Working with horses- yay or neigh?

Headfullofdreams

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Hello everyone

Im after a bit of advice really

I am considering getting into working with horses ideally on a dressage yard, but alot of people have been telling me i wont have enough time to work my own horses or employers dont look kindly upon you having and riding your own?

Id be looking at working on a yard where I could live in and take my own horse

I have owned horses all my life and am very experienced and passionate about dressage i currently work in an office job that I dont like, I have 3 horses one of whom I want to produce As far as i can but at home im at a disadvantage I have no facilities and there are no decent livery yards in the area to go to, I have managed to produce him to elemenatary but now i am stuck in a bit of a rut and need some sort of facilities.

Dressage is my passion and Something i really enjoy so i thought aswell as gaining valuable knowledge and experience from a professional it would also give me the chance to work on my own horse in a decent yard or is that not possible?

My question is can you work with horses and still produce and compete your own and do you earn enough while working with horses to fund it?

Also what sort of pay would i be looking at by the time you take out stabling and accompdation costs?
 

SpringArising

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I don't know the exact pay bracket but I don't know anyone who works with horses who is well off...

I love them but couldn't work with them - I enjoy them because they are a hobby. I don't know if I'd get the same pleasure if I was with them all day every day. Plus you have to think about the practicalities - if you work in a physical job you're going to be really buggered if you get injured (and let's face it, you're working with horses so you will at some point!).

I may offend some but I don't view working with horses as a career but rather a job - there are very few well-paid progression opportunities.

I say stick with your office job (look for something else if needs be) and earn enough that you can afford to dressage on the side.
 

milliepops

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I gave up working with horses because I couldn't afford to run my own the way I wanted to. My office job isn't much fun but it just about pays to keep 2 in work/shows/lessons etc.

If you look around, many ads say there is no space for your own horse, but not all. After livery and accommodation (& training? ) I'd expect the pay to be really quite low though.
 
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You won't earn enough to keep 3 horses! Especially in dressage or jumping where there is no regulations over pay etc and employers get away with blue murder!

Steer well clear of working with horses in the long term!

I've been in racing 14 years and am well paid for what I do but would barely be paid half if that if I had done the same stint in another equestrian discipline.
 

Lintel

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- No. I did an apprenticeship with horses and I could not bare being freezing and soaked to the skin all day at work... then doing my own when I got home freezing and soaked to the skin.
Really drained me and I started to resent my boy.

But that's just me!
 

Annagain

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As Spring Arising says, horses are my escape from work and life's pressures, I don't think I'd enjoy them anywhere near as much if I worked with them.

You sound quite young though so I'd say if you're going to do it, now would be the time, when you have no responsibilities to anyone other than yourself and you're not in a job that means going to work with horses would be a massive pay cut.
While I'm sure there will be some very supportive employers out there who would help and support you to progress with your horse I think they're pretty few and far between so do your homework and choose the right place. You have the horses at home and a job (albeit one you don't like) so you don't have to go to the first one you find, wait for the right one.

A friend recently had a horrible experience at a yard she worked at. It was a long way from home so she was quite isolated. She was encouraged to bring her horse and was told she'd have plenty of opportunity to ride etc but when she got there she was expected to work from 7am-5pm and wasn't allowed to ride her horse during 'working' hours. If she wanted to use the arena before or after work her employer charged her £20 an hour. This meant all she could do was a quick hack in her lunch hour and her dreams of progressing with dressage were further away not closer.

The other option is to focus you attentions on getting promoted or finding a job that you do enjoy and that pays better and throw that money at your horses to progress as much as you can. I'm guessing you're managing on your salary now so if you earn an extra £5k a year you could save it (or put it towards a loan) for building an arena at home (it sounds like you have alnd there?) or for travelling to a really good trainer for lessons. This would be my preference.
 

PoniesRock

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I’m a freelance groom. But In the winter I work on a hunt yard full time, and do other yards and other bits and pieces in the summer. Being self employed deffinatly helps, with reguard to hours and days off - I still work long days in the winter but I literally love it.

I have my own horse who’s on diy livery. She could be at work with me but I don’t live in and she probs wouldn’t like the set up at work, so as far as I’m concerned she’s a different part of my day to work horses.

I’ve been working with horses for 10 years as a groom. I have to say I love it... yes it’s wet and cold but buy decent waterproofs and it beats a day sat in front of a computer hands down for me.

