Equine Studies
Numerous on-campus horse shows are sponsored by Northwest College in which students both ride and organize.
Our Equine Judging Team enters local and regional contests, plus the All American Quarter Horse Congress, Quarter Horse World Championship, the Southwest Regional Horse Judging Contest, and the National Reining Horse Association. Each spring the team also tours professional training operations where they participate in judging practices with leading U.S. trainers.
The judging team has finished in the top five overall among two-year schools at national competitions. In 2001, it was the winner of the All American Quarter Horse Congress. In 2002, the team won High Individual Halter at the World Show, and High Individual Overall at the National Reining Horse Association. We also have a Rodeo Team that competes at ten Montana rodeos and hosts one local event.
Tryouts for the Equine Judging Team are held each spring. Rodeo Team interviews are held throughout the year.
The department believes that showing is an integral part of the horse world. With that philosophy in mind, students show in on-campus horse shows.
Northwest organizes clinics several times each year that focus on Western events. The department believes that clinics with leading trainers give our students the opportunity to study new ideas, methods, and philosophies that are shaping the horse industry.
Northwest College's Horse Judging Team gives students who are interested in judging the opportunity to compete nationally. The team travels to Columbus, Ohio to compete at the Quarter Horse Congress; Oklahoma City to judge at the American Quarter Horse World Show and the National Reining Horse Association; the Denver Stock Show, and the Spring Sweepstakes in Fort Worth, Texas, sponsored by the American Paint Horse Association. The spring contest is for freshmen and includes workouts in Texas and Oklahoma with leading horsemen in the area. The 2000-2001 judging team won World and Reserve Champion honors. The opportunity to try out for the team is open to all majors on campus.
The College's association with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in nearby Cody, Wyoming also provides learning opportunities with the varying traveling exhibits the Center has obtained concerning the history of the Horse.
Northwest College has a comprehensive intramural program and over 30 student clubs/organizations. Those directly related to the Equine Program are the Horseman's Club, Rodeo Club, Block and Bridle Club, Farrier Club, plus the judging and rodeo teams described above.
Northwest College Equine graduates are working across the country with all breeds of horses in many settings—breeding, showing, riding academies, training stables, summer camps, and feed or saddlery companies. (Our graduates work with professional trainers throughout the nation.) Other students, have opened their own training stables. Still others contribute their knowledge and skills in community FFA and 4-H chapters.
Opportunities in the horse industry need not require daily, hands-on contact with horses. Specialization in such areas as marketing, computer programming, accounting, illustration, photography, architecture, even the law, can be combined with an in-depth knowledge of the horse industry for a career in this ever-expanding area of our economy.
NWC graduates who have seriously searched for employment in the horse industry have been successful. Placements are the result of Northwest College connections with employers, or by utilizing an international employment agency called Equimax (minimal fee charged).
During the summer between the freshman and sophomore years, students are encouraged to work with professionals in the horse industry on an internship basis through the college's Work-based Learning Programs.