I want to know the best way to get into sale horses. I want to go the professional route, but more on the horse sales side of things rather than a boarding barn situation. I didn’t know if anyone had any tips for how to get into that, and how to gain experience to be successful at it. I’m in the midwest, so not the greatest spot for a working student position at the moment while I finish college, but looking at going online to finish my degree int he coming years. Just looking for words of advice!
So you need to evaluate what you bring to the mix that adds value. Do you want to buy cheap, train, sell for a profit? That’s likely only going to work if you are an excellent colt starter, have a very good eye for a horse, and have your own farm. Boarding a sales horse for 6 months will eat up all your profit
Or do you want to run a consignment barn? I. That case do you have the connections and marketing savvy to get your clients a better deal than just advertising on Facebook?
I don’t know what your experience is, but my advice is to go be a working student at the best sales barn you can find and learn the ropes.
Just being a teenager with a half trained OTTB project in a mid level boarding barn is not a recipe for success
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Do some research. You have posted in the Dressage forum so I presume the discipline is your main interest. How many people train and compete in dressage in the USA? There are only 125 affiliate clubs in the USDF which isn’t many in a large nation. There are fewer than 5,000 riders competing in FEI dressage across the entire world. Is there enough American market activity to support a career buying and selling specialist dressage horses? The epicentre of Dressage is in Europe. Would you be willing to move to Europe to learn and to build up the personal network that is often the foundation of a successful career in horses? How much time and treasure are you willing to invest in pursuit of your idea?
The TB racing industry has market volume, with tens of thousands of horses sold annually, sufficient for a very few people to make a living as bloodstock agents. The industry also has training opportunities for people wishing to develop a career in racing. Do some research and see if any of the major auction houses or big international breeding operations have opportunities that may help you.
Perhaps most immediate, see if any local breeding farms have need of staff to help with sales prep. That might be a foot in the door.
ETA spelling corrections
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This. Are you well connected in your area? Do you have good working relationships with the pros and programs around you? You say there aren’t many WS opportunities, are you in a horse desert or is the main discipline in your area something you don’t do?
IME, consignment is the way to go. You need a good location close to major highways, ideally. You need to own or lease property with parking and a well-drained or covered arena for potential buyers to come see the horses. You need to be well-connected in the area (working the gate at horse shows is one way to do this), and you need to know what you are doing. The fastest way to tank a sales business is to not know how to run a business, be shady or dishonest (even accidentally), or lack the skills to show a horse to the best of its ability. Starting out, you’re likely to get pasture puffs, oldies, trail horses, etc - and you’re going to need to be able to assess them and market them to the right people. You need to take good photos and videos, and you need ridiculous patience. One ill-advised post on social media about a crazy client can end your business.
You must be close to several vets that do PPEs. You need insurance (GOOD insurance). You’ll need a truck and trailer, and to build relationships with commercial shippers. All of this is assuming you have a great seat and better hands, are experienced riding a bit of everything, have a good eye for horses, and an existing market in your discipline of choice.
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Talk to someone who does this and see if you can work with them as a start. Go visit Lauren Chumley’s page. She is very good at selling consignment horses.
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And I’d like to add to what everyone else has said so far: Always remember the old adage - “If you want to make a small fortune in the horse industry, you need to start with a large one.”
This is not an inexpensive career path for a beginner. Regardless of your skill, knowledge, experience, etc., you have to have a sh*t ton of money just to begin. You need a barn to work out of, you need people to do the grunt work at that barn. You need to be able to afford to purchase the horses, ship them, have them vetted, etc., so that you can resell them - ostensibly at a profit. Rather than posting on an anonymous forum, it really is best if you work with someone who’s already doing it.
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What is your skill set?
Are you a talented young horse starter? Look for a breeder who keeps and starts a large volume each year and get a working student spot. Go to Europe if you need to.
Are you an intuitive, skilled rider (to at least 4th/PSG) who can sit on anything and bring out its best? You need a working student spot at a consignment barn. Heidi Degele in Wellington sometimes has openings.
Do you have a talent for fixing problem horses? Or for turning basic non-discipline-specific broke horses into good citizen types doing 3rd level quickly? Do you have a route to owning your own farm in an area where you have connections to trainers who needs these types for their programs/clients on a regular basis? If so, network like crazy and start small.
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She recently posted that she is looking for a working student. There would be no better place to start.
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Agreed! Beyond just the program, this is a great spot for someone to make connections in the industry too.
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I’ll zip up the flame suit and say that if you love horses and want to continue to love horses, don’t.
It’s a crazy hard business to make a living in and the majority of people I’ve seen try to do so, whether with a training or sales program, end up resenting their clients for having more money and also resenting any less than stellar horses they are compelled to take on because they are slow to sell and even then not for a lot of money. The ones that do not end up bitterly unhappy either have family money or a well-employed partner to cover basic living expenses.
I saw a meme recently that said horses are for those who like work but don’t like money.
Good luck whichever way you go.
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I was once in your shoes, and remember being VERY annoyed that everyone I asked told me NOT to pursue a career in the horse industry. Many of the responses you are getting here echo the advice I received years ago. Everyone told me to stay in school, and do something other than horses for a living. For some reason I followed their advice, and have zero regrets.
