It is almost May and what that means for us southern equine professionals is that we can just about take a sigh of relief with the crazy winter season coming to an end. We have pretty much been at events every single weekend for the last month and have been going balls to the wall with a full barn and packed schedules since December and only now, with some horses going on vacation after their three days, and a few people going back up north for the summer, can we finally stop and take a breath…kinda.
What has somewhat stuck in my craw recently, peaked by all of these events, has been the future viability of professionals in North America eventing over the next 10 to 20 years.
As we all can probably agree, eventing is a magical sport. All of us involved in it from ourselves and other professionals down to the amateur who lives to do one beginner novice a month can agree that we are passionate about the sport and the horses. It is a fabulous sport to take part in, an exciting sport to watch, and overall, a pretty great group of people to be involved with. On the other hand, however, it is a sport that is getting very difficult to make a living out of and I watch with a tiny bit of fear and a lot of curiousity as to where it will go for the professional over the next decade or so.
Sadly, it is a profession unlike many others where you can be among the best of the best and yet not be financially compensated for it. One reason for sure is the nature of the beast and that our overheads to run businesses in expensive areas like Florida (where a bale of hay will cost you five times what it does up north) are an obstacle to business to begin with. But the other problem is that this continent does not financially reward for one’s riding. We went to two FEI events in the past month. At one of them Leslie rode a horse we own half of and have produced ourselves since it was coming five and he was 8th in a large two star field. That event cost us well over $1,000 to attend and our prize check was for $100. Last week Leslie placed 2nd in a field of about 90 horses in the one star on a horse we own that again we produced from a five-year-old and that event, although just around the corner from us, cost us over $800 to attend and placing 2nd in that massive field resulted in a shockingly small prize check for $400. Did not even start to cover the entry fee!
The fact is, there is no money in our sport. Which is ok for it to be that way as a hobby, or even as a ‘poor sport’ but it is not ok for normal people, like us, that do not take allowances from our parents, to exist on as a career. The Europeans get paid to ride, they get paid to compete successfully via prize money, and they get paid enough, if they are good, that it makes a worthy contribution to their annual income. That is why they will continually clobber us in the world standings. While they are concentrating on riding, we are running ourselves ragged just to make a living. Leslie and I have not had a vacation since before Christmas, and by ‘vacation’ I mean more than half a day off in a row. We event one weekend and then fly out the following Monday to do clinics only to come home to then teach the people at the farm to then fly out again on the weekend for another clinic or drive to another event. It is nonstop 24/7 work and if you are one of the ones that want to make a living, on your own, as a professional event rider without taking money off family after you hit 35, this is the life you have to look forward to.
The majority of horse professionals are trying to do everything, including own and compete their own horses on their own dime. Why? Because of the lack of ‘owner’ culture in this continent and quite frankly, the events here offer so little in way of owner recognition or prize money, what is the incentive to be an owner over here for the average incomed North American? But sadly, one cannot make, even burning the midnight oil as Leslie and I do, enough money to own and fund a string (and by string I mean 3, not 10) of good event horses. The few horses we own we produce to sell and then rely on our few and treasured owners to keep adventuring with us on a few horses. Without owners we cannot ride because we are normal working class folks who have a child and a mortgage and there is no way in hell we can afford the costs of a few upper level horses for each of us. But clearly this is a problem. None of us ‘true career event professionals’ and by that I mean those of us who receive no family help, we didn’t get into this so that we could muck stalls our whole lives or board horses, we did it because we are passionate about the sport and passionate about our riding and what is happening in front of our eyes is that those coming up, despite talent, and hard work are not going to be able to afford the sole reason in which they started down this path unless they are lucky enough to find a fairy godmother. If we want our sport to be kept alive as an organism where the ‘professionals’ are actually not all elite wealthy who don’t need to make a real living then we have to start making some changes now.
Before I start sounding like a whiner, I will preface all of this by saying that I know in many ways how blessed we are to live the life we lead. I know that I prefer being outdoors to a life behind a cubical wall, I know that I am lucky to spend weekends with my family even if they are ‘working weekends’ and I know that it is a life I have chosen and I am lucky to spend it with the animal I most admire. But that aside, the reality is that unless we want a future world where the ‘professionals’ are a privileged few that choose to do the odd lesson or coaching as a guise that they are actually making money, or where the only professionals are the ones that are lucky enough to find a Ms. Mars …something’s got to change. I have no problem whatsoever with those that are from privileged families and work hard and do well in our sport and don’t have to work their tails off like we do. What I do have a problem with is that our sport is morphing into one where ONLY those will prevail. Furthermore, I bet many of those currently forced into taxing their family would be more than happy to have the ability to make more money so they could tax their family less; or perhaps not at all?
A desirable career to me should be defined by the capability to make money consistent with one’s ability and success. I would never wish for my son to grow up into a career like ours where you can be very good, work like a dog, and yet still not make enough money to have a few days off here and there if he wishes to pursue his own riding as well. This is a problem, because like myself, others are looking at our sport and saying, “Why do we want to encourage our children into this when a) there’s no money and b)it can be dangerous”.
