Horse Trainer and Instructor

1. Horse Trainer and Instructor By: Chase Burdick May 10th, 2013 4th hour Career Tech.

2. Nature of workEverything has a beginning-this is mine “In riding a horse, we borrow freedom.” – Helen Thompson. Ever since I was a little girl, horses filled my thoughts and dreams, and they, in a sense, came to me. My cousin, Erin, started teaching me how to draw them when I was six or seven, and that’s when I truly realized my closeness and love for horses. Now, as I get older, I know exactly what I want to be. In this PowerPoint, I will show my research in the profession of being a horse trainer and instructor, along with my backup job as well. I will go through the responsibilities, working conditions, qualifications, and more.

3. Responsibilities • Mucking (cleaning) the stalls • Exercising the horses by riding, lunging, putting out in the pasture, ect. • Feeding and giving the horses water • Training the horses, and instructing people • Cleaning tack; repairing fences, draining water from the pastures and the training ring, and doing other chores around the barn and fields. • Learning every day about each unique horse

4. Working Conditions • Both Outdoors and Indoors work environment, depending on the season. When it’s too cold outside, horses are trained and instructed in indoors training rings. • Both physical and Mental work is required. The physical aspect is obvious; hulling feed, cleaning stalls, riding, lunging, yard work, barn chores, and training of course. The mental aspect is being able to control your emotions around the horses and learn from your experiences and mistakes. • Hours – Horses, along with other animals, need care 24/7. • Especially in this field, injuries can occur often from kicking, bucking, and rearing horses, plus other simple injuries like dropping a thirty pound bag of feed on your foot.

5. Training, qualifications, and Advancement • Considering degrees, most horse trainers and instructors only value experience, although it is helpful to have a degree in Equestrian science, business, medicine, or just equine studies. • Considering myself, I’m looking into going to the Colorado State University to get a degree in equine science and medicine, along with a creative degree in writing, if I can. • In high school, I plan to take a couple of biology classes to prepare myself.

6. Job Outlook • 2010 Employment rate: 45,800 • 2020 Projected Employment rate: 47,300 • According to officials, animal trainers are rising by 3% • Not too competitive • I hope to find career openings somewhere in the Dakotas, Georgia, Kentucky or Tennessee • Personally, I desire to work at a home run stables, somewhere to the northwest.

7. Earnings Everyone has life-style goals; some more complex then others. I have a few: publishing my poems, short stories, and books; living somewhere with mountains; get married and have a family; and last but not least have horses and at least two dogs and cats. • Earnings: The median annual wage of animal trainers was $26,580 in May 2010. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $17,240, and the top 10 percent earned more than $53,580. For me, this sort of fits into my life-style goals. I will have the opportunity to live in the mountains, get married and have a family with my dogs and cats, plus publishing my stories and poems over time. My first purchase with these earnings will be either a car, a horse, or land.

8. Related Occupations- Book Editor • Responsibilities – correctly fixing grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors in books, papers, reports, ect. Also give constructive criticism and make works easier to understand or read. • Work Conditions – Mainly indoors, usually in an office or somewhere with a computer. Hours are usually full time, 1 to 5 hours a day. • Training – bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, or English, plus works in computers and communication are also wanted, but not required. • Outlook – Employment of editors is expected to experience little or no change from 2010 to 2020 because the print media is beginning to dwindle with the internet and computers. • Earnings- annual wage of editors was $51,470 in May 2010

9. Summary I am looking foreword to a lot of different things considering working with horses. No matter what I do know I still want to be a horse trainer, though it may not be my focused job. During this project, I have learned many things about being a horse trainer. Besides the fact that they aren’t common, I am not surprised at most of the things I learned, considering I was apart of a stable a few years back. One of those many things is that I get to finally work with the animals themselves, by myself. The last time I rode I was instructed myself. Yes it is fun learning, and I truly do love it, but I can’t wait until the time where I can work with the horses myself. Another thing I am looking foreword to is the ability work with the students too, not just the horses. I love teaching others, and I think it’s a lot of fun, and good experience. I do have a lot to learn myself, especially considering I haven’t rode in three years. The thing I least am looking foreword to though is mucking the stalls. Mucking the stalls will be a messy, stinky job, although I don’t think I’ll mind that much. Another thing I am really not looking foreword to is the large spiders I know I will find in the stables, especially when I really don’t like spiders.

10. Works Cited • http://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/animal-care-and-service-workers.htm#tab-4 • http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/editors.htm#tab-5