The Thriving Equine Professional | Career Connections, Equine Industry Resources, Career Advice. · JodiSpeaksLIFE: Speaker, Career Success Coach, Podcaster

75 | The Power of Intentional Networking: How Connections Elevate Your Equine Career with Clara Quade

·47 min·3 clips

Clara says she is a horse trainer and coach in progress, not a side-hustle.

Clara Quade is early in her career. Jodi Lynch-Findley brings her on to talk through the move from student life into a working equine role, and the conversation keeps circling back to how deliberate choices shape momentum. Her interests built over time. She describes a steady mix of internships, summer jobs, and hands-on work that gave her different entry points into the industry and kept her options open. Veterinary work mattered. Clara talks about equine veterinarians who were generous with their knowledge, which turned the job into real learning instead of simple observation. Breeding and foaling added another layer. The days were long and hot, but the work gave her practical exposure to tasks she had already been prepared for through college and ranch experience in high school. She also learned the customer side. That part of the story makes one of the episode's clearest points hard to miss: people skills matter in the equine world. Buying her first horse shifted things. The dream took about 10 years to reach, and once it did, the cost of ownership made it clear that she needed a job with more financial room. Intentionality keeps coming up. Clara explains that she chose different experiences on purpose because she did not yet know which direction she wanted to commit to, and that flexibility helped her stay ready for what came next. The host keeps the lesson visible. Jodi frames Clara's story for listeners, especially students and recent graduates who need to see internships, work ethic, and connections as part of the same toolkit. Nothing here feels flashy. The tone stays warm and practical, with enough detail to make the advice feel lived in rather than generic. It is a steady career conversation. The episode suggests that connections matter most when they are backed by useful experience and a willingness to keep learning.

As heard by us

A plainspoken career story about turning equine experience and contacts into momentum.

Jodi Lynch-Findley and Clara Quaid keep this focused on practical choices: picking summer work with purpose, learning through veterinary, breeding, and foaling work, and treating people skills as part of the trade.

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Why you'd press play

Build an equine career by making connections that matter.

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