Hack4fun
Well-Known Member
I have no experience of the equestrian courses, but it is sad to read such negativity towards young people.
I have no experience of the equestrian courses, but it is sad to read such negativity towards young people.
I have no experience of the equestrian courses, but it is sad to read such negativity towards young people.
I have no experience of the equestrian courses, but it is sad to read such negativity towards young people.
I know someone whose (novice) mother ran a DIY livery yard, daughter went to an well-known Yorkshire college to do an Equine course, cam out with a Frst and applied to do a veterinary degree - needless to say, she was turned down. She went back to 'teach' at the college, apparently. I think that she is still there, possibly working with students with learning difficulties. It really doesn't say much for the standard of education there. And I agree wholeheartedly with EKW's character assessment, too!
I have no experience of the equestrian courses, but it is sad to read such negativity towards young people.
She gets 10 pounds a hour in a private practice. And double time for Saturdays plus if you want to go on the out of hours rota, it’s 20 pounds if you don’t get calked in and 50 pounds if you do. It’s not amazing salary. But, my point is that after two years doing an animal management diploma, the only jobs on offer were grooms work at min wage.
Which prompts the question - who enrolls on these courses? Surely the target audience is young people who want to work with horses; or at least, young people who want to play ponies for a couple of years? These stories of reluctant riders who can't sweep a yard or tie up a haynet suggests that the students have little to no previous experience, which seems... odd.Offered as much riding as possible to a young lady on one of these courses. Arranged a meeting and handed her the tack she looked at me blankly so I tacked up the pony and got her on board she refused to go on a walk round a private road without a lead rein and her boyfiend as a foot soldier bearing in mind my at the time 3 year old granddaughter rode said pony off lead in an open field I was horrified so no I dont rate them much either
What a wonderful idea. I’d love to knowReading this thread makes me quite sad. I know a few good kids who've gone to college at 16 to do equine studies. Mixed feedback. The girls who went to Hartpury enjoyed the facilities - but one did tell me she wasn't learning anything new. I thought she was being a bit of a princess but now I've read this she's probably not! Those two would have been / will be an asset to any yard because they already had the right work ethic.
Berkshire did a cracking job of giving another 16yo her confidence back after having it destroyed a secondary school. I think she'd have struggled with an apprenticeship on a yard straight out of school but is flying now. She did tell me there were a lot of inexperienced students on her course.
I wonder if any of these colleges keep stats on what & where their students end up doing after the course.
not equine but my daughter completed the two year animal management course and basically, she spent 80 % chatting in the library and the rest was cleaning our cages.As an aside, what exactly do they get taught/meant to learn at equine college?
Do they follow a certain syllabus like BHS/PC tests?
Which prompts the question - who enrolls on these courses? Surely the target audience is young people who want to work with horses; or at least, young people who want to play ponies for a couple of years? These stories of reluctant riders who can't sweep a yard or tie up a haynet suggests that the students have little to no previous experience, which seems... odd.
Yes, you probably had a lot of fun, but I rather thought the purpose of education is to actually teach you to be useful at something?
Many owners put their horses on working livery for a while because of time or money constraints eg a job change, uni or relocation. I'm sure that they imagine that whilst some of the students may be novicey, they will be very well supervised and the staff will be experienced and knowledgeable. They will feel that their horse is safe and in good hands, and any issues will be promptly dealt with. They certainly expect the staff to recognise poor foot balance, dental and lameness issues and to deal accordingly, after all are they not responsible for teaching their students to do the same?Not sure why anybody would ever send their horse there as yes it is very much like riding school horses as speaking from experience the level of students riding ability is very average - the majority of horses sent there are ones with issues to start with.
The lecturers are very supportive & knowledgeable but unfortunately now there aren't any horses for the students to ride!