I found a career that I’m passionate about, even though it has nothing to do with horses (despite all of my degrees being in Animal/Equine/Veterinary science). I have a horse that I love, and that I get to ENJOY every day. I have a lot of PTO, a 401k, and discretionary funds to do what I want with my lovely horse. There are ways to enjoy your horse passion without having it also be your career.
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Every single one of my trainers - successful, but not Heritage successful - have consistently told their junior clients to not go into the horse industry. Every one. The usual advice is right in line with what is on this thread (a lot of “get a degree and/or a good steady job and have horses as a hobby”). These aren’t people looking for their next client, as so few juniors come back to their home barn. These are people who want the best for “their” kids.
I asked one of my coaches about it back when I was a junior myself. He said that he wouldn’t suggest that anyone without a trust fund or rich SO supporting them go into horses. He said the work-life balance is generally atrocious and burnout is real. But, he couldn’t close up shop and do something else - with no practical degree and a resume no company would value, he HAD to keep the farm afloat. At the time, he also said he had very little by way of retirement (it was tied up in the land), so he HAD to keep riding and training… despite the wear and tear on his body that was already taking its toll years ago.
This isn’t to say Do Not Do Anything With Horses Ever. But it is wise (especially with the way politics and the economy are trending right now) to make choices based on long term stability, and fit the horses into that. Vets rarely have time to ride, but remote workers do. People living in Boston or Chicago or LA need to have more money and flexibility than people working good jobs in more horse friendly locations. It’s easier to buy land and start a program after working in the real world for a while and building business skills and savings. Etc.
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Just musing here… I wonder what effect the near-universal discouragement of horse careers by horse professionals has on the self-selection of the people who DO still go into working with horses. Are they generally more hard-headed? 
Less otherwise employable? More horse-crazy?
My trainer told me the same thing, btw, and I am also very glad I quickly got over the horse pro idea and opted for a non-horsey career with plenty of PTO, good health insurance, a retirement plan, and enough income to support my horses as a hobby. I could definitely see myself growing resentful of the horses themselves and clients (which honestly were barely on the radar of 17-year-old me, but which I now realize are really the biggest part of the job) and my own choices.
That said, if you’d still like to pursue it, the Lauren Chumley suggestion is a really good one!
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You can usually tell by the teens who is on a strong path to exceptional performance in a sport. Obviously that strong performance is key to becoming a professional trainer or coach.
I feel like most of the young people who muse about a career “in horses” on COTH are not playing at that level. It’s more teens or young adults who are in the advanced beginner/ intermediate range, might not have a horse, and don’t have a strong career focus other than they don’t want a cubical office job
Obviously these queries are very different but there’s an understandable curiousity about whether you can “credential” in something that will lead you to an elusive career path.
Does taking an equine management course lead to a career as a trainer, like nursing school leads to being a nurse? Does riding on a college team lead to becoming a “pro rider” after graduation like playing football in college can lead to a pro career?
The answer to both is “no,” and the kindest advice to the wistful intermediate rider young adult is “no, get a career that can find being an ammie.”
The young adults that have the access, the talent, the support, the land, the cash or the real hunger and no real alternatives are not asking for advice here.
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In my experience for those without the family money or supporting significant other; yes, yes and no.
Emphasis and addition of “successful” above mine. I’d add that many of the young entry level “trainers” I’ve encountered also don’t know what they don’t know with some going full Dunning-Kruger. I’ve had one ask why I wouldn’t take a lesson from her and be shocked when I pointed out that she had no medals at all and I have both a bronze and silver medal. I encouraged her to build her resume.
All that said, I also know several very competent trainers that do a great job with their clients who basically are just interested in enjoying their horses and not getting killed doing it. That’s a wonderful thing. I believe that when a trainer’s or rider’s ambitions exceed their skills or the talent of their horse is when things can ugly and bitter.
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There is certainly a niche for a coach to work with returning riders and adult beginners, and keep them safe, but you need to have a lot of skills to do this!
Hence the “very competent” in my post.
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If I count for not having gone into a direct hands-on position (did freelance work as a journalist in equestrian sports right out of college) I was just clueless enough to think I could make a living at it. Found out fast that even if I could make a half-decent living, writing about the horse world frankly kind of bored me after a while. I like horses, I like my work, but generally prefer to keep the two separate.
Then again, I’d say I’m equally hard-headed/kinda crazy generally b/c when I tired of writing about the horse world, I pivoted into what I lovingly call “real-world” journalism and have yet to look back. Which…ain’t any easier to make a career of these days. 
Career path so far has meant I haven’t been able to afford to have horses in my life aside from when my schedule still made volunteering at a therapeutic riding facility feasible, but I don’t regret it. I figure horses will still be there when I have the income for it/if I want to pick it back up badly enough I’ll find a way.
EDIT: For what it’s worth, I’ve known people who have “real world” jobs and still do horse-related work on the side/around the real world job. My instructor when I was in my early 20s was a woman who owned her farm, worked full-time as an engineer, but ran her farm as a boarding operation and taught I think relatively low-level lessons herself - she’d competed in eventing at the lower levels, very much knew her stuff. Barns like hers are probably a bit of a dying breed and I was lucky to have found her/that barn at all coming out of a more toxic barn situation.
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Are you capable of training? Probably the best way to make a reasonable income is to take in training horses, with commissioned sales on the side. Hopefully you can train enough to pay the bills, and then the sales are the “bonus” money.
MUST listen podcast for you! Very interesting discussion on success in equestrian business.
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