Though don’t discount the animosity from the “regular” braiders…
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I agree with everyone else that this is fantasy.
Expensive boarding schools exist for extremely wealthy parents who can easily afford to send their children. An annual cost of $75k is comparable to the most expensive universities and is more than the average household income of a family where both parents work. There isn’t the slightest chance that a junior can earn that kind of money in six months. Do the math.
Keep your cash for actual university.
I’m also completely confused why you’d want to go away to equestrian boarding school if you are able to keep horses at home, and your parents have bankrolled a nice hunter. Your riding experience will be more extensive and higher quality at home than on lesson string boarding school horses.
You can’t earn this much money. Most adults with actual good jobs couldn’t earn $50k in six months and very few could afford to send a child to a school like this.
If you want to get on in the horse business, it’s a really good idea to learn the basics of personal finance as well as how to run a business. It’s never too early to start learning this.
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Because the people who attend are not top level junior riders? Because the real top level junior riders are out there doing working student internships with Big Name Trainers? I see why you want to go to the school for a sense of community because you are isolated but my guess is the riding level isn’t what you’re dreaming of. At the very least visit and do a campus tour and watch some riding lessons before you go any further with this dream.
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This is all true, but OP is a minor who is still in school. Working all night on weekdays is not a good plan, and from what she said about her location there are no hunter shows nearby to braid for anyway.
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This 100%. The top junior riders are mostly going to school online around their schedules working and training with legitimate show barns. OP if your goal is really to break into the riding industry you’d be better off spending that $75k on developing connections with people active on the circuits you want to break into. Could you spend your school breaks working and riding with a program somewhere else? Would your parents support an online school focused on athletes while you pursue a working student gig? Who do you train with when you do lesson, and can they put you in contact with other programs that could help? Even just spending a few weeks a year in a top show program would open a lot of doors for you.
There have been several threads on here about how to break into the industry as a professional that would be worth a read. If you primarily ride at home and only show a few times a year you may not have an accurate picture of what the professional hunter world is like - it’s really not as glamorous as you may think - but if it’s something you legitimately want to do there are plenty of knowledgeable people on this board that can help set you up for your best shot. It will almost certainly involve a working student position over any kind of formal academic program.
If your goal for the future is to ride and show a lot and enjoy your horses, you’re better off focusing on doing well in college and working up to a well-paying flexible job to support yourself as an adult ammy. Being a professional is a tough job and doesn’t usually support a very comfortable lifestyle.
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Within the Horse Industry I agree but when we raised our kids showing horses the focus was not on them becoming horse industry professionals but to learn how to deal with people in a controlled environment where we had some control.
All have become highly successful professionals within their career paths that they selected because they know how to navigate to obtain a specific goal knowing along that way there will be challenges that often are unfair.
Only one of the four has continued riding and showing horses as a adult
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nor is it legal
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So add the cost of travel and someplace to stay while away to do the braiding jobs and maybe her parents wouldn’t want her doing that.
I second this. We offered our kids a choice. We would pay for private school or college. They both chose college. Private schools, especially boarding schools are insanely expensive right now.
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I honestly believe that right now you would “sell your soul” to attend that school.
I was in your position when I applied for colleges. Got into two Ivy League schools that I also would have sold my soul to attend.
However, all financial aid was need-based and my family didn’t qualify. And my dad (thank you, Dad!) refused to let me take out $120k+ in student loans.
I ended up attending a small liberal arts university that no one has heard of, despite my dashed dreams.
And guess what? I ended up loving it, got into a great, lucrative career anyway and graduated with no debt. It only took about a year to get over my thwarted dreams and now I look back with gratitude at the way things turned out.
Bottom line is that secondary schools, colleges and grades mean next to nothing as soon as you graduate. It’s all about job skills.
Plus, like others have said, there’s no way you’ll earn $60k+ (to account for taxes) in a few months with no pricey, marketable skills. That’s a full-time job for an adult with work experience in most markets, and I would gently tell any young person in this situation that they need to start working towards accepting this and revisiting their goals to something more realistic.
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I would like to be able to compete in multiple disciplines and be successful. My parents cant afford the nice horses so I have to make all of mine, and they don’t have the funds to pay to own multiple horses just to compete in the bigeq, jumpers, etc. If I went to this school I would be able to compete on different horses and be successful. After, I would like to go to Texas A&M and study equine sciences along with barn management classes, and compete on their equestrian team. I live in TX so it will not be nearly as much as going to college out of state. After that, I would like to maybe intern at barns in Florida and work with top trainers to possibly go pro. I am not 100% sure about this career path as I know it’s really risky but I love competing and going pro has always been a dream.