To make the sport a viable career I firmly believe there needs to be a massive push for prize money in at least the prelim level and up and especially in the expensive FEI classes. Why? Because in Europe, if you and your horse are good enough, you can sustain said horse via prize money and even make a portion of your living out of said money So if you are a self-sustained rider and you produce a horse good enough up the grades you will win enough money to sustain that horse at least. Why else? Because the idea that one can win enough money to sustain a horse is very attractive to owners and that is the other thing our riders so desperately need is owners. You cannot make enough money in this sport to buy and care for your own horses. You just cannot. Well, perhaps you can if you wish to live in debt, have no 401 K or try to save for at least a portion of your child’s college fund. You need owners to support you and this continent is desperate for owners. Right now we have a few fabulous big money owners supporting a very few riders and they are jewels every one of them but there are not enough of them to sustain a flow of horses needed to compete with the rest of the world and their masses of owners. If we have viable prize money normal middle income people could become owners for event riders in this country as they would get something back to help them sustain their horses.
When Leslie ran his two famous greys in the peak of their competitive career those horses won enough money that they paid the good majority of their owner’s bills themselves! Can you fathom that? Ok, so Leslie is an exception to the rule, in the top 1% of event horse producers to be fair, but even take an average rider of moderate to good success. If you could offer your owner a possibility of wining enough money that would at least take care of your entry fees, don’t you think that is one hell of an incentive? Many don’t realize that in other countries prize money is MANDITORY if you want to hold any event at the prelim level and up. Mandatory! There is a reason for that and it works and helps the riders, helps the owners, and helps the sport in general. It is about time the sport went that way over here.
Now I have read enough ‘chat boards’ in my time to know that some extremists out there are shouting out that prize money will ‘ruin’ the sport and that perhaps they don’t even believe you need the upper levels and that Eventing USA would be better off without those of us that make a living at it. But I am sorry; you are wrong. The upper level professionals and the lowest of amateurs out there, and everything in between? We need each other. We are all part of the cog of eventing and we very much have a symbiotic relationship that would fail without the other. I cannot live without my amateur clients that make up 1/3 my income. Yet likewise, they cannot live without the professionals. The professionals are the ones that produce the horses they so love to ride, that help them when their horse is having difficulties, the professionals will tell you if you child is dangerous on a certain horse or if a horse is a danger to your child, the professionals are going to be the ones standing beside you having helped you achieve your dream of winning a training, and the professionals are what provide the entertainment during Rolex or Badminton week. We all very much need each other.
I am not advocating for a world in which professional riders just solely ride horses their entire lives. I wouldn’t give up my teaching, nor would Leslie give up his clinics or his Developing Rider’s job as we love doing those things. What I am advocating is a world in which the event professional can make a decent income if they are good, without having to work 24/7. I would never give up my amateur ladies or up and coming young riders as I take so much pleasure in being a part of making their dreams come true. But I should be allowed to look after myself in the process.
The most obvious modern day example of how desperate our sport as a career is, is Facebook. Every time I look at Facebook some ‘professional’ rider is trying to sell me some product that will make my skin look fantastic or a drink that will make me lose weight. They are going overboard with trying to sell this stuff. Why? Because they are not making enough money in their horse career to fund themselves! Many of them are present or past team riders, other having ridden at the three star level, and yet here they are the equivalent of the Avon ladies begging on the internet for clients even though they are working day in and out with horses. That is the biggest reality check right there for our sport and the future of our professionals.
Now before you blast me, I have nothing against Avon ladies or the desire to make a little extra income. Look at me here writing this! LOL. But the fact is these people are working full time jobs already and are doing these extras because they cannot make enough money in their full time job to fund their own horses. Coincidence or not, I have 1,214 friends (shocking I know) on Facebook and the only ones that are constantly trying to sell their skin care, diet, and drink, products to me are riders. My other friends that are gainfully employed in other aspects of life are not trying to sell a thing!
We need as a collective to make a push to improve the situation within the country for the event professional. Look, I am not suggesting everything in Europe is better or easier than here but in some aspects it is and we need to take note. We need to start doing our part to help events provide prize money and then we need to make it essential that they do so. We then need to foster the ownership culture over here to get more owners and then make damn sure we look after them both as riders and as event organizers. Unless we get working on all of this you are going to find a lot of unsavory results in the next few years, professional riders you love to watch and ride with are going to throw their hands up and give up, otherwise your board rates, your lesson rates, etc. are going to have to raise, and on top of it all, the North American competitiveness on the world stage, especially in Canada, is going to continue to be unexciting.
The American Dream is not alive and well in our sport, it is straying more and more away from that model every year. The price to be involved in the sport and profession is increasing at a much faster rate than the return for excellence in the sport or profession and this is a recipe for disaster. The professionals desperately need the Amateurs but I am a firm believer that the opposite applies as well and the Professionals in this continent are in trouble with the exception of a very few. We need to all do our part to address this.
P.S. In order to put money where my mouth is and not just be the one that points out the problems, I will be putting my feet to the pavement later on in the summer to see if I can go locally to gather some prize money up for our fall events.