With my own horse yes in the winter I don’t get to ride as much as I’d like, but I wouldn’t get to ride her any more if I worked 9-5 in a office (we don’t have a floodlit school or anything) so for me that’s just something I have to deal with. But I keep her ticking over and I take her out and about on Sundays. She’s worked hard through the summer so it’s nice for her to have a easier winter anyway.

The best people to chat to are the British grooms association about how much pay you are entitled too once they have deducted rent/livery for a horse etc.

For me, being a groom is very much a way of life.
I have been doing it for long enough to be reasonably paid for the work I do. The money side of things are important tho - you can’t work for the love of horses! It doesn’t pay the bills, and having no money to go out or have a life outside of horses is no fun! I mean everyone needs a bottle of wine after a Saturday turning 6 hunters out!!
 

Orangehorse

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I know a young man who did this, and ended up completely and utterly exhausted. He worked all week for his employer's horses and then his time off was spent riding and competing his own.

Maybe going as a working pupil where you will have lessons on your own horse, and it will probably be kept free, but you won't get much, if any wage, so you would have to find an evening job to get some cash. (Read Charlotte Dujardin's book. She went as a working pupil, took her own horse to Carl Hester, but didn't receive wages. She had very good training though!).


Annagain that is a terrible story about your friend what utter barstewards her employers were. I would hope that new laws about minimum wage would do away with such things.
 

Annagain

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Annagain that is a terrible story about your friend what utter barstewards her employers were. I would hope that new laws about minimum wage would do away with such things.

There was a lot more, but if I started, I'd be typing for hours! Just one other example - her battery was flat and the YO's husband jump started her car for her, it took 5 minutes at most. They docked her wages by £30 for his 'services' and didn't tell her until she questioned why her wages (already minimal) were down by £30.

When she got signed off work for two weeks with exhaustion, they sacked her and told her she had 24 hours to move her horse. She was 2 hours from home with no transport for her horse or anywhere to put her. Luckily she has some good friends. One picked the horse up 3 hours later and another spent the afternoon sorting out where he was going (temporarily) while he was on the way home.
 

teddypops

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You won't earn enough to keep 3 horses! Especially in dressage or jumping where there is no regulations over pay etc and employers get away with blue murder!

Steer well clear of working with horses in the long term!

I've been in racing 14 years and am well paid for what I do but would barely be paid half if that if I had done the same stint in another equestrian discipline.

National minimum wage does apply to equine jobs.
 
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National minimum wage does apply to equine jobs.

Yes I know it does. It applies to every job no matter what it is. But most equine jobs try and get away with paying as little as possible as there are no trade unions to back you up unless you are a member of the grooms association which most people aren't. Beside the government there is no regulatory body to ensure fair practice.
 

pippixox

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It depends a lot on the yard- there is a dressage yard near me where the grooms have accommodation and also a split days so they ride their horses in between the 2 shifts as such. But once accommodation and livery is taken off a dread to think how little they actually earn (barely manageable with just 1 horse) but the owner does support them in general I think to progress but ultimately they are employees not clients so always come second
 

Mule

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In terms of injuries, someone I know who works at a local riding school was recently diagnosed with a hernia. She's 21! She got that from hard physical labour. I doubt she'll be physically able for it in 20 years.
 

teapot

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You need to think about how you'd feel potentially working at least one weekend day a week (depending on yard/discipline) and whether you'll resent that because it means less time for your own horses. How will you feel doing your own horses between 5am-6am to be at a different yard for 7am? Or going in late and mabye not finishing until 7/8pm?

I work in the equine industry and these questions come up time and again when we're recruiting.
 

HashRouge

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You won't be able to take three horses with you to any professional yard I can think of. It's not unusual to be able to take one, but again, it's not a guarantee so you can't take it for granted. And I'm inclined to agree that you won't earn enough to keep two horses on livery elsewhere, plus maintain the third (farrier/ vets bills/ feed, even if hay/ bedding/ livery is included) AND pay entry fees for shows. Plus you will almost certainly work weekends, so may find that you don't have time to compete your own. It may be slightly different if you get a working livery position somewhere, but pay for working liveries is often even lower than for grooms as you're seen to be getting something back (i.e. training) from the employer.

