Friday Feature Archives : Equus Education

Friday Feature: Horse Rider

August 22, 2014 by Christine Meunier Leave a Comment

What Type of Riding do you Dream of Doing?

This week’s letter is H. If you missed last week’s Friday Feature, take a look at Groom.

Now this is a broad category that probably requires a bit more of a set focus.

It is possible to ride horses for a living, but the discipline in which you do so will dictate your hours of work, skills required in the saddle and even potential to earn income.

Although all are horse riding related, it is very different to play polo for a living, exercise racehorses, ride horses as a jockey, aim to reach the Olympics as an eventer or excel in dressage.

Someone who is interested in pursuing a career as a professional horse rider should consider:

Getting as many hours in the saddle on varying horses as possible
Finding a good instructor to guide them
Setting goals to achieve results at competitions
Which discipline they want to focus on after becoming established as a rider

Horse riding is a great sport; if you can make a living from it and are passionate about it – all the better! It doesn’t necessarily mean needing to have your own horse – you can rider other peoples’ horses for a living. The difficult bit is proving your capabilities so that others will want you to ride for them.

For posts that relate to this area of work on Equus-Blog, take a look at:

“A good rider can hear his horse speak to him. A great rider can hear his horse whisper. But a bad rider won’t hear his horse even if it screams at him!” – Author unknown

Friday Feature: Foaling Attendant

August 8, 2014 by Christine Meunier 1 Comment

This week’s letter is F. If you missed last week’s Friday Feature, take a look at Employment Agencies (Equine).

A Foster Clydesdale Mare with a Thoroughbred Foal Nursing

In a way this week’s career is a niche market, but it genuinely is one that you can do most of the year, if you’re willing to travel between hemispheres. A foaling attendant works nights, weekdays and weekends, depending on the stud they work on.

Their role is to assist mares that are foaling, particularly if there are issues with the delivery. They are also often in charge of documenting the foal’s first drink, steps, passing of meconium (the first poo) and other general health.

Someone who is interested in work as a foaling attendant:

Should be ready to work nights (often from 9pm – 6am, but it can vary)
May like to undertake a horse breeding course or gain work experience on a large stud – Thoroughbred studs are often a great way to see a lot over a short period (a few months)
Should consider that their job will be in demand over later winter, spring and early summer
May want to gain contacts in the northern and southern hemisphere to be able to carry out the job year round
Will need to be very familiar with care of pregnant mares, the birthing process and neonates (young foals)

For posts that relate to this area of work on Equus-Blog, take a look at:

“When will they make a tractor that can furnish the manure for farm fields and produce a baby tractor every spring?” – George Rupp

Friday Feature: Employment Agencies (Equine)

August 1, 2014 by Christine Meunier 1 Comment

This week’s letter is E. If you missed last week’s Friday Feature, take a look at Driving.

Many Skills with Horses Need to be Learned to Gain Suitable Equine Employment

Although in 2000 at the age of 16, I was told there were no careers with horses, that couldn’t be further from the truth! Over 100 equine related careers are listed on this blog. In fact, today there are employment agencies that focus on finding skilled horse people, work in the industry.

Someone who is interested in helping others gain employment in the equine industry should:

Consider the need for a background in the horse industry and contacts that can be called upon – it will be easier to help others if you’ve already put in the hard yards yourself and established working connections in the industry
Have good people skills – this is important to establish working relationships with employers, as well as to help those looking to gain employment
Consider contacting established employment agencies that focus on horse related jobs – it would be easier to gain employment with an established business that helps others, than to try to set up one on your own
Be aware of any licenses or qualifications that are required to carry out specific horse jobs – when helping others find work, you need to know what they need to be able to do
Possibly have a background in recruiting staff / human resources

For posts that relate to this area of work on Equus-Blog, take a look at:

“When in doubt, ask a horse.” – Author unknown

Friday Feature: Driving

July 25, 2014 by Christine Meunier 1 Comment

This week’s letter is D. If you missed last week’s Friday Feature, take a look at Career Counselling (Equine).

Someone who has the skill of driving horses may be able to turn this into an income earner a few different ways. Perhaps it’s through providing carriage driving services to the public, selling horses that have been started under harness or maybe through charging a fee to start horses in harness or via racing horses as is done with trotting and pacing. I’m sure there are more options!

Someone who is interested in utilising their driving related skills to generate income may need to:

Have the ability to start driving horses under the use of lunge lines
Be involved in the carriage driving competition circuit to build up awareness of one’s skills and develop contacts
Have horses trained in harness
Have carriages that can be used with driving horses
Gain a driving license to race
Gain local council permission to run a carriage driving business on the streets

If you have an interest in working with horses in harness, but don’t yet have the skills to run your own business, consider:

Contacting local businesses where you could gain work experience or employment
Reading as much as you can on the subject
Attending events that would put you in touch with those who are already established in the industry (sales, races, competitions)

For posts that relate to this area of work on Equus-Blog, take a look at:

“If one induces the horse to assume that carriage which it would adopt of its own accord when displaying its beauty, then one directs the horse to appear joyous and magnificent, proud and remarkable for having been ridden.” – Xenophon

Friday Feature: Career Counselling (Equine)

July 18, 2014 by Christine Meunier 1 Comment

This week’s letter is C. If you missed last week’s Friday Feature, take a look at Breeder.

Now in all honesty, I’m not sure that this particular equine related career exists – yet! And yet, it would be my dream job. That is why this blog came to be – there are so many opportunities to work with horses, sometimes those who want to do so don’t know what to pursue, or they’re not sure if they can make an income whilst working with this animal that they love.

What Work do you Dream of Doing that is Horse Related?

Someone who counsels others in regards to horse related careers would need to have the following:

An awareness of varying horse qualifications around the world, how long they take to complete and costs involved
Knowledge of what skills are desired in particular facets of the equine industries (racing, equestrian, stud, sales, endurance, carriage, instructing, etc)
Contacts across a myriad of horse related industries
Knowledge of what qualifications are required to carry out particular jobs
People skills
The ability to network and promote one’s services to potential clients

Although this is a niche market, I firmly believe there are many, many people out there who desire a career with horses. If there was someone they could go to, to guide them on:

possible careers with horses,
courses they should undertake to get their dream job
and how to go about promoting themselves via networking and resume creation;

I think that person would over time be able to carry out equine career counselling as their dream horse career. For posts that relate to this area of work on Equus-Blog, take a look at:

“… the horse has been, of all animals, man’s most constant companion in work and leisure.” – Author unknown

Friday Feature: Horse Rider

Friday Feature: Foaling Attendant

Friday Feature: Employment Agencies (Equine)

Friday Feature: Driving

Friday Feature: Career Counselling (Equine)

Equus Education Store at TeachersPayTeachers

About Equus Education

Want to be kept in the loop about future posts?

Privacy Policy for EE