Horses in Idaho? (Council: rent, school, living in)

[horselover123]

I've been looking at places i'd like to relocate too and so far, i like idaho judging from what i've reserched already. Though i'm not a traveller so i dont know much about places. I'm a country girl living in CT (unfortunatly)..i like the "western hospitality" concept. My fiance is working towards being a police officer. I work with horses, CT is not a great place for being in business with horses, ther's not a lot of $ in it to begin with...though cost of land seems best in idaho and horses may be more appreciated as a business there, i dont know... suggestions if i should move to Idaho?

[mistyriver]

What do you do with horses?

[banjomike]

Hi, horselover...
Idaho has lots of horses- possibly more than Connecticut- but as it is everwhere, the horse business is in the dumps. If you are a trainer, it may be tough for you to get a customer base at first. There are dressage trainers, show trainers, and working horse trainers who do reining and roping horses, and there are some trainers who still green-break colts for use as ranching stock. All of them have their customer base, and most have loyal customers who stick with them.

We have no big stable industries here, where folks rent a horse for a couple of hours to use in a park's horse paths (because we have no parks like that). Grooming and similar jobs are non-existant. Large animal vets are plentiful around here, and if you have experience as a vet assistant, you may be able to find work.

Idaho's wide open spaces aren't covered nearly as much on horseback as they once were. ATV's took away most of that business, but there are still successful hunting guides who use horses and pack strings, and some of Idaho's hunting territory is still better suited to horses than any other way of transportation.

You might want to contact the Idaho Horse Council for more up to date and complete info than I'm giving... they are a group that's dedicated to the horse business in the state.

[horselover123]

Thank you all for you're input, haven't been on lately with computer issues. I'm undecided yet, i have all the opportunities to do whatever i want with horses, i know that's what i'm sticking with. just undecided what route i want to go, which is why i'm doing more investigating other areas to see what can work best for my chosen path. I'm def thinking my own barn, lessons. i work at a couple barns right now. Im going to school for equine business management so i more want to see what's out there as far as other opportunites in the horse industry so i can pick my route.

[horselover123]

i'm going to do vet assisting come fall and spring i'll be theroputic riding instruction certified and hoof trimming, maybe move on to farrier work after that. i'm more in a phase where i want to do it all. so i need to narrow down. thanks again all!