Interns and Training Programs - Our Perspective.
In the business of the horse world, there are really only two kinds of people: Those who make money with horses and those who spend money on horses.
Equine businesses are contacted often by bright, eager, young people looking for experience in the world of horses. Many are enrolled in college equine programs, most are horse lovers to the core, and all are looking for practical experience in an environment that is productive, interesting, and fun. They are following their passions and striking out, fulfilling their dreams and hoping to find a job that will result in making a living doing what they love. Their enthusiasm, energy and blind belief is admirable.
How we, in the professional horse world, deal with these future equine professionals is very important. Equally as important is the tone the university programs set. Most important is the interns' real understanding of the business based upon those interactions.
How has the business world so severely neglected to convey to future professionals the fundamental aspect of the horse business: that it is BUSINESS? How has the academic world failed so badly to properly give students real skills that will equip them to make a living with horses? And how have students overlooked the primary reason for gaining education - to achieve skills that will result in employment?
Students should at the very least be able to ask the right questions of their equine program, whether that be a formal university program, or an internship or work-study program at a real business.
In our opinion, most academic equine programs are unable to prepare students with practical skills, though they may do a fine job of teaching the business aspects. Students can tell us exactly how to feed a horse, but have never held a pitchfork. Functioning horse businesses are rarely successful enough at business to afford to have a student around while they teach them how to gain the skills necessary to be on their own. They desire unskilled help and can show students how to run a pitchfork, but are unable to pay for it because the operation isn't a proper example of a good business.
Romantic lifestyles, dreams, and aspirations aside; a good business will always ask a person it is going to spend money/time on, "How can you benefit my horse business?" and will only ask someone who is spending money on the horse business, "How can I benefit you?"
Businesses that are making money with horses are looking for interns who can and will be business people. Operations that are spending money on horses are looking for employees. INTERNS, figure out which one you are and then decide for which type of operation you want to work. Do you want to work for an operation that makes money with horses or one that spends money on horses? ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS, of yourself and your training program:
1. What do I want to do for a living? (Be specific. If by your senior year you still have no idea what you want to do with your training, you are in for many more years of specialty training.)
2. What work does this specifically prepare me to do? (Learning to break one or two colts in an educational environment does not prepare you to be a horse trainer, but it might help you decide you want to learn to become a trainer. It might get you in with a real money-earning trainer who needs some help, while you learn.)
3. After my training, what additional experience will I require?
4. Am I good enough? What is my competition and is there a market for what I want to do and my abilities.
5. Is the level of income and the kind of lifestyle of those established in the business acceptable to me? Where do I want to be in twenty years? Is this going to get me there?
6. Am I willing and able to continue to SPEND MONEY (remember, time IS money) to invest in a future living MAKING MONEY with horses?
7. Is this the right program for me? Does it provide the training required in the answers to these questions?
When we are approached by equine program students looking for internships, they are still SPENDING MONEY ON HORSES, to gain more education. In our world, they are no different than our clients who pay us to train them or to participate in an experience. This is usually an intern's first real world experience with an equine professional and it is the bridge between their current status and "the other side." Trainees lack the skills to be an income generating asset to any real equine business. To gain those skills, it will require an outlay of resources from the equine business. Therefore, interns must understand that it is simply more training and education they are PAYING FOR not MAKING MONEY from.
Here at the Mantle Ranch, we categorically reject equine program students because they are always looking to learn a skill in a practical environment that they FAILED TO LEARN from their academic environment. So, if for example you learned how to create a great website, market a horse for sale, or are becoming proficient at some practical horseman's skill, come see us. If you are on the road to becoming a horse trainer, bronc rider, farmer, or truck driver, understand those are skills from which we can benefit and for which we are willing to pay you with time and money. However, if you want to ride off into the sunset on a different horse every day because you were never allowed to touch one in school - you shouldn't have wasted your time in school in the first place. You can pay for that experience like every other non-horse professional. You should have spent your money and your time beginning to learn the real skills necessary.
