Anyone help?

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youngfarmer

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I have to come up with an idea to do my dissertation on, and whilst I have already thought of a few ideas nothing has quite leapt out at me.

My first idea was to do the fertility rates of stallions depending how they are housed. I realise there are so many variables to this kind of study which makes it slightly complicated, but thought it could be quite interesting.

My second idea was to look at major injuries and if these hinder a rider from riding at a certain level (at home or in competitions). I realise with this it is quite personal and would be complicated as you couldn't see a rider before and after injury. But it is something I am personally interested in after my own injury. Or does anyone have any other takes on this which may be slightly less complicated to do? I was thinking posture etc, but this has been done to death!

If it helps I am on a breeding and stud management course, but my dissertation doesn't have to be specifically about breeding or stud management. It can be on anything!

Thanks in advance :)
 
Is this for an undergrad degree? If so then a relatively simple, well thought out and carried out project is best :)

Do you know who is supervising and what their specific interests are?

I think definitely do something you have an interest in, my undergrad project was unbelievably boring although my masters one was fab! If the injury side of things is interesting I would have a bit of a read around the subject and see if there was a 'gap' in existing knowledge which you could help fill. Also think about what you want to be doing after you complete the degree and try and plan a project that will help you out.

ETA I don't know if you are allowed to contact outside agencies to ask if they have any projects running, I did my masters project for DEFRA and they even paid for me to do it :D
 
rhino said:
Is this for an undergrad degree? If so then a relatively simple, well thought out and carried out project is best :)

Do you know who is supervising and what their specific interests are?

I think definitely do something you have an interest in, my undergrad project was unbelievably boring although my masters one was fab! If the injury side of things is interesting I would have a bit of a read around the subject and see if there was a 'gap' in existing knowledge which you could help fill. Also think about what you want to be doing after you complete the degree and try and plan a project that will help you out.

ETA I don't know if you are allowed to contact outside agencies to ask if they have any projects running, I did my masters project for DEFRA and they even paid for me to do it :D
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Thanks for the reply Rhino, it is for my undergrad degree yes.

We can choose our own supervisors depending what sort of area we want to go into-we have such a large mixture of subjects covered by over 8/9 supervisors luckily so we can literally do anything (within reason)..

I'm hoping to go into training as my job for life, although would like to work in a few other areas of industry before I set up business. However training is largely covered 6 times over so there isn't much of a gap there.

Will definitely find out if we can contact outside agencies. I know a few people have in the past and some have been very useful (although some useless as well unfortunately).

Bugbee- as much as I would be interested in that sort of idea, it sounds like it would be very hard to measure. You couldn't be 100% certain that the major injury itself effected the horse mentally, it could be a contributing factor but something else may have also caused the issue. Possibly quite hard to find a target group for that as it's still widely popular to have a horse PTS if it has suffered major injury. Definitely something I will look into though with our psychologists. Thank you!
 
I remember years ago a stallion owner I knew suggested that the age of the stallion had an influence on the sex of the foal. Her suggestion was that younger stallions would breed females and older ones males. She was basing this only on the progeny of her own stallion, but it did have a certain evolutionary logic to it. It may be worth thinking about as a basis and then expanding on.
 
youngfarmer said:
We can choose our own supervisors depending what sort of area we want to go into-we have such a large mixture of subjects covered by over 8/9 supervisors luckily so we can literally do anything (within reason)..
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That's good, I got stuck with a parasitologist for my BSc and while he was really lovely, he was far too excited about worms and other nasties. :rolleyes: :D Though I did get to work alongside staff at Glasgow Vet School which was interesting.

Will definitely find out if we can contact outside agencies. I know a few people have in the past and some have been very useful (although some useless as well unfortunately).
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I would advise it! I was offered an EngD (and a well funded one at that) off the back of my MSc project, and had a couple of journal articles published :)
 
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