Objective 1: To learn and experience how the education of horse personnel is arranged in other countries. We aim to further develop education of high quality. By traveling to larger horse nations, we have exchanged experiences and gained inspiration for further development of the educations we offer. Objective 2: To achieve more optimal running of stables and learing facilities. NHS buildings are old and requires much resources to operate. The buildings house large values like horses and equipment. By visiting comparable education institutions we aim to learn how to optimise our daily operations. Objective 3: Identify new educations to offer in Norway. There are educations for horse personell in bigger horse nations that attract Norwegian students. By visiting these educational institutions, we aim to identify which educations that could be appropriate for the Norwegian market.
The Norwegian Horse Association (NHS) is the top professional center for education of horse personell and for horse breeding in Norway. NHS educate riding instructors and trotting trainers at vocational school level. We are in the process of developing vocational school education for farriers too. NHS also offers various shorter courses and certifications within the equestrianism. The courses are practical and in small groups, which requires resources. There are therefore relatively few students compared to the number of employees. NHS consists of large facilities which is necessary to carry out the educational activities. The facilities includes several riding houses, stables for 150 horses and rooms for the students. There are also large outdoor areas with riding and driving tracks, pastures and paddocks for the 70-90 horses that always are available for the students. There are no similar educations in Norway, therefor we have to go abroad to find comparable educations in order to learn and exchange experience with others within our field. The goal is, among others, to further develop our existing educations and investigate the possibilities of developing new educations, in order to offer work-relevant educations.