STUDENTS - DEMAND SOMETHING FROM YOUR PROGRAM AND FROM YOURSELF. EQUIP YOURSELF TO MAKE A LIVING. GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR BY KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE BUYING.
SCHOOLS - PROVIDE YOUR STUDENTS WITH REAL SKILLS AND A REALITY BASED EDUCATION. DON'T ASK YOUR STUDENTS TO GAIN ALL THEIR SKILLS FROM AN INTERNSHIP PROGRAM. YOU ARE ROBBING THEM OF MONEY AND TIME THEY MIGHT HAVE BETTER SPENT IN A NON-ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT. DO NOT PERPETUATE THE MENTALITY THAT IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BUSINESS WORLD TO TURN YOUR STUDENTS INTO BUSINESSPEOPLE. IT IS THEIR OWN RESPONSIBILITY AND YOURS TO INFORM THEM SO.
BUSINESSES - DON'T FORSAKE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF YOUR OPERATION (BUSINESS PRINCIPALS) BY TAKING ON AN INTERN THAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD (with time or money) AND WHO WILL ULTIMATELY DO NOTHING TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS. THIS TEACHES FALSE REALITIES ABOUT THE BUSINESS THEY ARE ENTERING. IT SERVES NO ONE.
We're not knocking Universities. There is much to be learned and applied to life. However; they are not the key that unlocks the door to success in the horse business. Equine training, perhaps more than any other discipline, may best be left in the non-academic world. More often then not, a novice horseman who has a desire to become a professional is better served spending his/her time and money gutting it out in the real world of horses, living as a starving horseman in training instead of a starving student waiting for his time to be the former.
A NOTE TO ALL PROSPECTIVE INTERNS: If you want a position here at the Mantle Ranch, we assume you have already determined the experience will be of benefit to you. HOW WILL YOU SPECIFICALLY BE OF BENEFIT TO US?
Equine businesses are contacted often by bright, eager, young people looking for experience in the world of horses. Many are enrolled in college equine programs, most are horse lovers to the core, and all are looking for practical experience in an environment that is productive, interesting, and fun. They are following their passions and striking out, fulfilling their dreams and hoping to find a job that will result in making a living doing what they love. Their enthusiasm, energy and blind belief is admirable.
How we, in the professional horse world, deal with these future equine professionals is very important. Equally as important is the tone the university programs set. Most important is the interns' real understanding of the business based upon those interactions.
How has the business world so severely neglected to convey to future professionals the fundamental aspect of the horse business: that it is BUSINESS? How has the academic world failed so badly to properly give students real skills that will equip them to make a living with horses? And how have students overlooked the primary reason for gaining education - to achieve skills that will result in employment?
Students should at the very least be able to ask the right questions of their equine program, whether that be a formal university program, or an internship or work-study program at a real business.
In our opinion, most academic equine programs are unable to prepare students with practical skills, though they may do a fine job of teaching the business aspects. Students can tell us exactly how to feed a horse, but have never held a pitchfork. Functioning horse businesses are rarely successful enough at business to afford to have a student around while they teach them how to gain the skills necessary to be on their own. They desire unskilled help and can show students how to run a pitchfork, but are unable to pay for it because the operation isn't a proper example of a good business.
Romantic lifestyles, dreams, and aspirations aside; a good business will always ask a person it is going to spend money/time on, "How can you benefit my horse business?" and will only ask someone who is spending money on the horse business, "How can I benefit you?"
Businesses that are making money with horses are looking for interns who can and will be business people. Operations that are spending money on horses are looking for employees. INTERNS, figure out which one you are and then decide for which type of operation you want to work. Do you want to work for an operation that makes money with horses or one that spends money on horses? ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS, of yourself and your training program:
1. What do I want to do for a living? (Be specific. If by your senior year you still have no idea what you want to do with your training, you are in for many more years of specialty training.)
2. What work does this specifically prepare me to do? (Learning to break one or two colts in an educational environment does not prepare you to be a horse trainer, but it might help you decide you want to learn to become a trainer. It might get you in with a real money-earning trainer who needs some help, while you learn.)
