Build your skills in Horse husbandry and management.
Note that each module in the Qualification - Certificate in Equine Husbandry is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
HORSE MANAGEMENT I
There are 7 lessons in this course:
- Horse psychology and handling
- The early horse
- Survival mechanisms of the early horse
- The modern horse - behaviour and memory
- Using psychology to handle horses
- Catching and leading horses
- Fitting the bridle and saddle
- Tying up a horse
- Safety rules
- Buying a horse
- Temperament
- Size
- Weight carrying ability
- Age
- Equine dentition and ageing
- Glossary of terms
- Dentition diagrams and detailed explanation
- Colour and markings
- Breeds
- Conformation
- The shape of the skeleton
- Body proportions and parts
- Conformation problems
- How to describe confirmation
- The digestive system and principles of feeding and watering
- The digestive System
- The alimentary canal
- The Stomach
- The small intestine
- The large intestine
- Absorption of food
- Groups of food nutrients
- The composition of some common horse feeds
- The principles of watering
- The principles of feeding
- Feeding concentrates and roughages
- Feeding groups of horses at one time
- The grass kept horse and pasture management
- Advantages and disadvantages of working off grass
- Paddock size and minimum area needed
- Types of fencing
- The water supply
- Shelter
- Fodder trees
- General mangament of the grass-kept horse
- Management in summer
- Management in winter
- Exercise
- Grooming the grass-kept horse
- Conservation of the land
- Keeping horses at grass on small areas
- Roughing off and turning a horse out
- Grooming
- The skin - epidermis, dermis, the coat
- How the skin regulates body temperature
- Reasons for grooming
- Grooming tools
- Grooming techniques - strapping, sponging, brushing
- Using a stable rubber, dealing with stable stains on grey coats
- Oiling the feet
- Quartering
- Setting Fair/Brushing off
- Washing the mane and tail
- Washing the sheath
- Shampooing the horse
- Industry Applications
- Resources
- Writing resumes - employment readiness
- Competition horses (overview) - event horse, dressage horse, show jumper, endurance
- Educating Horses
- Breeding
- Farm planning
- Short term operations
- Farm business structures
- Quality management systems
- Whole farm planning
- Preparing a farm business
- Managing risk
- Sensitivity analysis
- Financial management
- Record keeping
- Finance sources
- Setting up a small business
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Differentiate between the different procedures used for the handling of horses.
- Describe the procedures for the buying and selling of horses.
- Develop a program for the evaluation of the conformation of horses on a property/facility.
- Analyse the digestive system, including structure and function, of horses.
- Develop appropriate procedures to manage a horse at grass.
- Explain the methods used to prepare horses for specific uses, including their grooming for different tasks.
- Explain commercial opportunities available in the horse industry.
What You Will Do
- Describe different psychological traits of a horse including:
- herd instinct
- memory
- fright.
- Explain how horse psychology can assist with handling a horse
- Compare different methods of breaking in a horse for domestication.
- Demonstrate how to put on different pieces of tack including:
- a head stall
- a bridle
- a saddle.
- Demonstrate how to lead, then how to ride a horse.
- Develop safety rules for handling horses.
- Compare differences in how owners handle their horses, at the same event or meeting
- Describe different ways of buying or selling horses.
- Develop a checklist of factors to consider when buying a horse for a specified type of use.
- Compare different advertisements for the sale of horses of a similar type
- Evaluate the features of a horse being offered for sale in your locality, to determine the value of that horse.
- Label an unlabelled diagram of the parts of a horses body.
- Define the different conformation terminology, including:
- girth
- body proportions
- leg settings
- conformation
- bone.
- Describe the preferred features of the parts of a horses body
- Compare the conformation of two different breeds of horses, based upon a physical inspection of a horse from each breed.
- Compare procedures used to evaluate the conformation of horses at two different properties/facilities.
- Identify parts of the digestive system of horses.
- Explain the function of different components in a horses diet.
- Explain how the watering of a horse, as observed by you, on a specific property is likely to affect that horses digestive processes.
- Evaluate the digestive processes involved in the digestion of three different horse feeds analysed by you.
- Differentiate between the digestive processes in three different types of horses, including:
- very active horses
- horses being rested.
- Compare the advantages with the disadvantages of keeping a horse at grass.
- Recommend paddock facilities, in your locality, which are appropriate for horses kept at grass.
- Prepare a description, and use illustrations where appropriate, of the facilities you recommended.
- Differentiate between the requirements of a specified horse kept at grass, at different times of the year, in your locality.
- Develop guidelines for managing a specific horse at grass, on a property visited and investigated by you.
- Explain different husbandry tasks which are essential to the management of the horse investigated by you.
- List the different reasons for grooming horses.
- Describe how to use different items of grooming equipment.
- Write a procedure for washing a horse, in a specified situation.
- Compare how to groom horses for different situations, including:
- dressage
- pony club competition
- exhibitions
- stock work.
- List the different applications for horses in modern society.
- List the resources available for different sectors of the horse industry in your locality, including:
- racing
- breeding
- competitions
- recreational riding.
