to want to start a new career in horse riding

[Mum2Luke]

I am 45, self-employed in one job as a childminder and employed by local council as a casual dinner lady. The childminding is all but drying up as there are not many people in work and the ones who are working either put their children in full-time day nurseries as the nurseries get funding for free sessions or Grannies look after them for free.

I really want to get back in the saddle and perhaps do the BHS exams but am not confident that I will be able to afford to do it.

Has anyone else completely changed their career in their 40's? I want to do t before I get too old and regret it.

I have. Change career that is! Dh has three times. They say most peopel ahve 3 careers in their lives.

Do it! if you can afford to do it, and you enjoy it, what's to lose? At worst you will rediscover a hobby, at best you have a new career. Win-win as far as I see.

Get yourself down to a riding school and start helping out! They always need another pair of hands, and a lot of places will give you free lessons in return so you can start brushing up on your skills for the BHS exams. You could do that in your spare time for a while so you'll have the experience and references when you come to look for a paid job with horses. :)

I think I probably will when term starts and when I have the dinner lady wage to back up on.

I have asked about apprenticeships but was too old , really wish when I was 16 there WERE apprenticeships but we did not get that opportunity. Instead I ended up in childcare which is poorly paid and getting a job with my qualifications is hard as they don't want to pay a big wage to people with 21 years of experience. I was thinking of doing a Foundation degree but there is no point if I cannot get one with NVQ Level 3 and various others.

I don't mind being outside, mucking out stables or grooming the horses, shoud have done it years ago but was more or less forced into office work/childcare/Nursing type work.

get in there somehow, even in a "small" way ! me ? career in office enviroment , wanted to drive class 1 trucks (friends/family faint in shock/horror) done it ! I CAN /DO drive class 1 trucks , me !(its easy peasy !!!)but then i also live in a 1971 voltswagen camper van !, (long long story !)" it is such a short time we dance upon this earth" any real?reason you aint at least gonna try ??? good luck !best wishes !

How about going to one of the agricultural colleges and doing a degree in equine science, or better still - an HND which has more "hands on" work?

You won't make your millions working with horses - at the same time you're unlikely to earn the kind of money required to pay back loans...

Horse jobs often come with accommodation and transport too - Horse & Hound used to advertise jobs where the family were looking for someone to help with the horses and the children.

PS Entry requirements tend to be waived for over-21's - as long as you're literate it shouldn't be a problem. Failing that for a BSc you might be asked to do a foundation year.

I changed career at 44 - best thing I ever did
Go for it!

Have you looked at the British Grooms Association? Might be a good place to start.

I don't want to be too negative, however being a groom is on the whole a very poorly paid job. The vast majority of grooms will only get minimum wage if they are lucky and will have to work long and hard hours in poor conditions.

Instructors have to train for a very long time and may struggle to find jobs afterwards, especially as people cut back on 'non-essentials' such as lessons. Many people expect their instructors to have good competition experience which takes a long time to acquire and costs more money.

Nanny/groom is probably the best paid option.

I would look at other alternatives than college. As a (small time) employer I have found equine degree graduates to be shockingly useless at practical skills, e.g. how to handle competition horses, how to groom to a high standard, how to lunge properly (apologies to anyone who has such a degree, I am sure there are always exceptions and my experience is limited). An HGV license is always a plus but it does cost a bit of money to get.

Good luck!

hm also many riding schools have closed in recent years. There used to be pages and pages of jobs in Horse and Hound, now there is usually one at the most. Practical experience and HGV licence would go a long way, further than HND/degree.

There is an instructor at our local stables who had a career change in her early 50s - trained to be an instructor. She is doing well and very popular with parents as a lot of the other instructors are very young!

Like Booboostoo, I hate to be negative but you're very unlikely to make any more money working with horses than you do in childcare. It's very much a job people do for the love of it rather than for the financial rewards! I was paid well below minimum wage when I worked with horses, and I didn't have the heart to ask the yard owner for more because she was even more skint than me...

yes I would certainly be happier with someone of your age giving riding lessons to my kid than some 20 year old with no 'people skills',like one vile girl who spent the lesson screaming 'X X I said X' at my girl, without explaining to her where 'X' was, and also screaming at her about the other letters without realising that dd had letter recognition problems. When I called her over and explained that, she was like 'yes yes I know'....
anyway you could train for the BHSAI at a local riding school, if it has not been shut down.

When you say "get back in the saddle" it seems you haven't ridden for a while. What's your experience with horses, and what kind of job are you aiming for.

My riding instructor is a BHSI but it's worth more to me that she can get on my horse and ride him - and she does this with horses that are far worse behaved than mine (think 17hh hunters taking off in stubble fields). Would you have the skills and confidence to do this? Most older riders (and I'm one) find that confidence takes a knock, especially when you've got family dependent on you.

Thanks all for replying - am really just after a job helping out at a local BHS approved stables part-time while keeping the dinner lady job which is only 2 hours a day in term-time. I'm not bothered if the pay is rubbish, am used to that with childcare, I just think I would enjoy being outside.

