clarajj83
Member
I saw that somone else had written about their BHS Stage 1 exam (which I found very helpful!) , so I thought I would add my exam experience as well, in case anyone is interested. I took my Stage 1 in March this year (2013). I will also add my Riding & Road Safety exam experience at some point, and my Stage 2, once I have done it!
Be warned, this post is very long, so it may send you to sleep!! I have had to split it into a few posts. If you have any questions let me know.
Stage 1 Exam Day
Upon arrival in the morning we were briefed by the chief examiner, and 2 other examiners. The chief examiner said he would flit between the two groups throughout the day and act as a moderator of sorts. The examiners all seemed friendly. They checked our membership, and then told us our groups. There were about 10 of us, so we were split into 2 groups. The majority of the candidates were dressed in navy show jackets, jods and boots. I was a little surprised at this as I thought it said in the dress code that although dark jackets are permitted the lighter hacking jackets are preferred. Anyway, I wore neither (!) I just had a navy Gap v-neck over a white shirt, tie, cream breeches, jodhpur boots and I had borrowed a pair of leather gaiters. Either way none of the examiners commented on our clothing or checked that our hats were up to standard so clearly they werent too bothered. We were allowed to wear outdoor jackets / anoraks during the practical/theory units as it was cold outside.
My group did Unit 1: Brushing off horses including putting on and taking off equipment first. I shall call the examiner Ms X for reference. We were each allocated a horse in a stable. The stables were dotted around the yard a bit so we didn't feel like Ms X was or could watch our every move. We were instructed to go in and to prepare the stable to work in and brush off the horse. Outside the stable was a skip, pitchfork/shavings fork, grooming kit, bucket of water. This is what I did, in this order: spoke to the horse before entering the stable so she wouldn't be alarmed; tied her up securely; skipped out the stable. (No need to remove the water bucket as they had automatic drinkers). Once done, Ms X then asked us to firstly to show how to pick up the feet and then comment on the state of the shoes. This went fine, I just said something along the lines of, "The shoe looks a couple of weeks old, the toe has overgrown it a little however there is not a lot wear on the shoe itself, this may be because she's only really been ridden in a school with not much road work"..etc. Once done Ms X then instructed me to continue brushing off the horse. It is worth noting that I took the exam in March so it was still pretty cold, so I didn't completely remove her rug when I was grooming her, I just folded it back over her quarters and vice versa. Ms X then spent ages with the other candidates, and in that time I had finished grooming. After about 10mins she returned and asked me to show her how I would sponge the eyes / nose. She said not to actually let the sponge come into contact with the eyes as the sponge was dirty so I mimed sponging, and explained what I was doing (e.g. wipe down and outwards to avoid re-contamination). Ms X then told me to show her some "vigorous" brushing with the body brush, and before I had even begun she had disappeared again! She returned another 10 mins later. I demonstrated my vigorous brushing again. She then asked me to show how I would brush the face. I used the body brush, although later I remembered I had seen a small face brush in the grooming box, which I guess I should have used. Anyway, I didn't remove the headcollar when I brushed the face - the Ms X didn't say anything about that but perhaps I should have done? The horse I had was a bit mare-ish and wasn't too keen on the whole grooming thing.
Mrs X went away again, came back, and asked me to put on a tail bandage, standing to the side of the horse (luckily she had a very nice tail to work with!) Once it was on she asked me to show her how I would take off, which I did. I went out the stable to roll the bandage back up but Ms X said to do that later as we had to press on with the rest of the unit.
