Just a note for anyone in Victoria, Australia or more specifically around the Keysborough area who’s interested in getting into teaching/looking for instructing work. Melbourne School of Pony Equitation are on the lookout for more instructors.

You don’t need a qualification but can work towards your EFA Level 1 through the school and gain teaching experience. A sound knowledge of riding principles and tacking/untacking horses would be needed however to carry out lessons. A general lesson consists of one to up to half a dozen students who catch, groom, tack up their horses then ride and bring in and untack, groom and put away.

The school has a 70m x 30m outdoor arena as well as a cross country course, jumps paddock and other areas to ride. If you’re interested in teaching and are available over weekends, consider contacting the school for work.

“His hooves pound the beat, your heart sings the song – Jerry Shulman.”

tag: horseriding, australia, Level 1, EFA, coaching, instructing

Perhaps you’re interested in being pulled along by a fast moving animal that weighs around 500kg rather than sitting on it’s back.If you’re into trotters and pacers rather than Thoroughbred racing and would consider pursuing work in this field, it’d be worth checking out the harness racing site with a locality near to you.

Harness racing is pretty big business in Australia and I’m sure in other countries and it offers you a few differences to the thoroughbred racing industry.

You can still be involved in sales, breeding, racing and training but will learn about different gaits for a pacer, artificial insemination when it comes to breeding and a different type of jockey who is in a sulkey rather than on the back of the horse. If you’re able to land work on a property that breeds as well as trains, it may be possible to learn about artificial insemination and gain the skills required to be a driver for exercising horses and this could potentially lead to driving in races.

If you have an interest in the breeding side of things, I’d suggest looking into trotter studs in your area to gain some work.If it’s the idea of racing that thrills you more, than training stables might be more for your pursuit.

Either can be found through harness racing associations:
http://www.harness.org.au/ausbreed/int_org.htm – International Organisations for Harness Racing
http://www.harness.org.au/ – Australia’s site for harness racing, including links to trainers, breeders and news current to the industry
http://www.ustrotting.com/ – the US trotting site with industry related links
http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/ – for the pursuit of standardbred related work in Canada
http://www.raceapacer.com.au/ – if you want to be the owner, this site offers information on why you should race a pacer, costs, what you could win, trainers and other related information
http://www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/aahc/index.cfm? – Internet education via Bendigo Harness Racing

tag: training, artificial insemination, racing, pacing, trotters, standardbred

“Horseperson’s Glossary… Fence: Decorative structure built to provide your horse something to chew on.”

I was up Shepparton way yesterday taking part in a class for my Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and the teacher who led the class came to mention Skills Stores, an initiative that has been set up in Victoria, Australia to enable those with skills but not necessarily any formal training to be able to gain pieces of paper and therefore get up skilled in their workforce.

By the sounds of things, you can visit one of these skills stores throughout Victoria – free of charge – and through the use of a program on their computers, you can enter details regarding your knowledge which will assess which skills you have and once all of these are assessed, the program compiles a list of qualifications you could have based on your skills knowledge. Or perhaps a qualification you have the skills and knowledge for excluding a subject or two.

If this is the case, then you can choose to partake in those subjects at a Registered Training Office and get these marked off as well as the subjects you have already shown knowledge in. This is known as Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) or Recognition of Current Competency (RCC).

Although the assessment is free, there will most likely be costs involved to get these subjects/skills marked off but at a fraction of the cost it would take you to actually partake in a full or part time to course to get the piece of paper. Also, this is a more time efficient way to gain a piece of paper.

This has been introduced to give those who have been in the industry a while a chance to gain a formal qualification or for those who perhaps have been out of the workforce for a period of time but have the knowledge and need a piece of paper to gain employment. For example, perhaps you’ve been at home raising children and also looking after the family’s horses in this time.

Chances are you have good time and management skills (dealing with a family and looking after horses) as well as the practical and theoretical knowledge to competently care for horses.

As the children go to school you decide you want some part time work with horses but need a piece of paper to prove your knowledge and skills. You could visit a skills store and perhaps have already acquired enough experience and knowledge for a Certificate II, III, IV or Diploma or be short by only a few subjects that could easily be acquired before getting a piece of paper that could put you back out in the workforce, doing something you enjoy and earning money for it.

Some sites worth a look if you think this could be for you:
http://www.otte.vic.gov.au/skillsstores/ – Office of Training and Tertiary Education
http://www.skillsstore.com.au/

“Horse Person’s Glossary… Auction: A popular social gathering where you can change your horse from a liability to an asset.”

tag: course, training, australia, education, upskilling, career, qualification