The Equitarian Initiative (EI) brings together many specialists in equine care who are passionate about sharing knowledge.
With the EI education team, we strive to effectively facilitate learning as a process, innovate, and partner with communities.
Equine care education is offered for caretakers, university students and faculty, and local service providers, through courses, webinars, lectures, workshops, and in-the-field training. The curricula are catered to those who work, study, and teach where working equids live.
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND FACULTY
- Partnership with university students and faculty of veterinary medicine and animal science.
- Online courses, webinars, lectures, and in-person workshops about the global context of working equids, preventive medicine, surgery, anesthesia, ethology, and community teaching.
- With the Donkey Sanctuary, we developed the first comprehensive online course on preventive medicine and welfare of working equids for veterinary medical students.
- We see cases together and support clinical skills development in EI’s health campaign programs.
- Faculty and students have become instructors in working equid care.
LOCAL SERVICE PROVIDERS
- Partnership with those who are or will be trainers and care providers in their own communities: local service providers, equine welfare promoters, community animal health workers, farriers and handlers in the regions where working equines live and work.
- A culture of support is promoted by connecting working equid caregivers with resources and networks for care. We back those who provide this care.
CARETAKERS
- Partnership with daily caretakers and owners of working equids, including women, children and men.
- We seek to alleviate stress of possible emergencies with their working equids and make partnering with their working equids easier, by facilitating learning on topics such as hoof care, behavior and handling, body condition scoring, and more.
- Everyone’s ability to protect their animal’s well-being is promoted, while drawing attention to the value that a local animal service provider or professional can have on an animal’s productivity.
COMMUNITIES
- Learning is mutual: Communities, collaborator organizations, and local institutions take the role of experts in their lived realities while EI serves as equine subject matter expert. We continually learn from each other.
- This includes our own community: educating ourselves as an organization, with courses, consultants, and webinars, about how to interact well with working equids, shift our perspectives, and listen to others to sustain impact.
Our Values
Education does not exist apart from authentic engagement with communities and institutions.
Learning is a way to promote a mutual relationship. With empathy, creativity, and without judgment, talented educators create connections with people. We try to interact in this way, thanks to a team of brilliant people. We appreciate the trust from local organizations and institutions to work together, and we in turn support their innovations. It is the most important thing we can do.
It is important to partner with communities to understand possible roadblocks or challenges and seek creative solutions. It is a privilege to enter the communities that have invited us in. If you would like to investigate the possibility of collaborating together, please contact angie@equitarianinitiative.org.