For the Farm Owners: What kind of education do you have?

[bludejavu]

Excellent advice in the above posts. From my perspective, I can say that horses should not become a main avenue of income, particularly if our economy doesn't change anytime in the near future. You will be setting yourself up for failure unless you make horses a secondary interest. I have been heavily involved in horses all my life except for a brief hiatus during college and getting an administrative career underway. Unless you are born with a silver spoon in your hand, trying to make a living with horses is an uphill battle no matter how much experience you have or how much education. Since quitting the administrative work field, I have been a full time amateur trainer for 12 years now, currently own 21 horses, and my husband and I own a very large farm with several horse barns. I AM STRUGGLING TO STAY AFLOAT due to the economy mainly. If my husband was not lucratively employed, I would have been forced to liquidate a year ago at least. I thought I had all bases covered when I started my horse business but I didn't reckon on such a downfall in the horse industry/economy. If you are determined to go after a horse career, go after something where you will be employed by someone else and not self employed.

[spaceagevalkyrie]

I'm in the same boat as you are, OP. I think I'm going to do something with web design AND horses, I just havent found out how to combine them yet .

[Rev]

Ah, Woodland...
HORTICULTURE...
...that would be the correct term for "master-gardener stuff".
Thank you! I've been stripping gears and frying circuits trying to think of that stupid word which of course I really do know!) since last night. lol
Don't you hate it when that happens?

There are times these days where I swear I used up the very last brain cell back in some lecture on "Modern day geo-political soci-economic theoretical implications of proto-meszozoic basket-weaving patterns for a post-industrial theologic survey of interdisciplinary communications through the art of electrically promulgated folk dance"
..or something similar.

Horticulture. Yes. That's the $%&%#^ word.
Whew. You're a life-saver.
Rev

[county]

I graduated High School not the bottom of the class but the bottom 5%. While in HS I started breeding QH's and rented a 20 acre parcel of land with a small shack for a barn. After HS I bought 40 acres of land and built a small barn on it while working a job in town and logging on the land. Kept breeding QH's and got into breeding beef cattle. Got drafted into the Army in 70 since I wasn't in school so that slowed down the operation a couple years. After I got out I built a house on the land and bought another 80 acres. Kept improving the breeding program, farmed and logged the land, expanded the cattle operation, got into breeding hogs, and bought another 40 acres in the next 20 years.

Sold all the land except two small parcels for 10 to 50 times what I paid for it and moved further into agriculture area and bought up two farms here total amount of 208 acres then leased another 120 for 20 years. Expanded both the horse and breeding operations for another 15 years then decided to semi retire. Sold 1 parcel of land for a $135,000 profit then sold the two small parcels I had kept near the twin cities from my old farm for about 50 times what I had paid for all that land to start with. Now I mostly sit on my a$$ and play around with my horses and cattle I have left and spend lots of time goofing off with my grand kids.

I've always wondered how things would have turned out had I gone to school instead of getting drafted? I know there would have been no money to buy any land I would have spent it on school.

[Bluey]

County, remember that you could do what you did because there were others that spent that money going to school and now buying the food and horses you have to sell with the money they make at their jobs.

It takes all to make a society work.
Societies are complicated and there are trade-offs to everything we do in life.
In the end, as we get older/old, most of us that make it that far become contented, if not very happy, with the way things went in our lives.
Glad to know that you are one of the happy ones.

Those starting out right now, as the OP is, have a whole wide world in front of them and so much waiting for them.

[county]

Actually people buy food regardless their dead if they don't.

Being happy? If you choose to be you are, if you don't your miserable.

I agree those starting out have the world waiting. Every person in history had the exact same thing.

[nachohorse]

I know this is a little different but I had a small farm when I went off to college and graduated with 2 B.S. in equine studies and equestrian management. I took over my farm and have tripled my business. Every once in a while it is possible to go to school for what you love and keep it as a career. I do have a back up plan in case the bottom falls out though!!

[gabz]

Just for a giggle, my daughter's love of horses provided her a small income during college - working at a high level training farm. Her major was teaching (art) with a minor in English Lit. I had to send out graduation announcements saying how she graduated Cum Laude - and was gainfully employed mucking stalls.

That soon changed...

I recommend business courses to include accounting. The stuff you learn about how to buy, depreciate, sell, keep track of, etc. etc. will serve you well throughout your life. It will give you the background to know to search out answers to keep any business (or household) going strong.

If you can attend an Ag College and also pick up other classes / majors in nutrition and growing crops. That is a huge bonus. When I was taking my college classes in Business, I also took some real estate courses... I had a little trouble with the Vet Affairs since RE wasn't in the precribed courses for Business until my VA rep said that the RE could be used to search out new retail business sites.

Seek out scholarships for every last bit of money. If you apply for 50, you might get one.

