Unlimited access >

The Path to Pro, I Guess?

I know a junior who wants to go pro. She has nice horses, follows the show circuit, and has consistent results. She just doesn’t know what to do once she ages out. I don’t really know what to tell her. Does anybody know or have any advice? She’s also not sure about going to school and if that will help or hurt her chances.

School is always a solid backup, and isn’t necessarily going to help or hurt, but it also depends on what her pro goals are. Does she want to be a trainer, take on sales horses, aim for international level competition? The path she wants to take will help her decide whether school is the best route or if she should put it off for a bit.

Regardless of what her goals are, if she’s serious about getting into the equine industry, her best way to get a foot in the door is to start working with a trainer she respects who also has connections. She could take a gap year or during the summer spend time with a trainer who does what she wants to do and just learn. Also, her support (financial and otherwise) are going to be super important here too. Can she afford to be a working student for a while?

3 Likes

I think juniors are often confused about what going pro means in an equestrian context.

It’s not like team sports where you are drafted onto a team with a salary, or like tennis where you work your way up a ladder of competition.

Pro in horses means you make your living training horses or giving lessons at whatever level people will pay you for. That could be starting colts, teaching kiddies at a lesson factory, coaching competitors, etc. Pros are essentially self employed small business owners. It doesn’t matter if they have a competition record.

The best advice I’ve read on COTH is to get a degree in business so you can manage your own business plus have a good fallback desk job book keeping or accounting for when horses aren’t paying enough.

Then find the best coach and trainer in your orbit and apprentice to them as a working student and junior coach. This is going to help make you into someone who can help other people (your clients) achieve their goals.

If however what your friend really means is how to get to ride in top international competition, “going pro” is irrelevant if you can come up with the cash for the horses, the coaching, and the travel.

Your friend can go get a well paying degree in somethung unrelated to horses and be a happy Adult Amatuer, showing in ammie or open classes as she chooses. There’s lots of scope there to show and progress.

It really depends where she is now. What height is she jumping? What level of coaching can she get? Does she want to do the 12 hour days of a trainer in a barn? Does she want to ride everyone’s problem horses and get hurt?

Or does she just want to work on her own riding?

9 Likes

You tell her to talk to her trainer. They will be the one to help her get a place with their connections, and they will also know if she has the tools to make this a feasible plan.

3 Likes