Love talking horses? More importantly, can you recite them at a fast pace and enjoy watching races and following how each horse is doing? Perhaps racecalling is for you.

Requiring a good memory and knowledge of horses, trainers, jockeys and racing silk colours, racecalling would surely be demanding and something that the caller would have to be passionate about to be up to speed. Travis Stone is a track announcer for Harrah’s Louisiana Downs. He “called races on the roof of the Saratoga press box, dubbing those calls onto a CD to submit to racetracks as a demo.”

Check out his site to find out about the man and his profession.  If you’re interested in pursuing this profession, it’d be worth recognising current racecallers for different racetracks and possibly getting in touch with them to find out how to get a foot in the door. Other than this, brush up on your racing knowledge, listen to races being called at different tracks and practice calling!

“The biggest thing is memorization, because without it you can’t make a good call. A horse race is so fast-paced, there’s no time to look around and check stuff in the middle.” – Travis Stone

tag: self education, racing, career, thoroughbreds, racehorses, racecalling

If you have a passion for horses and are rather computer savvy, you may choose to combine the two and offer website design services for those in the horse industry.

It’s possible to focus on providing a service for horse studs for example by first checking out other sites that advertise horse studs.  You should do so to view that which is common on these sites/possible pages that you could create.

For example – pedigrees pages (on mares or stallions standing at stud); photo pages (consider the use of thumbnails as this means the page in general will load a lot faster); a contact page; history of the property; services provided and general pricing.

To provide the service of website design, it would be beneficial to have knowledge of HTML, cascading style sheets, PHP or a program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver.  Blogs are also a great way for an equine personality to get their thoughts ‘on paper’ and share with an interested audience worldwide.  Knowledge and use of blogger or wordpress would benefit in this area.

If familiar with graphics, perhaps a program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, then this is even better.  A lot of people can offer website design but don’t necessarily have skills when it comes to working with photos or creating graphics.

Once the site is created, the key is to keep people coming back.  This is easier done with up to date content; a spaced out/easy to read site and no clashing colours.  Active links to sites that contain information that compliments your site can also be beneficial.

Some horse relatedÂpeople and businesses that may benefit from having a website include farriers, studs, instructors, authors, speakers, vet practices and many more.

“Ten ways to get in shape to own a horse… Lie face down in the mud in your most expensive riding clothes and repeat to yourself: ‘This is a learning experience, this is a learning experience…'”

tag: website design

Many people that want to be carrying out a job that relates to horses, would love to do this from home. As far as I see it, there are three types of jobs relating to horses – those which you can do in your home; those you can do with a small amount of land (a couple of acres); those you can carry out assuming you have a decent sized acreage.

In your home:
Perhaps you have another talent that you can tie in with your passion for horses? Consider:
– Photography – Writing (articles, fiction, non fiction) – Art (painting, sculpting, drawing, etc)
– Saddler (you may be able to repair/stitch up other’s leather works that can either be picked up or dropped off)
– Rug repairs – Website design (focused on advertising horse businesses) – Creating horse gifts/jewellery to sell

On a small amount of land:
– Instructing (as long as you have an arena or area that is set up for schooling and the clientele, you can provide a service from your home; people will travel for private lessons on their horse if the service is right)
– Breeding (if you have a popular stallion of a certain discipline, people can “walk-in” their mare to your stallion

Some home based operations will require more land – dependent on the size of the operation.
– Breeder – Trainer/Breaker – Agistment/Livery Property – Riding School Owner

I’m sure there are plenty more possibilities but above are a few to mull over if you’re seriously considering mixing horses, home and work. Good luck!

“To get in shape to own a horse… Affix a pair of reins to a moving freight train and practice pulling it to a halt. And smile as if you are really having fun.”

tag: job, training, instructing, horse stud, writing, equine art, photography, agistment