[QUOTE=huntergal23;7565478]
kmcnam, thanks very much for sharing your experience. Your quote, also raises an interesting angle to these types of arrangements. Walking the fine line between helping the WS and pissing off your paying clients??? Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks to all who take their precious time to contribute.[/QUOTE]
I was a full time, summer WS for a few barns. The first couple were trainers I had shown with. The last was one I’d known for a long time but had never been a client.
When I owned a horse with the trainers, I put in extra time helping out with various chores and in exchange got to ride/school other horses. Rarely showing them unless I needed to borrow a horse for a specific class or some under saddle classes. I wouldn’t consider this a working student position but just being a student willing to go the extra mile for more saddle time and education. I paid for all my own stuff at this time except for the under saddle classes where I was helping out another rider with multiple mounts in the division.
When I was in what I’d consider a true working student position, I helped out with all barn and show chores. I was always on the road, so I don’t know what I would have done in an “at home” setting. I mucked, I bathed, I did set up and tear down, bandaging, setting jumps, holding horses at the ring, everything the full time grooms did. But because I wanted to do some riding too and show in some, in addition to all of those regular duties, I got to show some sales horses in the hunters and equitation. I got to take the morning lessons. I got to school client horses when needed. For equitation or any class I asked specifically to do, I paid entries and braiding. For classes where the trainer or HO was asking me to ride, they usually paid entries and braiding. I didn’t pay for shipping or the other show splits like grooming stall, etc. I didn’t pay for stalls for the horses I showed. I got housing in the form of shared hotel rooms with other staff. I provided my own transportation. This was the same across the board for all 3 trainers.
To the quoted text above, I had experiences on both sides of the extreme. One amateur with a pre green horse bought me a lovely necklace as a thank you for all the schooling and early AM rides that I did to help out the pro who showed the horse for her in the pre greens on the days the HO wasn’t at the show.
I also showed a sales horse in a hunter division who I really clicked with. I got some of my highest scores ever on that horse. It was one of those divisions where one round of the division was the first round of a classic. Trainer told me that I wasn’t allowed to do the classic because he didn’t want me to win the classic and piss off the other clients doing the classic from different sections of the division. Based on my division performance, people were interested in trying the horse, so I’d met the trainer’s goals without entering the classic. At the same time, I was kind of bummed because this horse and I had been rocking and rolling. Trainer was still making money off of the HO, who was a well-paying client, but HO wasn’t there and so I guess the other paying clients were higher priority.
For equitation horses, I never got the more fancy ones if there was a paying client (meaning, paying for a lot more than just the entry fees) wanting to lease them for that show. Trainer was up front with me about that, and I understood completely. So maybe I got some more green prospects that made it more difficult to meet my goals of qualifying, but I learned a lot, and it wound up being a great experience. And it wasn’t just about getting the bills paid that specific week but maintaining the client relationship with the bigger spenders.
