Holy cow, that sounds like such a good deal for the restaurant/service industry girl! And man, I miss having Kaiser insurance when I lived in the Bay Area!
@rockonxox Thank you for the input on that. I was thinking private practice counseling at the time, which makes a modest but doable living with horses, but I know salary in some areas is beans. My friend entering the master’s program next year says they make decent money up in the Twin Cities, but I feel like most college programs and instructors will say anything to convince you to continue in the program… And I agree that it has to be something you enjoy. I’m finding that I hate my current job more and more every day, and it takes a toll in all areas of your life.
@tbchick84 Hadn’t considered that yet, so thanks for the idea!
@meredithcarter @Scribbler I haven’t given a lot of thought to trades. Are most trades manual labor based? I’m not exactly a whiz with my hands. I did try welding in middle school and was afraid I’d burn my face off! :lol: I’m very creative, but it’s all in my mind, not in my handiwork. I think if you asked my dad if I was “handy” he’d probably just roll his eyes…
@ygsoul I’m sorry to hear about your situation, but I am also glad I am not the only younger person struggling! I feel so bad about living at home at age 23, so I am a bit comforted that I am not the only 20-something doing that. I can’t imagine what I would do if I had debt to pay down. I really hope you get things straightened out and figure out what you would like to do. It does sound like your current job has some good benefits.
@ArabDiva What kind of schooling/experience do you need to have to get a job in that area? That does sound right up my alley. I really do enjoy communicating with clients, and the only part of my job that hasn’t killed my soul (I’m only partially kidding) is the buyer part. I would love to be in your position of being comfortable. I don’t need to be filthy rich, but I would love to be able to enjoy my hobby more in the future.
@Wayside If any type of animal farming made good money (aside from the slaughter aspect - I get attached!), I’d take it up!
@OveroHunter I actually have a human services degree, which leans more towards the social work field, but if I could still get my foot into an HR job, I think I would enjoy it. I will check out those companies. See, I would love to marry a horse man or a rich man or one that was the whole bill, but I have extremely horrible luck with men and can’t even attract the right kinds. I just don’t see how the no boundaries/clingy types, the alcoholics, and the middle class old men are going to help me out of this one!
@rideforthelaurels16 I’d actually be interested to hear more about your start into the equine writing industry. Writing is one of my stronger skills, and I would be in heaven writing about horses. It sounds like your job is still lucrative, even if it isn’t necessarily the monetary type of lucrative.
@Draftmare Would you tell me more about what you do on a day-to-day basis and what your career entails? I’ve heard of that before but have no idea what it is!
@beau159 It must be really satisfying to know that you can support your habit on your own. That is really nice. 
How many years did you have to go to school? I think my problem is that I don’t exactly know what I enjoy aside from horses. And we all know that I’m not going to make money directly in that field! I don’t need to be competing or going to clinics every weekend, but I would like to have a show season (eventer) and be able to afford a couple of horses and quality equipment. Oh, and a few splurge moments. 
@theblondejumper That was really good advice, I agree. I know that I am definitely more stable when I am being challenged to some extent and need to think about what I’m doing. I completely empathize with not liking working alone - it gets very lonely, and I find that I get lonely easily anyway. Also, I’m pretty sure you described my current job. I told my manager I wanted the buyer position, as I was just a “floater” but had MORE than enough experience to be trained up, and I swear I wouldn’t have even been considered for the position if my friend (who is an assistant manager) had not gone over his head at one of their meetings and brought it up to the owners. I found out they decided I could do it when my manager threw it on the schedule. He didn’t even ask me. And it turns out no one really knew my department. I’ve basically been learning as I go. Expectations are not clear, half of the time I have no clue what I’m really doing, but somehow I make it work. It is frustrating.
