Animal Experience

[JDorothy]

Hi guys, I was just wondering if someone could clarify something for me that I can't seem to fully gather from OVC admissions page of their website. Does horseback riding count as animal experience and could it go down as non-veterinary animal handling experience?

Thanks!

[dreizehn]

Yes and no, though probably more no than yes, but really it depends. Clear now?

Yeah... I ran into this too when applying: the admissions pages are not exactly clear or consistent on which category is most appropriate for horse people to put their "horse time." Honestly, I understand this to a degree, as it does fall into a sort of grey area between being a pet (which wouldn't count as experience), an extracurricular activity, and hands-on/practical animal experience. So, let's start with what admissions does say:

On the "Non-Academic Admission Requirements" page:
(www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/future/dvm/admissions/non-academic/#Animalexp)

"Animal experience includes working with livestock, breeding/showing various species, working in a pet store, equestrian activities and any other animal related hobby/experience where a veterinarian is not always present, or does not supervise you. Animal experience does not include pet ownership."

(all emphasis mine)

On the FAQ page for unsuccessful applicants:
(www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/future/dvm/unsuccessful/faq/#improveBIF)

"Try volunteering on a horse farm as a groomer, sorting pigs at a grower-finisher barn, feeding and milking at a dairy barn, etc. Owning pets or riding horses are not the types of experience the DVM Admissions Committee is looking for."

(all emphasis mine)

So, can riding horses be included as a form of "animal experience"? I'd say yes.
Is it the optimum type of experience they are looking/hoping for? I think not.

What I ended up doing, and what you may want to consider, though this will depend on what your equestrian activities consist of, is separating your experience into the more practical stuff and the more extracurricular stuff. For example: if you do things like groom multiple horses, do stable work, turn-in/turn-out, ride/train multiple horses, etc., I would consider this all to fall well into animal experience, as you are doing practical work (e.g., groom, trainer, stable assistant, etc.) in the equine field and gaining experience with multiple horses (in case my underlining and italics wasn't clear, I personally think having the experience be with multiple horses is key to making it valid as animal experience, as just working with a single horse doesn't necessarily give you much experience with horse behaviour). Some of the other horse time, such as riding a single horse or taking lessons, I classify more into the extracurricular activities section.


I have a theme going among my posts (besides them all being tl;dr) that I think it's important to emphasize that animal experience, along with most of the things in the BIF, comes into things more as a flag (i.e., very minimal animal/vet experience or a lack of variety and/or quality might be enough to flag your application for further review or rejection). What they're looking for is a balance of quality experiences in multiple areas. So, if you already have other horse experience you can put into the animal experience section, it may be more appropriate to move your riding experience into the extracurriculars section and include a different kind of animal experience instead. And, really, if you've spent a decent amount of time with horses, so long as it's on there somewhere, I'm sure they'll notice that you know your way around a horse.

Now, it's late, I just finished hockey, and I'm tired, so hopefully this kind of clears things up for you, or least doesn't confuse them any further. And here's a random giraffe:

[JDorothy]

Wow! Thank you so much for the response that was so clear and well put! Very helpful! I'll definitely keep all of that in mind when applying.

Again thanks so much!