How to Get a Job as a Horse Groom

If you love horses, why not try and get a job as a horse groom? You get to spend all your time in a stable, helping out with the horses, and learning the daily rituals that make up a horse's life. From grooming to feeding to exercising to pampering, a groom's job is to get to know the animal's personality and care for it as if the horse were their own. It might not make you rich, but sometimes you can get a free place to live in exchange for caring for the horses.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Just like with any job, you'll need a resume of experience. It helps if you have worked with horses in the past, grown up with horses, or even just helped out a friend with a horse. Having some horse sense will get you in the door. Have a few horse people references that your new employer can call, who will recommend you.
2. Check online at Horsetrader. They always have listings of jobs with trainers and in stables, or for ranch caretakers. You can also post your own ad as a groom for hire.
3. Check local papers, especially if you live in a rural area. Farms will sometimes list ads for grooms.
4. Check your local tack shop for free horse newspapers, especially local ones. This is usually the goldmine: a place you will find listings of local farms. You can call each farm and ask if they're looking for grooms. Also let the tack shop staff know you're looking for work as a groom. People know people, and word of mouth can be the fastest way to getting a job.
5. Put a flyer up at your local tack shop or feed store, "Groom For Hire," listing your information and experience. Trainers and farmers frequent these places, and even private horse owners are sometimes looking for help, and you might find an ad already posted for a groom.
6. Check Craigslist. Look under "farm" and "pets." You might want to post an ad looking for work. Check back weekly with them, as their postings change each day.
7. In the meantime, go to your local rental stable and offer to work as a trail guide. They are almost always looking for a helping hand, especially on the weekends in the summer. If you're willing to start by working for tips, you might have yourself a job.