So who works with horses then...

Hippona

Hippona

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Sat here at my desk......just pondering as you do.... when you have work to be getting on with but can't quite be bothered
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.....who on here works with horses full-time? I know most of us work doing other 'normal' stuff for the pay so that we can have horses....but who actually does it for a living?

Do you enjoy it as much as you thought you would?
Do you spend less time and energy on your own horses because of your job?
Would you take the same career route again or would you have done anything differently?

Just pondering really......random, pointless but still interested in your replies, so I will put the kettle on and get the biccies out ...any special requests??
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dont work with them full time as currently at uni,
but have a part time job of exercising and playing with horses at my local livery yard (livery horses and the YO's horses) and I exercise, hunt, compete them, and get paid for it! BEST STUDENT JOB EVER!
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I did it after my A levels, for 2 and half years. Then realised I couldn't get any further and pay wasn't great. Had an absolutely fab time and it means I am competant to look after Biddy, I wanted a mortgage, car and my own horse and working with them generally meant living in or renting. I had also been away from home long enough
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I would not want to work with horses as they are what i do to relax. I come home from work tired and stressed sometimes and the horses smooth my day over, also most jobs with horses don,t pay that well and i would not be able to survive on low wages i would have to give up my own horses just to work with them. I sometimes think it would be nice to work outside in the summer with horses but the winter no brrrr!!!
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I work with horses full time and have my own to do too...it is hard at times esp the low wages but being around horse does make me happy I love everything about them. Although I do find that esp in winter you don't really have the energy or time for my own but its part of working with them and having your own dont know I manage half the time to be honest..
 
I'm a carriage driving groom. My job's ace, I get to drive ponies and backstep around posh country estates.
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The only real negative is there's just no scope for earning more money and I worry about the future.
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Yes Flame...thats the thing...I was discouraged from working with horses by my parents.....and I doubt I would have been able to earn my current salary doing an equine related job ( at that time anyway.....I dont think EDT's, horse physios etc etc existed when I was young)...so part of me always feels I have missed out, another part part thinks that I made the right choice having horses as a hobby rather than a career. I just wonder if I will encourage or dissuade my daughter from working with horses or pursuade her to get a more highly paid career.....
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I used to work with horses, I went to Hartpury to train, then had a few WP jobs on riding schools, then went on to teach which I loved but sadly due to me having children and the money I had to retrain as flexable hours are not great. I now work in mental health which I also love.
 
Im a serial lurker on this fab forum but thought id throw in my two pence worth. I was a working pupil during a gap year before i went to college to do an equine science degree and loved it. Now i work in forensics with an ok wage flexible hours pension etc but i still cant stop myself from trawling yard and groom looking for horse jobs. I really miss it.
 
I worked with horses full time for about 6 years. I absolutely loved it at first, and had real ambition to get the furthest I could, but it's just so difficult.
I ended up head girl at a large and well respected riding school at the age of 23, but was really disillusioned with it all. The winters are so harsh, and I found that my health was suffering because of it. I was also totally fed up with having no time or money for anything. Really having to scrimp and save to pay for my own horse, whom in the winter barely got ridden as I was just so cold, tired and busy teaching freelance late in to the evenings to try and earn a littled bit extra.
Am now about to start a new job working with young people and their families, which is something that I've always wanted to do. I will be earning more than double what I was before, and will easily be able to fund my horse, compete and be able to afford a decent social life and be able to buy myself something nice once in a while.
The time that I spend with my horse is no longer a chore, and the only thing I do miss is riding up to 6 nice horses per day. Nothing else though!
 
I work for an equine college, teaching disable people to ride. I get to be around the horses but don't have to do all the 'dirty' jobs. They get tacked up ready and everything else by the yard. I have plenty of time for my own horses. I love my job,it is very rewarding.
 
I used to work with horses straight from school as WP and then to a livery yard then Ive been on a couple of event yeads for short term now I just have mine and a boring office job.But soon back to horses.
Its good but pay isnt great as ppl have said but some comp yards offer you a chance to imporve your skils with lessons with own horse and going to comps and you do stand a chance of making it on your own if you can out in all the hard work.
 
I worked with horses from leaving school, never dreamt of being able to afford my own so looking after other peoples was the closest I could get. A car crash, glandular fever and then a seperate back injury (not horse related) meant I couldn't work for a year and when it came to job hunting I didn't have the strength for yard work.

