Stablehand
What the work is
Assists with handling of horses, and maintaining and cleaning stables.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Feeds, waters, grooms and brushes horses to maintain their health, appearance and cleanliness
- Cleans and maintains stables
- Assembles, prepares and stores feed, bedding and horse equipment
- Assists with saddling and bridling horses
- Assists with exercising horses by walking, lunging and long reining, riding (excluding galloping), leading and swimming
- May assist with readying horses for sales, breeding and race days, and attending to horses at track work, barrier trials and races
- May administer equine first aid and assist in the delivery of some allied therapies, including massage therapies and ice boots
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a mixed sheep and cattle property in the tablelands, with a shearing shed, a stockyard and a small horse stable. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- Mustering the mob home at the end of the day with the dogs working well
- The shearing shed running in sync, with fleeces flying and the sheep moving smoothly
- Spotting a stock problem early and seeing the animal recover
Hard days
- Dawn starts in freezing weather when the water troughs are iced over
- A fence down after a storm and animals out on the road
- Long days in the yards in dust and heat, with sore shoulders by the end
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 841238, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.