Equine Apprentice Internship

 Painted Bar Stables is proud to offer our apprentice internship program. This Program is fast paced and filled with educational opportunities only gained by working in the industry. 

A leader in the trail riding industry in the Finger Lakes Region, Painted Bar Stables is a 125 acre ranch and stable located on Seneca Lake in the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country. We maintain roughly 30 head of well trained and versatile trail and lesson horses along with mares, babies and our stallion.

Internships will be catered to the interest and future goals of each intern. Focuses could include: Equine Schooling and Training, Instruction and Lesson Planning, Tourism Industry and Client Care, Public Relations and Marketing, Breeding and Young Stock Handling, Veterinary Care, etc...

As an intern you will have the opportunity to work in the training, breeding and general management divisions of the farm. Every day duties will include feeding, checking horses, saddling and warming up horses for training, grooming, guiding trail rides, teaching novice lessons, helping to head Girl Scout and 4-H camp programs, and maintaining a clean professional working environment. 

Depending on the ride schedule and time of year, interns will be involved with trail rides, clinics, hunter paces, overnight guiding, horse sales prep, foal handling, routine medical care such as worming, vaccinations, farrier and dentist scheduling. If the opportunity aligns with breeding season, Interns will be able to foal out a mare and participate in the care of the mare and foal after parturition. They will also be able to assist with the breeding activities of our stallion such as live cover breeding on the farm as well as semen collection at Cornell University. Additionally, interns will see office and client management, record keeping and marketing practices as well as become familiar with required legal and insurance logistics associated with owning and operating a stable or ranch. And above all else, Interns will be able to further develop their own riding and training skills while riding available horses at the ranch.


Typical Seasonal Jobs

• September - November
  Foliage and wine tourists, boost in our lesson program, organizing for winter
  
• December - February
  Schooling and training of horses, incoming training clients, winter maintenance, winter trail rides as requested, lessons focused on bareback riding and technical riding .
  
• March - May
  Reboot of our lesson program, usually a spring horse show, steady increase in trail riders, breeding of our stallion.
  
• June - AugustSummer Camps, tourism trail rides, youth programs

Because Summer (July - August) is our busiest season as well as the highest demand for internships, we usually do specific interviewing for internships at that time in March. All other seasons have lower demand for internships because most students are at university. 

Compensation: 
This is a full time commitment. We provide shared furnished housing on the farm in our intern apartment and a weekly allowance of $100. 

Requirements: 

• Individuals must be quick and proactive learners, energetic, optimistic, reliable and professional. 
• Capable of interacting with clients and the public on a regular basis, extroverts preferred 
• Must be 18 years or older. 
• Must be able to lift an 80# bag of grain unassisted.
• Must have a valid drivers license and we suggest having a vehicle of your own
• Must have a cell phone with text and email capability.
• Computer skills required

Preferred Skills and Abilities include: experience in tourism businesses, public speaking, marketing and public relations, driving manual transmission automobiles, operating tractors, advanced computer skills, and experience designing and implementing projects. 

Minimum Commitment: 4 Weeks 

Riders of all skill levels accepted as riding skills can be taught and improved; however, assigned duties with the horses will vary based on proficiency with horses. Preference is for accomplished riders as a main benefit of the internship is the opportunity for unlimited schooling. 

We do not allow personal horses to accompany interns as past experiences have proven them to be a distraction from the learning benefits of working with a multitude of different horses within our stables.

For More information about our program please contact me by email paintedbarstables@gmail.com or visit our website, www.paintedbarstables.com. 

If you would like to apply, send a resume, references and a short video of you riding and/or pictures by email. You can also follow us on our Painted Bar Stables facebook page.

Dozer is Lazy

Horse: Dozer
Tack: Dozer's Western Saddle, Curb Bit, Waterford Spurs
Purpose: Trying to get Dozer to move

Description:
Dozer is definitely lazy. My trail riders have been having a really hard time getting him moving of late. I myself avoid leading rides with him because it just takes too much work. So, I thought today I would get on him and see if we can make movement a part of his life.

