The Truth Behind the Trope: What It’s Really Like to Work at a Stable

brown horse inside cage

We’ve seen it in the movies and books– in order to pay for riding lessons or get horse time, the horse-crazy tween or teen offers their services around the barn. As a result, almost every young horse crazy girl dreams of the chance where she can help out the barn owner and get her hands dirty in the horse world.

So, when I got my first job as a part-time stablehand, I thought all my childhood horse dreams were coming true. Getting paid to muck stalls and handle horses? Every horse-crazy girl’s dream.

Unfortunately, I soon found out that much of what the books told me was nothing close to the real world. And I thought it was about time someone told the truth about what it’s really like to work at a stable.

As a note: this is only my experience, and only one side of the story. I will admit, there may have been more nuances within my experiences, other sides of the story I wasn’t aware of. And not every barn is the same as mine. So please keep that in mind as you read this article.

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Oh, The Drama

silhouette of women feeding horses

I wasn’t the average horse crazy girl entering this job. I knew the stablehand job would be more than just feeding and mucking out stalls. I knew I would have to do jobs like sweeping out tack rooms or helping mend fences.

What I didn’t expect was the amount of drama that awaited me.

Sure, we’ve all read the tropes with horse people like Veronica DiAngelo of The Saddle Club series, or the Townsends of the Thouroughbred series. Those whose pockets talk just as loudly as their general disdain of the lesser humans around them. But my barn had only private lessons and boarders, and none of the horses were elite competitors. There wouldn’t be any drama for me.

I was sad to see how wrong I was. What had been masked for me as a student was now fully torn away as a girl behind the scenes. There was, in fact, a lot of drama. There was a clear preference among the stablehands between those who boarded their horses as well as working there and those who were only students or helpers. Stablehands who were also boarders were praised more highly for their work, and their opinions were also taken into more consideration.

It was also interesting to see the dynamics between stablehands and boarders. Stablehands were always polite and cordial while interacting with the boarders face to face, but behind the scenes, many of them gossiped about boarders and how they were treating their horses poorly in this way or that. Even the barn manager, on several occasions, would make a snide remark about how a boarder was handling their horse.

I thought I would stay an observer of the drama, but eventually, even I became wrapped up in it.

Because I was still going to riding lessons, I watched how the barn manager’s fear of hurting my feelings– and subsequently, losing me as a customer– led to her telling my coworkers of my mistakes behind my back. I watched a coworker get fired because he had a slightly different way of doing things that she didn’t like. I watched hard-working stablehands be left in the dust while others with deeper pockets and paying for their horse’s board were richly praised.

Now, I am by no means saying that this is the case in every barn. But… money talks in the horse world. Loudly. Regardless of what you do in it, they are still high maintenance animals, and the realm is truly ruled by the ones who can afford it.

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Horse Care: Not As Simple as You Think

horses grazing

One thing they never mention in the horse books: horses are very high maintenance.

I somewhat knew this from my expansive digestion of equine nonfiction, but I was not expecting how high they would actually be until I actually got into the basic care of the horses at the stable.

For instance, apparently horses cannot eat grass, unless it is a certain height, maturity, and not wet. Too much causes diabetes and eating it wet gives them colic. Expensive dry hay and formulated feeds made by professional nutritionists are definitely the better option for their diets rather than the very plants their ancestors have been grazing on for the last several thousand years.

(^^^ sarcasm right there, if you could tell)

But Allie, the horses of today aren’t the same as the horses from thousands of years ago.

Okay, yes, I understand that. And for horses with Cushing’s disease or those who were overweight, I can see why they would feed straight hay. I do understand that grass has a high sugar content, and I do know that today’s horses are bred to be raised on unnatural chemically-formulated feeds (trust me, I will be doing an article in the future with my views on THAT boatload of drama and controversies).

