Hi!
I stumbled across a facebook post from Driftwood Stables offering working student positions during WEF. Going to FL for part of the circuit has always been something I have wanted to experience so naturally this caught my interest. I was wondering if anyone has any kind of experience with Driftwood or their working student program (or any similar experiences!). I am currently a young adult and would love to gain experience with management/groom type situations. Riding would be a huge plus although I do not have my own horse to bring nor do I have the finances to lease one at WEF, so it would be understandable if riding was out of reach. Thank you!
I’ve known them from horse shows for many years. I’ve never done business with them, but they’ve always seemed like nice people and hard workers. I don’t know any specifics about their expectations for a working student, but if you want a chance to see WEF and get some experience, this could be an opportunity to do both.
Good luck! And welcome to the BB. 
Jack and Josee are some of the most kind hearted hard working people you will meet. Go for it, you will learn a lot!
Don’t know them personally, but just wanted to say I am signed up for the program for the end of March! Maybe I’ll see you there. Sounds like a really fun opportunity.
I believe I reached out to them a year or two ago (who wouldn’t want to work at WEF?!) and was a bit disappointed with what the expected of their workers. From what I remember they were expected to work 6 days and provide their own meals for a measly allowance of $100 a week and a shared room provided. This very well may have changed. I was simply not in a situation to basically pay to work there as my costs of living would most likely exceed well over $100 per week and that simply didn’t seem fair to me. For those of you who are going please report back! I would love to know how it is and I hope you all have fun.
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$400 a month plus housing and presumably lessons/potential ring time seems like a pretty normal working student deal? Especially in a barn that has grooms so most of your work is not mucking stalls but riding/etc.
I know when I was one (not at WEF) I got housing, a dry stall, and lessons but I had to pay all my horse’s hard costs and show fees. It definitely didn’t (and wasn’t meant to) cover all those costs - there was no way I worked enough to cover $4000+ a month doing barn work.
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Not typical as far as my mileage goes but YMMV. Most jobs I have worked have been $350 / week + room for myself and board for one horse. I know they do not offer board or a dry stall or anything of the like (or didn’t when I inquired). It could be a great set up who has less financial responsibility (or more outside financial support) than I but it simply wasn’t going to work for me. I was also told (again at the time) that riding was very limited (one lesson a week I believe?) and most of the time was spent doing groom type tasks which I had expected. If it was an all riding position I would jump at that - getting paid to ride multiple (very nice) horses per day would be wonderful. Please let me know if it has changed and gone more in that direction.
ETA I am also located in the Midwest and I am sure jobs range wildly by location. Although I have been offered similar type jobs on the West coast.
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I have stabled with them at a few shows and can tell you that they are great and very fun people to work with. The working students get tons of ride time (from what I saw) on super nice horses. I believe they also earn tips. The cost to lease a super nice horse for a month is over $1000. Yes, its hard work but isn’t that the point of trying to gain experience? You wont learn/gain anything if you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty. If I was younger, I would totally go for it.
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From afar, a working student just looks like cheap labor under a fancy name. What is the working student getting out of this? If it is learning to muck, tack, bandage, etc, surely that can be done through things like Pony Club, or any lesson program that focuses on overall horsemanship and not just showing. Working students seem like that are expected to put in some crazy long amount of hours for minimal pay-- probably far below minimum wage. Is there any net benefit to the person who wants to be the working student? What do they gain from this arrangement? I can see for the person/barn hiring the working student they are getting cheap and willing labor. But what does the person who becomes the working student get? Is this other than the one-sided affair it presents itself as?
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Working students get training, the value of which depends on the price of lessons but let’s put it at a conservative $65 per lesson.
Five lessons a week, and writing off any show ring time or showing expenses paid (let’s assume you get none), would have a value of $325/wk. And you get housing, which would cost you at an absolute fleabag motel, $50/day. And you get a $100/wk stipend to eat, not including any tips you get for grooming client horses.
(5030)+(6520)+400 = $3,200 a month, none of which is taxed because it’s not earned income (except the $100/wk).
That’s a pretty good gig if it includes riding time and potential show opportunities at a place like WEF. Even better if it includes a stall which is $$$ down there.
