I’ve applied to teach at several schools in Connecticut, so it could be me 
:lol:
Well, the OP is right. She says she’s been a working student for 3 years, she needs a show record if she wants to move on. I’m surprised the working student gig she had didn’t provide that. Most working student/assistant trainer jobs I have known of want their people to show, often because the clients want their horses to be successfully shown. Some of those people can afford the working student/assistant trainer but not the main trainer (or the main trainer doesn’t have a slot).
It might surprise people on this thread but some dressage trainers who regularly employ working students have FEI horses that they’ve retired from competition for themselves but are excellent schoolmasters for clients and working students. Some trainers WANT to produce competent working students who can show through the levels, who can keep their former FEI horses in shape, competently ride the lower and mid level horses that clients put in training at the barn, and enhance their reputation to produce working students. I’m not talking about “outlier” barns here - larger training barns need people at all levels to ride the quality horses coming in, and many barns would rather tell clients that their lower level horses are going to be ridden by, say, a third, fourth, or PSG level rider than a rider who has only ridden at first level. Sometimes, even the lower level horses are imported WBs ridden by wealthy AAs who will never ride above first - they are NOT always young horses. But the owner want a nice companion who has been in the ring enough to know it’s job so their show experience is fun, and are happy to have a person working under the main trainer ride the horse.
I happen to know a good dressage barn in the area who recently graduated a working student to “independent trainer”. They allowed that student to ride nice horses to build her credentials (knowing that obviously, you can’t ride a PSG test well if you can’t ride PSG). I’ve taken lessons with the head trainer and this student and can say in the years that I’ve known her, the student has become a really good rider and teacher. If the head trainer couldn’t fit in a horse of mine, I’d seriously consider hiring this former student - who has proven her ability on many kinds of horses and has a good show record on many kinds of horses. I passed the info on to the OP. Even if the situation doesn’t work out, she’ll have access to info from good people who might be able to direct her.
Just another perspective.
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J-Lu, did you pick up on the post where OP clarified that although her riding level was “about third level,” she has only trained and competed to training level? Training level schooling shows.
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Scribbler, No, I missed that. But I suspect that if she wants to do a working student gig, that will all come out in the wash in either the interview or in the tenure at the barn. If she’s a training level rider with talent - great, she can improve greatly in a good program. If she’s a training level rider with zero talent - great, a professional will figure this out in the interview process or within the first month. I can’t “gatekeep” an obviously young person on the internet who has a goal in life-I haven’t seen a video and I don’t know her talent. I’ll leave that to the pros she actually talks to. I’ve seen enough terrible “working student” situations who don’t help the people but use them as cheap labor, so I don’t fault her if she’s only trained and competed to training level. I also once housed and rode a former trainer’s young horse (from intro forward, purchased for low 4 figures), competed the horse and rode in clinics while the trainer said nothing good about my riding and was a terrible trainer for me at shows. A clinician I rode with without the trainer regularly liked my riding and the horse enough to offer the owner 5 figures for the horse a year after I worked with said clinician (horse was sold, I got nothing) - huh, I guess my riding and show record with the horse (at first level, Novice eventing) wasn’t so bad after all. Thus, unless I have evidence that the OP is a terrible rider, I’ll opt to connect her with people who can better evaluate her situation than I can. Or can at least potentially kindly point her in a direction.
I’ll say that the people who kept that horse had a daughter who had a warmblood who was taught by the same trainer and told she was second/third level. She went off to a working student position and was placed back at around training/first level to relearn basic lateral work, transitions between the gaits, and shoulder-in. This girl honestly believed she was a second/third level rider -it was NOT her fault because she believed her original trainer. This happens frequently.
i think the OP has gotten some harsh posts here and few supportive responses. WE don’t need to see her videos, potential employers do. I’ve worked with enough teens to see why she posted a few months ago and is reposting now. It’s up to the OP to follow through with the leads we give her, but it takes about 10 minutes for me to give her what I think is good advice.
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