Some horse trainers have more work than they can handle. They spend all their time grooming, tacking up, warming up, cooling down and managing clients, which limits the amount of horses they can accept into their programs.
A horse training assistant is someone who helps the horse trainer with these tasks, which frees the trainer up to do what he or she does best: Train horses. Of course, this also means adding a salary and benefits to your list of expenses.
What are a horse training assistant’s responsibilities?
Regardless of their job titles, horse training assistants are responsible for taking care of anything the trainer needs during the workday. He is the equivalent of an administrative assistant; he takes care of the grunt work so the trainer can focus.
This usually includes non-mounted activities, such as preparing horses for their training sessions, billing clients, returning phone calls, setting up arena equipment and more. However, a horse training assistant might also have to ride, sometimes taking care of warm-ups and cool-downs so the horse trainer can keep working.
When is a horse training assistant necessary?
When the horse trainer starts to feel overwhelmed. If you have too many clients to handle, or if you exhaust yourself with grooming and tacking and other duties, a horse training assistant can remove some of the pressure and increase the efficiency of your horse business.
However, you need to have sufficient income to justify the expense. If you only have horses in training six months out of the year, or if you have trouble finding clients, you might not be able to make payroll with a horse training assistant.
Ideally, you should hire someone if his or her presence will allow you to increase your income as a result. If you’ll be able to accept more horses for training and if you’ll be able to accomplish more work, this is definitely a good idea.
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About the Author: Laura Jane Thompson is the Chief Equestrian Officer of Riding Instructor University and the Feature writer for the horses section at Suite101. She believes that any horse business can succeed provided its owner practices smart strategy.
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