That said, I worked as a groom for the best part of two years and loved it. It's great fun (if you get a good yard) and I hugely enjoyed being able to work with (and ride) such fabulous horses. I worked at one yard where I could keep my horse there, but there was no turnout in winter and I really hated that, and one yard where the pay was slightly higher but no livery was included, so I rented a field nearby (my mare is retired) and that worked really well. I would have struggled to compete a horse outside of work but I think had I gone as a working pupil I would have had lots of chances to go to shows (this was SJ not dressage) and ride, but the pay would have been fairly stingy.
 

zaminda

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In all honesty I wouldn't do it. I have worked with horses for years, mainly in racing which is better, and it is pretty awful out there. Unpaid overtime is rife, and I know a girl who worked for someone for 10 weeks before she deigned to give her any money!! As she was under 18, and working a 60 hour week which is illegal by the way, she was pretty fed up and exhausted. She had 3 lessons in 4 months. I see this woman talking about staff in her blog, and can't help but laugh!
Love the idea that NMW applies, what an utter joke for anyone who has ever worked in the industry, no one enforces it, or what apprentices are supposed to get either, you just hear the same comment 'that's what it's like with horses'.
Oh yes, and what's an employment contract?! Outside of racing good luck ever getting one!
 

SEL

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I've never known a yard let one of its staff have 3 horses on site - unless you're paying livery.

Also remember that you're there to work on someone else's horses, so it's unlikely you're going to have a lot of time during 'office hours ' to ride your own
 

Orangehorse

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Oh dear OP, not very encouraging! You are competing at Elementary, so you obviously have skills. Could you go somewhere where you will continue to get further qualifications? Though doubtful if you could take 3 horses anywhere.
Maybe word of mouth amongst fellow competitors when you are at a show?

People I know who have been grooms from a young age always said that they had a good time, travelling to different places and shows and seeing and having great experiences they would otherwise never have had. But there comes a time when they realised that they weren't being very well paid and the work was getting harder, so they went and got another job, or further training - nursing in a couple of cases - and kept horses as a hobby.

I can understand where you are coming from though. I was very fed up with my job and was ready to leave and go and work and get BHS examinations, and I was really looking into it in my mid 20s. The other alternative is, as someone suggested, to try and improve your job and earning power and concentrate on the horses in your spare time. There are plenty of people who do that.
 

mytwofriends

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I used to work on a veterinary yard and had my own two horses. It burned me out and I ended up enjoying neither.

I was older though - 50ish at the time - so that probably didn’t help.
 

ApolloStorm

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In winter before last I worked on a livery yard at the weekend with uni midweek. My weekend days consisted of a 5am start to get to do my 2 horses before work- Mucked out/watered/hayed etc. Getting to work for 8.30am to spend all day mucking out/ watering etc under a lot of pressure/ fast pace as horse jobs can be. Half an hour for lunch, then back at it in the afternoon, until 5.30pm- dark by this time. Then I'd have to drive the half hour drive to my horses, who were in at the weekend, to have to muck them out again and do all the nets. Having a youngster and also a TB who both needed consistently riding, getting them both ridden both days at the weekend was a MAMMOTH task, and I was regularly the very first and last on my yard- I wouldn't get home for my tea until after 9.30pm. By which time all i wanted was a shower and my bed!
I wore my fitbit couple days at work- and at work alone with riding I burnt 4000 calories! who needs the gym!
I ended up leaving because of the abominable pay, and the expectation that we could continue working at our usual pace in 30 degree heat mid summer without proper breaks for water and such.
 

marmalade76

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Working with horses is good for experience (depending on the yard) and best done when you're young, fit, full of energy and have few responsibilities like mortgages and bills. As a long term career it's no good at all, you will have no money, no spare time and no energy for anything else.
 

MotherOfChickens

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Dressage is my passion and Something i really enjoy so i thought aswell as gaining valuable knowledge and experience from a professional it would also give me the chance to work on my own horse in a decent yard or is that not possible?

why not approach some riders/trainers and ask if you can do a stint as a working pupil for a couple of weeks (or more if you have enough annual leave). you'll be treated as a dog's body, wont earn any money but you might get some lessons on your own horse out of it or get to ride some different horses.

working on a yard is everything everyone has said on here. really the only industry where you have any rights is racing, and even then compared to civi street they aren't great. yard work can also knacker you physically for later on-as I am now finding out at 48-so if you do it, lok after yourself with regular sessions of massage etc that's if you can afford it or have the time. And even if you found a yard to take all of your horses, by the time you take out livery and board you'd be paying them some.
 
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