Equine Business Management

This unit explores the concepts of biological and anatomical systems within the horse’s physiology, as well as methods to care for, manage, house and train horses in line with behavioural patterns and optimal welfare.

• Equine Husbandry & Management 1
• Horse Handling & Education
• Pasture Management 1
• Equine Science 1
• Equine Nutrition

This unit introduces students to the fundamental skills required to assess the purpose and capacity of an equine property, with a view to understanding what the land resource is capable of producing. The unit content also focusses on how to argue your case and communicate the resource’s capacity to other potential users of that information.

• Principles of Economics
• Business Planning 1
• Principles of Marketing
• Introduction to spreadsheets (MS Excel)
• Introduction to word processing (MS Word).

This unit develops your knowledge to effectively collect and record financial data for equine businesses. You will learn accounting and budgeting principles as they apply to farming and equine business, including fundamental reports such as income statements and statements of financial position.

• Fundamentals of accounting for business
• Budgeting 1

This unit introduces students to the concept of systems thinking and provides opportunities to explore real-world examples of how business decisions in one area affects other aspects of the operation, through i) enterprise profile and ii) a domestic study tour. The holistic nature of this unit also covers wellbeing strategies that are critical to the successful operation of equine businesses and practical skill development in business writing.

• Equine Enterprise Profile
• Domestic study tour
• Health and wellbeing 1
• Business Writing

Building upon the foundational knowledge from the previous unit, this unit continues to develop skills and understanding in the veterinary areas of equine production, and how to plan and manage the stallion, mare and foal leading into the southern hemisphere spring and therefore breeding season. This includes understanding pasture growth patterns for particular regions, and tailoring management systems to best utilize this.

• Equine Science 2
• Pasture Management 2
• Electives 1

This unit covers the nature of economic, equine and human resource systems and how these systems interact in a business operation. This knowledge is key to developing and applying these understandings to assist in planning and developing an equine business.

• Business communications
• Managing self
• Business Planning 2
• Websites and Systems

During this unit students develop understandings of production systems needed to build budgets that reflect realistic costs of production activities. This unit also develops understandings of key drivers of profitability and how they affect the preparation of a budget. Students apply and integrate production and budgeting principles to prepare a bank finance proposal.

• Budgeting 2
• Ag analysis
• Financial management
• Production economics

This unit expands upon systems thinking concepts by drawing upon knowledge gained from all units studied to date, as well as experiences and opportunities to integrate key insights through visits to a range of equine enterprises, and the international study tour. These foundations are applied to a case study that will demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the financial performance of a property. For students who are particularly focused on a certain area of the industry, there is the opportunity to undertake an optional 3-week industry placement.

• International study tour
• Enterprise profitability case study
• Health and wellbeing 2

This unit applies the previously learned basics of anatomy of the horse, and develops those concepts into an understanding of exercise physiology. Initial skills learned in horse handling and anatomy are also extended into areas of farriery and equine dentistry, enabling students to apply skills and knowledge gained throughout the year.

• Equine Science 3
• Electives 2
• Pasture Management 3
• Equine Husbandry & Management 2

This unit applies knowledge of equine business enterprises to modelling techniques and decision processes that enable the successful allocation of resources and develop strategies to best use assets that are available to achieve appropriate economies of scale. The unit considers allocation of land, capital, technology, people & skills as well as enterprises.

• Advanced spreadsheet modelling (MS Excel)
• Business Communications 2
• Managing workplace teams
• Macroeconomics

Building upon foundational knowledge of production systems, profitability and budgeting, this unit introduces concepts of financial and non-financial data to help analyse business performance. By the end of this unit students will be able to confidently determine the value of information held, and the means to discover what additional information is necessary, to assess performance of an equine business enterprise.

• Accounting and finance systems
• Bank applications
• Cashbook and GST

This unit includes a 4-week industry placement. A key objective of the work placement is to recognise and experience the interrelated systems within the workplace, how they interact with each other and how the management structure of the business allows the interaction of systems to achieve the performance objectives of the business. The experience gained in the work placement can then be applied to the performance improvement case study, designed for students to demonstrate their learnings from the course by reviewing the performance of an equine business and building a case to recommend an improvement.

• 4-Week Industry placement
• 3-Week Industry placement (optional)
• Performance improvement case study
• Health and wellbeing 3