Working with horses

[Welshie0405]

I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right category but need some advice! I'm a nurse, have been for 6 years, but I cannot stand it! I'm a very outdoorsy person and being a nurse confined in a hospital does really not suit me and is making me miserable. I never actually wanted to be a nurse, I wanted to be an equine vet, but mucked around at school and sort of fell into a nursing degree at the age of 24!

Other than my children, I have two favourite things in life, which are dogs and horses. I have a lot more experience with horses, I've had horses since I was 4 (now 32) and have produced a few youngsters. Currently have a young ID and a cob for my kids

I'm thinking of having a massive career change and moving towards working with horses, I have previously worked as a freelance groom.
However, I feel at the age of 32 I may have missed the boat. I would love to be a trainer and bring on youngsters for a living, and even though I've developed a lot of knowledge over the years, I want to learn evidence based, up to date knowledge so that I can do the best for any horse I work with. What would you recommend doing? I've looked at BHS courses but feel like I'm a little too old to do them? Or am I wrong thinking that?
Can anyone else recommend any courses?

Apologies for the long read, and thanks if you got this far!

 

[dottylottie]

i think the BHS courses are appropriate for any ages, i might be wrong but i think you can skip the entry level ones that are more basic knowledge?

i’d love to do this myself but it’s not realistic for me yet, but id love to do something where im self employed! dog walker seems to give a good work life balance & still be a liveable wage, or saddle fitter/bit fitter/nutritionist. i think the latter of the 2 are probably more sought after in the sense that it’s not an oversaturated market, but probably more difficult to get up and running because you’ll have less returning clients due to the nature of it.

if you work shifts i think you’re in a good position to go self employed as you can work x amount of days in the week, without having to completely make the leap and leave nursing! whatever you decide to go for, i wish you luck!

 

[gallopingby]

I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right category but need some advice! I'm a nurse, have been for 6 years, but I cannot stand it! I'm a very outdoorsy person and being a nurse confined in a hospital does really not suit me and is making me miserable. I never actually wanted to be a nurse, I wanted to be an equine vet, but mucked around at school and sort of fell into a nursing degree at the age of 24!

Other than my children, I have two favourite things in life, which are dogs and horses. I have a lot more experience with horses, I've had horses since I was 4 (now 32) and have produced a few youngsters. Currently have a young ID and a cob for my kids

I'm thinking of having a massive career change and moving towards working with horses, I have previously worked as a freelance groom.
However, I feel at the age of 32 I may have missed the boat. I would love to be a trainer and bring on youngsters for a living, and even though I've developed a lot of knowledge over the years, I want to learn evidence based, up to date knowledge so that I can do the best for any horse I work with. What would you recommend doing? I've looked at BHS courses but feel like I'm a little too old to do them? Or am I wrong thinking that?
Can anyone else recommend any courses?

Apologies for the long read, and thanks if you got this far!

Maybe the best way forward would be to look at ways you could use your nursing qualification in the horse world? There are plenty of opportunities other than hospitals although bank nursing could still give you a useful income as long as you were able to sort out child care etc. The BHS courses aren’t age related and there are people way older than you who follow them although access means you’d need to live close enough to a centre to access them. In the equine world evidence based is a useful tool but so is hands on hard graft in all weathers! The most successful get there by pure hard work over many years and a good record in a specific area which results in word of mouth recommendations so whatever you decide it will take time ie years and years to become established. If you’re looking for ‘straight’ qualifications/bits of paper maybe a modular course would be the best option or how about something nutrition based for one of the feed companies where you could use some of the knowledge you’ve already gained. I think you need to look at transferable skills.

 

[paddi22]

with your skills, I would focus on rehabbing horses from injury. do you have your own yard you can work from?