ARCHIVE EQUINE NEWS STORIES

Story by: Jackie Bellamy-Zions

Horse Racing Alberta (HRA) has partnered with Equine Guelph to offer their license holders online industry training on The Horse Portal. The partnership offers trainers, grooms, owners, jockeys, drivers and other current license holders significant savings on short online courses that aim to give their racehorses a competitive edge.

“Through The Horse Portal, horse caregivers can access common sense, practical training that can be used on a daily basis,” says Gayle Ecker, director of Equine Guelph. “Equine Guelph is pleased to partner with Horse Racing Alberta, bringing racehorse owners and caregivers together to learn about optimizing equine health and performance as a community. A healthy horse is a top performer.”

Equine Guelph has been a pioneer and global leader in online education for equine professionals since its inception in 2003. The newest initiative, The Horse Portal, was launched in 2017 and became a national success, partnering with ten English-speaking provincial equestrian federations across Canada. It is a partnership platform for the equine community, available to everyone in the equine industry. The Horse Portal has quickly grown to include youth organizations, international safety associations, and horse racing partners including Ontario Racing and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission in Ontario. Each partner has its own customized webpage on the portal. Horse Racing Alberta licence holders will be able to access their page and 15% course discount at TheHorsePortal.ca/HRA

Upcoming online short courses include:  

Sickness Prevention in Horses:          Oct 21 - Nov 1
Gut Health & Colic Prevention:       Nov 11 - 29
Horse Behaviour & Safety:                Nov 25 - Dec 6

"HRA is pleased to partner with Equine Guelph to provide an online training program for the horse racing industry in Alberta," says Kent Verlik, CEO of Horse Racing Alberta. “These courses will be invaluable to assist HRA license holders in achieving top performance with their racehorses.” Horse Racing Alberta’s mission is to lead and enable a healthy, vibrant and progressive racing industry to function in the province of Alberta with high integrity and self-regulated responsibility.

Fellow Albertans and Standardbred Owners Nancy Tamblyn and Kevin Sampson can already attest to the benefits of taking The Horse Portal course – Gut Health & Colic Prevention.

“Thank you for providing this course! My husband is a 3rd generation full-time Standardbred trainer and was pretty much born and raised at the race track. We thought he knew everything there was to know based on the generations of knowledge he had in his head. By the end of the first day of the course, we were already discussing possible new strategies and techniques. By the end of the 3rd week, we realized how little we actually knew and are now implementing many new methods to lessen the chances of colic happening at the track and at the farm.”

Horse Racing Alberta and Equine Guelph look forward to working with all three sectors of the Alberta racing community, Quarter horse, Standardbred and Thoroughbreds to further strengthen the unity of the racing community and help licence holders deliver the best possible care for their horses.

Register today at TheHorsePortal.ca/HRA! No prior online learning experience required. Flexible schedule.