I have a masters degree in social work and worked in the field for 5 years and it’s not something I would recommend if you are planning to support a horse habit on that salary solely, however if you have the heart for it and it is all you’ve ever wanted to be then go for it. Remember though, as a social worker, even with a master’s degree, you cannot go directly into counseling privately and making that decent salary. You get a masters, take a test, get 1 license which allows you to do therapy under the supervision of someone else, get however many hours your state requires of supervision (this is usually a minimum of 1 - 2 years worth of supervision hours), take another test, then you can practice independently. The most I made as a social worker was about $17/hour and I was making great money for a social worker…and working at a hospital, at a job that required nothing more than a high school diploma. Look into hospital jobs in patient access, I worked as a patient advocate, working with patients without insurance. There’s lots of a room to move up in hospital settings, so starting in registration is great if you’re good, you’ll get recognized and move up the latter.
I’m now in pharmacy school and LOVE It. It will support my horse habit easily. I never thought I could make it through pharmacy school, I struggle in math and chemistry but I’ve made it so don’t sell yourself short. It’s been harder for me than some of my classmates because chemistry and math don’t naturally make sense to me but I’ve worked at it and succeeded and will graduate in June!
I’m happy to answer any questions you have about social work (or pharmacy).
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That awkward after-college, pre-real adult job sucks. I went through the same exact thing. I graduated with 2 bachelor of science degrees in microbiology and environmental sciences, spent most of my college career working on grants researching invasive species in Lake Michigan. Couldn’t find a real job out of college for the life of me. It made me feel like I didn’t accomplish anything with those 4.5 years of my life. Rather depressing, so I understand to an extent what you’re feeling. I landed a killer internship with the Bureau of Land Management, who hired me on full time afterwards as a realty specialist. My job is basically to manage all of the 5 million acres my district has, whether it be road easements, resolving trespass issues, or maintaining public land for public use. I spend a majority of my time outside, which is what I ALWAYS wanted to have in a job.
The hours are extremely flexible, which is swell, but my god, between rent, board, car payments, whatnot, I live paycheck to paycheck. Luckily, I get bumped up a grade at the end of the year, which will make my financial situation much more manageable. I feel like the BLM has a bad rap. I absolutely adore my job. I have enough time to ride my horse 5-6 times a week, and actually have a life outside of work.
Best of luck finding something that fits you. It’ll come.
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When did you graduate from college? I graduated, worked in my field of study for several years, basically until I was sick of making so little money. Then a fully paid grad school opportunity popped up and I took it because I had nothing better to do. A bit of a mistake on my part. At any rate, I got hurt part way through school, so am on medical leave, working professionally in the horse business. Bottom line is, the injury was sort of a blessing in disguise that got me out of a sort of miserable grad school situation. I’ll be starting back next spring to get my masters in teaching. (I’ve always wanted to teach in some way, I just always avoided public school type teaching because of the money.) But I honestly don’t think that teaching at a university would be the right fit, unless I could teach at a non-research based college. So I’m just going to teach high school science and do some freelance horse stuff. (If I can afford my horse now, I can certainly afford it on a teacher’s salary.) And the schedule allows for time with the horse and also time for extra work in the summer for some horse show spending money.
So basically, I ended up going with my long-term gut feelings of what I wanted to do, despite always being pushed by family to go into medicine, research, or law.
But anyway, I’ll stop rambling, my point is, go to grad school when you really feel ready and motivated, and when you have a clear idea of what you want to do. If you go just for the sake of going, you may end up wasting your time and money. My situation worked out fine for me, had I not been hurt I’d have finished my masters (full tuition and stipend, so no financial hardship), but had I been paying it would have sucked to realize I hated it part way through.
Oh yeah, I misread that! I didn’t have a HR degree either - I had a finance degree so maybe still worth a shot! A rich husband would be nice… Do they make rich horsemen??? DH and I joke that we each thought we were marrying rich and were both sorely disappointed :lol::lol:
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@CorazonLock I believe some trades are in the computer/IT industry. I am a copywriter at a marketing/advertising agency–so if you are creative and enjoy writing, you could look into something like that. I also started out as a project manager for the same company, so you really may fit into either role quite well if you enjoy organizing projects and communicating with vendors and clients. My bachelor’s degree is in psychology, so you don’t necessarily have to have a writing, communications, or marketing degree to be in the field. Psychology is particularly helpful in the marketing world.
