Today I am comparing my job with a 'real' working student job (as I imagine it) based on a summary of job postings. I'm focusing on the type of working student job that I would be looking for, and getting my job postings from Yard and Groom.
Most working student jobs require some experience with barn work and riding. Often this experience is just mucking, grooming, and basic riding. Some postings include details: “Minimum, dressage basics and jumping Level 2”. Barns sometimes want more experience with different tasks – things like lunging horses, experience working with green (or largely untrained) horses, and recognizing various types of equine disease.
Most of the more serious working student positions offer a stipend of about $100 a week. This is obviously not enough to pay for rent, so these barns provide places for the working student to live on the barn property. Some barns allow working students to board their horses for free, many don't. Usually, riding lessons of some sort are offered in addition the stipend as compensation.
In contrast to my 20 hours a week, live-in working students will work five and a half or six days a week. They are long days, and usually involve the normal barn chores I mentioned last time (mucking, watering, turning horses in and out). A working student at a training barn would hope to be actually training one or more horses as an additional daily duty. I spend considerable time tacking horses for lessons. At a training barn, the time I spend tacking would ideally be used to work with horses.
Were I looking for a full-time working student job, the above description would be more or less ideal. I would expect to do some mucking, but would also hope to be learning a lot about horses.
Anyway, I hope this post and its predecessor clear up confusion about what I'm doing and my alternatives.
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