At top of the line barns where a lesson is $150 or more, the value of a working student’s free training can be way more than a minimum wage job. There’s probably scientists earning less than the cash equivalent. Lord knows I did at my first lab job.
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Thanks Soloud. That sounds like it might be worth doing, that is, being a working student, IF all of those things were part of the package. But a lot of what I read about described on COTH is not that Cadillac sounding. I suppose as with all things in the horse world there is a spectrum of arrangements.
As for the non-taxableness ( is that a word) of the value of lessons, would that run afoul of the IRS rules on bartering? I don’t know, I just raise the question. Again, I suppose it would depend on how the arrangements were set up.
I would say the $400 a month that included food and a bed is normal, having to pay for your own food out of that quickly means that you literally make nothing, especially if you’re having to buy at the show grounds, I’d say without food included that basically means your parents have to foot the bill.
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I don’t know what you’re eating but I can certainly eat on $400/mo as a single person. And I am 100% sure that the working students get tips for showing a client’s horse or getting one to the ring and $400/mo is not all they get.
Can I pay a car payment and gas out of it? No. But a working student job isn’t meant to be a career. It’s meant to be a 3-6-9-12 month stint where you get intensive training in exchange for work and take that into a paid position or back to whatever you were doing before. You have few or no bills and you make little cash. But I think we can all agree that paying someone $5000 a month in training, housing, and stipend (forgetting the value of the horses you get to ride/show) is an awful lot of money for paid barn work, yes? Do you pay your barn help $31/hr?
You don’t literally make nothing. You literally make the value of your training, housing, and stipend. Would it feel better if you did the same work for 12-15/hr and had to pay $150/day for a lesson?
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- If you’re at shows that food gets expensive (and yes you can say you have to go to the store, but that’s gas and $ to get there and the time to get there and a place to store the food if you’re lucky at the shows)
- if the working student job actually allows you to ride then yes there’s value of course there is, but many working student gigs don’t include any riding of client horses
- Many moons ago I wasn’t allowed to accept tips, of course that helps if they are there but you certainly can’t count on it
- I’m not saying there’s no value I’m saying $400 doesn’t come close to covering food, gas and a phone bill, so you either need to have $ or have a parent who can foot the bill.
- As a working student my lesson and ride time was always the first one to be cut, and from what I’ve heard that hasn’t changed all that much
- At the end of the day experience doesn’t feed you
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IDK. Working student = cleverly disguised slave labor, IME. I agree a monthly stipend of $400 is an absolute pittance, especially when most WS have bills that don’t magickally stop needing to be paid… $400 would not even put a dent in my monthly bills…
I have been a WS in a capacity similar. You can feed yourself for $32/week. But then there’s gas ($35/week), cellphone bills, car insurance, health insurance, and before you know it, unless your family is footing your bill while you’re a barnslave, you’re hardly treading water. If you’re at shows you still got to feed yourself, it’s expensive at shows and no, it’s not like you have time as a WS (time? what’s that) to make your dinner[s] for the week… And if you have a horse, is he not going to eat for the entire time you’re a WS? How about get shod? See the vet?
IMHO you do literally make nothing. Actually, you are hemorrhaging money from your parents as a WS. Most WS jobs are hardly more than glorified barn-staff positions. Even with housing included. The better opportunity would be to get a decent job and pay to have lessons, IMHO. The barn owners get a major tax break exploiting young teens/riders to work “in exchange for living/board”, they get practically unlimited labor time (70-80 hrs a week), don’t have to pay health insurance, and very flexible help because WS duties are so broad and vague at the same time.
Just my experience, witnessing WS and being a WS, it does not always work out well for the WS. Clients are awful, BMs have unmanageable/ridiculous expectations, and a lot of the horses have bad manners on the ground. There’s no benefits (health/dental) and if you’re hurt, you’re screwed. Yes, some do provide good riding opportunities but not always. As a WS you will see your time get sawed, cut into, and eaten away - YOUR time is inconsequential and nonexistent. The first thing to go in a busy barn schedule is the WS’ lesson or ride. If you were lucky enough to have or bring a horse, you very rarely have enough time to ride him - your chores take precedence.
