Equestrian Director Position

Camp Augusta’s equestrian team is made up of two to three wonderful humans excited to work with horses and children, instill a knowledge of the foundations of riding, foster a passion for horses, and keep our herd and campers safe at all times. This can be a great job for someone who loves summer camp and has horse experience.

Vision Statement: There are many different ways and styles of teaching horseback riding. Our goal is to find a practice that will excite, engage, and inspire campers to ride and learn about horses.

Interested in Joining Our Team?

When it comes to building our equestrian team, we accept a variety of backgrounds and experience levels – as long as our horses are taken care of and our camper’s taught well, we try not to get caught up in strict requirements during hiring.  We also prefer staff who return for multiple summers – returners often see a rise in pay and responsibility during their returning summers. 

We also have a smaller group of staff who work for camp year-round, that staff of any role may apply for. (Please note that off-season work is nearly entirely office work involving hiring or camper registration as we don’t keep our herd year-round)

If you are excited about our program, wonderful! The next step is submitting an interest form so a member of our hiring team can chat with you more about the position and walk you through the application process. Before submitting your interest form, take one last look at some of our most-desired skills and the job benefits.

We are seeking Equestrian Directors who are:

• Experienced teaching beginner/intermediate group lessons (4+ students)
• Proficient in the foundations of English and/or Western
• Experienced in caring for a small herd, including feeding, mucking, and basic first aid
• 21+ years or older by the start of our summer (mid-May) (an assistant can be 20+ by the start of the summer)
• Available for our full summer season (May 13th – August 11th; pre and post-season work is also available

Benefits:

• Fully funded Certified Horsemanship Association Instructor Certification ($900+ value)
• Summer salary ranges between $6,000-10,000 (DoE), with opportunity for additional pre/post season work
• Housing and freshly prepared local and organic food provided
• A tight-knit and supportive community of mentors and peers
• Opportunities for ongoing personal and professional growth (including a 3.5-week staff training)
• Internship credit (if desired and applicable to your studies, we can offer internship credit towards psychology, equestrian-related majors and more – ask us for more info!)

Our Ideal Equestrian Directors

Our summer camp has had some wonderful Equestrian Directors in the past who have established a top-tier equine program. Their incredible attributes are ones we hope to continue to have within our program, qualities like:

• A love for working with both children and horses
• A desire to lean into play, imagination, and silliness while maintaining the safety of our horses and campers
• A fit with our established program. We focus on setting up campers with foundational riding and horsemanship skills. We use bitless bridles, encourage a soft hands philosophy, practice patience, and share the knowledge of caring for a small herd of ten horses with our campers. We value the skill and the silly hand-in-hand.

The equestrian team will guide each lesson based on camper interest and skill, and will write and facilitate all equine lessons. To fulfill this level of responsibility, a well-rounded equestrian team must have the knowledge and know-how to pass their skills onto campers, including skills like:

• Beginner arena skills
• Intermediate arena skills
• Horsemanship and horse care
• Facilitating activities that fall outside traditional equine programs and require an understanding of horse temperament. Activities like:
  • Horse Painting
  • Bobbing for Apples
  • Jousting
  • Horsey spa day
  • Horse painting