For the people saying to go work with a barn as a junior, my parents would not allow that. My parents give up a ton for me to do this sport and I’m very grateful but living at another barn with another trainer and getting a less than average education online is out of their sacrifice. They would not be willing to quit their job and move near a barn just so I could ride at a top barn. I’m pretty sure it violates USHJA rules to live without a parent and only with a trainer as well, so going by myself is out of the question.
I hate the school I’m at now, as it’s a small rural school where favoritism is huge. We have to tryout to get into classes and when I tried out for Algebra I was “only two spots off making it” and of course all of the kids whose parents are teachers made it in.
At this school, I would not only get a better education but also could ride in a professional program, which I am unable to do now. I could advance my riding and finally get to a point that I’ve been dreaming to get to for years.
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I did do a campus tour and I had a lesson with the Varsity trainer to determine if I would get a riding scholarship. The trainer is very educated and has a ton of experience. She also teaches very well. They have all different types of horses and a winning IEA team. As I said before, I am unable to go a get an internship with big name trainers so this school is the closest I can get.
Good luck with whatever route you decide to pursue. 
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Is the tuition fee annual? How many years left to graduate high school? How old are you now? Even if you manage to sell your horse for $50k this year, how will you raise $50k for next year’s tuition?
IMHO this may be a fun school, but it doesn’t make sense on a lifetime trajectory to dump this much money into high school if your family cannot easily afford it. For most of us, college is more the make or break point. Our college record is what gets us the careers that will allow us to afford horses as adults. Pulling out all the stops and using all the family resources for several years of high school that costs as much as a top tier university is very foolish long term. You are better off saving that cash for college. One of the biggest hurdles young adults face is being crippled with student loan debt from university. If you want to see some accessible personal finance stories look up Caleb Hammer Financial Audit on YouTube. It’s a good reality check on how much people in their 20s typically earn and how much debt they get into.
If you want to train with a top coach but don’t have the contacts to get picked as a working student or groom, why not spend some money to go to them for the summer? Take your horse to their barn, pay to take lessons, and rent a room on the property or close by. You’ll need to pay your way as a client, but maybe next year they will take you on as a groom for the summer. Now this depends on your age. If you are 12 no one will let you move into your own place but if you are a responsible 16 year old, you might find an apartment share with other young people attached to the farm.
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Due to where you were born, who your parents are, and where you live, it sounds like riding Big Eq and getting a riding scholarship to a big university is going to be a pipe dream.
If your small rural school is limiting your entry into courses that are key to your future success, I would suggest having a talk with your parents about how to get those courses through remote education. If you are doing anything that touches on maths or science, then you need algebra. Be proactive.
Also you need a rethink about horse trajectory.
What do you understand “going pro” to mean? It’s not like “going pro” in football. You don’t get selected for a team. Going pro means you are an adult that earns money from teaching riders or training horses. It means you can’t compete in ammie classes. There are hundreds of thousands of low level pros across North America, many with few credentials, teaching beginners and breaking colts and doing 2 foot 9 local jumpers with sales project horses. And scraping by. Going pro does not lift you into the big leagues the way football does.
Also unlike most careers, the level of education in horse management and riding that you get at a university does not have much correlation to getting an industry job when you graduate. The IEA league does not ladder into the USEF hunter jumper scene. It’s totally different in setup and scope.
You keep horses at home. You likely already know 75% of horse and barn management, and the rest you could pick up at any new barn where discipline or management was different.
Don’t go to college to learn to be a groom or barn help earning minimum wage.
Go to college to get a career that will support you as a horse owner. Business, tech, sciences, health fields if you can pass that algebra course!
Given your location and budget restrictions you are not going to be riding Big Eq as a junior. That’s OK. Most juniors don’t and can’t. Even if you lived in a very sport horse centered place, you wouldn’t be able to afford to compete financially with the Jessica Springsteens of this world who were Born to Run :). And that’s ok. It’s financial reality.
You have many advantages. Most juniors would give almost anything to be able to keep their horses at home. It gives you a chance to become totally well rounded in horse care. Learn about health, nutrition, hooves, ground work, etc. Clock up long hours in the saddle, go trail riding, herd cows, get that automatic balance that only hours creates, that’s so hard for many juniors in programs to accomplish.
Start researching real career paths now and make sure you have the high school credits to get into those paths. Make sure your grades are excellent and that you get AP or other key courses online if they aren’t available in your high school.
I know from experience how limiting our lives can feel as teens and how much we want to be swept away to a new life. But most of us can’t do that. We need to work step by step to get to a goal.
There’s a lot of bumpf out there about follow your dreams, but not alot of solid information on how you get step by step to a realistic goal and not get lost in “all or nothing” daydreams about rescue or transcendence. It’s particularly hard when you are still financially and legally dependent on adults who are a limiting factor economically, emotionally or otherwise.
My suggestions.
