Agricultural education has to alter its curriculum in order to remain in step with the changes in rural and urban lifestyles. It must continue to change and expand its offerings as society develops. As an industry grows large enough to offer a variety of careers, students need to be more aware of opportunities and gain the necessary skills to enter that job market. The equine industry qualifies as an important and viable part of not only Virginia’s economy, but also the national economy. Career Development Events (CDEs) are designed to help prepare students for careers in agriculture. Classroom instruction comes alive as students demonstrate their skills in a competitive setting. CDEs test the abilities of individuals, as well as teams, in 28 major areas of agricultural instruction (National FFA, 2006). The basic core of agricultural education program consists of three components: 1. classroom instruction, 2. FFA, including Career Development Events, and 3. Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) programs. The FFA is a co-curricular organization representing one-third of the total agricultural education program. As such, FFA activities should reflect the instruction provided in the agricultural education classroom and laboratory. The concern facing the profession relates to why there were 40 Virginia FFA chapters with a CDE horse judging team in 2005, but that only 12 programs offered an equine management course. The purpose of my research was to assess the perceptions of Virginia’s secondary agricultural education teachers toward the benefits of offering an equine management course, within the secondary agricultural education programs that have CDE horse judging teams. The survey of 40 agricultural teachers who had a horse judging team at the 2005 state CDE event showed that 14 (22%) of the teachers did teach an equine course or unit within another course, 21 (63%) did not, and five (15%) did not respond. Based on the findings of this study, teachers’ perceptions were that an equine management program and participation in equine Career Development Events are necessary. Teachers agreed the event improved their students’ overall academic performance, increased their acceptance of responsibility, and increased their self-confidence. / Ph. D.

Equine Assisted Activities and Therapy (EAA/T) is a non-invasive treatment modality recommended by the medical and educational community for a subset of challenged children and adults. As its popularity increases, so too are the concerns among stakeholders and the medical and educational professions about its legitimacy as a treatment modality. The main concern being that EAA/T practitioners have not acquired the professional skills required and that the EAA/T treatment programmes are not evidence-based. The central question of this research focused on identifying Equine Assisted Activities and or Therapy (EAA/T) and creating an optimal learning curricula and more practical experience for future practitioners. In order to explore these issues an extensive multi-method research study was conducted to identify gaps in EAA/T curricula, which included a review of empirical data and different curriculum models. The Delphi Method (DM), a robust, qualitative, naturalistic, systematic and interactive research method was used to support the research. Part of the DM required an analysis of data, adaptation of issues and amendments to questions culminating in a collective consensus among EAA/T experts. The key research findings suggested that current training programmes use curricula with significant gaps resulting in poor professional knowledge formation, a lack of experiential learning, insufficient knowledge of equestrianism and an inability to use pedagogic paradigms. Other findings showed that curricula being used were not being built as an application of sound theoretical principles but rather, transmitted in a manner that does not motivate active and meaningful learning or promote the best practical experience. As a consequence, national organisations and academies dedicated to EAA/T training sidestep high standards and core values for the sake of membership and financial gain. This rigorous research study has highlighted gaps in current training practices and has made it possible to make recommendations for a future curriculum. Recommendations that suggest the future curriculum is built on sound theoretical principles developing foundation knowledge to operate EAA/T in all fields of practice. This could set new quality and performance benchmarks and provides EAA/T practitioners with adequate tools to connect best practices to people with real-life challenges.