Of all the animals found on planet Earth, horses are some of the most fascinating. Strong and powerful, yet also graceful and gentle, horses have woven their way into the fabric of history around the world. If you have a love for these majestic animals, you may be wanting to make a career out of working with horses. If so, you’ll be pleased to know there are many types of jobs in the equine industry, utilizing various skills and abilities. If you’re wondering how you can put your bachelor’s degree in equine studies to good use, we offer a look below at some top jobs you may be pursuing in the near future.
Benefits of Working in the Horse Industry
Now that you know you want to work in the horse industry, you’ll be glad to know you will be entering an industry that is thriving and expected to continue growing in the years ahead. Based on data from the American Horse Council, the United States economy receives $50 billion each year in direct economic impact from the horse industry. Along with this, the U.S. horse industry is responsible for almost 990,000 jobs. While many people are working directly with horses as their life’s work, there are many other meaningful roles elsewhere in the industry – in manufacturing, sport governance, or other aspects of business.
If you decide to go into therapeutic work, consultation, or provide services to others in the industry you could enjoy the ability to set your own hours and be your own boss. If you are motivated to contribute to finding new ways to keep horses healthier and spending your days working with others who share your passion, you can see your career advance as far as you wish. In fact, as you gain more experience working with horses, your skills and knowledge can become even more valuable to the industry.
What Can You Do with an Equine Studies Degree?
There are a multitude of equine careers available when you get a bachelor’s degree in equine studies. You could have your choice of equine jobs, from those that have you in daily contact with horses to others that may have you around them only occasionally. You could be involved with horse care, horse shows, rodeos, or even in the horse racing industry. In fact, here are some of the most common and exciting jobs you can pursue with your equine studies degree.
1. Stable Manager
Stable managers oversee the day-to-day operations of the stable. Typical duties involve supervising employees, ordering supplies and equipment, scheduling veterinary care, arranging transportation to horse shows and other events, planning, and keeping detailed and accurate records of your work.
2. Equestrian Coach
As an equestrian coach, you will get to put your teaching abilities and people skills to excellent use each day. Working with both riders and their horses, one of your primary goals will be to help equestrians to develop their horsemanship skills for their enjoyment, professional work, or sport competition. You will need to understand the student’s ambitions and plan your work with them, so that you can help them to work toward achieving their own highest equestrian goals.
3. Equine-Assisted Therapy Support Staff
Should you become interested in equine-assisted therapy services, you will be working directly with horses to provide support for a licensed psychotherapist whose role is to help humans suffering from mental health issues. Equine-assisted therapy becomes more common each year. Equines, as all animals do, have a unique way of removing some of the barriers to therapeutic success. In this job, you would be working with horses as the participants engage with the therapy process. This modality is well suited to populations affected by autism, military veterans living with post-traumatic stress, or individuals who experience emotional problems in their lives.
4. Equine Veterinary Assistant
Post University’s campus-based program provides an option to study for a career as an equine veterinary assistant. This can prepare you for ambulatory or clinical work with an equine veterinarian, support work in a veterinary teaching hospital, or it can enhance the skills that you use working in a competition, breeding, or racing facility. Daily duties will include monitoring vital signs and health status of the animals under your care, and administering treatments or other procedures under the guidance of a veterinarian.
5. Event Manager
If you love competition, you can use your equine studies degree to become involved in horse show management. In this job, you would oversee all aspects of the horse show or event. This will include overseeing the staff that organizes the participants and entries, managing the event schedule and budget, coordinating volunteers, preparing all of the operational details for the event, and resolving any issues that may arise.
6. Equine Agritourism
A part of the horse industry that continues to grow, equine agritourism could find you working at a dude ranch, horse camp, or boarding facility. If you like the idea of working in the great outdoors each day with horses all around you, this is the path for you. Working with a wide variety of people, common things you would do daily include lead riders on trail rides, give horseback riding lessons, or possibly even go into business for yourself at a farm or ranch in your home country or abroad.
7. Course Designer
If you love equestrian events and want to focus on that area for your career, you may want to become a course designer. In this job, you are responsible for the layout of a competition area for a horse show or other equestrian event. To be successful in this job, you will need to have excellent logistical skills, know the performance capabilities of horses and riders participating in the event, and be able to oversee a staff of event personnel. At a typical show, a course designer will coordinate with the show’s organizer, grounds manager, technical authorities, and others to look over maps, weather forecasts, and more to plan and set up the placement of obstacles for a competition.
8. Horse Transportation Specialist
When you are a horse transportation specialist, your job is to get horses where they need to go and back home in a manner that keeps them safe and stress-free. This job can offer you great flexibility regarding when you work, as you’ll need to know not only how to get horses transported down the highway, but on other forms of transport as well. Common duties in this job include planning and booking trips, making sure the horses have enough food, water, medication, and other supplies for their trip, planning rest and exercise stops for the horses, safe and effective loading and unloading, and other related duties. To do this job, you will need a clean driving record, specialized vehicle operation experience and training, and possibly a specialized driver’s license.
9. Equine Marketing Specialist
One of the most varied and valuable roles in the equine industry is to help forge connections between customers and the businesses that they support. This job draws heavily on your equine studies degree because the ability to communicate well with both business professionals and their horse-loving customers is at the core of the problem-solving nature of the job.
Now that you have a much better idea of the many careers from which you can choose after completing your equine studies program, it’s time to sit down and decide which one is the most appealing. Whether you wind up transporting horses to events across the country, teaching others to ride horses, or overseeing a stable or racing facility, you will be doing a job you absolutely love each day. After all, getting paid to work with horses of all types is a dream come true for any horse lover.
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Please note jobs, career outcomes, and/or salaries highlighted in this blog do not reflect jobs, career outcomes, and/or salaries expected from any Post program. To learn more about Post’s program and their outcomes, please fill out a form to speak with an admissions representative.