Passion for the young ones...interest in breeding...any advice on where to start???

[cstina]

I am a recent college graduate looking for a career in the industry somehow, some way. I have always loved riding and training young horses, and always loved handling babies. Is there any way to actually make a living breeding? I know the market is off right now but thinking long term in the future...and/or does anyone have any advice on getting started? Do breeding farms hire help? Any advice on where to look at? WHat to look for? Desperate to find my calling...I love these animals too much to be stuck behind a stupid desk, I'd be miserable!:)

[Bayhawk]

I am a recent college graduate looking for a career in the industry somehow, some way. I have always loved riding and training young horses, and always loved handling babies. Is there any way to actually make a living breeding? I know the market is off right now but thinking long term in the future...and/or does anyone have any advice on getting started? Do breeding farms hire help? Any advice on where to look at? WHat to look for? Desperate to find my calling...I love these animals too much to be stuck behind a stupid desk, I'd be miserable!:)

Start VERY, VERY slow and have a plan for what you breed.

[FriesianX]

Make a living... How well do you want to live :lol: Most people who breed have outside jobs (or spouses with outside jobs that pay enough), there are some exceptions, but generally breeders are happy to break even or make a small (SMALL) profit.

Now, if you are interested in training and starting your horses - including groundwork with babies, and you live in an area with a lot of breeding farms, and are willing to drive, you might find some options. Because many of us DO work for a living, we are always eager to find people who are GOOD at handling youngsters to help out, but... Remember, most of us don't have a lot of profit margin to play with, so pay scale tends to be, ahem, not wonderful...

Starting youngsters under saddle - there is a demand for that, I know a few people around here (I'm in California, there are actually quite a few small sport horse breeders within an hours drive various directions, including WBs, Andalusians, and my own Friesian/WB crosses) who are always looking for realistically priced help starting 3 year olds! Pay scale is, again, not fabulous, but it all depends on how you define "making a living".

[Tiki]

Some of the big farms take interns and/or working students to get experience and references. Hilltop Farm is one. I don't know about Iron Spring Farm or some of the others. Look at the webpages of some of the big breeding farms that you may be interested in under employment opportunities or whatever they might call it, and/or call around and ask to speak with the breeding director and/or the training director and see what you can some up with.

YES! GOOD young horse trainers at a reasonable price ARE needed. If you are good, you could be overwhelmed with work!!

[oharabear]

YES! GOOD young horse trainers at a reasonable price ARE needed. If you are good, you could be overwhelmed with work!!

I think that depends on where you're located. Out here in the PNW, I can't find 3-year-olds to start to save my life. I just had to start applying for part-time jobs in the "civilian world."

I have many friends who are also good at starting young horses, and they're not seeing anything, so I don't think it's just me, I think it's the area.

[camohn]

Make a living... How well do you want to live :lol: Most people who breed have outside jobs (or spouses with outside jobs that pay enough), there are some exceptions, but generally breeders are happy to break even or make a small (SMALL) profit.

Now, if you are interested in training and starting your horses - including groundwork with babies, and you live in an area with a lot of breeding farms, and are willing to drive, you might find some options. Because many of us DO work for a living, we are always eager to find people who are GOOD at handling youngsters to help out, but... Remember, most of us don't have a lot of profit margin to play with, so pay scale tends to be, ahem, not wonderful...

Starting youngsters under saddle - there is a demand for that, I know a few people around here (I'm in California, there are actually quite a few small sport horse breeders within an hours drive various directions, including WBs, Andalusians, and my own Friesian/WB crosses) who are always looking for realistically priced help starting 3 year olds! Pay scale is, again, not fabulous, but it all depends on how you define "making a living".

ditto!

[Evalee Hunter]

Yes, look into internships - Select Breeders Service, Darley Flying Start & so on.

If you are interested in starting young horses, think about the TB racing industry, where thousands (literally, probably 8,000 to 10,000 or more) yearlings are started every fall so they can race as 2 year olds. Some farms start their yearlings like riding horses - round penning, long lining, etc. Other farms take the "cowboy" approach - throw some brave soul up & wait for the yearling to tire out.

Unless you are a whole lot richer than I am (quite possible - most horse people are richer than I am) then you need to get into this step by step, learning the industry & finding your niche.

[Tiki]

Yes, you can't just walk out there and say, "Hi, I'm a young horse trainer - can I start your horses for you?"

I, and others I'm sure, have run into some HORRIBLE people who call themselves trainers, or young horse starters. There is a "top" handler I know who just jerks and jerks and yanks and yanks on the bit on a young horse's mouth if they do anything wrong. As old and decripit as I am, with all my injuries and problems, I'll run the horse in the ring myself before I'd EVER let this person touch my horse again.

Same for starting under saddle. I had one person tell me, after the fact, (she did this whole thing without my permission to surprise me - HA, she sure did surprise me) that my 2 1/2 yo filly had completely broken apart her round pen. I asked her how that had happended and why was she in the round pen. She told me she had wanted to start her for me and she had round-penned her (a 2 1/2 yo filly for goodness sake) for 45 minutes and all of a sudden the filly just walked away from her and crashed through the round pen!! Yeah!! I don't blame her. I told her she'd better not ever put her hands on her again for 'training'.

