I’m twenty-something. I’m a horse person. And I don’t know what career path I want anymore. That’s the general basis of my dilemma. I know whatever I do, it has to be something that can allow me to single-handedly have horses. I have a 4-year degree, and I’m not too crazy about getting a graduate degree.
Anyway, I was hoping you all could help me generate some ideas by telling me about your experiences with careers and how it affects your horse life.
I stopped at a Bachelor. Occasionally I consider a Master’s, but eh. I’m 29 (eek!).
I’m a chemist, at least as much as you can be one with just a B.S. I’ve worked in a research lab, at L Brands (parent company of Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, etc.), and the last 3+ years have been working as a Regulatory Specialist writing Safety Data Sheets for hazardous chemicals. It’s an office job, that I now do from home since I moved from Ohio (where our office is) to Florida, and pays the bills well. It’s a small firm and my boss is awesome.
Working 8-5 really blows for my horse life. It’s a smidgen better now that I have a farm and have my horses at home, but being stuck on a computer all day really hinders outdoor activities. It’s nice that I can walk outside whenever I want and see my pones, pet them, etc. I have time to ride one or two horses, around farm work and work work, so that’s all I have. Well, I have three, but one is my retired guy who just chills 24/7; one is my 7 year old show jumper, one is a mustang pony I just got who is barely halter broke. So, I’m just riding one right now. I certainly wouldn’t have time to be a professional rider, but I ride enough for what I want to do right now, and have weekends free for shows.
It really depends on what you want from your horse life. If you want to be a pro rider, you need a horse career. Go be a working student somewhere, look for a barn manager job, etc.
Otherwise, you just need to really think about what you enjoy doing and how to make a career out of it. Luckily it’s 2017 and there’s TONS of choices out there, jobs/careers you’d never even think of. I’m a math nerd and love chemistry, so here I am. The 8-5 office grind isn’t for everyone. It’s not my favorite, but I am not a morning person so if I worked like 11-8 or something I’d never be able to ride, because there’s no way I’d get up at 6am to go ride every day. Even when I was in the office, I barely got up in time. I shower at night, so I woke up every day at 715am and left my house by 730am to be at work by 8.
I’m in education and, although married now, was able to afford owning a horse and boarding her on a teacher salary living in certain areas of the country (Michigan and CT/western MA).
Now I’m going into administration and will be able to cover the hobby comfortably.
I think a lot of careers can get you a horse if you’re willing to be flexible on where, and quality, and competition.
I’d recommend healthcare. The hours are extremely flexible if you work at a hospital that is staffed 24/7 and there is great job security. I’m a sonographer and the pay is decent right out of school (median is around 65-70k I think) and I know that a lot of the more experienced people in my same position where I work make nearly 100k. I’m married (which certainly helps) but I could probably afford a horse by myself if push came to shove and I sacrificed in other areas. All of the PA’s (physician assistants) make around 100k as well if you’d be willing to go to school for that. Also, I live in Texas and work for a state hospital so pay is a smidgen less then some of the private offices. It’s horse country here as well so full care board is usually around $650-750 a month if that helps.
Engineering - high stress, too many hours and not great pay (not bad if you’re high up but I repeatedly hear coworkers ask themselves if it’s worth it which tells you something) but it’s enough to afford my horse but I don’t show, train, etc. (mare is a pasture pet).
Don’t have any horses now (in school), but I’m hoping to be able to afford one. Not sure how much I will be able to ride, however. I’m halfway through law school.
Thanks for all of the input! I’d love to have more too.
I have a human services degree and intended on going into a master’s program for either social work or counseling. However, I didn’t get into any of the schools I applied to (this was the beginning of 2016), and I kind of fell in love with not being in school after that. My job does not pertain to my degree - I’m a buyer at a grocery store right now, but basically I have covered every single function you can think of there except management. I’d love a stab at that, and if I waited it out, I could get it, but honestly, the workplace there has become very toxic for me, and I need to move on. It’s been 7 years, and while I enjoy working with people, retail is brutal.