First off, Dozer is almost solely used on trail, not the arena. On trail Dozer turns on a dime and steers without issue. Well, in the arena that just wasn't the case and I can't say I blame him. Because he's never worked in the arena he has absolutely no bend. This is coupled with the fact that he doesn't flex at the poll, making it very hard for him to grasp the concept of "circles." He's got all of the straight-away concepts, turning on the haunches and the forehand (kinda), but anything requiring a flex or bend was out. Homework.

Second, I definitely will never completely understand gaited movement. I'm not sure I like it much either.

Right off, I noticed a big difference in Dozer with the spurs. He quickly got into his running walk (which isn't really running. We maybe hit 6mph). However, whenever I asked him to accelerate he pushed into a trot or a pseudo-canter. After about 6 times around the arena it was almost as though I didn't have spurs anymore. His lazy hit with full force.

Now, I know cantering isn't the best for gaited horse training, but I did want to get him MOVING, in whatever way possible. I was excited to get him going in any way, shape or form. That said, anything over his 6mph running walk was a miserable experience - he shook the clothes right off me - and it just took too much work.

After a great text conversation with Keith Reynolds, who continues to be my gaited expert, we think that the first issue to address is his lack of flex at the poll. Gaited horses truly need to collect, flex and get their bodies engaged to work and Dozer just isn't doing that. He suggested I get a bit with a longer shank to encourage poll pressure - my only fear is that stopping is definitely not an issue and that a longer shank might mean more of it. Either way, I think Keith and I need to have a trail date with Dozer in the near future.

Tally-Ho and the upper Gaits

Horse: Tally
Tack: My personal Western Saddle, English Bridle with Loose Ring Snaffle, Draw Reins connected at the side
Purpose: Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast

Description:
Today was the first time I was able to get some good quality time with Tally since she had her feet trimmed and shoes reset. My goal was to encourage a slower and smoother way of moving at the trot, and then to touch on her trot to canter transitions that are definitely lacking.

I used draw reins connected at the side to try to add an element of stability to her movement. I used them loosely and only as a secondary rein. My hope was to reconnect her neck and head to her body. She tends to overflex her neck onto turns or as avoidance and I wanted to try to get her back in line. While she was very responsive to the draw reins I definitely want to ride her without them as she leans into them as a crutch. They are providing her the support she needs to straighten out but I don't feel like they are teaching her the lesson I had hoped.

While Tally will never be a really smooth ride, particularly at the trot, I found her gaits much improved from a week ago when she had her shoes reset. Her feet had definitely been too long and was affecting her way of movement.

We worked for an extended amount of time on her trot. My main goal for her trot is to slow it down. The energy that she puts into it is being translated into upward movement instead of propulsion so I wanted to take some of that energy out of the equation and replace it with focus.

As different as she is from Beau, I find her struggling with many of the same issues at the trot as Beau had when I first bought him: high head-carriage with a hollowed back that is often substituted for a fake collection with just a deeply arched neck frame, lack of speed diversity within the gait, and a very bouncy forward movement.

By the end of our trotting work she was moving at a very nice slow and focused speed. She was much smoother and was actually engaging her entire body into the movement. While she was bending decently, she had a little bit of an issue fishtailing around corners when I asked for more bend with my inside leg and less shoulder with my outside. She was still overflexing around turns with her neck but it was easily corrected with leg.

I also noticed that she always throws me on the left post.

She still has a hard time truly differentiating leg cues in terms of direction and speed but as always it's there, just gotta keep going with it.

We practiced canter transitions. While a couple of them worked out nicely some were, as usual, a mess. I'm just going to keep on working on the concept of slow and steady. She speeds up her trot thinking I'm asking for more speed when really I just want the gait change.

Once I did get her into a canter we really worked to slow it down. It seems to be the trend of the day. She is QUICK, but fast at the expense of form and control. If I have her in a nice slow canter she steers nicely and stops, well average at best. When she gets going so fast it all is lost.

Next lesson is going to be called "Tally Whoa," for sure!!