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"I have a notebook of the tips from your site and I love them... Bonnie Anderson has been wonderful. All the tips I tried of hers worked the first time. I am now in the riding stage and my horse is awesome. Thank you all very much and keep the training tips coming!!!!!!"
Karen Gossard
Fayetteville, NC

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We love our horses. But do we love them enough to make a career out of working full time with horses? If you think you'd like to give it a try then it's time to have a look around. You may be surprised at all the equine career options you can look into while pursuing a horse related job.

Aside from the traditional choices of horse trainer, horseshoer, veterinarian, groom, hot walker, jockey, and stable manager, here are few others that may not have come to mind. You can become an equine lawyer, equine insurance agent, breeding/training farm real estate agent, equine artist, photographer, or magazine editor. You can work for a breed or show organization as a secretary or become a salesperson in their advertising department. You can look into selling horse equipment as a retailer, or look into manufacturing items and sell them wholesale.

Just take a look within the pages of any horse magazine at the ads where you'll find ideas for horse related jobs. In them you'll find anything from portable stalls, where you could be an assembler, to equine nutrition products, where you could be a scientist working in a lab. You could train to be an equine message therapist or sell new and used horse trailers to make a living. The ideas seem endless.

By looking at all the choices you can then decide the best course of action to take. Ask yourself if you would prefer going to college or heading straight for the job field, and whether you want to work directly with horses or work with horse related products or services. By asking yourself these questions from the start, you can make your choices easier and less confusing.

If you enjoy riding and training your own horse, you might not get as much pleasure from the experience if you've just spent the whole day riding and training someone else's horse as a trainer. A horse related field might be best if you fall into this category. But if you don't have the means to own or care for your own horse, riding and training someone else's may be just what you're looking for.

It's also important to talk to the people already working your dream job to see it's all you want it to be. You might not even know of the downsides until you hear them. If hearing them doesn't dissuade you, then it's fair to say the job is just what you're looking for. Now, how do you get started? What kind of training will you need?

There are schools that offer a few weeks of training to get you started with an earned certificate if this is what you're looking for. This kind of training is for jobs that don't take years of experience for you to do well in. Other schools offer the two, four, and more years of college that earn you degrees. These are needed to successfully compete in the higher paying job markets. It seems the more time and money you spend on schooling, the more qualified you are to get the bigger paychecks.

There are books that you can purchase that list the equine schools available in your area. The schools should know about the financing, loans, and scholarships to fund your tuition and other costs. It all depends on the amount of time and money you want to invest in this new career.

It is your life so it's your choice on what you can handle. Just remember that whatever you decide, it's not written in stone. You can change your mind and head in a new direction whether it be from the back of a horse or walking on your own two feet.