Experience with Horses

Outline your experience with horses here/the scope of your freelance services. If you’re looking for a non-equine or non- yard-based job please use this space to describe your experience skills/abilities and adapt the questions to suit your line of work.

I have a BSc in Animal Behaviour, Psychology and Applied Zoology and a Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (teaching qualification) in an animal based setting.

As a child, I regularly attended my local yard for Pony Club, hacking, jumping, schooling, theory lessons, tack cleaning, grooming, bathing and general upkeep. I then went on to assist in a Pet & Home sitting business for approximately 10 years – fulfilling animal care duties as required, while owners are away for extended periods. Involving administering of medication, relocation, exercising & socialising, grooming & general housekeeping & security duties.

On relocating to Cornwall, I enrolled on a Technical Animal Care Certificate and went on to complete an apprenticeship at the college unit itself, working full time across all animal areas. Fast forward just over a decade, and I now manage the outside area having moved from exotic animal management due to staffing complications. This involves lone working, instructing large and small student groups, out of hours call outs, species monitoring, record keeping, systemic health checking, ordering, collection & administering medication as needed. Devising & implementing new systems, monitoring effectiveness across the unit, tight time management, delegation, prioritisation & communication throughout teams & departments via radio, area diaries and online methods.

Key Skills

What are you particularly good at? For example: working alone, working with others, clipping, plaiting, turning out for shows, handling stallions, handling/riding young horses, non-equine skills etc

Organisation, working at speed, conscious of animal behaviour and human influence, calm to work around and my current role involves the teaching of college students, school students and vet nurses. Maintenance repairs, planning i.e. fecal sampling/worm control, weeding poisonous plants, pasture management, lone working and as part of a team, liaising with customers/visitors & professionals, administration, record keeping, a great eye for change in behaviour/health, experience in donkey and equine health implications and diseases, research in my own time and am a fit & healthy individual. I currently manage 4 donkeys, 2 ponies (who were rescued and developed Cushing’s disease which require daily medication and field management) and 2 mules (namely Wallace The Great, whom the dressage policies changed for due to his successes in dressage and agility disciplines) among other species on the unit.

Level 3 First Aid at Work & Risk Assessment trained.

Strengths and Weaknesses

• What do you most enjoy about working with horses?

The individuality of the workplaces, the roles, and the individuals themselves. I enjoy physical work, and the variety the industry provides.

• Is there anything you’d like to improve?

I would like to further my experiences of presentation skills i.e. plaiting, trimming. As well as any training offered.

• Why should employers consider you above any other job seeker?

As a full time member of a small animal management team at Duchy College – Rosewarne, I have worked with over 120 species consistently for the last 6.5 years, and qualified as a teacher in my time here. I am quick to learn, flexible, responsible, and have a wide range of animal species management experience, including area management of large mammals for the past 3 years, and exotic/ectothermic species for the 3 years prior, with management, supervisory and customer care experience.

Requirements

• What would you like to do or gain in your next job?

Any skills offered, I am flexible in requirements. Riding would be an advantage, however not required. Variety is enjoyable, as much as routine!

• Do you need accommodation?

No.

• Do you have any special requirements for any animals you wish to bring with you?

No.

• Do you have any ongoing commitments?

No.

• Do you have any holidays booked that an employer needs to know of?

August 24th-1st September