<p>I know a LOT about being a young woman with a passion for horses : ). That was me and it was a terrific and important part of my life. </p>
<p>Horses are prey animals. They can startle and run on a whim – so you have to learn to be confident and keep an eye out and have a plan for when the wind blows a scary bag across the road. By working with horses we learn the difference between what is perceived as hard or scary and what IS hard or scary. </p>
<p>Your D might find an avenue in volunteering with a stable that offers horseback riding therapy. The horses used in therapy riding tend to be older, bomb proof animals (very mild natured). The therapy is often offered to kids with autism, Down’s Syndrome, cerebal palsy and other challenges. Here in western WA, there is a lady in Yelm, WA who offers horseback therapy to veterans who are suffering from PTSD and it is helping many. </p>
<p>So your D would probably spend many, many hours cleaning the barn, saddling horses and then leading the horse and rider around in a circle – not calculus for sure – but important, healing work that might very well give her some self esteem and self worth back. </p>
<p>I would wholeheartedly support this path for a shattered or jilted teen. I would suggest she start with assisting with a volunteer horseback therapy program to gain experience and then branch out to other horse work (I would not recommend she do horse or hoof animal rescue until she has a lot of experience with horses – that, too, is important work but one needs competence to deal with frightened or hurting animals). </p>
<p>I would also encourage her to consider vet tech training or dog walking or volunteering at the animal shelter. Check out connections with those who take therapy dogs to hospitals (again, she could make a difference in people’s lives without having to master Freshman Chemistry). </p>
<p>Please remind her that her brain is continuing to develop. Brains are still making neuron connections until the mid twenties. Many people stumble at age 18 or 19 and then sail through that same material easily at age 24 or 25. College may be in her future – just not in “this week”.</p>
<p>My D has been on a Girl Scout horse team for 6 years and has worked as an unpaid “barn slave” (formally called an intern) for a couple of summers at camp. The paid jobs at the barn are few and far between since they have the additional unpaid volunteer positions for high school girls on the horse team wanting more leadership & work experience. They hire maybe 3-4 summer barn staff. We were just discussing all this at the barn today.</p>
<p>This particular camp fills the paid & unpaid summer barn positions with people the EQ directors are familiar with, almost always young women who have worked their way up the ranks on the horse team. This guarantees that the staff is already familiar with the barn management style, safety rules, GS rules and program goals, and most or all of the 70 horses on site. And the EQ directors are quite familiar with the staff and their work habits since the EQ directors have been the ones already training them for years. </p>
<p>We have some equine therapy sites in our area & they’re always looking for volunteers, this may be the best route for your D to begin working around horses. One plus for her is that she may be able to offer herself on weekdays if she’s got a younger person’s work or community college schedule.</p>
<p>There’s a certain rhythm and satiafacton in mucking, the smell of the hay, even the rest. I have fond memories. But, agree with Olymom that dealing with horses is a lot more than loving them. Or being able to ride a bit. It takes a certain hand to not only anticipate their reactions, but manage the ordinary mishaps that can happen. Most of us are more familiar with household pets. Horses have their own routine, cycle and particular needs - and their own signs of trouble. Barns can be cold, fields can be ankle deep in mud or muck. Add to that, horses are a major investment for their owners. </p>
<p>She needs to be prepared to start low. And commit to the hard work and being utterly reliable, even available on short notice. Can she do that? And, if she is easily sensitive or thrown off balance- and is seeing a counselor- my very first concern would be how ready is she for this commitment? Any input from the counselor? If she can find a position, great. She’s young and can either grow this into her work or it may be the gap she needs to mature a bit. But, working with horses is more than the romance of horses and their beauty; it starts with ensuring their needs are met. Good luck.</p>
<p>Google hippotherapy, she may be interested in that. You provide therapy for people with disabilities through horses. There are stables who do this in many areas.</p>
<p>I’m a horse person – as well as a pet store owner. I’ve read through the above suggestions and everyone is offering good advice. Working with horses is very hard physical work and honestly does not pay very well. I’ve been there, done that, worked the 80 hrs a week for well under minimum wage … etc! And I had the riding credential and the college credential.</p>
<p>My suggestion is that she take the CC courses, get a part time job, use her funds from the part time job to finance some riding lessons and hang out at the barn a little. She can get some hands on experience grooming and tacking horses, perhaps cleaning stalls and tack, and some basic handling experience.</p>
<p>In six months, she’d know if there is a real passion for the horse business – or if it was just a nice idea at the time.</p>
<p>Where does the desire to ‘work w horses’ come from? If she hasn’t really spent significant time w horses, she may not understand the physical labor involved with them. Does she like other animals? (most horse lovers do).</p>
<p>Perhaps she can get a job at a vet’s office to get some hands on animal time that she can use in a few months to get a horse-related job. If school isn’t her thing right now, I might not push it, but make her get a paying job.</p>
<p>It sounds like your daughter will be taking an unconventional route, a route that will have many potholes. </p>
<p>STEP 1: Don’t give up on her. It’s going to be an interesting 4-6 years to get her through school but you need to be her rock (but that doesn’t mean coddle her).</p>
<p>STEP 2: Give her a semester off to work through things. If she is really seeing a Psychologist then she DOES have some things to work through … give her that time.</p>
<p>STEP 3: Let her live at home but she has to get a job … any job, which will give her some reality of life without an education.</p>
<p>STEP 4: Take 4-5 courses at a community college and let her build confidence and prove that she can handle school. If you send her back to a university too soon and she fails then you’ve got bigger issues in front of you. </p>
<p>Take the slow and patient road to getting her back on track … there is no hurry, even though she (or you) probably doesn’t see it that way.</p>
<p>OP - Academic dismissal is definitely a bump in the road, but it can certainly be overcome. Emotionally she might benefit from a little time away from academics … be that with horses or summer camp work or even “Welcome to McDonalds, what can I get you?” Anything that will give her time to formulate what she really wants to do with her life. It is her life after all.</p>
<p>When things aren’t going well for my daughter I hear (again) how she wants to dump her current life and “go save the pinnipeds.” When things improve that ambition erodes. It’s hard saving pinnipeds … and it’s hard making a living with horses. As others have suggested, it’s a calling. Does the young lady in question have that calling? It wouldn’t hurt to find out. In addition to the excellent suggestions provided above, consider leasing a horse for a year. All the work, all the risk, and you pay for the privilege … the very definition of “commitment.”</p>
<p>I have kids who graduated from HS in '09 and in '11. I am very active on the "College Class of “13” thread, but haven’t kept up with the “College class of '15” thread. My '09/'13 left his four year school after one year. Last year as the college acceptances were coming in and everyone on the '11/'15 thread was so excited, I just had to keep quiet, because I knew from experience that a lot of freshman years would not go well.</p>
<p>There are so many kids who come back home after a bit of time in college.</p>