Most WS gigs wont let WS accept tips, btw. Usually they get pooled and go to the head groom and/or BM…
Can you imagine if a barn actually paid its’ worker overtime? Health insurance? Benefits? No wonder exploiting teens for slave labor is so common, it’s cheap and there’s a surplus of them that haven’t smartened up yet and realized how much barn owners take advantage of them.
I’m not trying to be argumentative but wonder if posters saying this is a good deal have actually been a Working Student before?
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I was a working student at a barn that wasn’t really a show barn like what this one would be. They had some broodmares and one of the older offspring who I did some basic training with. Since they had stallions at stud, I got to work a lot with the breeding specialist vets which was really interesting. Nothing like coming back from summer explaining how you got to look through a microscope at sperm, see mares get AI, and observe collections. Totally not what your working student internship would be, but I enjoyed it. I did get riding lessons at times, I got to ride, and I did a lot of manual labor - but, I learned a lot doing this. I did not get paid a cent for it, but I did get to live in a different country and had room and board [included all meals, but it was whatever was served available unless I wanted to go buy something different]. I was in college and did it over a summer so I didn’t miss class and I was young enough that my healthcare was paid by my parents still. If you do this, soak it in as an experience and don’t expect it to be a high paying job. I would absolutely love to go to WEF as a working student if I didn’t have to “adult” and make a salary to keep the roof over my head.
Yes, I’ve been a working student. I got a shared apartment, a stall for one horse (incl. Hay, I had to buy grain and supplements), and I want to say $500/mo. I worked 6 hour days, 6 days a week because we had other help that did the stalls etc. I had to be in the barn at 6:30 am to feed and come down from the apartment above the barn for night check at 9.
We got horses ready for the trainer and client lessons from 7:30-1pm. Lunch from 1-2, then we had our lessons between 2 and 4pm. I usually rode my own and one other a day. Between 4 and 6 was cleaning tack, doing barn laundry, planning the next days schedule, updating the billing, laying out grain for dinner and breakfast, and ordering any needed supplies.
Feed dinner at 6 and that was the end of the day. Shows were a little different depending on who stayed home and who went to the showgrounds. I got paid by the barn for braiding client horses and grooming for clients at the shows (but this was eventing where grooms are not a necessity but a plus).
My car was paid for and I had catastrophe insurance (this was before the ACA).
If I had wanted to live there and work and pay for lessons I would have had to pay $800 for an apartment, and a dry stall including hay would have been at least $500 with me doing the work myself. Then $300/day times five days a week to take two lessons.
It was a good deal. It wasn’t meant to be permanent. I paid my horse’s shoes, shows, tack, vet, cell phone etc from SAVINGS.
How do people think regular professionals take unpaid internships? It’s the same thing.
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I worked for a private trainer and we wintered in Wellington for 4 months. WEF is completely insane and fun. If you have the opportunity, take it. Just being able to go work and school at the show was so exciting. I did it for years and really enjoyed it. I don’t know if you’ll be able to do it on $100 a week, but if you have extra cash somewhere go for it. I was paid $450 a week and had housing and a weekly dinner. I got so much more than that including housing for my horse, but I was at a very rare and overly generous facility. Sometimes the work equaled me going from a size 6 to a 4 in one month, but I also considered that a perk.
Halt and Phoenix Rising - Good to see others think this is a unreasonable setup for someone who has to support themselves (much less themselves and a horse).
I also really question all this ride time their working students get. IMO if I were paying to send my horse to WEF it wouldn’t be for some Barn worker I’ve never met to ride/ show it. Even with WS positions at smaller show barns in the Midwest you have to be pretty dang good to even flat a horse, if there are any horses left after the trainer and assistant trainer are done riding and lessons are done. I just don’t see how a large, successful show Barn stays successful by letting their (seemingly many) WS ride the client horses especially letting these WS show these horses. Not saying it’s impossible, just seems highly unlikely.
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My daughter was a working student from age 15-18 with a top barn in the Midwest and she spent three weeks as a working student at WEF for Missy Clark. It was a great experience as I paid nothing other than her health insurance, phone and plane tickets. She got to show all over the country in the ponies, junior Hunters, Equitation and jumpers. Trainer paid for all showing expenses. I did a rough calculation of just show expenses and it was around $150,000 a year. She also got a full scholarship to college on a NCAA Division I Team. So yes, for my daughter it was absolutely worth it.
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