Those with an Equine Science degree

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Minnies_Mum

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What job do you do? Are you doing a job related to the degree or something totally different?

My sister doesn't really know what she wants to do/be, so she thought an equine science degree would be good as she's horsey. But she's worried that she won't be able to get a horse related job at the end, or that she will only be able to get jobs that she could have got anyway without racking up debt from 3 years at uni.

Any help would be good, thanks.
 
The thing about doing a degree is that it proves you can work to a high standard, and therefore can help with any job out of the equine industry as well
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But yes, there are jobs out there, and in fact, I saw one advertised recently requiring a BSc, with a salary of around £70,000 a year, it was for a biomechanical analysis group, and you worked as your own boss.
 
I did an HND in Equine Science (as I wanted to do the practical side not just all the theory and get no riding), I work in a sort of horse related job (insuring them) but it's not ideal really. I have another friend who works at Lingfield racecourse on the marketing side and training to assist the clerk of the course I think (or she did that years ago anyway). I think it all depends whether she wants to work with horses in a practical way or just in a job relating to them.

At present I am looking at jobs with feed/supplement companies (want a change) but amny of them do require more nuitritional related qualifications than i have but maybe would have ahd if I'd done a degree.

Another friend of mine worked as an underwriter for a horse insurance company (insuring high valued bloodstock etc) in london and that was a very good salary and various perks included!
 
The best thing for her to do is a foundation degree. This is very hands on, will give her lots of experience, but will also include enough science. This will give her a good all round qualification. Doing a science degree (as I have done) tends to only lead to science related less hands on equine jobs. However, if you work hard enough and achieve very high grades and impress your lecturers, there is nothing you can't do, as if you were lucky enough to have lecturers like me, they will help you any way they can to help you get the job you want. Good luck!
 
I did a HND in Equine Science at Hartpury and to be perfectly honest, in hind sight I do regret not studying something more useful to help me with my career. I am in an office based job now working for a company that makes credit cards and mobile phone sim cards as I found the type of jobs out there in the equine industry were either slave labour as somebody elses skivvy (which is the whole reason I went through higher education as I wanted to avoid this!) or more interesting but still very badly paid. Potential employers look at my HND with a confused expression on their faces as they usually feel it isn't really relevant to anything I do now aven though it does prove that I am capable of studying to a certain level.

I think there are too many people coming out of colleges like Hartpury with qualifactions for which there is a limited requirement for - unfortuantely this ends up devalueing the HND/degree as people who are desperate to work with horses will usually do so for nothing. The jobs I have had with horses I actually got offered because of my BHS qualifaction and experience, not my HND.
 
I am about to finish my final year of a BSc (Hons) Equine Studies - which is more business-y than a straight equine science. The business side of it I find incredibly boring but it has enabled me to understand business better. I haven't really got a clue what to do with myself from July onwards, but I'm certain I don't want to work directly with horses and so am looking at random things like accounting
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TBH the only way I could use my degree as a science degree would be if I got a first. I'm hoping to get a 2:1, which I can use to get a job by saying "it's a degree, I managed to finish it and get a fairly good result" but I cannot use as a science degree as far as I have found.
If I were to go back I would probably have chosen to do something like English/English lit or maybe even history, at a "proper" uni and not a college trying to run HE courses. But at the time I had no clue what to do with myself, I went to a pushy sixth form and everyone else was applying to uni, so I applied for the only thing I could apply for, horses. If I had more direction in my life I would have chosen something to suit!
 
I did an HND at Warwick and am now a teacher in a secondary school after completing an RTP programme. This meant I topped up my HND to an education degree and did a PGCE to gain QTS.

It has taken me two years and I am knackered!
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On top of a full-teaching timetable and tutor group I have had to do a degree and complete a portfolio to prove comeptance!

Before I had a career change I worked for an equine college as a lecturer and then after leaving uni I worked on HORSE mmagazine and HHO and CountryLife.co.uk as a writer
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I did a BSc in Equine Science at De Montfort University (now Lincoln University). Luckily it is actually worded Animal Science (Equine), and I got a first, so to employers, I have a good science degree. Having said that, I don't have a job directly related to my degree, but I have managed to get a good job as a PA to a consultant in a hospital.

I had wanted to work for a feed company, but there are so many graduates for so few positions, the chances of getting a position with them are very slim.
 
I did an equine science degree at Bristol so mine was very sciency and not practical in terms of riding or management. I worked for a feed company for a year and a half, it was great fun but now I'm back at uni doing a PhD is something totally not horse related. Sometimes I think I should have tried to stay in horses but relistically the career progression wasn't there. Feel free to pm me if you have any specific questions.
 
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