Equus Education

Your Horse Career Starts Here

Friday Feature: Branding

by 1 Comment

This week’s letter is B. If you missed last week’s Friday Feature, take a look at Art (Equine).

There are many ways that horses can be identified and one man made way is via a brand.  A brand may be applied hot or cold (frozen) on the horse’s shoulder, neck or rump, depending on the breed of the horse.  For many breeds, it is required in order to register a horse for racing or competition.

The people who carry out this kind of work on horses need to have specialist knowledge, good horse handling skills and appropriate personal protective equipment.  Even moreso than an equine dentist, a brander must have a large clientele – horses tend to only need branding once!

If you’re interested in this line of work, be ready for:

  • a large number of clients
  • travel
  • visiting large breeding properties and sole horse owners
  • handling young horses

For some posts that relate to this topic on Equus-Blog, take a look at:

“If you have seen nothing but the beauty of their markings and limbs, their true beauty is hidden from you.” – Author unknown

March Challenge (Dream Job)

by 1 Comment

The challenge for your equine career for next month focuses on your dream job. Do you know what it is?

I encourage you to spend some time thinking about this. Consider:

  • Does my dream job focus on a particular breed of horse, a particular class of horse or discipline?
    For example, it could focus on thoroughbred mares used for racing or it could be any breed of horse that is sound for a horse riding school.
  • Is my dream job seasonally affected?
    Breeding can only occur at certain times of the year, competitions will be season dependant, horse sales often occur at the same time each year.
    This may mean that you need to consider other work to keep yourself busy on an annual basis, or it may mean that the ‘quiet’ time of year can be used to do other horse work on the same property.
  • Does my dream job require that I have a licence to do it?
    Training racehorses does, being a strapper or jockey do, instructing horse riding under many equestrian organisations also does.

Answering the above questions may help you to determine what you need to do in order to gain your ideal career. You may need to study, travel, or improve your horse riding or handling skills or something else. Once you have an idea of what you want to do exactly, it should be easier to work out a way to get there.

Once you’ve had a chance to get an idea of what your dream job looks like, write down what you need to do to achieve such a job. Then write down steps that you can take now – and act on them!

“He has galloped through young girl’s dreams, added richness to grown women’s lives, and served men in war and strife.” – Toni Robinson

Educational Tools Sale at TeachersPayTeachers

by Leave a Comment

Last year I signed up to TeachersPayTeachers as a way to create and sell horse related activities and fact sheets for other teachers.

Christine Meunier’s Points of the Horse Activity

It seems to be a great online resource for educators but also for people wanting to find an educational tool to pass on to their children or use for themselves.

Of course, horses are a focused area and TPT has resources for pre-school, primary and secondary school levels as well as further education.

If interested in horse related educational resources, why not take a look at my store?  Some of the products are free to download so that you can get a feel for what kind of resources I make:

At the end of the month (February 27th and 28th) TeachersPayTeachers is promoting a sale of many of the products advertised on their site.  It may be a great opportunity for educators to pick up cheap resources for their classes.  Check it out!

“No one can teach riding so well as a horse.” – C.S. Lewis

Horseback Summer (Horse Crazy Series)

by 3 Comments

Emily and Judy are the best of friends, have been since 3 years of age. Now the 13 year olds are excited about going on a horse riding camp for the whole summer. Only one thing could make the camp less appealing – one of them not being able to go.

Horseback Summer by Virginia Vail

When young Emily gets such a call from Judy she questions if she wants to go on the lengthy camp all by herself. After all, Judy is the outgoing one of the pair, not Emily!

Author Virginia Vail writes well about the young teen’s nerves with regards to fitting in, her level of riding in comparison to others and the sort of time she will have without her closest friend. Emily’s fears are quickly dispersed when she sees the first horse at Webster’s Country Horse Camp.

Her confidence rises as she is introduced to the group of ‘Fillies’ – 13 and 14 year olds she’ll be sharing a room with. Of the other 6 girls, most are easy to get along with. A nearly 15 year old by the name of Caroline who is very used to being pampered proves to be troublesome however and Emily soon finds herself disliking the teen.

As Caroline befriends Emily, the 13 year old decides she must have been wrong in her first assumptions, but over time the amount of favours Caroline carries out for Emily leave the young girl feeling concerned. At what point will Caroline expect a favour in return?

The first story in this series ends well, showing how Emily can stand up for something she believes in.

Author: Virginia Vail
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/182956.Virginia_Vail
Fiction – teens
In my library? You bet! A great introduction to a horse series for that horse mad teenager.
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

“A little horseplay… the way best to enjoy a summer day!” – Author unknown

Equus Education Store at TeachersPayTeachers

Equus Education Store at TeachersPayTeachers (Click to visit)
Equus Education Store at TeachersPayTeachers (Click to visit)

About Equus Education

You will find equine careers profiled on this blog and people interviewed who are making a career in the horse industry.  Equus Education aims to show others that horses can indeed be a sustainable career.

Explore this blog to find your horse career!

Want to be kept in the loop about future posts?

Privacy Policy for EE

Click to view Equus Education’s Privacy Policy