But… mowing the pastures for horses? Keeping severely overweight horses on grain diets because “the feed balances out their nutrient requirements”? And don’t get me started on the extra supplements, corrective gear, and various other baubles hanging around.

If your horse genuinely needs something, say, corrective shoeing, or a grazing muzzle, I get that. I understand getting a different shampoo for a horse with sensitive skin, or salt licks so horses can get more minerals.

But if a horse can’t just eat plain grass without a thousand regulations, something is wrong in that itself. Which, once again, is a topic for another article.

Perhaps the most shocking thing of all was how horse owners treated these things as absolutely necessary for the horse’s survival. If you didn’t follow this vaccine schedule, buy this brand of horse feed, use this type of supplement, or in general agree with what they believed was completely necessary for the welfare of the animal, then you were a terrible, awful human being and you never deserved to own horses.

I’m sorry, this is slightly unprofessional of me but… um, people, can we chill and remember that these are still animals? Not humans? Sure, we love them, but… there are bigger controversies and issues in the world than whether you feed Purina or Blue Bonnet. Just saying.

In short, I never really understood the term “pet parent” until I observed horse owners.

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Follow the Dollar

two brown horses in the stable

No matter what people say, the dollar signs are permanently imprinted in the actions of horse owners.

This is not to say that horse owners are bad people. It’s perfectly logical to care about something you’ve spent so much money on. But I feel like many horse owners take it to the extreme. Their horses are like their children, and even if they don’t outright admit it, deep down they believe that their way is the only right way to own horses.

Now, I have friends who own horses and I can say, I love them dearly. Owning a horse most certainly does not make you a bad person. But the amount of cash a horse requires does have an inevitable impact.

The horse world thrives on the rich. It has to. But it doesn’t have to rule the horse world as much as it does. And it was downright sad to see many very good people get ugly when the money came out.

This is the side of the horse world I feel is either swept under the rug or put to unrealistic extremes in fiction. But it is part of the horse world, and it’s a slap in the face to get there and realize that without the cash, you have no place there.

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All this to say, I’m not writing this post to discourage any of you. Nor am I trying to slam horse owners. And I am aware that there are people who have a healthy balance in all the things considered.

No, the horse world is not like what the books say. Fiction sanitizes it into a dream world, when in reality it is just as broken as the rest of the humanity around us.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be. And perhaps if more people knew the truth about the horse world going into it, maybe there would be an effort in trying to change it for the better.

Comments

  1. Liberty Durmaz says:

    Wow. This is very interesting and eye-opening. I have read another true story about what it’s like at a boarding stable, and things can get very tense and divided. So, I’m assuming you’re not working there anymore? I actually have a friend who volunteers at a horse ministry stable, but I’m sure the atmosphere is a lot different since the people at the farm don’t board (as far as I know), and their goal is to help autistic and disabled people with using horses.

    The idea that horses don’t eat grass is absolutely absurd! I mean, there are definitely certain reasons to pull your horse off grass during certain periods, but not grass ever???? I’d never heard of such a thing until now. My friends in Florida own horses, and grass is nearly 100% of their diet, besides minerals. And Lord willing, when my family’s blessed with a horse, I am definitely having it graze.

    Looking forward to your next mind-blowing article!!

    • Allie Lynn says:

      The horses still graze, yes, but the amount of regulations about when they could graze and how long they could graze and how high the grass had to be was really the shocking part. I understand keeping a horse off a wet pasture if the ground is soft and they could tear up the ground, or letting pastures rest– that’s just good pasture management.
      But when the grass got too tall they had to mow it. Like… what? That’s the part I don’t get.

      I actually attended a horse therapy place for a short time, and I agree, the atmosphere was MUCH different. I would much prefer to work there but it’s two hours away.

      And no, I don’t work at the stable anymore. Things were just too much and after I found out my boss/instructor was talking to people about my mistakes behind my back, I got out. She had a lot of opportunities to tell me what was going on and never took them, and I didn’t feel safe working with someone like that.

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