Jumps Course Design

Really enjoy jumping? Love riding and working out related distances, setting up different types of jumps with rollbacks and interesting changes of lead? Perhaps you should look into jumps course designing.

http://www.aachen-course-design.com/ - Seems to be the place to go to learn about course design and get yourself known in the industry/gain certificates. Links to seminars on Course Design run through the Federation Equestre Internationale; upcoming seminars in Brazil, Russia, France, Australia and Germany.

http://www.jumpdesign.net/ - website of Eduard Petrovic, International Course Designer.

http://www.mudhotline.com/la/coursdes.htm - Longacres Course Design
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_jumping - Show Jumping on Wikipedia
http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/horsesense/sporthorse/jump_design/interview.html - Interview with Richard Jeffrey, renowned course designer.

"Been There... Jumped That!"

Invest in the Best

5 Top Tips to further/establish your equine career.

Invest in yourself:
If you're looking to improve yourself for a particular field but struggle with the idea of a full time focus on acquiring skills or a piece of paper; consider work and study. For example, I was working on a horse stud and am interested in teaching, so took up a correspondence course for instructing while working. I could do it at my own pace and because it all relates to horses, things I was doing at work (although not directly related to teaching people to ride) were of benefit to me in this study.
Many put off furthering their skills/starting in a new area until they can focus solely on this decision and consequently end up not doing anything at all.

Invest in others:
Make yourself known; get out there. Attend events related to an area you are working or wish to work. It is possible to do so through work, for example I attend horse sales with my job and have received other work through being seen at these sales. People start to recognise you if you get out there often enough and if you're taking the time to get to know them and what they do, you may just find it'll help you in your particular focus.

Invest in education:
Consider saving to invest in furthering your knowledge - books, a particular course, even travel to a particular property or country to focus on a certain discipline. If this is the place where you can get access to the 'experts', then consider going there.

Invest in the future:
Set goals for tasks that would be of benefit for you to have achieved and find ways to learn or master that particular skill. When I first started out working on a stud, through my six weeks of work placement leading up to that employment I did all I could - injections, dealt with the birth of foals, handled the stallions, mares for covers, helped with vetting, feeding. In the last week I concluded the only thing I hadn't done was drive the tractor around the farm... A rather amused boss obliged to this request, also!

Invest in your industry:
Find out if there are any clubs, federations, etc that you can be a part of in a particular industry you want to work/be known. Many of these clubs have a fee which means you're putting money into that industry, proving you're taking it seriously but as an added benefit, you're being informed of events, changes, important things in relation to this field. Also, you're getting to know key people in this industry.


"A horse is like a violin, first it must be tuned, and when tuned it must be accurately played."

A Tooth Fairy Goldmine

Admittedly, I am terrible with my horse's teeth - I've had him rising 10 years and not had his teeth done once. (Gasp, shock horror!). Initially, it was ignorance and quite possibly still could be, but I've figured as long as he's in good condition and having no problems keeping weight (he's always rather festively plump) that he's chewing and digesting everything alright.

Well he had them done for the first time today, along with 23 other horses at one of the riding schools I work at. Apparently they get done this time each year and the same trusty equine dentist comes out with his helper and they get them done in a day.

Now, between the two of them they managed 24 horses in 4 hours. For curiosity's sake I enquired about costs - if it's a special visit for just your horse, you're looking at around $110 to have their teeth done. For a number of horses, it's $50. So, in the four hours, they made $1,200.00 between the two of them and this was only from the one riding school.

They'd done a few before coming out to us and had another half dozen or so to do before finishing up for the day. What an income! The main dentist pointed out he has a bit in the way of expenses - the big one being insurance and then lesser - petrol, cost of floats (used to do the horses' teeth - one costs around $100 and he went through four between the 24 horses). But still, taking out $400 for the floats, say $60 for a tank of petrol and then giving even half to his coworker would leave him with around $370.

I'm sure it's higher as the apprentice probably gets a lot less than 50% of the day's earnings! So, for around $100 an hour, not a bad way to work at all!

The dentist who annually comes out to this riding school advocates the course at Melbourne University - one year of study, one year on the job. Apparently there's a lot of people doing the course and too many from Victoria, so quite a few get trained and then head overseas to put their skills to use. But consider two years of training, then another few years on the job and travelling and then you'd be set with experience, a build up of clients in more than one country and the chance to earn a decent income with horses. Not a bad five-year-plan, ey?

"A stubborn horse walks behind you, an impatient horse walks in front of you, but a noble companion walks beside you."

Ireland and Horses

So I love horses, and I love the idea of travelling; but travelling isn't cheap. One thing that's so appealing about these animals though, is that you can work with them almost anywhere around the world.

Ireland has always been a dream of mine as a place to visit and has been made possible thanks to horses.

If you love working with horses and have a desire to travel, I strongly recommend you do so! The cheats way to do it without it costing too much, I believe is working holidays or attending an equine related course.

Currently, I'm studying at the Irish National Stud and am thoroughly enjoying myself, having come to another country to work with horses in an environment where I am learning daily, doing something I love and getting to meet different people from around the world and therefore - many contacts.

Check out the stud at http://www.irish-national-stud.ie/

"The outside of a horse is good for the inside of man." - Winston Churchill