I kind of took not getting into grad school as a sign that it wasn’t meant to be. I’ve enjoyed not having to study, and while I love learning and connecting with my peers through idea sharing, I don’t miss school as a whole. I’m glad I have my degree and that it is broad, but I’m honestly wondering if I was truly passionate about human services or if I just wanted to be. Mental health is such an important thing to me because I’ve struggled off and on with depression and anxiety (and right now I’m in the middle of a relapse, which hasn’t been helping this dilemma), and I felt the need to give back to those going through the same thing. But as I’ve grown in the past year, I’m finding I’m not passionate about the field. I wish I was.
I don’t intend to go into horses professionally - I would love to, but I don’t have the experience, and I know how hard it is to make a living. At the end of the day, I don’t want horses to become something I dread because they are my source of money. I’ve recently found the world of eventing, and I’m so excited about it. What I want is to be able to have a horse or two, be able to compete, do clinics, and take lessons, and see what happens. It has never been my intention to buy a made horse - I’d rather get an OTTB or greenie because it would be more satisfying to do the work myself. For example, my current horse that I’ve had for 7 years is a QH that I got in high school and trained to jump. He was broke out well and very easy going, but I started wanting to jump, so he and I have learned about jumping together, and this past year, we’ve taken on eventing. That’s the kind of relationship with riding I want to continue to have. Eventually, I’d love to retrain OTTBs and resell them as a side hobby.
I’ve thought about going into real estate, doing something involving communications - I’m the weirdo that likes public speaking - or even trying to find a job that can involve horses but doesn’t revolve around the horse industry. I need to have a job where I can be challenged and grow, and eventually I want some flexibility and would like to either manage others or be my own boss. I can work well with others but tend to enjoy working by myself a little more because I’m a perfectionist. I consider myself an ambivert. I am tactful and can think creatively and logically.
Any other thoughts? I’m just hoping that someone will come out of left field with something I haven’t thought about that I can look into!
As a professor at a community college I have enough money to do smaller USEF shows and keep a horse in training. I also have mornings free and Fridays completely off. But probably not for you if you don’t want to go to grad school.
There are two women at my barn who do real estate, which is one thing you mentioned. Their hours aren’t as good as mine, and it will involve some weekends, but they do have chunks of time during the day most days when they can ride.
I would say, get the anxiety and depression under control, and the rest of your life will be easier to sort out.
I read your post as suggesting that you were probably drawn to human services and counselling out of a desire to be healed yourself? That’s not a bad motivation for an undergrad degree in the subject, but it is possible you might not have the stamina to be a counsellor of others professionally and long-term.
One of the paradoxes of having anxiety and depression problems, is that it can make it harder to accurately know when you are in a bad or toxic situation (in work, socially, etc) because anxiety can seem normal, rather than a sign something is very wrong.
I would say that if you are prone to anxiety and depression, you might want to seek out jobs that have clear structures, that are not confrontational in nature (no courtroom law or political campaigning!), and that are not dependent too much on your own individual motivation. I think a pitfall of selling real estate would be that it is very competitive, and you have to be “on” all the time, and if you can’t find that motivation in yourself some days, the whole career might unravel very quickly.
You might also want to consider a career that can be pursued in more rural or lower-cost areas of the country, since that will make keeping horses cheaper.
I think you are on the right track in finding something that pays well and you enjoy enough to get through the work week so you can truly enjoy your horsey time.
I am a bookkeeper and I am also putting myself through school for my bachelors (at age 30) at the same time. The end goal is to get my CPA. I am able to keep my horse on the property I rent, so I ride about 3 times a week currently. Last summer and fall I rode 5 days a week, which was perfect for my horse. Although, accounting isn’t for everyone.
That said, I have held various banking, office, clerical and bookkeeping jobs. I enjoy the numbers and organization so it isn’t too much like real work. Hours (especially at a bank) are 9-5, M-F, paid holidays (generally speaking) which is awesome. One of my favorite jobs was a bank teller. I was hired with no banking experience because I had customer service and cash handling experience as a waitress. I enjoyed my coworkers and made some really good relationships with customers who came in on a regular basis. It was a nice social atmosphere with lots of structure, which I liked. A lot of bank like to promote from within, so by the time I was offered a better job (through a contact I had made at the bank) I was training to be a loan officer.