We were then asked to fetch the tack and tack up. All the tack was marked with the horses names. My horse had a running martingale and a flash noseband. I took the straps out of their keepers in case they needed to be adjusted. The saddle was left outside the stable (resting on the pommel, against the wall). I went in, "measured" the bridle to her face to check it was an ok fit, and then put the bridle on. The noseband was way too high, so I had to adjust it to the correct fit. Once done, I put the headcollar back on, and folded the rug back. I put the numnah on first, then the saddle, attached the martingale, did up the girth and hey presto!. I put the rug back over the saddle and waited for Ms X. She eventually came over (she had been spending a lot of time watching 2 of the girls in the group). She asked me to name the parts of the bridle. Then she asked me whether I thought that saddle fitted the horse. I said yes, but I wasn't too sure as I could tell it wasn't a GP saddle, which she confirmed. I named a few parts of the saddle for her. She then asked me to untack and select and put on a turnout rug. I put all the tack away, got the turnout rug (which was amongst a bunch of rugs hanging up in the stable), arranged the rug OUTSIDE of the stable (remembering to knot the belly straps), went back in put it on the horse the correct way, no throwing it over her back! Ms X returned and asked me to show her how I would take the rug off. I started with undoing the leg straps - undid one, went round the front of horse to undo the other and Ms X had disappeared again She came back once more to check, and that was it. We were told to take the headcollars off the come out of the stables.
FYI, and I only learnt this 2 days before my exam, when I was doing a mock: in your exam when the horse is tied up, every time you go in front of it, or have to go under its head, unclip the lead rope from the headcollar, walk in front/ around the horse, then re-clip the lead rope. They don't tell you to do this in the books but it is a major safety issue - if the horse suddenly does something when you are walking right under its nose and he is still clipped to the rope you could end up being garrotted!
Another thing, when doing anything with the horse's head - brushing his face, putting on the bridle etc - undo the release knot in the lead rope, but leave the rope in the baler twine. Again, this is for safety.
We then gathered in a group. She told one of the girls she could go and get ready for the next unit. She told the rest of us that we needed to answer a few questions first. It is worth pointing out that the girl who got to leave "early" had been in the stable next to me and had volunteered information throughout the whole time and explained herself well. I think the rest of us had been a little too quiet, and basically only spoke to answer the question, and didn't offer up any more info. She asked the remaining group questions on tack cleaning how often would you oil the tack, what would you do with really filthy/wet tack, whether you would clean the bit with metal polish (errrmmmm, no!), what brushes would be used on a grass kept horse etc, and that was it.
See next post...
Be warned, this post is very long, so it may send you to sleep!! I have had to split it into a few posts. If you have any questions let me know.
Stage 1 Exam Day
Upon arrival in the morning we were briefed by the chief examiner, and 2 other examiners. The chief examiner said he would flit between the two groups throughout the day and act as a moderator of sorts. The examiners all seemed friendly. They checked our membership, and then told us our groups. There were about 10 of us, so we were split into 2 groups. The majority of the candidates were dressed in navy show jackets, jods and boots. I was a little surprised at this as I thought it said in the dress code that although dark jackets are permitted the lighter hacking jackets are preferred. Anyway, I wore neither (!) I just had a navy Gap v-neck over a white shirt, tie, cream breeches, jodhpur boots and I had borrowed a pair of leather gaiters. Either way none of the examiners commented on our clothing or checked that our hats were up to standard so clearly they werent too bothered. We were allowed to wear outdoor jackets / anoraks during the practical/theory units as it was cold outside.
