Hunter-Jumper stables used to the same thing. They called us “working students” and we mucked stalls and did other barn chores in exchange for riding lessons or the opportunity to school some of the client horses when they couldn’t make it out to ride every day. I have such great memories of those days and made lifelong friends. It’s my understanding the big show stables no longer do working student programs due to insurance liability and instead hire illegals to do the barn chores. The other factor was the revelations that came out a while back (long before the MeToo movement) that some of the working students, particularly at world famous trainer Jimmy Williams’ stable in California, were being raped and told to shut up or they would lose their opportunity to show. He raped Olympic Show Jumper Anne Kursinski the first time when she was 11 years old and it went on for years.
Awful! I was 10 to 12 and did everything. I loved even cleaning the stalls just to be around the horses. That was in the 60’s before all the stupidity started. I hate that kids today can’t experience the freedoms I had as a kid.