I used to ride all the time from the age of 9, had a road accident on my moped where I broke my thigh (docs say if I ride regularly again the stiffness I get when I've not ridden for a while will go). Horseriding is like riding a bike but with a live animal, I am fairly fit in that I go to the gym and cycle regularly. I rode last year on holiday. I have still got my jodphurs and boots too.

I don't even mind working for free and watching the other girls, they have said I can come when I can and help out while studying for BHS exams.

I was 20 when I had the accident, not 9 lol

horseriding is like riding a bike with a live animal. No it isn't.

I am currently abroad having a swanky holiday at the expense of one of DH's clients. He is a riding instructor (BHSI), International Level 3 coach, former international competitor in two disciplines. He has been in the game for 35 years and teaches around the world.

It is only now that he would say he earns an average wage. There are many perks - free holidays, mixing with the jet set and all that, but most of our life together has been graft, expense and heartbreak.

I can't see that working part time in a local riding school would bring any of the upsides of working with horses, but would definitely have all of the downsides.

What about helping out with the RDA? I do and they have put me through BHS exams and I am now training to be an instructor. I have no desire for a career with horses and I will be volunteering with the RDA until I drop. A few of the other volunteers have gone on to have careers with horses. A police groom is one I can remember.

I did a course at college and got a job at a city farm type of place after my work experience there. I don't ride would be better uf i did but i do look after the horses so the opportunity is there if i want it. I was in my twenties then. . I don't know how practical it would be but that's how i did it. I work with a lady in her 70s so i don't think age is a barrier.

horseriding is like riding a bike with a live animal sorry to sound harsh but that's the kind of comment someone who doesn't know horses might make. Take care what you ride, some horses can be quite unsuitable for people returning to riding.

Best of luck whatever you chose.

I used to be a groom.

I'd rather be a groom than an instructor. Ime grooms get to spend more time riding and less time with whiny kids and crap adults trying to teaching them rising trot for hours on end. I'd find that very dull.

I also don't want to be negative but I know quite a few people who have been instructors/yard managers/grooms and it has taken all the joy out of horses for them. The hours are extremely long, the work is hard and the pay is terrible.

Also, riding is NOT like getting back on a bike. I took 10 months off riding while I lived abroad and it took me 2 months of riding everyday on my own horse to get back to being as riding fit as I was. You use totally different muscles when riding than you do day to day and your balance is different after being off for a while.

If you are really missing horses I think you'd be better off taking some lessons and maybe volunteering at the stables. See if it's really something you want to pursue, especially since you've been out of it for a while. I totally understand wanting to get back into it, I missed it so much for those few months I was off.

I used to be a stable lad at a racing stud. I was doing my BHS training at the same time. I got £3.50 ph, always smelled of stale horse sweat and shit, and on the rare occasions I got to ride, nearly got myself killed (plus some occasions when I wasn't riding). I was 18 though, so it was brilliant. I wore my black eyes and broken ribs as badges of honour. And I had no bills to pay.

A change of career at 40, sure, go for it, but I would think very carefully about going for something poorly paid, dangerous, physically demanding, with high competition and limited opportunities.

also, I must say that 'getting back into the saddle' post kids, and over 40, is no joke, speaking from experience, as an ex groom.
I was helping this lady with her horses in return for accommodation, just happy hacking really; she asked me to school her daughter's horse a bit, the horse shied and plunged and I hit the deck right onto my hip.
well I was lucky of course, massive bruise and immobile for 24 hours was all, but falling off at 45 is quite different from falling off at 20.
futurenannyog I too had a fab time years ago, no bills, food provided, great social life but it is essentially a young person's game, unless you are v successful.
also I googled a rider I used to work for and she had broken her neck and died falling off her horse at the age of 50 odd....

I ride very well, but I took 10 years off from teens to mid-20's and it took quite a bit of effort to get my mojo back - it's "like riding a bike" in the sense that the gears are in the same place they always were, but that's where the analogy can end!

As someone else mentioned, you will be expected to jump on a strange nag and work your magic. You probably will get work for the tiddlers, but there's no money in it.

To be blunt, I wouldn't employ someone to instruct me who hadn't ridden for years and years and years... my instructor is mid-40s, has been riding since she was a toddler, trains and is a regional dressage judge. Not someone who's had a crisis of faith with her career.

If however I were to go now to work with horses, I'd rather be a groom than an instructor - more actual contact with the beasts. Better still I'd be a "Mother's help" - much more sitting inside during the rain.

Booboostoo - sorry, didn't mean to sound flippant, what I meant was you don't really forget how to mount/dismount/hold the reins correctly etc.

I will be taking some lessons again, I don't profess to know it all and the stables have a riding simulator to use for people like me to improve their seat and gain confidence again.

redpanda13 - we live on the outskirts of Manchester and the nearest RDA is 7 miles (14 mile round trip), there's no hurry really, I can go at my own pace.