My group did Unit 1: Brushing off horses including putting on and taking off equipment first. I shall call the examiner Ms X for reference. We were each allocated a horse in a stable. The stables were dotted around the yard a bit so we didn't feel like Ms X was or could watch our every move. We were instructed to go in and to prepare the stable to work in and brush off the horse. Outside the stable was a skip, pitchfork/shavings fork, grooming kit, bucket of water. This is what I did, in this order: spoke to the horse before entering the stable so she wouldn't be alarmed; tied her up securely; skipped out the stable. (No need to remove the water bucket as they had automatic drinkers). Once done, Ms X then asked us to firstly to show how to pick up the feet and then comment on the state of the shoes. This went fine, I just said something along the lines of, "The shoe looks a couple of weeks old, the toe has overgrown it a little however there is not a lot wear on the shoe itself, this may be because she's only really been ridden in a school with not much road work"..etc. Once done Ms X then instructed me to continue brushing off the horse. It is worth noting that I took the exam in March so it was still pretty cold, so I didn't completely remove her rug when I was grooming her, I just folded it back over her quarters and vice versa. Ms X then spent ages with the other candidates, and in that time I had finished grooming. After about 10mins she returned and asked me to show her how I would sponge the eyes / nose. She said not to actually let the sponge come into contact with the eyes as the sponge was dirty so I mimed sponging, and explained what I was doing (e.g. wipe down and outwards to avoid re-contamination). Ms X then told me to show her some "vigorous" brushing with the body brush, and before I had even begun she had disappeared again! She returned another 10 mins later. I demonstrated my vigorous brushing again. She then asked me to show how I would brush the face. I used the body brush, although later I remembered I had seen a small face brush in the grooming box, which I guess I should have used. Anyway, I didn't remove the headcollar when I brushed the face - the Ms X didn't say anything about that but perhaps I should have done? The horse I had was a bit mare-ish and wasn't too keen on the whole grooming thing.
Mrs X went away again, came back, and asked me to put on a tail bandage, standing to the side of the horse (luckily she had a very nice tail to work with!) Once it was on she asked me to show her how I would take off, which I did. I went out the stable to roll the bandage back up but Ms X said to do that later as we had to press on with the rest of the unit.
We were then asked to fetch the tack and tack up. All the tack was marked with the horses names. My horse had a running martingale and a flash noseband. I took the straps out of their keepers in case they needed to be adjusted. The saddle was left outside the stable (resting on the pommel, against the wall). I went in, "measured" the bridle to her face to check it was an ok fit, and then put the bridle on. The noseband was way too high, so I had to adjust it to the correct fit. Once done, I put the headcollar back on, and folded the rug back. I put the numnah on first, then the saddle, attached the martingale, did up the girth and hey presto!. I put the rug back over the saddle and waited for Ms X. She eventually came over (she had been spending a lot of time watching 2 of the girls in the group). She asked me to name the parts of the bridle. Then she asked me whether I thought that saddle fitted the horse. I said yes, but I wasn't too sure as I could tell it wasn't a GP saddle, which she confirmed. I named a few parts of the saddle for her. She then asked me to untack and select and put on a turnout rug. I put all the tack away, got the turnout rug (which was amongst a bunch of rugs hanging up in the stable), arranged the rug OUTSIDE of the stable (remembering to knot the belly straps), went back in put it on the horse the correct way, no throwing it over her back! Ms X returned and asked me to show her how I would take the rug off. I started with undoing the leg straps - undid one, went round the front of horse to undo the other and Ms X had disappeared again She came back once more to check, and that was it. We were told to take the headcollars off the come out of the stables.
FYI, and I only learnt this 2 days before my exam, when I was doing a mock: in your exam when the horse is tied up, every time you go in front of it, or have to go under its head, unclip the lead rope from the headcollar, walk in front/ around the horse, then re-clip the lead rope. They don't tell you to do this in the books but it is a major safety issue - if the horse suddenly does something when you are walking right under its nose and he is still clipped to the rope you could end up being garrotted!
Another thing, when doing anything with the horse's head - brushing his face, putting on the bridle etc - undo the release knot in the lead rope, but leave the rope in the baler twine. Again, this is for safety.
We then gathered in a group. She told one of the girls she could go and get ready for the next unit. She told the rest of us that we needed to answer a few questions first. It is worth pointing out that the girl who got to leave "early" had been in the stable next to me and had volunteered information throughout the whole time and explained herself well. I think the rest of us had been a little too quiet, and basically only spoke to answer the question, and didn't offer up any more info. She asked the remaining group questions on tack cleaning how often would you oil the tack, what would you do with really filthy/wet tack, whether you would clean the bit with metal polish (errrmmmm, no!), what brushes would be used on a grass kept horse etc, and that was it.
See next post...
