Golden Valley Equine Training

10/30/2024

😂🤣👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

10/17/2024

😆🤣

10/16/2024

Pretty much

I don’t know how many ways to say horse trainers don’t make any money… but horse trainers don’t make any money. 🤣

I think sometimes the clients do not understand this. Yes, you may write your horse trainer a check for $1200 or $1500 a month, but I assure you, once you figure out the costs, there is no money….

You have to:
➡️Feed the horse. (Hay/Grain)
➡️House the horse. (Whether you rent or you have a mortgage, there is cost here.)
➡️You have to physically feed the horse.
➡️Clean stalls
➡️Fill waters
➡️Turn out the horse and bring them in.
➡️Groom/bathe the horse.
➡️Maybe you have labor costs.
➡️You have to ride said horse.
➡️Likely you aren’t billing for all you should.

Let’s say you charge $1250 a month.
Let’s say you feed a bag a week at $20 bucks ($80)

8 bales of hay a month at $15 ($120) I feed way more than this; and to keep weight you need to. Clients don’t pay for you to buy in bulk to save money.

Clean stalls 2x day and clean or fill water everyday 15 min at $15 hr. ($225)

Shavings??? 🙃

That leaves you with $825 left over. Whether you own or rent; you need to factor that in, and if you ride every day, you have to pay yourself your time.

If you train horses you need:
➡️A facility (an average facility is usually around $2500+ a month to rent, but if you have a mortgage and run a business, you need to factor that in.)
➡️A truck ($50,000 truck is around $750 on average, most of us are driving $100,000 trucks.)
➡️A trailer. (Cheap would be $25,000)
➡️Saddles ($2,000 each)
➡️Bits ($100-$250 each)
➡️ Splint boots, girths, bridles, breastcollars, saddle pads, reins, training tack, etc.
➡️Tires, oil changes, fuel, wear and tear
All of these things wear out and need to be replaced.

I say all of this to tell you that as a trainer, we are greatly invested, sometimes YEARS, hoping that we either make money in the arena, or make money on the sale of the horse (commission.)

When your horse does poorly, I assure you, NONE OF US WANTED THAT. We are trying our best because we have endless hours invested in fluffy.

That being said, fluffy doesn’t always (let’s get real… RARELY) have/has the same plans we do.

Fluffy doesn’t know you invested $15k in training and he isn’t in the 1D.

Fluffy doesn’t know he won’t be good enough for your kid.

Fluffy likely doesn’t know he is a major pain in the a**.

Fluffy doesn’t know he is going to take 9 million man hours to make a Futurity horse.

So have some grace for your trainers. They are not paid enough to deal with your bulls*** too.

Training horses is a horrible business model. It’s based solely on what you can produce in a day and your client doesn’t want an intern training their horse. The more horses, the higher the overhead. There aren’t many trainers that are *making* money.

If you get hurt, who pays your bills?

This is not directed at anyone. Rather an industry wide thing I see ALL THE TIME!

09/29/2024

https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/press-releases/genes-behind-horse-graying/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR32M6HL4qKb-9sYPlBCvhF9J0VQw1P2IMFDkAk-V0bdQJf8TKcp_W3kDOU_aem_rq0_98IB4oljwaUmMGorMQ

Comparison of a fast-graying horse (left) and slow-graying horse (right). Scientists from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical

09/23/2024

🤣😆

About right.
www.justhorseriders.co.uk

09/23/2024

WHAT A WEEKEND!! Such a good show down at D40 AND an Airshow!!! We got to see SO many WWII planes fly over and a bunch of others too!

09/15/2024

09/11/2024

Michelle & Snow, Hurry Scurry 9/7/24

09/11/2024

08/19/2024

Komet’s Speedball run from Saturday 8/17. We ran a 7.650 but it looks MUCH slower than that!

07/28/2024

Well we made it through the 50th Anniversary of CGA State Finals show… I’m so proud of my girls, every single one of us came home with at least one 1st place buckle!! So incredibly proud ❤️🤩

05/27/2024

CONGRATULATIONS to Danna for winning AAA High Point at Norrhets Classic!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 total winning of almost $500!!

04/24/2024

So unbelievably proud of this pony!! Just under 4 months post-op and at her FIRST show back! I’m also EXTREMELY proud of Michelle, she came in to this show with ZERO practice (because of the muddy arena) and absolutely killed it! 4 months of no practice with this pony and the had an amazing show. This run was a few thousandths off of an AAA!!! 🤯

04/17/2024

Nice dragged round pen! 😊

04/02/2024

Consider your horse while towing!!!!

03/31/2024

Snow’s 3 little girls 💜💜💜

03/30/2024

The one who is ALWAYS hungry

(And costing you an absolute fortune in feed! 😂💰)

©️Emily Cole Illustrations