I recently wrote a post about an interesting new initiative with regards to horses and shoes – clip on shoes!  They are known as megasus horserunners  You can check out the post and see what you think – they are still raising funds for the idea although, it looks like they have well and truly met their target goal!

Louisa Forstner is a part of the Megasus Horserunners team.  She has kindly answered some questions about what she does.

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
100% :). If I do not think of horses, then I am near them.

What is it exactly that you do?
We are inventing a new hoof protection: Megasus Horserunners – the world´s first clippable runners for horses. My job is to ensure that everything runs smoothly

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full time professional and earning a liveable income?
Yes of course! To be independent and to live your dream requires a lot of experience, daring and perseverance.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
You have to feel that it is your life task. It’s not making money, but you’re fighting for a thing that’s important to you. In our case, it is important to us that horses no longer have to walk with iron shoes. We want to offer a healthy alternative.

Favourite horse memory?
Many many! It is more than friendship, it´s family.

Future goals?
To take horses out of the Iron Age for good!

Best thing about your sport/profession?
I do what I love!

“When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes. ” ― William Shakespeare

Vanessa Hughes of Lady Photographic has kindly answered some questions about her work as a freelance photographer and videographer.

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
This is hard to say. I’m a workaholic so I spend every waking hour shooting, editing, social media marketing, or dreaming up future projects related to horses. 50% photography/video 50% horses.

What is it exactly that you do?
I work as a freelance photographer and videographer. I do everything from show photography, covering events for magazines, promotional videos, with some graphic design and social media work thrown in.

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full time professional and earning a liveable income?
Sure, it is definitely possible, but it isn’t easy. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart. You need to be understanding of your financial limitations.

You have to love it, because there will be days when you don’t know how you’re going to manage to pay rent. Task one is learning how to suck up your pride and take other less glamorous side jobs during lean times. Right now I work as freelance. In the future that will change once I pick up something permanent, but for now I am enjoying the freedom.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
There are no general steps to getting into the business. Some of it is luck and who you know, the rest is dedication and being willing to put in a lot of long hours and hard work.

The most valuable pieces of advice I can give to someone trying to enter this field: Know your rights. NEVER let anyone tell you, you do not deserve to be paid. If you did the work and they profited from it, they are obligated to pay you.

Avoid people who shower you with compliments, but get quiet when you mention pay, or make non-committal empty promises. Contracts should not be avoided – love them, they are your best friend. The law only goes so far in protecting your rights. Watermarks are free, lawyers are not.

If you work for free don’t be surprised when they are not willing to pay you in the future. Network like your life depends on it. Try to avoid chimping, or constantly looking down at your camera after every shot, in that split second of distraction you can miss valuable shots. Take advantage of other photographers’ experience – watch what they do and when they move but find your own voice and vision.

Finally a word of caution for those looking to get into the business. You are not the first and most definitely will not be the last to be seen as an easy target. Young photographers seeking to make a name for themselves, willing to work for next to nothing, are unfortunately a dime a dozen. There’s absolutely no shame in being in that group. I was once among you. We all have to start somewhere.

The shame comes from those businesses, mainly magazines, who knowingly repeatedly take advantage. Many do so under the guise of “internships.” Most don’t realize those internships are actually illegal. If an intern produces video, images, writing or any media (often using their own equipment) and they are not overseen by a professional and given an education of equal or greater value they legally must be paid minimum wage. Essentially many of these businesses/magazines profit from the hard work of “interns” year after year by dangling the possibility of paid work that artificially doesn’t exist. While they are legally obligated to make those positions available to paid employees, they won’t. These businesses are the single biggest plague on the industry today and why so many can’t make a decent living when there is plenty of work to go around.

“The DOL has articulated six key factors that must be met in order to avoid having a “trainee” classified as employee. The factors are:

The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.”