I’m in law enforcement too, but as a dispatcher, not a cop. I make slightly less, but I work the same shifts (we do 12s). I like it a lot - though my department is not like most! We’re little, and therefor quiet. Technically, I could afford a nice little place with a couple acres, but I’d have a long commute. To live closer, I’d have to give up one of the horses. As it is, I live with my parents (yay free rent!), and I have two horses… in Northern VA, where everything is stupid expensive.
I just graduated college with a BS in cybersecurity. I’ve been dispatching for 8 years, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it forever. I’m currently job hunting, but ideally, I’d be able to work from home a day or two a week (which seems reasonable, given the field). And the money is NICE. Like, ‘afford a nice house and horses’ nice. I went to school online while I was working, and I found that the downtime at my job was perfect for schoolwork.
My major issue with my job is showing. In the past it didn’t matter, because I wasn’t interested. But we’d like to take my younger horse to a couple shows… but it turns out I’m working each weekend. It’s certainly annoying, but not the end of the world. I love my random free time during the week, but I’d sometimes like to have a normal-ish schedule!
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@Subira Thank you so much. I do have a question right now - Can you move up the chain to patient advocate with just a bachelor’s degree in human services? I think that is the type of work I would like in that field, other than private practice counseling. And yes, I did know you needed all of that. At one time, I was willing to go get the master’s degree, get licensed, do the supervised time…now, I’m not so sure. I just want to get in a field and start working, you know?
@ChunkyMonkey That’s really cool! Thank you for your backstory and vote of confidence. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one drowning in uncertainty (or unable to find a fitting job…).
@Dutchmare433 Very sound advice. Thank you. I have been out of school since December 2015. So, I am still “celebrating my freedom”. 
If I thought I would make it as a teacher, I might consider pursuing that. I could do the college education, but I never could see myself in a primary school or high school classroom. So kudos to you!
@OveroHunter That is so funny! :lol: I’ll get back to you on the rich horsemen haha! I think it’s definitely worth a shot too.
@meredithcarter What do you do as a copywriter? Project manager sounds fitting as well. Thanks for the suggestions and the information on the trades.
@DoodlesMom Living at home isn’t all that bad really. At least we are saving some money and still working with the ponies. I went to school while I was working at my current job, so I can sort of relate, except I never got to do course work at my job. What would a cybersecurity job entail? Is there a lot of coding and programming involved?
Update: I have a bunch of jobs saved from indeed.com and am taking a short vacation (running away to my best friend’s house) to get away from my toxic work environment and start applying for jobs while she works during the day. I’m hoping the change in atmosphere will be just what I need.
I’m also struggling with my three different living options, which kind of hinges on where I get a job or what I decide to do. Obviously, I can stay in my current situation, living with the parents, but I feel like there isn’t much personal growth for me in that option, and it is kind of killing my independent pride. The horses would not have to be boarded then, but the job market in this small area isn’t great.
I could also move up to a small city where I take lessons out of (2 hours away in Minnesota - I’m in Iowa). I would have to board my horse and would have to get my own apartment, which would be a single or studio. I know my horse would be well taken care of at the barn, and the barn family is great. I love my instructor. It would be a very positive place for me to be and would be a life change without being too much of a change, considering change and I aren’t the best of friends. I could be pushing it though financially, and my old man horse would have to stay at home…
Option 3 is moving to the cities with my friend. We’d split expenses, which would be affordable, and I could probably tolerate living with her, since she has been driving me crazy (and I say that in the most loving way possible haha! she’s great) my entire life. I would have to board, though I’m hoping I can convince her to look at small farmettes for rent if there are such things in that area where I could keep the horses. However, she’s a lot more city, and I’ve never lived in the city before. It’s fun to visit, but I’m not sure I would enjoy it at all. Plus, I have no other connections up there. And the cities are about an hour away from the barn I take lessons out of.
Had to get that off my chest too. I want to thank everyone for being so thoughtful and supportive. It has been very helpful so far and given me a lot to consider.
OP. I realize that you say your current job in retail is toxic. But I assume that applies to the people and personnel practices in your particular company, not to the actual tasks you need to do. It sounds like you have done quite well in retail, and have had promotions, though not the ones you want. Is there a way to build on this skill and experience, and move to a different company?