Not social work, but if you can do it, very accommodating for the horsey lifestyle.
Good luck!
Hard to say without knowing what your degree is in. I’d research salary ranges in your field and go from there. Obviously without an engineering degree you won’t get an engineering job. You’ll have to find something in the salary range that will allow you to earn enough to afford a horse, and your degree is acceptable. Also, the field should have a decent growth projection so you can stay employed throughout your career. A field with some telecommuting ability is good because you can run laundry etc during the workday, and you don’t have to deal with the commute, which may free up time to ride.
To answer this, yes and no. I tried to do some human services classes at the beginning of college, found out that I disliked psychology, and dropped it. Subsequently, I was a journalism major for a while, had my anxiety/depression go into remission, and continued on. I relapsed, and once I was in remission again, felt the desire to be in that field, thinking that I was finally over the worst of it and could use my experience to help others.
I am doing everything in my power to try and overcome this last relapse. I’m on medication, including a new one, going to counseling once a week, trying meditation, attempting to exercise, and checking my hormone levels to see if it isn’t hormone related. I’ve had blood work done to make sure everything else is functioning correctly, and I’m trying my hardest to use the techniques from counseling. I’m thinking either my hormones are completely wacky or that my Prozac has stopped working. They added in Buspar in January because I was only experiencing anxiety then (or so I thought), but in the past month, my depression has spiked. I typically don’t like medication as I feel it doesn’t get to the root of the problem, but I’ve had to be on something since high school, and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will probably need medication for the rest of my life.
I admit it is very difficult to be choosing where to go next in this current situation. I just know that my current job is killing me, and it is not going to get me where I need to be financially. I have outgrown it.
To an extent, I do best when I have to be out and about and am busy to a point. It keeps my mind from wandering too much and spiraling. The last two years of college were the best that I’ve had. I went to school in the evening, worked during the day, and did a bunch of horse stuff in between. I was on the church council and had a growing social life. I find that socialization is really important to me, and if I don’t get enough of positive socialization where I feel like I’m making meaningful connections, I get depressed and lonely. However, I also need to balance that with some me time.
Sorry, I am rambling now. Thank you all for your input. Anyway, being able to continuously be involved with horses as a passion is something I do need. Even when I’m going through tough periods, horses allow me to feel “normal” and are an easy way to force myself to get out and about and get out of my comfort zone (can you believe that I don’t like change?! 
).
And no engineering in my future. I hate math. Accounting, maybe, as a last resort.
It depends on where you live, to be honest. Income, cost of living, boarding/land, etc, all depends on location.
I’m a cop. I afford my life as I want (to a point), in that I have horses and dogs and don’t travel or have other expensive hobbies. I don’t show, hopefully will in the next few years. Right now my life is very expensive because I’ve reached the tail end of building a house on land, it’s partially fenced and needs to be finished still, and I did some upgrades that I’ve paid/am paying out-of-pocket. Later in the year things will even out, I’ll have a mortgage about $800 more than I was paying in town but all the extra shit that has me eating ramen and PB&J will be done. I’ll have to be Scrooge-ish for a year or three to pay down some stuff and then start saving for an arena. I’m single-income, mid-30s, two horses (one retired), two burritos, two dogs.
But, it’s not a career path I recommend. Solly. Hours don’t bother me one little bit because I don’t have kids and I don’t give a rat’s patoot about holidays, I like interacting with people a LOT, I like solving issues/crimes, and I like the stress. This job is the ticket to the coolest show on earth, but it kills your back and your idealism.
BTDT, went to college, barely scraped by – but… I will say look in municipality – there are MANY jobs out there that don’t require a BS or a college degree, and some of my co-workers are making north of 70k without even having gone to college!
