Who is self employed in the equine/ equestrian industry?

[Marley&Me]

Just wondering who is (as title), and if you dont mind me asking.....

what do you do?

how did you get into it?

what are your hours like?

what do you earn (ball park)?

I am currently self employed on a non-equine industry. I adore being self-employed but really want to work within the equine/equestrian industry. I am trying to decide where to go next....and what training to pursue, with the aim of working in the industry full time within 2 to 3 years.

I am a qualified primary school teacher by trade, 31 years old with 3 children aged 2, 6 and 12 years old. I have one gorgeous five year old traditional coloured cob whom I adore!

Skills: website building, mohair teddy bear making (from my own original designs), teaching, tutoring, working with young children.

Equestrian Qualifications: BHS stage 1 and 2 (rusty!)

Equestrian Interests: Intelligent Horsemanship and Natural Horsecare.....with a BHS twist! Bringing on young horses (ponies really).Teaching riding.

Suggestions welcome...I am open to ideas!

 

[Spot_the_Risk]

Not sure if I count - self employed feed merchant, with my husband. A plus point is the easy days in the summer means finishing early as we have two part time staff.

Cons - it's hard work in winter, we run a big delivery round, and I reckon to lift about five tonnes a week in winter, that's 15, 20 and 25kg sacks, and those awkward shaped bales of haylage, shavings etc. My husband lifts a lot more than me - you have to be physically strong.

We bought the shop from the previous owners four years ago - it had been run down, and needed a lot of work, not just with the shop but also building relations with suppliers and customers. A major factor in our buying was that we already had a pet food franchise, which we ran from home, and we needed more space - the two businesses combined nicely.

One of the biggest pluses has been our customers, many who've become firm friends. Being able to chat away about horses, dogs, village life has made us part of the community, and we really value this.

Regards money - well, we make a living, we run our busineses in the black, but we'll never be well off. We count our riches in our time off and our friends, if we worked out our hourly rate, I bet it wouldn't stack up to the minimum wage!!

In your position, and with the recession really settling down to a long hard grind, I'd think hard about how much money you need to earn. We are seeing people cutting back on what they perceive to be luxuries. They will still shoe and worm their horses, but therapies such as massage, laser, physio treatments, saddle checks are all dropping out of the limelight. Likewise people are scaling back on lessons - many are competing less due to competition fees increasing and as for the price of fuel - well, enough said! Rugs are being mended not replaced, and the sale of casual riding clothing has definitely slowed. Horses are clipped less, and therefore need less hard feed, again keeping costs down. I'm not trying to scare you off, but please do your homework before you find yourself low on work! How about doing some training which would allow you to continue your current work, but work with horses at the weekend or evenings?

 

[unicornleather]

I'm a Saddler (traditionally trained) hand make most of my saddlery items
Was trained at Cordwainers college in Hackney in 1978-88 went back to college to learn at 26 years old after doing all sorts of jobs (fork lift truck operator for ann summers, motorcycle despatch rider, working in hospitals, working in hotels etc) I wanted a trade and as I was good with my hands I decided on either saddlery or thatching, saddlery came up first.
Don't earn that much wish I did!
Oz