How can I Become a Horse Trainer?
Being a horse trainer sounds like great fun! After all, if you love horses, what could be better than spending your days taking care of these beautiful animals, right?
But being a horse trainer isn't the easiest thing in world to become.
Spend Time With Horses
To be a successful horse trainer you'll need to get as much hands-on experience working with horses as you can get. Teach a horse the basics. Work with them through the gentling (breaking) process. Get a horse to stop a nasty habit. Work with a horse through the finishing process.
The next thing you'll need to do is spend lots of time in the saddle riding all kinds of horses at all levels or experience. Ride young horses, old horses, friendly horses, cranky horses, male horses, female horses...basically any kind of horse you can find.
Be Tough
Realize that working with horses isn't for the faint of heart. If you work as a horse trainer, chances are good you're going to get your toes stepped on somewhere along the line. You need to know you can handle being thrown by a cantankerous horses, kicked by a skittish young colt, or bitten by a mare with a bad tooth.
Keep Learning
Once you've tried a little bit of everything, you'll eventually want to specialize. And remember, general all-purpose training is a speciality, too! If you're a general all-purpose trainer, you probably aren't going to be helping someone work through the finer points of barrel racing.
You'll also want to get in the show ring as a way of showing what you can do, getting your name out there, and as a way to attract clients.
Love What You Do
Horses are smart, and they'll know if your heart is in your work or not.