Horsey gap years?

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swfy03

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Hi,

From this september (2012) to next september (2013) I am taking a gap year between the end of sixth form and uni. I'd really like to do something like work with horses abroad (preferably outside of europe) for a few months at a time. I'd love some suggestions/advice if anyones done anything similar to what i'm looking to do. I am an experienced rider and happy to do flatwork/jumping/hacking etc as well as all stable duties.

Thanks in advance!
 
Have a look at BUNAC a massive gap year company which do various things but the biggest is their teaching horse riding in America.

If that takes your interest have a look at camp america- another organisation that lets you teach horse riding in the states. :D

You may find it a bit hard as you've not left yourself a lot of time to sort everything out. I'm going to work at a yard in Tuscany in June so excited!! :)
 
There are always polo grooming jobs in NZ/Australia over the winter, I spent my Gap year in NZ working at a polo yard and had the best fun, and learnt so much. They usually start looking for people to come over from late September onwards...although ways bearing in mind if you can't find anything else :)
 
Thanks for the suggestions, i'm not looking to do anything till september as I have plans for this summer so don't think camp america would suit me.

Mariposer - that sounds like something id like to do, but how did u manage to find the yard? Also what experience did they want u to have?

Thanks, will have a look on the workaway website
 
I went to Australia with Outbackpackers

They taught you how to ride motorbikes, quad bikes, horses, tractors, do fencing and muster cattle. They would then help find you jobs across the country.

I went from a Cattle Station to Mango Picking to helping train yearling race horses to be sold at Melbourne premier yearling sales to working on an event yard =)
 
A girl at our yard went to Canada to work on a cattle ranch (she was a real 'cowgirl') for a gap year. I don't know how she organized it, but she had a ball! If you want me to find out more, let me know :)
 
You could get a working holiday visa (assuming that you're 18 of course:D).

You can go to Canada, NZ, and Oz (not sure if there's anywhere else that does them), and BUNAC has info on them and will help you with forms, etc, and I think they do packages with them where you can go bungee jumping and work on farms and stuff as well, so might be worth a look.;)
 
Wait a little horse back safaris used to have 3 month stints as back up rider with stable duties. Brilliant fun but you did have to pay to do it ( not much). Not sure if its still an option but worth enquiring
 
If you want to actually earn money then I recommend yardandgroom.com and careergrooms.com for jobs abroad, you don't have to have experience for all of them as a lot of them are 'working pupil' so you may get some tuition and stuff and pay is quite variable but they pretty much always give you food and board, I went to an Italian riding school just to get away for a few weeks, learnt a few things but kind of wish I had been really adventurous and carried on, while I was there a woman phoned me from Austria saying she needed someone to come and be a groom, gosh what an adventure it all would have been! I really can't imagine that sort of thing happening to me now!

Much easier doing it in Europe and you can get about cheaply, but I would love to go to the US/Canada/anywhere :-)
 
Remember that for the US you can't get a VISA to work there when you are not in Uni unless you are working a summer camp, where the wage is very small (with some companies, you make about £180 over 8 weeks).

You can work anywhere in the EU without a work visa (assuming you are a resident of the EEA); Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and Japan offer working holiday visas; USA and South Africa only offer working holiday visas if you are currently studying.

This site has a good list of where you can and can't work:
http://www.anyworkanywhere.com/whvchart.html#
 
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