Perhaps there is a short certificate course that you could take that would make you marketable to a wide variety of retail organizations at management level?
I have no personal experience with retail, but I’ve watched the careers of people a bit younger than me, including my friend’s son. Apparently once you move beyond the entry-level sales floor jobs or barista positions, there is quite a lot of upward mobility into middle management possible for people who are smart, good workers, and committed to the job. I think that most people with other prospects in life treat their retail or restaurant jobs, especially for the big chains, as temporary survival work, and don’t expect, seek out, or indeed do anything to deserve promotion. But the people who do stick with it can end up earning a surprising amount managing outlets.
So while you may need to get out of the terrible grocery store, you might very well find a niche in retail management in another company or another retail sector. You could look for a company that is known to be a good employer, known to promote women, or that serves primarily women, if you feel that advancement is too slow in the grocery world.
While grad school isn’t necessary for most jobs, some kind of retraining or certificate often is. A BA plus a certificate in something specialized could be a good move.
As far as marrying, IME men are attracted to women who are roughly their equivalence in competence in the world. If you are happy, have a clear direction in life, and have a job that you like, you are much more likely to attract serious attention from men who are also happy, focused, and gainfully employed. In other words, you will attract that man after you are past the point that you feel you need to be rescued. One of life’s little ironies, I think.
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Hahahahahaa. I’m a legal assistant. I’m well past retirement age, and still working full time, because that’s the only way I can afford a horse (San Francisco Bay Area). I do own my home, but still…it would be nice to kick back and relax at 72, but if I want to keep the horse, I have to keep working. If he doesn’t put me on disability…
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@CorazonLock I work alongside our creative director and graphic designers to concept advertising campaigns and write the ads for things like direct mail, email, Facebook/Instagram ads, website ads, billboards, video/radio/tv scripts–pretty much any kind of marketing material. I also write our company’s blog. It’s fun because you have to write within each brand’s specific “voice,” so you get to write differently based on the client.
Because my company is a full-service marketing agency and we also do data analytics and have an extremely high data security clearance, we work with a lot of banks. So, not a lot of room for creativity there, but we do get to do some truly creative and fun stuff every so often from our more retail clients. We also send our clients gifts materials throughout the year that are great because we aren’t held back by a client so we really get to stretch our creativity!
However, you could write for a purely advertising agency–they usually get to do more fun stuff since they aren’t also doing data work. You’re welcome to check out our website to get a better feel for marketing/ad agencies--www.reflexblu.com
Feel free to reach back out if you are interested in the field or have any more questions. I kind of stumbled into it after college, so I’m “self-taught” in a way… Plus, you will likely have more normal hours, depending on the agency you work for. I work 8-5, but we are pretty flexible so I can leave early if I need to and get plenty of PTO. I do know some agencies work longer hours or late nights before a big presentation, but my specific company isn’t so much like that.
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CorazonLock, trust  who at 30-something still lives with his parents and does the same work as I do but because he’s been with our company for so long, he’s getting paid more than I am.
I also have another friend who just turned 30 a couple days ago and still lives with his parents, no real career yet either!!!
I wish you luck in that you find a career that YOU enjoy doing as much as it supports your passion for horses It’s hard but, usually the hard ones to attain are the mostly the ones that will reap the most.
I’m actually thinking of going into nursing school after I pay down my credit card debt so I don’t have to pay that much back when I take out the loan for school [IMG]https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/core/core/images/smilies/lol.gif) Although nursing is getting a bit competitive since almost everyone and their mothers are becoming nurses nowadays…
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Currently I do a lot of helping managers manage and produce their weekly and monthly reports. I take the raw data that our data warehouse spits out and make it into pretty tables and graphs that are easier to read. I also am helping implement and improve some workflow in a couple of departments, again based off of data I collected from the warehouse. This summer I am going to be helping pick and develop a better data warehouse than the one that we currently use as well as implement some of our company’s first data standards. Then this fall I am going to be switching hats again to help develop and implement an in house software.