Favorite horse memory?
I have two favorite horse memories I use to keep myself going. The first was from when I was twelve years old and rode for the very first time. I was given an hour lesson for my birthday. I rode a beautiful chestnut mare with a heart of gold and a whole lot of patience for my squirrely little self. I don’t remember much from that one ride but the impact of that day has kept with me since. I think that is the power of horses. You can spend just five minutes or your whole life with them but once they give you a piece of their heart you never forget it.

The second was my first time stepping onto a cross country course and witnessing eventing. At the time I never could have imagined such a sport existed. It was thrilling. I was more than a little nervous to walk out on the course the first time, worried I would do something stupid and get myself or someone else hurt. Eventually I grew accustomed to anticipating the horses and walking the course felt natural. Now a cross country course feels like a second home. I have gone to many events and various equine sports since but in my eyes none compares to eventing. It also doesn’t hurt that eventers tend to be my kind of crazy, I love the whole lot them.

Future goals?
I graduated from UCLA this past June so my first goal is trying to keep a steady flow of work. Right now I am also working with some of the biggest equestrian Instagram accounts here in California to band together to form a kind of collective for collaboration and content creation. I am excited to be working with some seriously amazing women in the coming weeks and looking forward to seeing where that goes. I also like to follow a lot of social media experts online and many of them are pointing towards video integration in social media growing by as much as 2/3s in the next two years so I am focusing more on motion graphics and video production work this year.

Best thing about your sport/profession?
There are so many possibilities. Everyday is a new day, a new challenge. Sure sometimes the pay could be better but in a way that’s part of the game and I love it.

I came into the field with what some consider a disadvantage. I knew absolutely nothing about horses. Growing up the money for horses and lessons, we just didn’t have it.  Back then I was too young for anyone to consider me as a working student. Like many kids facing that wall I gave up, thinking that dream was over for good. It wasn’t until college that fate intervened and one day a wayward hobbyist photographer stumbled upon a showjumping event that would change everything.

I do what I do for the pure joy of it because there are no free rides. Many times I have been told I don’t belong, but even if I don’t have the opportunity to ride(yet) I can still be part of the story. I belong here.

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I recently wrote about Horsi, an online social networking site for horse owners and businesses in Australia.  Kate Majors, the founder had kindly answered some questions about what she does.

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
I spend time with my daughter’s two ponies every day.  Actually the highlight of my day is to see their happy faces waiting patiently in their stable for breakfast each morning. I’m also lucky enough to indulge my passion of horses through Horsi each and every day. Seeing the stories of riders and horses which are being added to the site on a daily basis warms my heart.

What is it exactly that you do?
I spend my days designing and implementing new ideas for Horsi, to make it the best social networking site for horse lovers in Australia. We have big plans for the future of Horsi and it takes considerable time to guide and expand the business.

There is no point doing what we are doing without delivering our users the best possible experience.  So I also spend time gaining information from people who are using the site and then communicating with our development team to give our users exactly what they want.

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full time professional and earning a liveable income?
It is definitely possible to make a good income from website development or online publishing, but most people “test the waters” while still working in a full-time job. The trick is to find a niche market and to ensure you’re creating something that people really want.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
My background, which has led me to founding Horsi, is a combination of my undying passion for horses and my considerable internet business experience. In my pre-business life I rode showjumping horses at world cup level and represented Australia, which has given me an understanding of the dedication and the level of passion people have for their horses and our sport.

Favourite horse memory?
My favourite horse memory would be spending time with my golden oldie showjumping horses, Jimmy and Vita in their retirement. They won many ribbons, but having them enjoy their golden years being kept in the manner they deserved, makes me smile every time I think about them.

Future goals?
My goal for Horsi, is to showcase equestrian sport in Australia. We have so many wonderful horses and riders and they deserve to be given the spotlight. We will continue to work tirelessly to deliver a first class social networking site to promote our sport.

Who makes up the team at Horsi?
We have a wonderful team of people at Horsi. Jade wears many hats, which includes marketing, social communications, supporting our Horsi Ambassador’s and writing. Steve (aka Husband) manages our accounts and assists in future planning, Joanne updates Horsi with new content. Shoaib is our Graphic Designer and then we also have a team of developers working continuously on improving Horsi.

