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Location: Texas | Is working for someone and they paying you with lessons a common thing to do? If so what's some opinions and things to look for when you do this? Thanks! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 929
 
| look for someone legit, who wins and who you look up to. My parents never had any $$ for the fancy lessons but I got to learn from a few of the best in the English world this way, and with the right working student program you can get quite the first class education. 
(you also must be very driven and willing to get your hands dirty for many of them to really take a fancy to you, imo) |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
 
Location: 31 lengths farms | I did it when I bought my first horse that I started from the ground up. I went to some shows and watched the warm up pen looking for people I would let near my horse then went and watched them in the show ring. Narrowed it down to 3 people in the warm up pen and it narrowed itself down to 2 people after the show ring. Then stalked them in the parking area and watched how they handled the horses with "no one around"...still the same two. Ended up talking to the gentleman first who just happened to be looking for someone to help his wife clean stalls and loved the idea of exchanging work for lessons. For me I got the better end of the deal by far. Cleaned 26 stalls and 6 large pens. Started at 5 am so I would be done by 8-8:30 and could get in on the lessons on cows before it got too hot. I learned more in 3 years doing that than I had in the previous 40 years on horseback. Best days of my life. |
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Location: Texas | Is their people in North Texas that are willing to do this that anyone knows of? |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Do you have your own horse and what type of lessons are you talking about, barrels lessons are just to learn how to ride? |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | I have had working students and have had a few trainer friends that had working students as well. We're all selective of who we take on because of the experiences that we have had. At one point in time, I worked full time in the horse industry and it is a LOT different than just having your own horses.
Most trainers don't need someone to work off lessons by riding. What they need more than anything is someone to do the grunt work like cleaning stalls, grooming, cleaning tack, feeding. They need someone that can work independently, does a good job & that they don't have to go behind. They also need someone that's going to do things exactly as they're told and be thorough about it. Especially if they have client horses, they have a huge liability and because of that they need people working for them that are as careful and diligent as they are.
The biggest problem that I have had & have seen with taking on working students is that they're just not responsible & don't have a good work ethic and that makes you gun shy when someone says they want to work off their lessons. They all start out gung-ho but then several weeks in they start slacking. I've had to go back and re-pick stalls when it would have been quicker if I had just done them myself. You take on working students as a favor and to try to teach and save some time and often it just winds up not worth it.
I always "paid" my working students at $10 an hour -- I get $35 a lesson so they had to do around 3 & half hours of work for a lesson.
If you want to work for lessons, the biggest thing is have a good work ethic, be willing to do everything from cleaning stalls to working in the hay field, and realize it's going to be really hard. But, you wind up learning a lot even while you work.
Good luck! |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Absolutely Fairweather!!! I get migraines pretty badly, one Christmas morning I woke up with a doozey, headed over to pick stalls, had to pull over a few times to throw up on the way down their drive. Got the stalls cleaned and went home and slept for a few hours. Next morning Diane asked if I hadn't been feeling well the day before, I told her I had a bit of a migraine and she said "you know you dont' have to come to work if you don't feel well..." I laughed and said "well I can't very well call in to and say I have a headache to a woman with arthritis so bad she can't hold a cleaning fork, she balances it between her two hands and to a man with MS that rides 5-6 colts a day now can I???" LOL!!! I learned a lot about horses but even more about work ethic from them. |
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Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | run n rate - 2015-07-09 1:54 PM Absolutely Fairweather!!! I get migraines pretty badly, one Christmas morning I woke up with a doozey, headed over to pick stalls, had to pull over a few times to throw up on the way down their drive. Got the stalls cleaned and went home and slept for a few hours. Next morning Diane asked if I hadn't been feeling well the day before, I told her I had a bit of a migraine and she said "you know you dont' have to come to work if you don't feel well..." I laughed and said "well I can't very well call in to and say I have a headache to a woman with arthritis so bad she can't hold a cleaning fork, she balances it between her two hands and to a man with MS that rides 5-6 colts a day now can I???" LOL!!! I learned a lot about horses but even more about work ethic from them.
LOVE it!! That's what I'm talking about!! 
I had a student that was cleaning my house in exchange for lessons and decided that was too much. They were only sweeping, vacuuming, and wiping down counters in the main part of a 1900 square foot house.
So they wondered if I had anything else they could do. I clean 6 stalls and feed before work every morning at 5:30- 6am. I told them I would be willing to let them clean stalls but it had to be at the usual time I cleaned them because evenings I'm busy giving lessons & riding. They decided that was too early.
Run n rate...the world needs more people like you!! |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | The world needs more people like Diane and Skeet to show us how its done! I've never been so happy to get up at 4:30 AM to work my ( l ) off in my life. I remember the first day when she was dragging the hose up and down the aisle to fill water buckets in the stalls I asked "didn't these stalls used to have automatic waterers?" She said those were the first things she pulled out when they bought the place, she wants to know exactly how much water a horse is drinking and she didnt' feel she could do that with automatic waterers. Outside pens were cleaned everyday just like the stalls and some of those suckers were 40x40. I swear the woman could hear a horse apple hit the ground from 1/2 mile, LOL!!!
Seriously appreciated the time I spent with them so much I normally go over there even today and help clean some stalls just to talk to her and Skeet and I no longer have the schedule to ride over there. My gelding is the horse he is because of them and Skeet never swung a leg over him. Didnt' matter if it was a 15K horse or a 1500 dollar horse at their place they all got the same treatment. A gentleman, and I use the term lightly, that had a few colts do well in the SBF in Reno started doing some lessons and a few of the ladies that had gone to Skeet for lessons started going to the other gentleman instead. They all wanted me to go too, Tucker was marking well in the cutting pen and they thought that I could get a few more points with some flashy pointers for this man. I had no interest to tell you the truth, Skeet had gathered and sorted cattle out in thousands of open acres of land as a kid in AZ. When you don't 'have a fence or turn back people you learn to read cattle and you better be on a good horse. THAT was the info I wanted. How do you make a good horse. |
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Location: Texas | I'm mainly looking into barrel lessons but id love to learn other things as well such as poles, goat tying, roping, reining, anything really as long as I can ride horses. I do not own a horse although that's been my dream my whole life. I'm willing to work extremely hard for my lessons it's my dream and I'm willing to do whatever I can to follow it. I know how to clean stalls and stuff as well and if there's something I don't know just show me and I'll learn it. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1304
| You guys are awesome! I just had to laugh at your little butt you made  |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Tiffany1261 - 2015-07-10 11:38 PM
I'm mainly looking into barrel lessons but id love to learn other things as well such as poles, goat tying, roping, reining, anything really as long as I can ride horses. I do not own a horse although that's been my dream my whole life. I'm willing to work extremely hard for my lessons it's my dream and I'm willing to do whatever I can to follow it. I know how to clean stalls and stuff as well and if there's something I don't know just show me and I'll learn it.
Ask around, go to races and talk to people and follow thru with what you say you will do. Hopefully someone will give you a chance and you think back on that day as the best day of your life. |
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Location: Texas | Thanks y'all! Hopefully I find someone |
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