My schooling was interesting. My degree required essentially the first two years of the nursing program (all the sciences, anatomy, math, etc) and then in my junior year the program kind of threw me into all of the computer classes. It was a rough transition at first. I started out in the nursing program and hated it, but then this program came along, and I had always liked computers. So I jumped in and am really happy with my current job.
You do either 3 or 4 years of undergraduate (most people end up doing 4) to meet your pre-requiste classes needed, and you also have to take an entrance test. Optometry has the OAT (optometry admission test), just like dentistry has it’s own test, and just like medical school has the MCATs.
Optometry school is a 4-year program in most cases, with the option of doing a residency after school (but not required).
So usually, you are looking at 8 years of school. Sounds like a long time, but it really goes by quite quickly. Trust me – they keep you busy. I left my horses with my parents while I was in optometry school. I didn’t have the time, nor the money. School is expensive. Most optometrists take about 10 years to pay off their school loans – some longer, some shorter. Depends how many scholarships you get and how much money you end up taking out.
There are lots of different “settings” that you can end up as an optometrist. You can work in retail settings such as LensCrafters, Walmart, Sams Club, etc, or you can work in a private practice setting. Each has pros and cons.
It worked out in my case to do private practice where I have say in my schedule.
@Scribbler Yes, yes, that is what I mean. The management and the people I work with have become very toxic, to the point where I come home emotionally exhausted many days. There are days where they have me running a cash register while trying to help out in another department (and my manager sometimes takes advantage of my help and decides to let me do most of it since I am trained to do so), and then I have to squeeze in time to do things in my own department. I swear I’ve spent the last two weeks running around more than actually accomplishing anything. It is a small town store, not a large chain. I’ve been trained in almost every department, aside from meat and deli, but I have a functioning knowledge of the deli. Because they have decided they need to cut back labor hours, I think my store manager has decided to get my hours (I am part time but working 30 hours a week about), I need to be doing about ten gazillion different things.
The thing of it is, my store manager does not manage, there is no feedback from the owners, and the assistant managers tend to either be control freaks or completely lazy. Because of the lack of communication, there is trouble down the chain of command. They wouldn’t need to be cutting back labor hours if they would just hire more efficient workers and paid them a little more, or if they communicated what needs to be done in what order to those than cannot function without someone holding their hand (I can’t believe how many people there are out there like that).
It isn’t all as bad as I make it sound. I can take any time off that I please, and that has been huge with my involvement with horses. This week I randomly decided to go see my best friend out of state, and so long as I give notice before the schedule goes up, I can take the time. I normally do not take a lot of time off because obviously I need money, but that is an example. I do enjoy the buying and having my own responsibilities of my department, and actually, for the most part, I enjoy interacting with customers. The store employees are close, which is good and bad. I have two friends that work with me and a handful of people I talk to regularly. Unfortunately, my friends are also friends with some of the lazy managers that drive me bonkers, and while I’m very good at keeping my mouth shut and keeping it inside, I’m finding that my irritation with the situation spreads to almost everyone, so often times, I just stay away from everyone as much as possible and do my own thing. My friends just think I’m crabby or having a depressed day, so that is that.
Probably too much info, but anyway, yes, it’s the people. But it has kind of soured the entire environment for me as well. I feel as if I need to completely shift gears. I really do appreciate your advice, including on men. Maybe there’s hope that I won’t be a hermit at the mid-stages of my life.
@meredithcarter That actually sounds like something I might like. Thank you for letting me hit you up with any questions I might have. I’ll look into that.
@ygsoul Thank you so much for your vote of confidence. It’s what I’ve needed to hear for a long time. My sister is a nurse, and if you can stomach it, a career in nursing pays really well. Unfortunately, I cannot.
@Draftmare Hmm…it sounds like you plug in a lot of data that someone statistically analyzes. That someone isn’t you, is it? I’m not sure that would be my cup of tea…
@beau159 I don’t doubt that the years of school go by fast. I also don’t doubt the intensity of that program. Again, that is truly impressive that you dedicated that much time to schooling and now are reaping the benefits. It would be a hard pill to swallow going in knowing you could be in debt for years though.
The best way to afford to have horses is to learn how to ride well enough, and develop enough contacts in the industry, that they pay for themselves.