Two other (EX) trainers I caught lunging young horses at as fast a gallop as they could chase them with a lunge whip. That stopped - they're ex-trainers.

One had a horse throwing itself against the walls in a wash stall or in the stall. Ex-trainer.

I'm sure I could think of more, many others here can.

I doubt it's lack of horses to work with in the PNW. I would guess it's lack of trust in a person they don't know, that they haven' seen working young horses or heard good things about with young horses.

What exactly do you want to do?
1) Work with youngsters from birth (more or less imprint training babies), including handling their moms before birth to make sure they'll be comfortable with you, through 2-3 years old, teaching them to lead and load and stand for the vet, farrier, grooming, bathing, clipping and handling them for inspections and shows and basically making good citizens out of them? (Large, GOOD, breeding farm)

2) Starting young horses - around 2 1/2 - 4 years old and just getting them to w/t/c, be safe out on the trail and outdoors, introducing them to baby cross rails and jumps and then turning them back over to their owners? (maybe breeding farm, maybe trainer at training thru 4th)

3) Taking horses from Number 2 above and starting their show career with walk/trot classes, training level tests, up to maybe 2nd level? (same as 2)

4) Taking horses from Number 2 above and preparing for a showing in the FEI Young Horse Classes at 4, 5 and 6 years old? ( a really good trainer)

They're all different skills, but there can be overlap. You need to think about exactly what you want to do. If it's No. 1, find a top breeding farm that does a lot of breeding, has lots of foals on the ground every year, and runs breed inspections and takes their youngsters to breed shows.

If it's No. 2, find a good trainer who starts young horses and intern or apprentice with him or her to build a reputation.

If it's No. 3, find a good trainer who does that - and preferably also rides at a higher level so you KNOW everything you will learn and do is correct. The FEI Young Horse Classes are VERY different from the USEF levels classes. They're looking for completely different things in the horses. One for correctness of the patterns and test, the other for the correctness of the training and foundation, brilliance and upper level potential of the horse.

No one is going to turn their youngsters over to you to 'experiment' on.

I'm certainly NOT trying to discourage you, but rather to really encourage you to think about what exactly you want to do. You said you are a recent graduate and "have always loved riding and training young horses, and always loved handling babies". Do you have a reputation? Do you have references? If so, are they from someone who would be respected for their opinion? with good placings at respected shows? with good scores at respected breed inspections?

You asked, "Is there any way to actually make a living breeding?" Probably not. Well,,,,,, that's not actually true. You can easilly make a million dollars breeding horses - but only if you start with about 5 or 10 million. :lol::D:winkgrin:;):yes::yes:

You go get yourself a reputation girl, for fairness, kindness, correctness, for good results (notice the order of my list!!!) and I'll hire you! Pound the pavement, pound the email, pound the phones and get yourself going, but have a plan. Not just, "ooohhhhhhh, I want to work with horsies".

I really hope that helps!

[Iron Horse Farm]

I think that depends on where you're located. Out here in the PNW, I can't find 3-year-olds to start to save my life. I just had to start applying for part-time jobs in the "civilian world."

I have many friends who are also good at starting young horses, and they're not seeing anything, so I don't think it's just me, I think it's the area.


OMG! Can you come to Mich? Home of the freaking western saddle brigade?

[busybee]

I think people need help on stallion stations but you would have to have some basic training.

[unbridledoaks]

I think that depends on where you're located. Out here in the PNW, I can't find 3-year-olds to start to save my life. I just had to start applying for part-time jobs in the "civilian world."

I have many friends who are also good at starting young horses, and they're not seeing anything, so I don't think it's just me, I think it's the area.

Sounds like were I live, everyone wants the Western Horse here though.... Been lucky enough to get Outside of the state people.

[Kyzteke]

I am a recent college graduate looking for a career in the industry somehow, some way. I have always loved riding and training young horses, and always loved handling babies. Is there any way to actually make a living breeding? I know the market is off right now but thinking long term in the future...and/or does anyone have any advice on getting started? Do breeding farms hire help? Any advice on where to look at? WHat to look for? Desperate to find my calling...I love these animals too much to be stuck behind a stupid desk, I'd be miserable!:)

There are plenty of ways to be involved in breeding without going to the expense of doing it yourself.

Both Hilltop & Al-Marah Arabians have "apprentice" programs in their breeding dept., + every TB farm in KY has breeding managers.

The breeding manager at Al-Marah has his Masters in Equine Repro, so you may have to do some more schooling, but if you find a place you like, they might help pay for it.

I would NOT suggest you spend $$$ and do it yourself right now. Although it's a great time to buy good broodmares of any breed, everything else is climbing and the market is slow...and probably will be for afew more years.

I would suggest you try the field first before jumping in. Let other people finance your experiment into breeding. Pick a breed you like and go work for somebody doing all the things you love. Learn from successful pros.

THEN if you still love all of this in 5-6 years you can try doing it on your own...horses will still be here <g>