Now after 2 years of working in an office I've worked out I can afford a horse next year which I'd never have been able to do working on a yard. So as much as I miss it I don't think I could go back, having my own will be more rewarding (hopefully lol)
 
I did a business degree then spent 2 yrs working with horses- first on a very 'prestigious' livery yard where i felt too many corners were being cut and i was working 13 hrs/day to try and keep horses happy, then on a private dressage yard for a top rider who was lucky enough to be well off enough to just run a really nice small yard for her own horses where everything was done to the highest standards and the horses looked after wonderfully well. It was hard work but really rewarding- and I am so glad I took the job there rather than throwing in the towel after the first place which would have probably meant I would have given up horses altogether- I was truly sick of the whole thing...
Now I am an accountant who works about 50 hours a week as a general manager and still manages to fit in grooming for pro OH at weekends and even riding myself a couple of times a week when I can persuade him to hold on to a nice horse long enough for me to get to know them!
Horses are back to being fun for me again (though during the event season when we are up at 5am for the fifth saturday running I do need reminded of that...!) though I wouldn't turn the clock back for anything- I learnt so much during my grooming years (about what to do AND what not to do!!) and the skills I learnt will stay with me forever though it is nice that it is 'optional' now (up to a point!!) to get up on weekends and clean out stables...
 
I worked with them all my 'proper' working life (ie before marrying (late) and kids) and am still paying for it, will never be able to afford to buy a house (husband works in agriculture, so not really complaining, we live in a fab place most people couldn't afford!) - my advice is if you have the bug, do it for a gap year and/or while young, get it out of your system, and then get a proper job LOL.
I enjoyed myself immensely, travelled the world, and in the end got very good wages, lovely flat, car etc ... but it was living for the moment. Nothing to show for it now except a lot of nice photos!
 
I've had a couple of horsey jobs, I worked at a riding school for 1 summer which was fun but couldn't do it for long.
I then worked for Henretta Knight for 1 season; fanstic job & improved my riding more than any lesson could. But I had no intention of making horses my career, I work for the prison service now helping prisoners with their housing, horses are much more enjoyable when it's just a hobby.
 
I worked with horses in various private yards and my own from 1977 to 1986 when I got married and was told to get a 'proper' job, so being a milksop, gave it up!!!! Once I divorced the S.O.B. I started working again in 1990... then gave up in 93 as I was pregnant (re-married ect..) - needed a proper wage again - started my own business in Australia until we came back in 05.

I've just started working with them again in June - and am loving it so much (apart from the lack of money, nothing changes there lol) Have a permantent part time afternoon slot looking after 2 wonderful dressage horses, getting plenty of riding in
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and am now thinking I might try and further my exams (have BHSAI and stage 4 from 1979!). I'd like to set myself up as an 'emergency' groom/rider.

Having said all that..... winter is not here yet and if you ask me again in January I might not love it quite so much ahahahaha!!
 
Hi, I studied in my own time and worked my way through the BHS exam system. I have my BHSAI Int SM now. I worked in a bank for 12 years before leaving to work with horses. I was the yard manager at the Thoroughbred Rehab Centre for 7 years before taking hte plunge and renting my own yard to do training and livery. It is hard work but I have bred 2 lovely foals in the last two years and have 4 other horses, 2 that I compete and my old mare. I would not be able to afford to keep these on livery.
There are days where I feel like giving up but then I have to remind myself why I do it and what else I would rather do.
You have to be dedicated and really want to do it as you can't be in it for the money!!
Having a livery yard can be challenging too. Trying to keep everyone happy is not easy!
Red wine also helps!!!
Good luck in whatever you choose to do.
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I don't *technically* work with horses full time, as that would be a 55 hour week and I only work 35-40 hours a week, but I do work with horses a lot. Too much. I did it part-time around school and then uni, fell into doing it almost-full-time after I graduated last year, and am now fed up of earning no money and having no career prospects so I'm desperately trying to get out of it!
I like the actual job, but I have had to turn my own horse away (well, I've given her to my mum) because I have no time or money for my own and in the last few months I have become very sour in the job. If I could go back I would do a different degree (have a horsey one
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) and I would have gone straight into accounting, which is what I now want to do.
Fingers crossed and I'll have a bottom-of-the-pile finance job this time next week. I don't think I'll miss the horses - I miss my riding lessons that I currently can't afford, so that will keep me going! I'll be riding more doing a different job, than I do now!
 
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