Whether by doing up your own investment horses, making up your own fancy dressage horse instead of spending $80k, or riding a few on the side to cover your horse’s bill.
Structure an other wise hugely expensive hobby so that it contributes to your retirement goals instead of taking away from them.
You can’t control everything, but you can control whether you buy a young horse with upside potential or an older packer on the way down. You can control whether you treat your hobby a little like a business and really pursue improvement and include the financial evaluation in “how did this year go” or if you say “it’s all about the journey and we have all the time in the world” and just hemmorage money for the next 20 years.
That sort of thing.
Some people are inherently repulsed by this way of thinking about a hobby, but it’s so freakin expensive the only way I personally could afford it and justify spending that amount of money every month is to treat it like a personal investment business.
I will never buy a horse without an eye toward resale, and I think a hugely neglected thing by most trainers is the idea of protecting clients’ investments and actually INCREASING the value of their horses instead of just buy this random horse and let’s start racking up bills. I will not give my business to a trainer that doesn’t have a demonstrated record of selling to the upper end of the industry, at least regularly in the high fives and low sixes.
If the fit hits the shan in life that horse you’ve been pouring your money into ought to be worth something.
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Btw I grew up in that pipeline where everyone says “work hard in school and get good grades and you will have a good job and be able to pay for your horses,” and I like a good little beaver went to an Ivy League law school and started work in a white shoe law firm upon graduation, whereupon Lehman brothers promptly collapsed and I embarked on nearly a decade of constant moving, working 8 days a week, and financial/job insecurity.
That fable thst everyone tells you can easily go tits up and as Jim Carey has wisely observed you can fail at the safe choice too.
You know what finally righted the ship again? Selling the investment horse that I clung to with every claw in my being despite all the times everyone said when are you going to get rid of the horses and really focus on being a lawyer. I kept saying it’s worth more than my house and always got the patronizing “Ok well we’d love to see the check when it sells.”
MMMM HMMMM he DID, in fact, sell for a good bit more than I paid for my house, bought me a rental property with enough left over for a second one, and now that first rental property pays my mortgage every month.
And yes I enjoyed the look on my parents’ faces when I put the wire transfer with that nice big number on it down on the table and told them what were they saying again about stop wasting my time and energy on the horses I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch it.
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I am in local government as well. I have met several horse owners who also work for my particular govnt organization. Beowulf is right that the salaries may not be the highest but the benefits and flexible hours do make horse life more feasible, particularly if you end up living in an area with a relatively low cost of living and reasonable cost of horse keeping (as my area has). I have a greenie in training and plan to attend 5-6 local shows each year, and can probably eventually budget for a couple of Florida-area rated shows if/when we get my horse to that level (fingers crossed!).
One big plus with government work is the amount of retirement security that a local government position can afford you (your mileage may vary, but in Florida the FRS pension and investment plan are well regarded and the contributions made by your government employer can go a long way towards getting you to your retirement number). Since a large portion of my necessary retirement contribution is covered, this gives me more disposable income. The hours and generous paid time off are also beneficial to horse life.
I was briefly a federal employee as well, and despite the current environment, I know the feds are losing retirees left and right, and will certainly need to start staffing up. One barn friend works for the VA and seems to do reasonably well to afford her horse lifestyle. Worth investigating.
I disagree with this. It highly depends on what field of engineering you’re working in…and typically, your high-stress fields are paid lavishly.
I left a VERY well-paid position as a structural engineer at an oil and gas consulting firm for a lower stress, lower pay position as a project engineer with my local municipality.
In my two income household, I still bring home enough to cover our expenses and keep my horse on full-care stall board.
To the OP: Many variables come into play when looking for a career to support horses. Your geographic location will make a huge difference in both your pay and cost of horse-keeping. Your degree is in Human Services, which in my area, is virtually useless without a Masters and narrow with the advanced degree. Outside of your field of education, sales jobs can be lucrative, but also time consuming with lots of travel.
Good luck on your search. I’m afraid there’s no easy answer, but if you read the COTH “Amateurs like us” series, you’ll find that many horse people find a way to make it work in many different circumstances.
