All of us who have worked with horses have at some point done it for free. There’s lots of reasons for that. It’s a great way to get experience and increase our exposure, but also because there’s a narrative engraved in the equine industry that it’s a rite of passage.
We are taught to believe that as young people entering the industry our value is so little that we deserve to do it for free. The problem with this, in the context of the horse industry, is that many businesses are built on the backs of young people willing to give up their time and energy for free or inadequate pay. These people work hard, because they have a passion for the animal and the sport, and believe that this is the way for them to succeed in the industry they adore. The problem is that this dynamic reveals a troubling reality: businesses depend on transforming the passionate energy of young people into labour that sustains their operations, often without fair recognition or compensation.
This is exploitation, as so often these people giving their passion are not given the tools and knowledge to cultivate the experience they have gained into something meaningful for themselves.
Before we unpack this further, we should more closely look at a working example of how this might manifest itself in the horse industry, by telling a tale that will unfortunately be familiar to most of us.
Amy’s Story
Amy is sixteen and wants to work with horses. She has ridden at her riding school for most of her life but has never had her own pony. She has shared horses before and has helped out for years at her riding school. A friend of a livery on the yard where her share pony lives knows a lady who ‘produces showjumpers’ and is looking for someone to work as an apprentice on her yard. She pays £100 a week and expects Amy to work from 8 until 5 every day in return for letting Amy learn about producing young showjumpers.
There is no interview or application process for this ‘apprenticeship.’ Amy does not sign a contract or fill out any forms. She is hired after a brief phone conversation with the lady, let’s call her Mrs Crumplebottom (Sims fans I’m looking at you), where she tells Amy that she needs her to start immediately as her last apprentice stopped turning up which has left her and the horses short.
Amy has never had a job before. She does not know what to expect as right or wrong in these situations, but she is excited at the prospect of getting to work with horses that she would otherwise never get the opportunity to learn about. She knows it’s not much money, but it’s more than what she earns at the moment (nothing) and it seems like a good chance to learn.
On Amy’s first day, she learns that she is going to be working alongside Mrs Crumplebottom’s sullen faced groom and rider Adam. Adam sets Amy to work, filling haynets, filling water buckets, filling feed bins and mucking out, whilst he does all of the riding. After two weeks of this (including several phone calls in the out of hours asking her why she put the wrong rug on Tonto, or didn’t look the feed room properly, or had left a gate ajar) she has not even lunged a horse, let alone sat on one. Mrs Crumplebottom tells her that until she can get the basics right, she won’t be allowed to ride.
Amy is pretty sure nobody told her what rug to put on Tonto, and so she had put on the one that had made the most sense. She was also pretty sure Adam had said he needed to get something out the feed room, and that’s why it was unlocked, as he was going to do it when he left. Also, she was pretty sure she had locked the gate properly, because she was paranoid about doing anything wrong, to the point she often took photos of shut gates on her phone as a reminder.
After a few months of this, Amy is still making ‘mistakes’ but nobody is giving her any real guidance or support. Her days are filled with repetitive tasks she already knew how to do, and she’s not learning anything new at all. She’s feeling tired, burned out, and jaded. She doesn’t enjoy riding her share pony as much as she’s so knackered after work. She begins questioning whether she actually wants to work with horses after all.
There are a lot of things wrong with Amy’s situation: red flags present from the beginning that appear obvious, but to a young person with non-horsey parents, it would be easy to believe “this is how things are in horses,” (because unfortunately there’s more than a grain of truth in that) and that there is truly no other way for a person in Amy’s position to gain industry experience, especially if she is in an area where there aren’t many yards.
Amy’s passion was exploited because she was completely integral to the running of Mrs Crumplebottom’s yard. There is no way Adam could have ridden and produced as many horses as he did and made money for her if Amy had not been there keeping all of the essential daily care under control. However, because Amy’s days were filled with mundane, repetitive tasks she perceived as easy, she believed that her labour was only worth the amount of money Mrs Crumplebottom was paying her; combined with her lack of knowledge about employment law and practises. Mrs Crumplebottom’s business model may be financially lucrative as she’s getting away with paying her ‘staff’ very little, and even though she burns through them quickly, she knows there will always be another Amy ready to fill those boots.
