Yes, and hauling out to your lessons, shows, and clinics makes for long long days. It would be a godsend on a hot summer day to have help sweeping out the trailer and cleaning my sweaty girth and bridle and taking out braids. I resort to a quick wipe with a wet rag (which by that time I resemble). I’d gladly spend at least $20 for that sort of help. Obviously transportation would be an issue for a teen but there may be local possibilities.
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My daughter has been getting some experience with riding more green horses and dealing with their training. The horse she currently has was pretty green when we got him and I think as hard as that was, she gained so much knowledge in the process. My daughter and trainer worked closely together to figure him out and train him to be a great horse that has done very well for her at her shows. She has a lot of pride in knowing she didn’t just get the $80k finished, bomb-proof horse but she actually made her own 
Her trainer is an amazing teacher and her logical approach to figuring out what the horses need is such a good thing for my daughter to see and learn from. She is currently riding the barn owners newer green ponies for her and really enjoys seeing them make progress.
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It’s so great to hear that your daughter has such a supportive trainer that is giving her these opportunities and working with her on the green horses. I’m glad there are still trainers (and owners) out there giving juniors these opportunities!
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Yes dressage riders largely do their own care at shows with that being the norm and full care at shows being the exception. Many of us handle it co-op style where everyone takes a turn feeding, doing stalls, waters, etc. I was with a new barn this year and it worked out that all of us enjoy different tasks so the division of labor was quite easy with everyone handling their preferred task for the group.
However there are a lot of folks that show solo and go without a trainer. I can definitely seem many of them happily paying for someone to throw hay and do water at night check or clean their stall or something so they don’t have to be tied to the show grounds all day.
ETA there’s probably also a decent market for folks needing help even at day shows in dressage world for the same reasons mentioned above. Plenty of people go solo and trainerless and having an extra pair of hands is very helpful.
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So young people should arrive at age 18 never having hand walked or hand grazed a horse? Or done anything that includes any degree of risk? They should turn pro at some point with NO hands on experience until they ARE a pro?
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I have no idea where you got that impression, lol. Have a great evening.
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Since the original question from the OP was “what did you do?”
I taught lessons as a junior, and worked all day on Saturdays at my lesson barn feeding, bringing horses in, getting them ready for lessons, teaching low level kids. I also administered meds, including injections, hand walked rehab horses, and handled a stallion. Any riding I did was a perk, and I did not get paid for that.
Teaching lessons as a junior does not make you a pro, since juniors can’t be professionals per USEF rules.
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the only thing with braiding is that it is often done at night like 7pm-3am. Most show barns don’t want the liability of a minor coming to their horses (alone) and standing on a stool/ladder to do this.
Would work if she was driving age and 18 - but I am aware of NO show barns in my areas of CA (Santa Barbara and south to SD) that would agree to a minor doing this…unless the minor was braiding their OWN horse.
To answer OP @DaisyBabyCat
This was 2004-2008 I was a dressage junior and I rode at a barn that was dressage and eventing - I would flat ride / school dressage to 3rdish level a lot of the event horses for their owners. I also was the “junior” flat rider for event and dressage horses for sales videos for the big sales operation they had.
Fancy barn, heated indoor, rode early AM (before 6am) and late PM (after 8pm) - barn was 20-30 mins walking distance from my house so I was able to do this before I could drive legally. I also drove illegally as it was under 2 miles on backroads and my Dad taught me to drive at 13 and I was 5’9 at 14 so cops didn’t blink.
I had pretty absent parents and was a very diligent student so I had excellent time management and great grades during all of this - barn also had club house with wifi and I did a lot of my schoolwork at that barn. I also began to help out in the barn office with billing, orders, import paperwork (I later became a CPA early career before my life in tech now).
Did I make 20k/yr from this – no, but I got to ride nice horses! I also worked tradtionally, retail, waitressing.
My most lucrative teenage job was I was a golf caddy and a very good one (whole family golfs). Most of my $$ came from the broad spectrum of creepy to fatherly men 20ish years older than me. I made like $5k in 2 months back in 2007 as a caddy (private club).
As a Zennial - the best way for minors to make big $$ is social media / some sort of online business- TikTok might not get banned and that if you’re in the US and have access to the creator fund (it would have to be in your name as the parent as under 18 cannot participate themselves alone) has the highest income potential for “level of effort”. There’s many age appropriate accounts that make excellent money.
OP-
This might not be helpful, but when I was a little older than your daughter (17-20ish) I worked for the horse show photographer. He paid well, and understood that I would also be showing/ taking care of my horse/ helping my barn mates, so I’d be able to work around that schedule. I would take customer’s order sheets and money, input pictures from the camera drive from him and the other photographer at the ring and input the pictures into the main computer and make sure they loaded correctly/ into the correct day and division into the other computers.
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Ok I didn’t read all the previous comments so this may be repetitive.
My daughter is now 18 and does eventing/dressage so its not as expensive but these are the things she’s done to help raise money over the past 4 years.
Teach riding lessons
Exercise rides & care of horse while owner is out of town (grooming, feet, etc)
Pet sitting (as they get older this can be quite lucrative- more so than babysitting time wise)
baby sitting
braiding (dressage braids arent as particular)
grooming for trainer at a show
teach swim lessons (she is also a swimmer)/coach swim team
clipping
leasing out her horse part time/letting him be used for lessons occasionally
The thing to remember is she may have to do stuff for FREE for now (rides, etc) but that will set her up for being able to charge as she gets older. It is well worth it. My daughter was home from college and made $550 over 2 weeks pet sitting and exercise riding. Which probably averaged out to 2-3 hrs a day and something she enjoys.
The more her name gets out there for pet sitting, lessons, being responsible/reliable- by the time she can drive she will be in high demand. Be helpful at the barn, support other people, clean up after yourself AND other, and be considerate and keep learning and she will find opportunities. At this point I told my daughter no riding for free anymore unless it’s a one time thing for a good friend or benefits her in some way.
best of luck!
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I have nothing to offer as far as money making ideas, but would like to ask the OP if she has discussed the budget concerns with the trainer yet? From the sound of it, trainer values teen’s work ethic, and if she knew there was a financial constraint on showing, would possibly allow the teen to help at the shows (the $600 groom’s fee? for what?) instead of charging her for things she can do herself or assist others with - even if it is cleaning stalls and feeding, watering etc.
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