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hghlnd

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hi there,
I am currently looking at different colleges with equine courses but I am not able to find very many reviews and some of the colleges don't give much information on the courses that they offer. I am currently looking at:
North Highland College in Thurso, Scotland
Reaseheath College in Nantwich, England
Barony College in Dumfries, Scotland
Oatridge College in West Lothian, Scotland
I was wondering whether anyone has been to any of these college and what their opinions/experiences were? Is there early starts(which I don't mind) or is it like a school day with an 8/9am start and 3/4pm finish. Also, what is the average day like, i.e class time versus practical time?
Thanks in advance and feel free to PM if you don't want to post publicly,
hghlnd
 
Forgot to add that I would also be interested to hear about other colleges in the UK offering equine courses :)
hghlnd
 
Its been many, many years since I did my course at Oatridge but a lot of it was on placement. I am sure its all changed now and I think they actually hold a lot of the courses at the college itself. There is a lot of paperwork involved though or at least their was about 4 years ago when my brother did animal management.

It has/had a good reputation. Sorry I can't be much more help tho. :o
 
Hadlow College in Tonbridge, Kent. A long way away but a National Diploma in Horse Management wasn't a 9-5 Monday to Friday which many people thinks the case.

Early morning duties... Feed horses, skip out, groom, haynets, soak more hay. Breakfast. Riding, Theory lessons, course work. Lunch. Skip out horse. More theory, assessments including plaiting, shoeing, eyc. Make more hay for evening (weighed after soaking). Feed, skip out, put haynets up, soak more hay for morning. Evening duties (before dinner) muck out horses (usually have betweek 1-4 horses to do within an hour!) Including full muck out, grooming, haynets up, stable rugs, feeds down. Tidy yard. Dinner. Evenings usually spent messing about in halls of residence (*supposidly* doing coursework) Late night duties, check horses, quickly skip out, more hay, tidy yard. Bed time.

One weekend in 4 (so once a month) you'll have to stay in residence to weekend duties (so everything again, at the weekend but no lessons - just horse care)

All horses will be checked by yard manager, everyone will stay if someone hasn't done their duties correctly, until completly done. Usually everyone helps each other but with up to 4 horses it can be hard.

You usually do either morning/evening/late night. Unless your making up duties where you'd do 2 duties depending on how many you need to make up.

Almost all students live in unless very local due to having to do fair shares of morning, afternoon and night duties (just because you live far away doesn't matter, the duties are split between every body) and if you miss a duty (ie: oversleep or illness) you have to make up 2 for the one you missed.

Within all that you have vast coursework, assesments and work to do. But its all great fun and worth every minute! X
 
What about bishop burton and Askham Bryan. They are the big equestrian/agricultural colleges near me.

I go to reaseheath part time to do my degree through work (not equine)
I think they have a natural horsemanship spin on the usual courses, and they are, in the majority at least, stuck up fake little girls I wouldn't let within 50feet of my horses. They aren't the brightest bunch!
 
I went to reaseheath and would not recommend it too anybody!!
Theory lessons are basically 90% of the time you turning up to then be sat in the room for half the lesson before your lecturer would turn up and hand you a piece of paper or say go and research at the library, apart from the first 2/3 lessons of the year we were never taught anything in theory.
If you weren't an extremely brilliant rider already they wouldn't give you the time of the day when it can to riding lesson, you would either be told you weren't good enough to ride there horses or stuck on a little trekking pony plodding around the school while they focused on the best riders and basically ignored you.
The staff are all very rude and have favourites and if your not one of the favourites they just treat you as a slave!

If I was too go to college all over again I would deffinately still to equine but probably have gone hartbury
 
I can't comment on Scottish colleges as I'm the opposite end if the country ;) but please bear in mind that colleges are not there to hand you everything on a plate. There are usually plenty of opportunities, but you have to work long and hard to get them and make the most of them. You will get out what you put in, but nothing is just given away!
 
You don't say what you want to specialise in or what qualification you want to get (degree, diploma ...) or what you hope to do afterwards. If you are in Scotland have you considered CAFRE in Enniskillen (hop skip and a jump from Scotland :))
 
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