Best thing about your sport/profession?
I believe the best thing about our sport is that men and women of all ages can enjoy it. People can ride at 3 or 73.  It’s very special to to be able to participate in your chosen sport for such a large part of your life.

Claire Galer of Derriere Equestrian was kind enough to answer some questions about her profession.

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
The majority of the week! My husband is an Equine Veterinary Surgeon & I am an Equine Physiotherapist, come Equine Lingerie Entrepreneur! Our home is the base for our Equine Veterinary Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre, we therefore live, eat & breath horses.

Our children have ponies, my husband rides his beautiful Warmblood Duke and I compete at Affiliated Dressage when time permits. However with the success & growth of Derriere Equestrian, I have temporarily hung up the competition boots!

What is it exactly that you do?
Having worked my entire career with horses as both Equine Nutritionist and Equine Physiotherapists, spanning 25 years, I now find my career has taken a different turn. Working with riders for many years, assessing rider performance, symmetry and much more brought about the advent of Derriere Equestrian.

Seeing a gap in the market globally for quality, effective, attractive underwear for horse riders was the first step. Development, design and bringing to market our product range was the next step. My position now and day to day work life sees me working as Managing Director of our International Equestrian Underwear Business and maintaining my role managing the Veterinary Clinic and HR within the team.

Day to day business life encompasses everything from: product development, design, figures, sales, marketing and leading our team forward to a successful future, with continued growth across the world. The work is primarily office based, however also requires travel to our production and design teams in Italy and Tunisia, supporting our retailers through staff training and exhibitions support. Our focus to our trade buyers sees the business exhibit at many International Trade Exhibitions, our key events being: SPOGA Horse twice a year at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, BETA International in the UK and AETA Trade Show in the USA. So business does involve a great deal of European and International travel.

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full time professional and earning a liveable income?
Yes without a doubt, Derriere Equestrian is more than full time and has a rapidly growing international team. We have a small office based team here in the UK at our HQ, a growing workforce through subcontracted work and Team Agents working with us in all European Countries and further afield Internationally.

There certainly are not enough hours in the day! After 2 years in design, prototyping and performance testing, we are delighted to be launching our Equestrians Sports Bra “The DE Sportief” at SPOGA Horse 4th – 6th September, the demand is high and we see our team expansion will continue as a result of this, so a busy launch period ahead.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
My career has followed a strong medical , veterinary and anatomical background; training as a Registered General Nurse, followed by studying for and graduating from my BSc(Hons) Equine Science Degree in 1997, then later completing my physio training.

Having worked for International Feed Company Dodson & Horrell for the foundations of my career, I was given a great taste for business, sales and marketing. My family are a strong business minded family, with many driven entrepreneurs! My mother worked as a dress designer for her entire career, so this has been a huge help to bring the creativity to the forefront with the Derriere Equestrian project.

Favourite horse memory?
At the age of 8 my family moved from Belfast in Northern Ireland to the countryside of Herefordshire, within a week our local farmer appeared down the drive leading a small chestnut pony on the end of some bailer twine. He handed said pony “Rosie” to my father and said “You now live in the country and should have a pony” This is where it all started and that memory will stay with me forever.

Future goals?
Future business goals are to see Derriere Equestrian continue to grow and support riders with our world leading Equestrian Apparel Garments. Our product range is expanding, our retailers growth has been so accelerated, the work is so rewarding. Our product range is set to roll out across all sporting disciplines.  I am just so proud to have developed such a fantastic business model. On a personal level, future goals are many! High on the priority list is: time with my beautiful family and watching my children grow to live happy, successful, content lives.

Best thing about your sport/profession?
Achieving satisfaction in my work to support riders around the world, seeing the harmony between every horse and rider we work with #TwoHearts.  Also, having designed and brought to market a revolutionary, innovative product that has changed so many riders’ lives for the better.

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