Whilst there are varying degrees of Crumplebottom-esque yards throughout the country, the patterns are similar and remain a stain on the industry as a whole.
What does this mean for equestrian businesses?
There is a lot of talk at the moment in the industry regarding the economic viability of businesses and their financial sustainability. There is a political element to this as narratives around the National Minimum Wage increase and the Budget give equestrian businesses an easy external scapegoat to blame, because it’s much easier to blame someone else than it is to look within and see that an individual’s entire business is not financially stable. In its current format, many equestrian businesses are not profitable and business owners must look at ways to streamline and futureproof in order to preserve the future of the sector.
At present, equestrian businesses rely on staff willing to give more than they are currently fairly financially compensated for. They rely on the exploitation of passion to prop them up. It’s why the work of the Equestrian Employer’s Association and the British Groom’s Association are so important. Good employment will protect staff from energetic and emotional burn out.
Equestrian businesses in order for them to become more stable must start acting more like businesses. We need to stop being so precious and acting like we are somehow better or different because our industry is ancient and complex. All industries are.
Businesses which are ethical are the most profitable
Ethics in the horse industry can refer to any and all of the following: the treatment or staff, the treatment of horses, environmental responsibility. There is an abundance of research which suggests that businesses which are ethical are more profitable, and consequently, more sustainable.
Exploitation is not ethical – of either humans or animals. If we want to create truly abundant, stable and viable businesses within our industry, business analysis and development is key to this.
This means it’s not enough anymore to teach people how to practically run yards or look after horses, equestrian employers must also learn how to manage staff and business management effectively.
Every ‘problem’ is an opportunity
We are at a turning point for our industry, if we allow ourselves to be. Whenever there is a systemic issue such as those we have examined here, there is the opportunity for new individuals and businesses to create solutions to the problem. How can we create a model to evaluate and improve current equestrian business practises? How can we use technology to save us time and money? What innovations can we make which free up staff time to generate more revenue for businesses? How can business owners and yard managers future proof their businesses?
I don’t have all the answers, but if you’re reading this, you are someone who cares as much, if not more, than me. That is a gift. We can plant seeds here which grow into solutions for tomorrow.
What I do have, are ideas. I don’t have the time or energy to do something with all of them, so I hope someone reading them does:
- An innovative business analyst could develop a review model which can be applied to different formats of equestrian businesses (e.g. riding schools, competition yards, production yards) that creates the practical framework to streamline practises, improve staff management and increase profitability. This individual or group of individuals can work with various different yards to increase their profitability and run their own business doing this for yards across the country.
- Tech savvy individuals can create decent apps for managing yards, staff and cashflow that give yard owners better oversight of their incomings and outgoings more effectively. Automations could be used to save administration time. As an industry we could find a way to harness the power of AI for pattern recognition for things like equine lameness, injury, and performance analysis.
- Rolling out business management and leadership training for equestrian staff at all levels so that these skills are baked into future generations of equestrian staff.
Where does Equine Qualifications UK CIC fit into this?
Our goal at EQUK is to empower the next generation of equestrian staff. We are increasing access to education so that those with a passion for horses are not exploited for their love of the animal: they will have the knowledge and skills needed to identify, recognise and cultivate their own ‘good employment’ opportunities within the industry. This will be done by making equestrian education more transparent, accessible, and easier to understand.
We will use revenue generated through working with education providers to run leadership and training opportunities for equestrian staff at all levels within the industry. We will support learners of any level into the right opportunity for them. We will support equestrian learners at all stage of their journey – whether that’s to further their education, find employment or develop their own business.
EQUK is more than just qualifications, it’s about a belief that education is at the core of improving every part of our industry. Education isn’t just about learning about horses: it’s about the development of the technical, digital and people skills involved in running a successful and sustainable business.
We understand the challenges because we have lived them. We have heard the narratives time and again, and they’re boring. It’s time for us to do better, and be better as an industry: because once upon a time, all of us were just kids who loved ponies, and at some point along the way, that got beaten out of all of us, because all of us in this industry have at some point been exploited for our passion.
Support the vision: