Okay, so I've told you about my plans to go on an adventure abroad to explore and improve my riding and horsemanship in Europe. (Particularly Spain, France, Italy and Ireland) I've found places I'd like to learn at and now I'm working on my letter to contact these families/stables. The program is workaway.info and families post ads looking for help- you help out and they house you and feed you, and in other cases teach you as well.
I've never done anything like this before so I'm asking all my blog friends, if you had posted an ad like this, what you would want to see or hear from an applicant? Remember, they're going to be living with you and your family and horses- in my case for about a month each. What would make you prefer one person to another?
Or, what would you say if it was you applying?
Thanks in advance my bloggy friends! In other news, I'm never using that phrase again because it sounds awful and disgusting.
Haven't applied myself for anything like this. Only advice I can think of is that you get a good balance between letting them know your skills and training without sounding like you are bragging. I'd phrase the letter very humble, stating what you can do and what you can help with and that you are looking to further your own training and learning from new people and learning more about different ways of riding.
ReplyDeleteOther than that it may be good to mention if you don;t have bad habits (ie you don't smoke ...if you don't) or that you are a clean organised and tidy person, and friendly to live with or something along those lines.
Hope this helps at all but these are sadly just ideas, not based on personal experience.
Good luck and if you're stuck, I live in Scotland if you need any help outside of applying for horse jobs.
Thanks a lot! I don't smoke, although by nature I'm a terribly messy person- in my own house. Someone else's is a different matter. I chose the people/places I did since I think I could learn the most from them so I'm also trying to play that part up.
ReplyDeleteWe had a foreign exchange student one year. Although we weren’t looking for someone to work our horses, we did look for traits that indicated they would fit into our household. You don’t know what someone else is looking for in you so just be honest. In our case we were looking for a kid that played team sports (in our minds didn’t mind being outside, working hard and working with others) and was not religious (as we are a family of atheists). Other than that we really didn’t care. Naturally, I lobbied for the 16 year old girl from Germany that liked to ride horses!! But hubby said that probably wasn’t the best idea since we had a 16 year old boy at home. LOL! In the end, our student was great! He didn’t like horses but loved driving the tractor and helping out, so I was pretty happy with that. Him and my son will likely stay in touch forever which I think is pretty cool. So what I am trying to say is, just be honest. Tell them your objectives, what you enjoy most, your personality and what you like to do in your spare time. Even though you are only staying a month, compatibility goes a long way. Good luck. Totally jealous by the way!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of being honest...
ReplyDeleteThis blog IS you - it sums up your horse related experience (almost but not completely, of course), your approach to the wide variety of challenges you take on through your rehab work, & your accomplishments in stunning photographic proof.
While I'm not saying that sharing your blog with prospective placements is necessarily what you might want to lead with, it *would* give a person a lot more understanding of you than what you might get about them!
While you are playing up your desire to learn & improve, please don't be TOO modest about the skill sets you already have either. Wherever you land up, for however long, those places will be lucky to have you & will likely learn a thing or 3 from you as well.
Not gonna lie, I selfishly hope you are able to keep posting while abroad as I am SURE your experiences will inspire some great posts.
Thank you! Most of the places I've applied have had workawayers before, which is nice. The first place I want to go is in Spain and they have Paso's (which I only love a little bit. Okay, a lot.) and people say they were a great first time place. And not to worry, everywhere has internet/wifi so there should be lots of updates!
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