I’m in the finance district of municipality. I don’t make a killing, but I make enough to afford one horse outside of Boston. It’s a good gig and while I don’t love crunching numbers, it is incredibly low stress. It’s very structured, you just have to line up the numbers (so you need to be detail oriented) but it’s not miserable or sucky, and for someone even like me (I’m TERRIBLE at math! Hate it!) it’s really not bad – and you deal with locals/residents daily, and other people. I have weekends off and PAID holidays off (which I’ve NEVER had the luxury of having in ANY other field) and in the summer, we get out at 2:30 on Fridays. It’s one of those jobs that won’t suck you dry or make you hate the world, but it also won’t make you a millionaire either.
In other towns the hours might be flexible, but mine really aren’t – it’s 8:30-5 every day, but the benefits make it worth it – I’ve already amassed more than a week’s paid vacation and I haven’t been there a year yet.
I work for the gov’t with my bachelor’s degree. While there are lots of rules and regulations, I make decent money, and am able to flex my hours as I please. Right now I"m working 9 hour days starting at 5:30, with every other Friday off. That gives me afternoons and every other Friday for riding or whatever else I have to get done.
PLEASE please please please do your research on what social workers make. One of my best friends recently had to completely leave horses because her income does not allow for both student loan repayment and horses. She went to a top tier master’s program, but also has a top tier government job - easily over the median income for the profession. She knows people who are making 30k a year. It is absolutely not a lucrative career.
I agree with health care. I know tons of nurses who ride, and the ability to have flexible hours means they get to ride during the day and avoid rush hour. Downside of course is long or overnight shifts. I’m a scientist, and thinking about a career change myself. I could never actually be nurse (they are saints!) but I do envy their freedom. I’m looking into anything that is not a 9-5 and/or would let me work from home. I think those are key for fitting horses into a lifestyle.
Was self employed in a specialized field which more than paid for the horses and gave unlimited freedom to be with them. Have a BSC in commerce with a separate Air traffic control certification that opened doors doing specialized government contract work.
Really, honestly people should look at air traffic control as an occupant, you can get into the program with a 2 year associates degree, average pay is north of $122K/yr…mandatory full retirement at 56
I started out in Finance and quickly earned enough to be able to afford a horse at a low-key farm and compete occasionally. I was not able to also afford rent, but I worked in NYC at the time so the cost of living was quite high. At that time, the commute from work to the barn was nearly 3 hours for me, and I worked 8 - 6 most days. It was… pretty miserable. I could have stayed in finance in NYC and worked 80 hour weeks, and I would have made a decent living. However, it would have allowed me no time to ride, and I would be sacrificing a lot of happiness for money.
I scaled it down and got a job in NJ, closer to home, and I moved my horse closer to that barn. Now 45 minutes to work and 30 minutes to the barn. Again, couldn’t afford to move out because of location. Even without the horse, rent would have been stretch. The job was stressful, thankless, and had very minimal opportunity for growth.
I met my fiance and we moved to KY. I got a job in Marketing, which gives me greater flexibility, and I didn’t sacrifice salary (once adjusted for cost of living). I even enjoy it! My horse is now at a barn that is average in cost for the area with a great trainer. Without my fiance’s salary, I would still struggle to afford rent and board, but my salary more than covers the horse costs.
I guess my advice would be to make sure you are in a career that allows you to cover your expenses and save a bit. After that, make sure it is something you enjoy. A decision now does NOT equal the final decisions for the rest of your life.
I’m currently an inside salesperson for a manufacturing company. It is a very small company, so I’m sure I could be making more elsewhere. I do have an Associate’s degree, started back for a Bachelor’s and decided it was too much with my family life as well.
How about being a buyer in a manufacturing company? One would assume it would be quite similar to what you are doing now, with the exception that you aren’t in retail. I work with a lot of buyers, seems to be a job that people stay in once they are established.
As a registered nurse (bachelor’s degree), I work 7pm to 7am (by choice) 3 days a week on the nights of my choice, and that’s my full time job. I am married (so it splits the normal life costs) but own 2 horses and rough board (still by choice) and can comfortably afford it–technically could full board both but I’m picky :D.
I live in southeastern MA if you need a location…the board (and cost of living) in the eastern part of the state is getting $$$$ but I’m still ok.
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