Dont make a heroic effort to get into the boarding school. You might not even enjoy it that much. How much experience do you have hanging out with the super rich? You might end up feeling very left out.
Make a big effort to get all the AP or advanced courses you can despite your local school. Try to take online highschool or community college courses. Get excellent grades in everything. Dont let the limits of your local school hold you back
Research adult careers that you could do to fund being a horse owner. You are not on a track to become a superstar top junior rider because you lack cash and access to that world. You are not going to come out of a barn management college program at 22 with an IEA show history and somehow segue into the Grand Prix circuit or similar without investing a ton of your own money into horses and lessons. You need a well paid flexible career that draws on your innate strengths and talents.
Use your horse time now to become as knowledgeable and well rounded as possible. You can self educate on health wellness nutrition feet or take online courses from universities like Guelph in Ontario. If you can, shadow or assist local trimmers or farriers, colt starters, vets. Even if it’s Western World, these parts are the same. Go work on a local breeding farm for a season. Go learn ground work or clicker training. Learn to drive a truck and trailer. Find out how hay is made and how to manage pasture. There’s a lot of basic horse and farm management you can learn about in a rural area even if folks aren’t jumping, and arguably the Western working ranch folks have some management ideas that are better than what you get in a suburban h/j barn.
You can learn and practice braiding from YouTube.
Then consider how you could find and fund a month long summer immersive at a reputable h/j barn. Do you have extended family living in a place with more h/j barns? Could you go stay with cousins for a month?
In other words take advantage of every learning opportunity horse and academic in your immediate environment. Don’t sit around wishing it would all get handed to you by fairy godmothers at Hogwarts Riding Academy. You need to make your future out of the bits and pieces of your actual life.
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Sorry OP, I get that your circumstances aren’t ideal right now but this school is not the golden ticket you’re making it out to be. Boarding school and an equine science degree aren’t how people break into the equine industry and won’t carry much weight with potential employers. You’d be much better off doing as much as you can with your current horse while finishing high school and then taking a gap year or two as a working student to see if the career path is for you. If it turns out not to be, you’ll want a more relevant degree on hand for a career to support horses as an amateur.
The level of riding and showing you’re talking about just isn’t feasible for most families, it isn’t just you. The fact that you own a horse and made it to 3’3 already puts you ahead of so many people. Can you find an instructor that will come to your farm or do virtual lessons with you just to start building out a network? You’d be surprised what opportunities come available through word of mouth. No one is suggesting your parents uproot their lives for you, but you may find ways to spend a few weeks here and there immersed in a serious program. If nothing else it gives you a head start on a working student position later.
In any case, if your parents were committed to the idea of this school they would be figuring out the financing themselves, not leaving it up to you. This could be a good chance to have an adult conversation with them about the family finances, just to get some more realistic insights into what it would mean to go for this. I spent a lot of time as a kid being annoyed at my parents for not spending more on my riding goals but that was because I had no concept of what those numbers really meant. Looking back now I can see how unrealistic I was, mostly because I had absolutely no frame of reference to work from. I saw other kids buying horses and going to shows so I assumed we could do it too, which just wasn’t true. Even if we could have it wouldn’t have been fair to take up that much money just for myself without thinking of my parents and siblings. Even now I sometimes can’t believe how much I spend on my horse, even though I can totally afford it. It’s just an absurdly expensive sport, and if you want to make it a lifelong endeavor you’ll have to come to terms with having financial limits and finding a way to enjoy the experience in spite of them.
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I’ll be the voice of dissent (again) because I really see a lot of myself in the OP here. I was at a small rural school (I’m an international adoptee, of color, an extremely late bloomer, a woman, with gay parents.) It was SUPER FUN (not). I was relentlessly tortured, called slurs (by teachers even!) I had to BEG my parents to send me to boarding school. (east coast, all girls, $$$) They did, my life turned around, parents moved to NorCal my senior year, and the rest is history. Still best friends with my HS best friends.
Now I may be reading too much that isn’t there into YOUR situation- but in mine, I truly believe had I had to stay where I was for HS I would have died (either figuratively or literally.)
I say, sell the horse, whatever you have to do. Go to the school.
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I think one of the differences here is that the OP is not wanting to go to this boarding school because it will give her academic and other similar experiences, they want to go to this boarding school because of horses.
A high school horse related boarding school that costs more than the family can afford does not seem like a smart expense.
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I’ve been following this thread with mild interest,. but this thought occurred:
What about liability insurance?
If a minor teaches a lesson where someone gets hurt the adult parents’ insurance would be liable.
And these litiginous days, anyone is likely to sue.
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I think insurance is a good question.
Being able to enter a contract is another good question.
All things that will make it even more difficult for the OP to make this large amount of money in a short time.
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