Free online equine nutrition course: Edinburgh uni

[flintfootfilly]

On the offchance that others on here might be interested in the opportunity to learn a bit more about equine nutrition.....

www.coursera.org/course/equinenutrition

It's a 5 week online course, free, with one hour of lectures a week and I think you are expected to put in another couple of hours work a week.

I thought it sounded a great way to do something useful on some cold dark wintry days.

Sarah

[maggie]

I've been waiting for this course to start for quite a long time, I signed up for it last summer.

They've just put up on the website that the starting date will be 28 January, so not long to wait now! Is anyone else doing it, it would be great to have someone to compare notes with?

The only downside is that I've just enrolled on a 3-month course Physiotherapy Knowledge for RDA Instructors - it starts at the same time! Well, one things for sure, with 2 lots of studying and all the mucking out, I won't have any spare time to get into mischief!

[mickey]

would love to but really havent got the time

[harveydales]

Do let us know what you think of it, Maggie. I would have been interested but I don't want to commit myself to anything extra just now with my family problems.

[heathera]

I'm signed up for it but I signed up for three courses last summer that had no start date and they are all now running at the same time!

I have to decide which one or more to drop now

[maggie]

PHEW!

I've just completed the final assessment for the Equine Nutrition course just made it before next Monday's hard deadline.

I knew I was going to be in trouble with overcommitment, but I've managed to complete both this one and the Physiotherapy (last Sunday).

I loved doing this course, it was well delivered with good lecture notes and really got my brain into gear. Very well worth it for a good, basic grounding in equine nutrition and feeding. I'd love to do some more along these lines, perhaps exploring certain aspects in more depth.

[zeldalithgow]

Sara did this course said it was really good, I chickened out didn't think my brain would cope it's been so long since it was used

[harveydales]

Well done Maggie! I'm not sure my brain could cope with it either but perhaps I should give it a go next time.

[Deleted]

Hey
I did this course - it was really useful for basic feeding principles. I would like to do another that goes into a bit more detail for example grass types /chemical composition / how to balance your horse's vits & mins according to your pasture type....I wonder if they will do that.

[dalesnfellfan]

Just signed up for this course for Jan 2014, looks interesting

[flintfootfilly]

lizziea, if you want a course that goes into more depth, then worth checking out Dr Kellon's online courses. The starting point is NRC Plus. It goes into a lot of detail, but probably doesn't discuss anything on different grass types, but very much focuses on how to check your horse's diet and how to work out a ration including balanced minerals. The first week or two are a bit daunting but beyond that it gets easier, and it's also easier each time you check back through the notes.

She also offers a whole range of other online courses: I became a bit of an addict and did the bloodwork one, the neuromuscular one and the nutritional case history one, but the NRC Plus really is the starting point.

For anyone else wondering about the coursera course, you have nothing to lose by signing up. It's free. There are videos to watch and slides to look through, and even if some of it goes over your head there are bound to be some bits that you understand first time round whatever. It's not an accredited course, in that you don't get a qualification at the end of it, so the tests or quizzes at the end of each week are optional, so it's really easy to decide how much or how little effort you want to put into doing the course. Well worth doing IMHO.

Sarah

[Deleted]

Hi Sarah

Cool - thanks for the tip off... I will look into it. I fed my Dales on beet, seaweed and magox and he did well on it....simple but very effective. Strict grass management also as he was very grass sensitive. Unfortunately his sister died of grass sickness - do you know anything about this? There doesn't seem to be much on it...i heard it may be caused by bacteria in the soil but that's all I've heard....

[flintfootfilly]

Sorry to hear about your pony's sister. A friend lost 5 ponies to grass sickness in 1 year. That was when I started reading up on it. Horrible disease. This is the most useful reference I've ever found on grass sickness: www.grasssickness.org.uk/uploads/documents/Grass%20sickness%20WHW%20e-booklet.pdf Whilst it is mainly about managing those with chronic grass sickness, it does include some stuff on risk factors. I also remember in a talk by Scott Pirie from Edinburgh, he mentioned that there is a link between ivermectin wormers and grass sickness, and that that risk increases if ivermectin is used twice in succession. He did stress that he wasn't suggesting NOT using ivermectin, but only to be careful about its use at the time of year when grass sickness is most prevalent.

There's meant to be a vaccine trial for grass sickness but I haven't heard anything about it recently: www.grasssickness.org.uk/egsf-page.aspx?pageID=127 I think they are still thinking it's caused by botulinium chlostridium. However, from some stuff I've read it also sounds as though at least some of the horses who go down with it have low selenium status.... and selenium is known to be a vital part of the horse's immune system, so it's another good reason for making sure horses have enough minerals, especially selenium, in their diets.

www.grasssickness.org.uk is quite an informative site too.

Sarah

[nedales]

Just finished the Royal Dick equine nutrition course and can totally recommend it as both excellent and tremendously useful. Hoping they offer a Then What sequel!