College???

Kso, I was looking over the internet and decided to look up some horse training colleges. I am wanting to go to a horse training college to someday become a pro. Horse trainer. I found one place, it's called Meredith Manor (MM).
I was wondering if anyone has went to that college before, and if they did, was it good there? Why or why not? Did you learn lots there? I would really like lots of information about the place.
Also, does anyone know where this place is located? I looked on their site and bit and didn't find it.
Thanks so much!

There have been a few threads about Meredith Manor and the general consensus is that the education may be nice, but the living situations are less than ideal. What are you looking to pursue there? There are other colleges (two of them I applied to) that offer degrees in equestrian science, if that's what you're looking for. First being Stephens College. Point blank, I loooove Stephens, but it is an all women's college. The second is Ohio University-Southern Campus. I never visited this campus, but I heard there are no actual dorms, but you can live with families in the surrounding areas or in apartments

http://www.stephens.edu/academics/programs/equestrian/

http://www.catalogs.ohio.edu/preview...9&returnto=789

This is just my opinion but I think you would be just as well off sending me $40,000 and I would send you a certificated on very nice paper with very nice caligraphy hell I'd even frame it for you. Then you would not be out as much time and you could get a degree from a real college that would be useful in other fields. I see little point in any "college" that limits your options. The entire point of a college education is to expand your options. Getting a business degree and working summers for a trainer would do the same thing for you but you would have a degree that is valuable in every field. If the horse "colleges" do as well at preparing thier students to be professional horseman as traditional colleges do in preparing thier students to enter thier chosen field you would end up with a very expensive piece of paper and still have to work for a trainer as a student.

I thought the same thing as Kevin. It is a waste of time. There is no real money in horses. Boarding doesn't even pay that well. You need benefits, a pension plan and MONEY.. Get a degree that pays well and enjoy horses as a hobby, not a source of income.
It is romanitic to think you can spend all your time with horses but not practical.
You want to make money on horses?? Shoe. It pays well but is not for everyone.
Get a real education, a good job and then enjoy horses.

I am going to a "horse college" But no way in hell would I actually major in something to do with training. I am going the practical route (English major) with a minor in Equine Journalism. That's as close to the horse industry as a living as I'm getting! Haha

This topic has been rehashed a LOT - I think we need to sticky one of these threads haha! :) A few years ago I, too, really wanted to do the whole "horse college" thing. But I decided to take a gap year to be a working student (which was FREE) and I learned more in that amount of time than I ever would have at "horse school." I met a ton of esteemed professionals and they said they wouldn't touch a horse-college grad with a ten-foot pole. Farriers, trainers, etc - they all said the same thing. The thing is that riding is very different to the other career paths that you can major in - it can't be taught in a clinical, right/wrong way the way other things can. You'd be MUCH better off contacting your favorite top rider, spending a year or two as a working student, and then getting a NON-HORSEY degree to fall back on. You may never work outside of the horse industry but you NEED to be prepared in case you break your neck, back, whatever and can't do the horse thing anymore. You don't want to be 45 and a grocery store cashier, do you? Major in something you love, the thing you'd do if all the horses in the world disappeared.
Meredith Manor has a pretty bad reputation. The Olympian I was a working student for said the couple of MM grads she had were the most useless working students - they were unsafe, totally convinced that their (incorrect) techniques were right, yada yada.
Being a working student will earn you respect. It won't make you $100,000+ in debt. And it'll show you if you REALLY want to be a pro - a lot of people argue when I say that, but you can't say a thing until you've worked a 17 hour day, had a horse die with it's head on your lap, broken a bone and had to keep working the rest of the day, and been thrown into a cross-country fence - all in one day. A lot of days are like that, and the horse-college grads come out into the real world oftentimes thinking it's all pwiddy ponies and fun rides and ribbons. It's not. That's maybe 1% of it.

I've heard from actual students of Meredith manor that the place is a dump. Don't waste your time and money going to a school learning the basics 1/2 the year, and things you could easily learn online or as a working student the next.

There are some ways to get involved with horses that actually provide a paycheck.... take a 6 week equine massage class. Go to school to become a farrier. Become a vet assistant. Do what I did and start a farm sitting business... sometimes I've got up to 4 clients on any given weekend, doing all chores (obv. I'd only take on very small/backyard facilities if I was doing 4 in one weekend). Apprentice with a trainer for awhile, learn how to teach, and find a place where you can teach beginner lessons. If you don't mind picking up your life and doing something else, go on yardandgroom.com and find a farm to manage/be a working student at. You might not get pay/great pay for awhile, but there are some great places out there that just need extra hands, where you'll learn more than you ever will at Meredith Manor.

Riosdad, How do you think horses make no money? There are some horses out there worse thousands of dollars. To be honest, I totally disagree with you. Horses are something that I would like to get into, not just for a hobby. But thanks anyways.
And thanks everyone else, lots of help :)

For every person that is making a decent living in the horse business there are hundreds that are not. Just because a horse is worth thousands of dollars doesn't mean it made anyone any money. It likely means that it cost thousands of dollars to train the animal and the person would like some of that back. Trainers sometimes make a pretty good living but they work from daylight to dark every day and many still fail and get jobs outside the horse industry.

Riosdad has been around enough barns that he can speak from experience, as can I. The difference between the people that make it in the horse business and those that don't is the business skill and ability to deal with people not thier knowledge of horses.

there's no money in training, no money in boarding, no money in breeding. The only thing you can make a good living off is shoing.
I have a great day time job, one with benefits, with a pension plan and through it I can afford to play all I want with horses.
How are you going to make money off horses?? Buy a place, start a boarding business. Again no money in boarding.
Lessons are the big payers in owning a stable but it involves 100's of little kids, their parents and you have to own an arena and lots of school horses.
No make money elsewhere and keep horses as a hobby.