12/17/2024
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Here's a glimpse of a horse trainers life in reality. We have a passion, usually starts almost at birth, we go after it, like an addict.
We work for free to learn. Muck stalls, buck hay, build fence, drag arenas, wash horses, sweep floors and a thousand other tasks just in hopes of learning something about these amazing animals.
Endless and often thankless hours. To get lucky enough to get on some nasty suckers no one wants to ride. But you get on...maybe scared, maybe unsure, but you'd crawl in the middle of a lions den just to prove to yourself that you can. You ride anything they run at you, even if you have to duck out of the way and rope it, as it runs by you.
Then one day, you strike out on your own. You become a trainer, But you still crawl on the wild ones and make the best you can of them. You still get je**ed around trying to lead a c**t to the barn, that you were told was halter broke, still get rope burns, get kicked and ran over. Have runaways, broncs, and ones that smash your knees into the fence. Some days you are the one that should be wearing splint boots and polo wraps, not the horse.
Even the easy days are abusive to your body. You are stiff and sore and begin to eye the liniment, DMSO and Bute in the tackroom. You ride, lunge, teach and soul search endless hours of ways to improve your skills, even if itโs 2am, nursing your own redbull and Advil.
What little money you actually make you buy or replace broken gear, buy magnetic blankets for your horses, shop for hay, struggle to find a place to train out of, insurance, the list only grows. But the horses nicker, your heart smiles, and you kick on.
Through endless hours of learning, failing, trying harder, wanting to quit, but digging deeper, you learn to train well and show well.
You start winning, winning starts to build you a name, a following, surely you have made it...nope.
You still arenโt above mucking stalls or dragging the arena, you basically do what you did in the beginning. You just get paid a tiny little more and have a different fancier title.
After all of this, day and night, you still work crazy odd hours and hunger to get better. And in bed, you rerun and review every horse you worked that day, in your mind over and over, until you pass out only to repeat it again at daybreak. If we took a pencil to what we earned per hour we'd go work at Starbucks.
Then...the clients. Some good, some bad, some frickin amazing and some absolutely awful.
They go from singing your praises to slinging disappointment but, they never call you to talk, itโs all behind your back. But the good horses make up for every bad owner, they own your soul. You did right by them, thatโs all that matters. And the good owners, you never ever forget.
Trainers are too weak to give in and
Too strong to quit, and our name isnโt on your horses papers, but our heart is.
Remember why you started my friends...you started because of the love....hang in there, don't lose your passion, your heart and soul over people, other trainers, over ribbons or scores, keep doing it for the horse. It will always be worth it.
Horses are worth it, when they are your passion. I love my job now even more than the day I started, at age 13. I still get excited for first rides, smooth lead changes, quiet hobbling, a warm breath on my hand and a dragon snort behind me.
I have the best job in the world, and Iโm so very grateful to the owners that allow me this blessing. And the horses that fuel my soul.
Author unknown.
