midlife crisis - should I work with horses??

[Miracle Whip]

I thought I would throw this out there. Our state is not doing well due to the severe winters and the summer flood. I am unemployed through no fault of my own and my husband is unemployed also. He was a butt and got himself fired, so no unemployment for Bob. I have unemployment but it will probably run out in February or March

Here is the question. I work part time at a horse stable, weekends only. There is a community college that teaches horse science in our area. Its an ok college. Nothing spectacular. Decent facilities, I don't know much about the instructors.
I also know a horse trainer that MIGHT be willing to let me apprentice with her. I have not asked yet.

Thing is, my mother, who lives close, has told me since I was a kid that working with horses will not pay the bills. I have looked for office work. My husband needs insurance due to his epilepsy. Husband is not the most employable man in the world, but up until this summer he HAS been employed and we have sometimes used his insurance.

Given these facts, if you were in my shoes, would you try to pursue the horse career? I think I could train some horses, I don't know if I could do well at it. I just know I hate office work and I get upset everytime they hire a half-ass horse person to run the stable - I always feel I am a better horseperson and more qualified. Right now I could not teach ANYONE how to ride a horse...I know this because I've tried to give my mom and my husband riding lessons... ha. What a joke.

I am 40 years old, hearing impaired, and have wasted 2o years of my life by NOT working with horses. I have taken riding lessons and ride English and Western. How many YEA :cowboy:and NO :mad:votes are there?

[Remali]

Gosh, it's hard to say what to do....I only know what I might do if I were in the same situation. And, given the fact that you are currently unemployed, I don't see why it would hurt to give the horse career a try.....it isn't like you'd be quitting a job to pursue your dream of working with horses. Sometimes it's good to take a chance and give things a try, after all, what have you got to lose by trying? I am unemployed right now too and on unemployment, I had started a fabulous job not too long ago, but then I got whopping sick and they didn't want to wait for me to come back, the job was thru a temp agency so they offer no sick days at all.....so now I find myself thinking the same thing, what should I do....so I am broadening my interests and willing to give other things a try. I say, trust your gut instinct.

[Cat]

Your unemployeed but might have a possible job doing what you love and it would bring in some money. Seems a no brainer - go try for it! ...unless you have some whopping good job offer you aren't telling us about?

[WashingtonBay]

Honestly, unless you could get hired at your current barn where they know you, I think those jobs are pretty hard to come by.

And at a few hundred bucks a month over the cost of board a month, training horses is a hard way to make a living unless you've got a bunch of them and can ride them all every day.... that kind of stuff is for the young. So is getting tossed off of them.

One option for side money is to try to find bargains at horse sales than can be taken home, cleaned up, tuned up, and resold for more money. You know they're out there, but that too, carries some risks.

[PoniesRock101]

i agree with the others....... for now it will definatley help with some money. and besides, a job should be someting you love to do, even if it doesnt always work that way.

[alittleoffkey]

I don't think it would pull the weight for you, but until you find another job - it is a job. If you were single (or even if hubby didn't have medical issues) then it might if you found the right job and could work hard and long enough at it. I do it occasionally for a bit of cash but it's an extremely hard job - and without insurance it's downright dangerous (getting kicked or even stomped in just the right place can put you out of work for a whole training season... without some serious insurance you'd be totally out of money during that time).

[dustys_girlly]

there is a saying in the horse business. if you want to make a million, start off with 5 million. or something along those lines. if you can work off the books then it will be nice, get unemployment and extra cash but its a really hard job for a lot less money. right now i am giving lessons to a family and it is just helping to pay for my vet tech classes and then some small bills. its a hard line of work to get into but if you love it and have a shot to try i would not say no but thats me.

[42many]

While I am all for pursuing your dreams and being happy in your work, I'm afraid I have to agree with your Mom that training horses for a living is a very hard way to pay the bills. It is also, much as we hate to admit it, a very dangerous way - many of the people looking for a professional to train a horse either want a professional having a large number of titles/wins/showing/etc under their belt or someone willing to "deal with" a problem horse. Since you haven't indicated a great deal of prior high-level experience for fancy fine-tuning, I have to assume you would be a "problem horse" fixer - which can be hard and dangerous, even when you really know what you are doing. Training with a quality trainer can help you some in that regard, but you still have to get a name for yourself somehow.

Would you be training horses at your place? Or going somewhere else to train them? Is it a many day a week thing or only a few times a week as needed? Will you use your own tack, including having multiple saddles for different horses, or their tack? How much insurance would you carry?

[shewasmyshadow]

I just had a thought for your husband... Other than epilepsy (that's controllable w/meds, right?) is he in decent physical shape? I was thinking farrier school might pay off for him. Maybe even would work for you too, but most women can't do it without hurting their backs. It's about 8 months of schooling and if you're in a good horse area, it can pay well. Thing is there's pretty much no financial aid for that type stuff. It's like $17k for school. Oh, and no health care. Maybe it won't work...

[Miracle Whip]

I don't know on the farrier school. We play around with trimming our own horses and I am SURE that there is a need for good farriers here, but husband is pretty much overweight - like 270 pounds and has a bad back. He does not even ride that much. Me, I could possibly work up to full case load, but it would be rough no doubt. I had thought about Taxidermy school, that is relatively quick also. For short term, taking a 6 week certified nurse aide class seems to be the best bet to just get a job period and then make further plans in the spring.

No I could not train horses on my property so I would need to find someplace that WOULD allow me to train horses. I do think there are some places that apprentice people, but what do they do after the apprentice is what I'd like to know. There is a shitload of stables in our area.

[FlitterBug]

Working with horses can be tough in more ways than one. I know many other trainers agree with me when they say training horses is easy, its training people that can be pretty hard. I teach lessons and train, but wouldn't want to have my name associated with most of the local barns around here. I could make a lot more money if I would go to one of the big barns, but I wouldn't be able to give the horses or people the time they deserved.

I am lucky that I only have to pay for my horses, and my husband and his insurance takes care of me. If I was going to try and pull it off by myself, it would be tough. One thing that I have found is that if you are meant to work with horses, the work will find you. I personally have tried doing many things, waitressing, ymca, retail, I have a college degree, but every time I do something else, I have people bothering me about horses. I am a firm believer that whatever you do, you should always do your best. If you are willing to be running around grooming and cleaning tack, then by all means work your way up. It won't be very profitable at first, but if the right opportunity came up, then you could work your way to training.

[Remali]

Well, that is true enough...training horses is a very tough business. I do know two people who were very successful at it, but they were into dressage and they both went on to the upper levels of dressage and had a lot of wins and championships, and they both were in high demand and had a lot of clients and had really made a name for themselves, to the point that when one of them moved out of state she even had people that still wanted lessons/training back here in WI, so she actually would come back to WI for lessons and clinics. I think they were the exception tho.