3. After my training, what additional experience will I require?
4. Am I good enough? What is my competition and is there a market for what I want to do and my abilities.
5. Is the level of income and the kind of lifestyle of those established in the business acceptable to me? Where do I want to be in twenty years? Is this going to get me there?
6. Am I willing and able to continue to SPEND MONEY (remember, time IS money) to invest in a future living MAKING MONEY with horses?
7. Is this the right program for me? Does it provide the training required in the answers to these questions?
When we are approached by equine program students looking for internships, they are still SPENDING MONEY ON HORSES, to gain more education. In our world, they are no different than our clients who pay us to train them or to participate in an experience. This is usually an intern's first real world experience with an equine professional and it is the bridge between their current status and "the other side." Trainees lack the skills to be an income generating asset to any real equine business. To gain those skills, it will require an outlay of resources from the equine business. Therefore, interns must understand that it is simply more training and education they are PAYING FOR not MAKING MONEY from.
Here at the Mantle Ranch, we categorically reject equine program students because they are always looking to learn a skill in a practical environment that they FAILED TO LEARN from their academic environment. So, if for example you learned how to create a great website, market a horse for sale, or are becoming proficient at some practical horseman's skill, come see us. If you are on the road to becoming a horse trainer, bronc rider, farmer, or truck driver, understand those are skills from which we can benefit and for which we are willing to pay you with time and money. However, if you want to ride off into the sunset on a different horse every day because you were never allowed to touch one in school - you shouldn't have wasted your time in school in the first place. You can pay for that experience like every other non-horse professional. You should have spent your money and your time beginning to learn the real skills necessary.
STUDENTS - DEMAND SOMETHING FROM YOUR PROGRAM AND FROM YOURSELF. EQUIP YOURSELF TO MAKE A LIVING. GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR BY KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE BUYING.
SCHOOLS - PROVIDE YOUR STUDENTS WITH REAL SKILLS AND A REALITY BASED EDUCATION. DON'T ASK YOUR STUDENTS TO GAIN ALL THEIR SKILLS FROM AN INTERNSHIP PROGRAM. YOU ARE ROBBING THEM OF MONEY AND TIME THEY MIGHT HAVE BETTER SPENT IN A NON-ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT. DO NOT PERPETUATE THE MENTALITY THAT IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE BUSINESS WORLD TO TURN YOUR STUDENTS INTO BUSINESSPEOPLE. IT IS THEIR OWN RESPONSIBILITY AND YOURS TO INFORM THEM SO.
BUSINESSES - DON'T FORSAKE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF YOUR OPERATION (BUSINESS PRINCIPALS) BY TAKING ON AN INTERN THAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD (with time or money) AND WHO WILL ULTIMATELY DO NOTHING TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS. THIS TEACHES FALSE REALITIES ABOUT THE BUSINESS THEY ARE ENTERING. IT SERVES NO ONE.
We're not knocking Universities. There is much to be learned and applied to life. However; they are not the key that unlocks the door to success in the horse business. Equine training, perhaps more than any other discipline, may best be left in the non-academic world. More often then not, a novice horseman who has a desire to become a professional is better served spending his/her time and money gutting it out in the real world of horses, living as a starving horseman in training instead of a starving student waiting for his time to be the former.
A NOTE TO ALL PROSPECTIVE INTERNS: If you want a position here at the Mantle Ranch, we assume you have already determined the experience will be of benefit to you. HOW WILL YOU SPECIFICALLY BE OF BENEFIT TO US?
Thank you, thank you , thank you! As a parent of an MSU freshman who informed me recently that she wants to major in Equine Science, you have enunciated so clearly the pitfalls and weaknesses of that choice . She wouldn't listen to me, but hopefully she will listen to you!
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We find this is true at photography schools. Some of the best schools in the country are not teaching photog students professional skills. Preparing these kids to be starving artists with no head for the business of photography is not doing anyone any good. I hope our Universities are doing better but I really don't think they are giving students their moneys worth. That's my two cents worth.
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