Get an Education in Equine Nutrition
Online courses for equine nutrition are a lot easier to find than you may think. A quick search will reveal literally hundreds of online establishments aimed at giving you a proper education in equine health, nutrition, and so much more. Equine therapeutics, equine management, equine behavioural science – all of these great subjects are available online, one click away.
Who can Take Online Equine Nutrition Courses?
Anyone can take an online course in equine nutrition. While some provide credits for academic institutions, there are not generally any prerequisites to take the course, especially not for adults. If you have the money to pay for it, you can absolutely sign up for an online course. Most online platforms allow you to enrol any time of the year. Depending on your rush, you can likely find an online course starting within just a few weeks. Even days! Some run all throughout the year. Plus, online courses will generally allow you to pay in installments. This is great for saving money, as some can be quite expensive. On the flipside, some are less than $200 bucks for 150 hours of study time.
These courses range anywhere from a brief learning episode a few hours long to a complex 12-month course. Because we’re talking about online learning, the level of certifications upon completion vary wildly. However, if you are a person who loves horses and wants to broaden your knowledge, any online course is going to be beneficial to you.
These courses are designed for folks of all ages and all levels of learning. An online course in equine nutrition can be especially useful to anyone spending a lot of time with horses. Maybe you have been working at a stable for a number of years, maybe you’re a new rider, a new owner, or just someone who loves horses and wants more knowledge. No matter who you are, a well-conducted online course in equine nutrition is going to vastly improve your nutritional and dietary knowledge of horses.
What do Online Nutrition Courses Teach?
A lot. These courses can be extremely helpful. You may not know, but there is a lot to be gained through a knowledge of animal husbandry. If you want to breed horses, feed horses, and help horses perform better, some understanding of health and equine nutrition is necessary. Online courses can help you improve what you know, and enhance your time spent with horses. With a combination of online learning and real-world practice, you are going to be a master horse person in no time. These courses are also great for those with an interest in zoology and animal science.
Most online courses aim to give their students a full scope of information on equine nutrition, then how to apply that information to the horse’s physiology and biochemistry. Through theory and practice, the goal of many courses is to give you the necessary tools to make smart decisions when dealing with the diet and nutrition of any horse. This includes the horse’s digestive system and how nutrition effects their overall wellbeing. This means a full study of the horse’s alimentary canal, digging deeper into the physiology and anatomy of horses. Only through this process will you develop a full understanding.
Courses will often discuss the various sources of equine nutrients, as well as the nutrients which are necessary to maintain their health. Some courses may discuss the impact of feed and pasturing on a horse’s nutrition, in addition to other subjects. While the same course may move into the effects of nutrition on foals, aging horses, ponies, disease-stricken horses, and much, much more.
What are Some of the Subjects I will Learn in an Online Equine Nutrition Course?
You can expect to move through several smaller modules while participating in an online equine nutrition course. This is pretty standard stuff. For example, expect to learn a lot about a horse’s physiology, anatomy, and gastrointestinal tract. You will need to consider digestive anatomy, digestive physiology, and will learn a lot about how nutrients are digested in the different segments of a horse’s gastrointestinal tract.
More learning will likely be centered toward the feed composition, meaning you will learn about what exactly feedstuff for horses is and how the composition of the feedstuff is digested by the horse. You will learn about the different sources of equine nutrients, which relates somewhat to the feedstuff. It will be discussed what makes up the greatest equine diet, putting a lot of emphasis on the healthiest nutrients and diets for horses and how various types of feed play into the horse’s overall welfare.
Expect to learn a lot about dietary management. Most courses go into great detail about modern feeding methods of horses and how they don’t always think about the equine’s digestive tract, their anatomy, or even their physiology.
Finally, there will undoubtedly be clinical nutrition to learn about, where the course will focus on the types of strategies you can employ for feeding horses while managing and preventing nasty nutrition-related sicknesses, disorders, and diseases. This would include laminitis, dental issues with aging horses, obesity, ulcers, and various other conditions. All of your learning will likely be centered around dietary management and how to deal with nutrition-related diseases while learning about their causes scientifically.
Final Thoughts
If you have ever desired a career dealing with horses, an online course in equine nutrition may be the perfect option for you. Online courses are great because you don’t need to go to any physical classes. You can learn all about horses and their nutritional health in your spare time, working your way toward a more comprehensive understanding of such beautiful creatures.
Keep in mind that the choice is yours when it comes to online equine horses. There are many scattered across the web, and it is important to do your research before choosing. The price will generally reflect the quality of the course. While some courses are professional university level, others are not so comprehensive.