- Determine the minimum facilities required to establish three different specified businesses in the horse industry, including
- a riding school
- a stock agent
- another horse business.
- Evaluate the financial viability of different sectors of the horse industry.
- Evaluate the potential of different specified horse enterprises in your locality.
EQUINE BEHAVIOUR
There are 1 lessons in this course:
- Introduction: Influences and motivation
- Why study equine behaviour?
- What motivates behaviour?
- Reactive behaviour
- Active behaviour
- Cognitive behaviour
- Species behavioural differences
- Learned behaviour
- Classical conditioning
- Stimulus conditioning
- Trace conditioning
- Delayed conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Terminology
- Genetics and Behaviour
- Understanding the basics
- Heritability
- Epigenesis
- Innate behaviour
- Selective pressures
- Social Behaviour
- Rank
- Conflict
- Equine Perception and Behaviour
- Imprinting
- Negative imprinting
- Sensory reception
- Mechanoreceptors
- Thermoreceptors
- Chemoreceptors
- Photoreceptors
- Stimulus filtering
- Communication and Social Behaviour
- Social Constraints
- Herd Membership
- Auditory signals
- Chemical signals
- Communication
- Co-ordination
- Cohesion
- Sexual and Reproductive Behaviour
- Sexual encounter
- Isolating mechanisms
- Birthing behaviour
- Foal imprinting
- Maternal behaviour
- Abnormal behaviour
- Learning and Training
- Conditioning and learning
- Shaping
- Extinction
- Habituation
- Instrumental Learning
- Thorndike’s Law of Effect (1913)
- Operant and Respondent Behaviour
- Pseudo-conditioning
- Intero-ceptive Conditioning
- Temporal Conditioning
- Biological Aspects of Learning
- Associative Learning
- Obedience
- Reinforcement
- Punishment
- Systematic desensitisation
- Counter conditioning
- Behavioural Problems
- Types of Abnormal Behaviour in Horses
- Diagnosing Behavioural Problems
- Indicators of Pain
- Indicators of Mild Fear
- Indicators of Extreme Fear
- Stress
- Stereotypes
- Stable Vices
- Prevention
- Ridden Vices
- Handling Vices
- Problems during loading
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Identify factors affecting equine behaviour.
- Describe the influence of genes on equine behaviour.
- Explain how horses perceive and how they respond to various stimuli
- Explain how horses communicate and the nature of their social organisation.
- Explain the sexual and reproductive behaviour of the horse.
- Describe the different ways that horses learn and how this can be applied to the training environment
- Explain how and why behavioural problems occur and how they can be prevented
HORSE MANAGEMENT II
There are 7 lessons in this course:
- Feeds
- roughage
- concentrates
- roots
- green feeds and succulents
- tempters and tonics
- salts
- feeding for special purposes.
- Stabling
- three ways to keep horses
- combined systems
- stalls, stables/looseboxes
- barns
- stable layout
- feed rooms
- tack rooms
- the medicine chest
- stable routine
- stable tricks and vices.
- Bedding and Mucking Out
- reasons for bedding
- bedding qualities
- bedding types
- choosing a system
- tools needed for mucking out
- mucking out
- bedding down
- managing the bed
- conserving bedding
- comparing bedding
- the muck heap.
- The Foot and Shoeing
- foot structure
- trimming
- advantages and disadvantages of shoeing
- signs that shoeing is required
- the farrier's tools
- how the horse is shod
- what to look for in a newly shod hoof
- basic shoes
- surgical shoeing
- studs.
- Exercise and Conditioning
- the difference between exercise and conditioning
- soft and hard condition
- exercising a horse
- the fittening schedule
- principles of fittening
- maintaining fitness.
- Tack and Tack Fitting
- principles of bitting
- the mouth
- types of bits
- where the bit acts
- fitting the saddle
- causes of sore backs
- care of the back when unsaddling
- saddle types
- linings
- girths
- saddle cloths and numnahs
- tack cleaning.
- Horse Facility Design
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Analyse the feeding requirements and feeding techniques available for horse husbandry.
- Develop a stable management program for horses.
- Explain the management procedures necessary to fulfil the bedding requirements of horses.
- Explain the management and care of horse's feet.
- Implement management procedures for the conditioning of horses.
- Describe the procedures used for managing the tack requirements of horses.
- Explain the management, including design and applications, of facilities used in the horse industry.
What You Will Do
- Evaluate different types of horse feeds.
- Explain the use of food supplements/additives including:
- Describe the feeding programs of horses, for different purposes, including:
- horses living outside
- horses with different workloads
- ponies
- mares in foal
- old horses
- sick horses.
- Compare the effect of different diets on the same breed of horse, studied over a two month period.
- Compare the different ways to keep horses, including:
- barns
- stalls
- stables/loose boxes
- combined systems.
- Explain the purpose of the different parts of a specified stable complex.
- Describe three routine stable tasks, including mucking out.
- Develop a checklist for assessing the design of a stable.
- Evaluate a specific stable against the assessment checklist you developed.