[Rev]

Hi County;

Your point is well-taken-always more than one road through life.
Lucky me I had the credits to graduate a semester from HS since it's unlikely I would have finished on my own.

Totally concur that land is an excellent investment. Forget who originally said it--"they aren't making it anymore". but they are right.

My early teens/twenties I then worked my @ss off for others and myself-built up a few consulting and services businesses and also invested where I could in properties and land (of the urban variety-yeh?) additionally working my @ss off as a landlord.

Hmmn--so that's where my @ss was hiding back then...

Suffice it to say that those early investments were what enabled me to attend University as an "alternative" adult late 20's student--because I'd found some things I wanted to do that required a degree--and found some things I wanted to learn about more deeply and thoroughly.

Errr--because of those early investments--*and* working a FT 32-60 hour weeks in addition almost all the way through.

Graduated Cum Laude. Not currently working in my field of study...Doing okay in a corporate job to which I'm abivalent (kindly put) that helps subsidize my currently struggling horse/farm property & biz.

Was University and that pricey bit of calfskin worth the effort, money and time?

(Strike up the soapbox band...put a quarter in her...watch her go!)

Resounding YES from the Rev-ster. And if there were enough hours in the day and pennies in the piggy jar--I would *continue* to study what I could, when I could... even if it did involve occasional drool-inspiring lectures of the sort I described earlier (and it did...dear lordy..it did.) .

It's not only about that "golden ticket"--although it's opened doors and offered opportunities I would not have otherwise had.

At it's best-Higher Education is synergistic and challenging. It's the exposure to a cornucopia of ideas and idealisms and the unending variety of people who hold them.

And yes, some of those ideas and people are agonizingly, arrogantly and annoyingly *wrong*! (not mine of course--just those other wierdos over there...)
...Which is why the greater mandate of HE is to teach you to think critically and to test and question your own ideas and those of others. There is a great strength and satisfaction in being able to say "I know that X is true...and this is how I know.
It's cool too, when you can conclude, "Well, most of what Mr. X says is total tripe...But this point over here....Hmmnnn...." and you're off and running.

No matter what the course of study, one should come away from University with a fuller understanding of the dynamic world at large and a strong base of how to investigate, analyze and integrate oneself and one's own ideas in the immediate and wider world throughout the course of one's life.

Not to say that my life pre-school was devoid of meaning or richness or merit. Rather-the experience enriched and enhanced my experiences past and present. I see similar effects in others who have taken the University path. So, overall, I highly recommend Higher Education at some point and some way for anyone considering it.

Cheers
Rev
(whose earth-shattering deep thoughts this week will include, "Did I remember to place that feed order?", "NOW what the h#ll has got that $%^$ dog barking?" and "Wonder if I can check out early and work the bay colt once I've filed this report?"... )

[veebug22]

Well, I've been a barn manager at a number of places. My degree is in English and I've gone back to working as a Product Manager at a textbook publisher. Still have two horses, and am living comfortably and looking forward to a career that has a lot more earning potential than what I would have had in the horse industry. The most helpful thing when I was a barn manager was my experience working in a barn as both a working student and later instructor/assistant manager. That experience was invaluable. I DO think a business background is good -- a lot of barn owners/managers have this -- but I think having experience working in an office is important too. Few people in the horse business realize the importance of customer service and customer retention. They also don't understand how to properly communicate and what's acceptable in a business and what's unprofessional. I can't count how many times I've worked for barn owners/trainers that spoke to their clients and myself in ways that were offensive and unprofessional -- like leaving critical/reprimanding messages on white boards for everyone to see, talking about one client to another, etc. When you work in an office, you recognize that as much as you may love a barn and the community you feel part of, it is a business. Customers deserve to be treated like customers. These are business relationships built on respect and your ability to provide a valuable service. A lot of people whose work experiences are primarily in the horse industry fail to appreciate this (I'm not saying all!!! Just many that I've encountered). Things are said and done that would NEVER be acceptable in an office environment, and this is where many of your customers will be coming from in terms of expectations. I totally agree with getting qualifications in another field in case you decide to head in another direction. This isn't just the horse industry... during economic downturns, it's normally for people in all fields to go back to school to get certified or trained in another occupation. Setting yourself up for career diversity can only help you.

[sublimequine]

I'm not a farm owner, but I do want to have a career in horses like you (farrier, to be exact).

Right now I'm in college getting an Agriculture Industry Management degree, concentrating in Animal Science. It's great because quite a bit of what I learn I can APPLY to horses, but I can also use it in other contexts. It's a pretty flexible major, and I'm hoping my job outlook will be fairly good.

So that's my advice. Do something similar or related to horses, but perhaps not JUST horses. To be honest I've never met anyone with an Equine Science degree who was REALLY REALLY glad that's what they chose..

[Pickapace]

I finished HS and did two years of business school. it is very important to have that, otherwise you'll have no idea what to do. good luck!