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Articles: Horse Tips
Make Money With Horses
By Don Blazer
Being a "professional" means more than getting "paid" -- if you expect to earn a living with horses.
So many call themselves "professionals", but have no clue as to what it truly encompasses. They want to get paid for giving advice about the care of a horse, or his training, yet they often have less knowledge than the horse owner.
There are so many "unprofessional" professionals giving bad advice or doing a poor training job that they have tarnished the image of good horse trainers and traders for years.
Most unprofessional professionals aren't making a living at training, trading or caring for horses. They ought to get out of the horse business and put whatever talents they have to use in another area of industry. Most of these self-labeled professionals have a spouse bringing in an income, or they have another job themselves and are being "professional" horsemen on the side -- nd that isn't "professionalism."
A profession, by dictionary definition "is a vocation or occupation requiring advanced education and training requiring intellectual skills." A professional is "engaged in or worthy of the high standards of a profession."
In the horse industry we have no "educational" standards or "licensing" for trainers, riding instructors or stable managers. (And I understand we are probably never going to get these things. Certainly the un-professional professionals (which are the vast majority) are always outraged at the idea of "formal education or licensing." "This is a free society," they yell.
But does a "free society" mean you should be allowed to care for, feed, train or house a living, feeling animal when you are not equipped with the knowledge needed to do so?
If you think I'm exaggerating when I say most horse trainers do not have the knowledge to actually train a horse consider that most "professional" trainers cannot provide an accurate definition of a snaffle bit. Most cannot balance a feed ration, would not have a clue as to how you can in seconds determine a horse's hoof balance, or cannot explain successive approximation as it pertains to behavior modification.
This is an outrage: a professional horse trainer explained to her client that you give horse's vaccinations in the neck because they have no veins in the neck.
I'm not saying there aren't a lot of great trainers without formal education -- here are. But their level of education and intellectual skills are back up by the credentials of "success year after year in competition," and that makes them professionals. Those that avoid competition speak volumes about their professionalism.
Professional horsemen have credentials and they make a good living training, caring and managing horses.
You can do it too, if you take the time and make the effort to earn the title of professional by academic achievement.
If you don't get the credentials by attending a college or professional certification program, consider this -- if you read one book a week on the training of horses, you will have digested the same amount of information on the subject as it would take to earn a college doctorate degree on the subject.
Set 52 books on horse training as a goal for the next year. Accomplish it, and I'll guarantee you'll attract more customers and be making more money than you thought possible.
Professionalism attracts profits.
When it comes to being a true professional in the horse business, only about 25 percent of those who call themselves professionals have actually acquired a degree, certification or put in the years of "internship" required.
Professionalism is more than getting paid, it is getting paid more!
Don Blazer teaches the online college course, The Business of Making Money With Horses for www.horsecoursesonline.com
Earn yourdegree, create your career, expand your knowledge, change your life!
Don Blazer is an author, a teacher a trainer and a trader. For more than 40
years he's helped thousands of horses and horse owners enjoy the best of
relationships based on knowledge, understanding and actions which are
mutually beneficial.
Visit www.donblazer.com and
www.horsecoursesonline.com to make your business and personal horse relationships successful.
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