- Plan a stable routine for a specified horse, in a specified stable.
- Explain why bedding is necessary for domesticated horses.
- Compare alternative bedding systems, including different drainage and absorbent systems.
- Describe the bedding chores carried out in a specified horse care situation.
- Recommend an appropriate bedding system for two different specified situations.
- Collect four examples of bedding material suitable for use by a racing horse in a stable.
- Describe the structure of a healthy horses foot, as observed by you.
- Describe three potential problems with the horses foot.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of shoeing horses.
- Select appropriate horse shoes for six different specified situations, from a series of labelled drawings or photographs of different types of shoes.
- Describe the process of shoeing a horse, including:
- removing an old shoe
- preparing the hoof
- fitting the new shoe
- nailing on
- finishing off.
- Distinguish between soft and hard condition of a horse.
- Explain the principles of fittening for a horse coming off grass and being prepared for racing.
- Develop exercise routines for horses in three different specified situations, including:
- racing stables
- a child's pony
- mare with foal.
- Implement a fittening schedule for a specified type of horse over a period of at least two months.
- Analyse the results of a fittening schedule applied to a specific horse.
- List the different items of tack equipment, that would be required by two different specified horse enterprises.
- Label the features of three different items of tack on unlabelled diagrams.
- Describe the use of two different specified items of tack.
- Develop procedures for the management of tack in a specified horse enterprise, including:
- storage
- use
- repair/replacement
- cleaning.
- Compare the different types of fencing used for horses, including:
- barbed wire
- timber post and rail
- electric.
- Determine the facilities required for different types of horse enterprises, including:
- riding schools
- stud farms
- racing stables.
- Describe the facilities for showing horses at two specific locations, including:
- an agricultural showground
- a sales facility.
- Evaluate the design of a horse farm visited by you, for a specified application.
- Prepare a design, including one or more sketch plans, of a stable for a specified application.
ANY QUESTIONS? If you would like more information on the course or to talk to a tutor, please click here to
email us or call 0800 328 4723 (UK) or +44 1384 442752 for international calls.
Learning Facilities
ACS follows the old fashioned idea that “the student comes first”. Our staff are told to treat every student as an individual and respond promptly to their enquiries; and the facilities we have developed and continue to develop, are all focused on that goal. Facilities include:
- Offices in two time zones (UK and Australia) –which means an international team of academics are responding to students 5 days a week and 16 hours a day.
- An online student room with unique resources that are only available to students studying our courses, including online library.
- Bookshop offering quality downloadable e books
- A data base of 20 million words of unique information written by our staff over 3 decades that can be drawn upon if needed by academics for use in supporting our students.
- Systems that ensure assignments are tracked, marked and returned to students, fast -commonly within a round 1 week & rarely more than 2 weeks (note: many other colleges take longer).
- The school is active in social networking and encourages students to connect with us and each other.
- No automated handling of student phone enquiries. When you call you get a real person; or leave a message and a real person will call you back within a day, but more commonly within an hour or two.
- No additional charges for extra tutor support over the phone or email.
- Free careers advice for graduates –It is our policy to provide support and advice to our students even after they graduate. If a graduate needs help with getting a CV together, or advice on setting up a business or looking for work; they only need ask.
- The quality of academic staff is higher than many other colleges.
How our Courses Differ
- Courses are continually improved –we invite feedback from all graduates and change courses immediately the need is detected.
- Courses are relevant to the whole world –we try hard to teach make the learning transferable to any region or country because the world is increasingly a global economy
- Courses written by our staff, teach different skills to standard courses; giving a unique mix of skills and knowledge to provide a career advantage. Do you want an accredited certificate and the same skills as 100 other job applicants; or one of our courses with skills that no other applicants have?
- Certificates and diplomas are longer. They teach you more, and our qualifications have built a reputation amongst academics and industry as being a very high standard for this reason.
- We are focused on helping you learn in a way that improves your capacity to understand your discipline, apply knowledge, and continue learning and developing your capabilities beyond your course.
These things cannot be always said of other colleges.
Career Opportunities
Study alone can never guarantee career success; but a good education is an important starting point.
Success in a career depends upon many things. A course like this is an excellent starting point because it provides a foundation for continued learning, and the means of understanding and dealing with issues you encounter in the workplace.
When you have completed an ACS course, you will have not only learnt about the subject, but you will have been prompted to start networking with experts in the discipline and shown how to approach problems that confront you in this field.
This and every other industry in today’s world is developing in unforeseen ways; and while that is unsettling for anyone who wants to be guaranteed a particular job at the end of a particular course; for others, this rapidly changing career environment is offering new and exciting opportunities almost every month.
If you want to do the best that you can in this industry, you need to recognise that the opportunities that confront you at the end of a course, are probably different to anything that has even been thought of when you commence a course.
BOOKS
Visit our School bookshop at www.acsebook.com
- Downloadable ebooks that can be read on ipads, PC’s, Laptops, or readers like a Kindle.
- Titles are written by our principal and staff.
- Anyone can purchase books –ACS students are offered a student discount
