This post is for those who have grown up in the horse industry and think they may want to make a go of it as a professional equestrian. You have the passion and at least some of the skills. And after all, horses have been your life for the majority of your years. What else would you do?
See, something life-changing happened to me when I was 18. My parents made me go to college and sold my horse. Oh man. It shook me to my very core, both in a good way and a bad way. When I look back on it, it forced some personal growth that I was too immature to foster on my own.
I never left horses altogether. I went to college on an equestrian scholarship and found a totally new path with horses outside of the competition world after graduation. If you haven’t yet heard my story, I talk about it here.
Having lived through this transition, here is my best advice for young equestrians deciding where their path with horses will take them.
Take Some Time Away
I remember my thoughts as I was walking away from my last horse show before going off to college. This place or belonging, this place of identity for me, was about to be a place I left behind. It suddenly hit me that I would not feel this sure of myself for a very long time. It was an emotional time for me. I remember playing Trace Adkins’ “You’re Gonna Miss This” on repeat a lot.
My parents insisted I go to college. I resented it for awhile. For being ripped out of the horse show world – the only world that had ever accepted me and the only thing I was really, truly good at. I wanted to be a horse trainer, and I knew I was good enough. But my parents did have some good advice. They said I could always be a horse trainer after college, and at least if I had a degree, I would have another career path in case things ever went bad.
After all, we have all met that trainer. The bitter one, who doesn’t love the sport anymore but doesn’t have a realistic way out. I knew I never wanted to be that trainer.
My time away from the horse show world forced me to learn who I was outside of horses. Horses were my whole life growing up. I homeschooled in high school so I could spend every possible moment with my horse and traveling for horse shows. I never wanted to do anything else. When my family and friends would suggest other activities and interests, I was indifferent.
I needed to be pulled away from that world for awhile so I could get to know myself. Horses are still my passion and a huge part of me. But there was more, and I didn’t know enough to know that back then.
Develop Other Skills
There are many ways to do it. You can go to college or trade school. You can travel for awhile. You can get some real-world job experience. You can take some online courses.
Just do it. It probably won’t be fun at first, but it’s part of growing up. Develop some business skills. Punch a time clock for awhile. Have a job that you hate – and then quit that job. It’ll teach you what you don’t want out of life and motivate you to put your time into what you do love.
Learn skills that will help you get hired at a regular job in case you get to a point in life when you’re really broke. Believe me, it’ll happen at some point, and if it never happens to you, consider yourself super lucky. Learn what a side hustle is and how to be successful at it.
Maybe during this process you’ll stumble onto something you love to do outside of the horse world. Pursue that! It doesn’t mean you are leaving horses behind forever. You can do more than one thing in your life – it’s ok!
And maybe you learn that you already knew what you wanted to do all along, and you go ahead and pursue that professional equestrian dream. Congratulations, you tried something new and learned some real-world survival skills in the process!
Be An Apprentice
If you do decide you want to go the route of professional equestrian, whether that be as a trainer, performer, or competitor, my best advice would be to take some time to learn from those who have spent years as professionals in the industry. You may think you have the skills already, and you might be right. However, there is more to being a professional than being good at riding a horse. Learning from someone with years in the industry will teach you business skills, people skills, and the staying power to excel in the long term.
I would also challenge you to learn from people outside of your discipline for awhile. If you’re a western pleasure rider, go learn from a dressage trainer. If you love jumping, go learn from a reiner. When we isolate ourselves to one style of riding and training, we limit ourselves.
You might be cringing right now. As a former paint horse all around competitor, there was a time as a young rider that I thought dressage was ridiculous. My trainer made fun of it. The movements seemed opposite of what we considered ideal in our world.
I’ve learned over the years that this viewpoint is extremely ignorant and limiting. There is a reason each discipline trains the way they do, and there is something to be learned from everyone. Also, the more styles of riding you try, the more you will find that they all overlap. Riding as many horses and as many disciplines as I can has improved my riding more than anything else. You don’t have to adopt every training method you learn, but I think you’ll find yourself adding more and more to your bag of tricks. And, your natural feel for a horse will grow and grow.
Collegiate Equestrians
This section is for those of you considering the college route. Maybe it’s your parents’ insisting like me, or maybe it’s your own decision. Either way, college can be a magical place. After the initial trauma of leaving my horse and the horse show world, college really was a great experience. It was more than an education: it was four years of new experiences that all taught me something about myself and the world around me.
I went to TCU on a NCAA Women’s Equestrian scholarship. As a student-athlete, my schedule was packed. We had mandatory morning workouts, team practices, meets on the weekends (sometimes out of town), study hall, personal development workshops, team social events, and always something added to our schedules that we didn’t plan on. Oh, and classes and homework somewhere in there.
Sometimes, it was a blast. Other times, it was stressful, frustrating, and disappointing. There were a lot of factors that played into my experience that I won’t get into here. If you’re a horse show kid like I was, don’t expect collegiate equestrian to be anything like your previous experiences. You are always on different horses, you are sore from workouts and stressed from classes and lack of sleep, and you may not always have a spot in the meet that weekend (but you have to go anyway, test on Monday morning or not).
You know what I did have, though? A full ride scholarship to a prestigious university (half academic merit scholarship, half athletic scholarship). Free room and board. Free books. Free tutors. Free medical care, prescriptions, athletic trainer, and counseling services. Priority registration to all classes. Free summer classes. Free workout clothes and shoes every year. Free gym access. Free career counseling. A way to keep riding horses when I no longer had my own. A group of girls who shared my interests. A college degree without a cent of student loan debt.
As someone who has now lived in the adult world for quite a few years and paid for adult things, I can tell you that I FREAKING HAD IT MADE. 10/10 would do it again. Seriously, take this opportunity if it is offered to you, and if you’re not sure how to go about applying to NCAA equestrians teams, send me a message and I’ll help you. Maybe I’ll also write a post about it sometime.
I may have gone off on a few tangents there, but I sincerely hope this helps you, and I hope it triggers at least one idea that you hadn’t yet thought of when considering your next career move. No matter what you do, make sure you have a way to keep horses in your life. After all, there’s always a way.