Rules

Once you become an amateur you can't collect profit(from teaching lessons and stuff) until you're a professional right? Something along those lines?

More like once you take money from anyone while doing anything within the equine business you become a professional.

What if you're a junior?

If you are a junior you can do whatever you want. As soon as you become an adult the rules become very restrictive about what you can do and still stay an amateur.

If you are working towards you Coaching Certifcate you can recieve money for your coaching from whom you are coaching.

As Junior or Amateur you should be very careful with coaching...as you do have to over the age of 16(in Canada..sorry I don't know about the USA..Not sure where you are from so I'm just stating what I know) to legally coach. Experience should be at higher level while coaching as a junior. You don't want to be riding for 5 years, think you know everything (most people-at any age- go through a "I Know Everything" stage after 6 months of riding and up to 5 years of riding) and you are actually teaching the wrong thing. I've seen it before, it usually doesn't end up ending well. You should have insurance as well, on your property if you coach there, or insurance for yourself if you coach somewhere else. And possibly insurance on the horse if you are using your own horse.

Hope this insight helps.

If you want to coach you should get your riding level 5 or 6 and be over the age of sixteen.

According to USEF, Juniors (under18) can do just about anything. Once you turn 18 you're either an amateur or a pro. A pro is someone who takes ANY kind of payment for services (not just money). As in.... someone pays for your hotel room at a show in exchange for you riding their horse. Someone giving you free board to teach their kid. Etc etc. I know camp counselors do not count. But other then that, USEF is pretty picky.

From what I have been told and know from the rules of showing.. You are an amature if you are not earning money from horses/teaching or have any proffensional help from a trainer producer etc. :) x

Rider preps = riding levels. I took all of mine. English and western. Harder than I thought they were but I really enjoyed taking them! :)

If we are talking hunter/jumper it is a little more complicated than that. There are lots of strange loop holes that people found that are covered by the amateur rules.

For example - if you are paid to do anything (book keeping, stalls, lawn mowing) by the BO you are not able to ride any horses that the BO has and remain an amateur.

You can catch ride (not getting paid obviously) at the barn down the street where you do not get paid to do anything, though.