So a lot of people in business are familiar with life coaches these days.  They seem to have created themselves a little niche.  Well, to take things further, you can specifically get a horse related life coach!

Because riding can be a full time career in today’s society, it’s not so surprising that others have made a career out of coaching riders.

Chances are that they don’t just coach those wanting to become professionals either.  Even learning to have fun on your horse while being safe can be goals to work towards that can be progressed with the aid of a coach.

Whether one is looking into coaching – and the sort that is specifically related to the equestrian – or looking to acquire a horse related life coach, there are a couple of qualities that should stand out.

The equestrian life coach should:

• have experience with horses
• be familiar with the stresses of competition and peak performance
• have skills, experience and/or qualifications with regards to coaching
• be familiar with the psychology of people and/or horses

Perhaps the best horse coach is the one who has been there, done that.  This doesn’t necessarily make them good at communicating with others how to achieve their goals, however.  The successful life coach is a true people person.

Some links worth checking out:
Jane Savoie Dressage
Equestrian Life Coaching

“Show me your horse and I will show you what you are.” – British proverb

tag: horseriding, coaching, instructing, competition, riding with purpose

Facebook is already terribly addictive enough without providing a potential means to carry on an addictive behaviour – writing horses.

I am rather a fan of the fact that the majority of ads on the site do tend to be focused around individual user’s interests, however and this seemed to be the case with an ad for Suite101.com.  A site that covers many topics, Suite101 is made up of a myriad of freelance writers who are contracted to write a minimum of 10 articles every 3 months, ensuring fresh content is published often.

A fan of writing and finding the idea of being paid to write in a roundabout way, I decided to check out the site, finding to my delight that there is a horse section in amongst the Plants and Animals category.

Often looking for new writers, I applied, submitting two examples of my writing that related to specific topics I was interested in writing about and had experience with.  Once the application was approved it was then a question of making sure the formatting of each article suited the uniformity of the site to keep things consistent and professional in looks.

My first article, the Stages of Foaling has been published recently on the site and I am working on others to add.

If you’re interested in flexing your writing skills with regards to horses, consider looking at this site, not as a means to earn an income but to get exposure while writing about a topic you love.  There is however the potential to earn income, with the more you write increasing your chances of this.

“As old wood is best to burn; old horses to ride; old books to read; old wine to drink; so are old friends most trysty to use.” – Leonard Wright

tag: horse literature, writing equine, horse articles

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I’ve recently come back from Residential School – a week of uni that requires I attend lectures and partake in exams for the two subjects that I am currently undertaking part time as a Distance Education student.

As is the case any time I find myself in a new environment that is horse related, I met a lot of interesting people and had my eyes opened to many other things I wasn’t aware of with regards to horses.  I was also made aware of people that are well known with regards to starting and bringing on horses and left with a list of names to look up online.

One of our lecturer’s mentioned the fact that they had carried out some technical writing with regards to a horse section on a show that aired weekly.  Another writing job that relates to horses that I hadn’t considered!

Wikipedia has a rather broad definition of a technical writer or technical communicator, the key phrase standing out for me being “produces technical documentation for… consumer audiences.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_writer

So when I think of consumer audiences, and ones that specifically led to me teaching more people about horses and riding, I think of the Saddle Club.

There were a large number of preteens and early teens that decided to take up horse riding a couple of years back when I was instructing at a lower level.  Why?  Because they’d seen the Saddle Club and the interest in the show suddenly turned into an interest in learning to ride.

It may be a wrong assumption, but I would guess that there are people that know how to make a children’s show or one for any other demographic for that matter that want to focus it around horses.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that they know enough about horses to be able to make the show realistic.  This is where a Technical Writer may come in.

Think of the likes of Burke’s Backyard with an animal segment, the Saddle Club, Heartland, movies such as Flicka or the Black Stallion.

There are a number of books and movies out there that don’t seem completely believable with some of the aspects but that’s the joys of poetic license, I guess.  This doesn’t take away from the fact that some texts, movies, or shows may employ a person or persons to either resource information from those in the know, or have someone in the know write the information in a technical manner that can be put to use.

Just because you know horses however, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re equipped to be a technical writer with regards to them.

MyFuture has a page focused on such a career – http://www.myfuture.edu.au/services/default.asp?FunctionID=5050&ASCO=253421A and also lists the sort of courses you would expect to have to complete to be qualified to take on such a position – http://www.myfuture.edu.au/services/default.asp?FunctionID=5360&ASCO=253421A&StateCode=VIC.

No surprises as to what they focus on – writing skill.

Perhaps if your skills do lie in the writing field and you have a love of horses and a sound knowledge base then this may be a path worth considering.

“Bread may feed my body, but my horse feeds my soul.”

tag: horse library, horse books, writing, equine shows, technical writer