to enable other people to ride. Even today, my very talented trainer friend who started her own barn spends days where the property maintenance and daily chores mean she doesn’t get to ride at all.
I returned to riding in my 40s after my other great passion and my true area of talent had been solidified into a permanent job. I still live riding and I love that it is a completely free area if my life with no external goals or performance evaluations.
So OP if you are unhappy in your current job you will be just as unhappy in a barn job.
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If you’ve never spent a significant amount of time working at a barn, that is definitely something to try first. Not just little 3 hour shifts (although as mentioned, do that in a polar vortex and see how you feel), I’m talking 6 days a week of 10+ hour days. Although I was already committed to further education, doing a three month working student experience really solidified for me that I did not belong in a barn. Loose horses, snotty children, entitled adult clients, and jealous coworkers all added up on top of the everyday challenges of outdoor physical labor. I was lucky in that I was the one who ended up doing most of the hacks/schooling rides, but I can’t imagine wanting to finish work and ride my own horse afterwards. I knew that horses as a career would end horses as a enjoyable hobby for me.
I’d think there has to be another option for you. Between online certifications or trainings and all the networking available, I’d do more investigation into what would make you an attractive employee in related fields that interest you before ditching the field entirely.
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