RE: horse jobs and career advice for Angie

["Kelly Hansen" <k-hansen@erols.com>]

Hello everyone-I'm new to the list and new to distance riding, both are
great so far I'm learning a lot!  I'll post more about my greenie horse
later--I'd love some help.

But, career advice for Angie.  I, too had great advice as a teenager.  While
I was a groom and student rider a very nice warmblood farm, I had this
wonderful, wizened trainer ask me if I ever wanted to actually own these
beautiful horses.  Of course I said YES, and he said to do myself a favor,
learn a good trade (docotrin' people is what he said :-) and be able to
afford them without having to scrimp and save and cut corners and wonder if
I have enough money to buy hay for all of them in the winter.

I'm glad I took his advice. I'm not a doctor, but a web designer for a small
e-commerce firm.  I do the spiffy .com sites and am working on a US
presidential election simulation game.  Its fun work and best of all it is
flexible work.  I can work from home part of the time, come in a 11am if I
need to go to the barn in the morning--work my life schedule around my work
schedule.  Also--the pay is pretty darn good if you can use Dreamweaver,
Fireworks, anything Adobe, Shockwave Flash and anything NetObjects.  You
don't have to be particulary "artsy" in the sense you have to draw things,
just be able to make your designs sensible, navigatable, and reasonably
attractive (I mainly work with photos that I alter--so I don't draw at all).

You dont have to go to college (although I did-have a masters degree in
Anthropology.  Fun, not directly applicable, but hey, education is
educaiton)  Find a good designer in your town, ask if you can hang out with
him or her.  Check you local community college, they often have short
courses, or a reputable traing facility.  Go to your library--see if they
can get you the software I listed above and do the tutorials.  I learned by
just fiddling around for HOURS and HOURS! :-) If you really want to rake in
the cash, learn how to program Java too (not JavaScripts they are different
things altogether)

I also do a little work on the side for clients that are considered too
small my by firm (we usually do big catalog sites which may not look
terribly complex on the surface, but are terribly complex on the server
side!).  I went to a horse expo last weekend, met a gal who really needs an
ecommerce site done, and since I have a new horse and have nothing--I need
everything!  A deal was struck!  She is getting about a $3500 web site and
continuing web master work for only about $2000 in trade.  It worked out
well for both of us.

By the way--I now have a couple of extra wintec saddles I need to sell.
Brand new, you choose the model, deeply discounted!  I'm selling two of the
saddles to pay the rescue adoption fee for my horse!

Good luck Angie,
Kelly Hansen
and the unnamed-as-yet grey arabian gelding

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bette Lamore [mailto:woa@stormnet.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2000 2:15 AM
> To: Eenergonzillen@aol.com
> Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: RC: horse jobs
>
>
> Dear Renee
> I agree with Angie. Make your money in other fields---then have fun with
> horses. I have two of my stallion's offspring with 2 world champions,
> and two more are at Red Shield with Donna Snyder-Smith involved with at
> least one of them and I have a horse most likely going to Italy and I
> still don't make a living with breeding and I personally do not know of
> anyone in the business who does not supplement their breeding business
> with outside income. Am I wrong here, breeders? At least not here in CA
> where hay costs are high as is real estate. As I told my client who
> asked a group of us at Los Alamitos what kind of return may he expect on
> his investment. I said "Return! Return? Ted, just consider yourself a
> Patron of the Arts!" The trainers at the table--many very well-known,
> burst out laughing and said "You've hit it on the head, Bette. We've
> wondered what to call ourselves and this is it! Patrons of the Arts!"
> Does that give you a clue?
> Best of luck to you in your horse endeavors and if you can get paid
> enough to support your habit, consider yourself very fortunate indeed!
> Bette
>
> Eenergonzillen@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Hi, I was just wondering if any of you have jobs with horses.
> I'm sure a lot
> > of you do.  I am a junior in highschool and want to do
> something with horses.
> >  I don't know what though.  Tell me what all of you do.  I
> don't want to do a
> > lot of college (as little as possible, preferably no college
> and money will
> > fall from the sky into my lap)  but I know that in order to
> have any horses,
> > I will have to work hard.  I thought of breeder, trainer,
> something like that
> > (writing a funny article for trailblazer like angie)
> > :) just kidding Ms. McGhee if you read this.  Any hoo, can some
> of you , any
> > of you send me some info?  I have been thinking about this for
> a while and
> > need some help
> > One person told me I could be hired to condition people's horses for
> > endurance riding.  Never knew people were crazy enough to pay
> someone to ride
> > their horses, but, hey, fine with me. :) :)
> > Thank you sooooooooooooooo much, Renee
> >
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> --
> Bette Lamore
> Whispering Oaks Arabians, Home of TLA Halynov
> http://www.stormnet.com/~woa
> I've learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it
> gets to the end, the faster it goes. Smell the roses!
>
>
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> Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
> Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp
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>