"Continuing Education" for a Barn Manager

[Wonders12]

Where I work sets aside funds for “continuing education” for staff. I would really like to start taking advantage of this more, but I’m not sure how. I’ve used it to pay for a seminar here and there, but everyone else is able to use it for certifications, conferences, etc.

It seems like the opportunities for riders like the Gladstone Program, where horsemanship and stable management is part of the curriculum, those sessions aren’t open to auditors.

So except for spending 6 months working a top barn :winkgrin:, any suggestions for where I can take advantage of this perk?

[betsyk]

I’ll throw out a whole bunch of ideas and maybe something will stick. If you wanted to learn more about the equine medicine side of things, maybe ask the vets if they know of educational seminars that are suitable for non vets but more advanced than the average horse owner seminars. If nutrition is your interest, the feed companies do owner-level seminars every winter/spring, but you could ask the actual dealers if any of their own continuing Ed is open to non employees. At the university level, I don’t know if there’s anything offered through the Ag short courses that would be of interest; pasture management? Extension (horse) isn’t doing much in Wisconsin, but Minnesota may have better offerings. Another random thought: if youre interested in anything like personnel management, dealing with difficult people, stuff like that, there are a lot of thngs like that offered to employees by the university. I think your tactic may have to be, decide what you want to learn about and seek specific opportunities to learn about that area.

[phoebetrainer]

What about a farm management course, or business managment, or accounting?
I like the idea of talking to your vets. Do you have a local college which does vet nurse courses? Sometimes they run short courses.

[Wonders12]

Thank you both so much! I’ll respond a little bit with hopes that it may help narrow down ideas for others.

The science side of everything really interests me, so I’ll definitely follow up with our vets and see if they have any suggestions. Both of our local vet tech programs seem pretty intro level, but I’ll see if any individual classes seem interesting.

Same with nutrition and pasture management. I’ll check on both. (I came from the land of no pastures to a property with pastures that haven’t been cared for for 20+ years, so the pasture management stuff has been a fun new challenge.)

I coooouuuulllllld potentially use it for the courses HR runs on conflict management, etc. But horses are more fun!

I am also very interested in human first aid/emergency response/risk management. But one of my corworkers focuses on that more directly, so unless it has a riding specific spin, it would be a hard sell.

I guess I’m just jealous of my coworkers traveling all over the country spending weeks learning and talking to people in their industry. I want that! :lol: I’ll try to get more realistic.

[tabula_rashah]

We had lots of continuing ed at the farm where I worked previously. We did things like attend lectures at New Bolton and our local vet clinic. I also got to do a couple of the nutritional seminars through the state college and we occasionally brought in clinicians that would work just with the staff for a day or two. Because I did all the photography for our advertising, etc I also got to take a couple of photo courses.

[Lady_Eboshi]

I’d use it for the conflict management. That will serve you in good stead no matter where you go, what you do, or whom you’re working with. Failure to get along with people, be they bosses or clients, is the No. 1 deal-breaker in almost ALL employment or horse-boarding and training situations. I took a course like that many years ago and one major tenet has always stuck with me:

"Approach people NOT as “I have a problem with you,” but rather “We have a problem with this.” Makes all the difference in the world!

In like vein, should you take a lot of courses in nutritional science or whatever, that has the potential to actually put you in conflict with the current management if you think they should change the way they’re doing things and they refuse. You won’t necessarily be able to practice what you’ve learned. But conflict management? Hoo-yeah, you’ll be able to practice that one EVERY day!

[mswillie]

Does anything like a basic farrier course exist? I wouldn’t expect anyone to come away an expert but maybe pick up some skills for emergency situations.

[Desert_Topaz]

There’s online based equine education. The two I can think of are Equine Guelph and University of Edinburgh I know you can take the UEd courses as professional development, and the Guelph courses seem to be the same. Online study requires quite a bit of self-discipline, but it’s awesome if you have it.

[betsyk]

First aid! Anything and everything you can learn about people or animals is job related. Anybody can get hurt at a barn and you may be the only person available. There was a seminar locally a while back about emergency preparedness, in a disaster sort of sense, that looked interesting. Tractor repair!?

Look at your job description line by line and look at your last review. When I did this for my job, it made my continuing Ed plan easy and obvious!

[Applecore]

This might not be formal enough to use your CE money on, but I bet you would learn a ton doing it and bring back useful things for your farm. I would see if you could use the money to go spend several days to a week at tip-top barns in your chosen area. Hang out with their barn manager, ask questions, see how they organize and order everything, how they manage their their horses, etc. For instance, if you’re at a breeding farm, you could learn a ton going to the top TB barns in Lexington. Dressage or show jumping barn? go to Germany/netherlands or wellington in the winter, etc. Basically, think of the very best place to do what your farm does, and go there for a week or so.

Another thing to consider is what your next ‘step-up’ next job might be, and target your continuing ed to get education in that area (feed rep - do feed company courses, and get to know people; stud manager - go to an amazing stud and meet people; general management - do courses applicable outside the horse industry, etc.).

[DancingArabian]

Check with the extension office near you - they often have a lot of one day or weekend courses for horse owners. I’ve attended pasture management seminars, various farriery seminars, first aid, etc. - all for a very low cost through the extension office of a local university.

[poltroon]

Coursera has a free online equine nutrition course.

There are events like the horse expos. The AAEP convention seems to have a lot of great info; my vet and farrier always come back happy from there.

[HungarianHippo]

Check out pursuing PATH certification as a therapeutic riding instructor. Lots and lots of material in that coursework that benefits you as a horseperson and rider (ie it’s
not only about the disabilities)

[babyeventer23]

My farrier mentioned a dissection that a group of farriers do every year; and I am looking into attending that. You could see if yours knows about any local opportunities!

[Wonders12]

I love the ideas for farrier courses/dissections, etc. I’ll have to talk our farriers about that. That and tractor repair would probably be very useful. I’m definitely lacking in that category.

[QUOTE=Applecore;8190240]
This might not be formal enough to use your CE money on, but I bet you would learn a ton doing it and bring back useful things for your farm. I would see if you could use the money to go spend several days to a week at tip-top barns in your chosen area. Hang out with their barn manager, ask questions, see how they organize and order everything, how they manage their their horses, etc. For instance, if you’re at a breeding farm, you could learn a ton going to the top TB barns in Lexington. Dressage or show jumping barn? go to Germany/netherlands or wellington in the winter, etc. Basically, think of the very best place to do what your farm does, and go there for a week or so.[/QUOTE]

It was recommended to me to put in a request for a benchmarking trip for myself, my supervisor, and a student this year. I’ll start another thread later on about suggestions for that, but I like the idea of doing it for my professional education as well. Plus, spending a week in Wellington in the winter would be a treat!

[betsyk]

The local farrier group meets regularly. See if you can get an invitation, though I don’t know if anyone who’s not a vet or farrier is typically included. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

[coloredhorse]

While all the above suggestions are great and definitely have a place in a BM’s CE plan, I’ll suggest a bit of a different approach. IME, many if not most BMs are pretty savvy on the horsecare side of things. However, they may be weak on business interpersonal skills, budgeting, HR, etc. Some general business development classes and seminars could do a WORLD of good for the BM that must manage not only the horses, but the facility, the clients, the vendors, etc.