1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP signature project. Write 2-3 sentences describing the main activities your STEP signature project entailed.
For my STEP signature project, I traveled to Germany and the Netherlands to study how the European equine industry differs from the equine industry in the United States. We traveled to a couple of different horse farms, a food manufacturing plant, riding schools, and a horse milkery and learned about the different laws that are set in place for the care and breeding practices that these places have to follow. We then learned how these practices and laws compared to the breeding practices and laws that are set in place in the United States.
2. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP signature project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformations that took place.
I went into this trip with very little understanding of the equine industry, both in the United States and in Europe. I made the assumption that since they were part of the same overarching industry that they shared the same standards, laws, and practices and believed that there would be very few differences between the two. However, after going on this trip and participating in the class required for it, I learned just how false my assumption was. The equine industry in Europe is extremely different from the industry here in the United States. The main thing that I took away from this trip was that Europe has much stricter laws than the United States have. Every place that we visited and toured made this point very clear to us. They are a lot more structured in their breeding practices and have more laws set in place for welfare of their animals. They also have many more regulations than the United States does in regard to the feed industry. Certain ingredients that we put in feed for our livestock animals are not allowed to be put in the feed for the animals in Europe. Going on this trip really opened my eyes to the differences that occur within similar industries in different parts of the world.
3. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP signature project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in number 2, and how did those affect you? Write 3-4 paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP signature project that led to this change/transformation.
Throughout this study abroad experience, we visited many different places, some that dealt with the equine industry and some that helped us dive into the culture of the two countries that we visited. We visited a couple riding schools, a couple horse farms that served as boarding facilities, a feed manufacturing plant, and a horse milkery. We also visited places dealing with the culture and history of the countries, including the Anne Frank house, the Rijksmuseum, the Kolner zoo, a chocolate factory and museum, the Cologne Cathedral, and two different German castles. Visiting all these places exposed me to how different the United States is from the rest of the world, specifically Europe.
The equine related activities showed me the number of laws that are set in place in order to ensure the welfare of the animal but also to ensure the value of their products. These products ranged from sperm gathered from stallions that will be shipped off for breeding purposes, to horse milk and the products created from it, and to the quality of the food that is being produced at the feed manufacturing plant. In Europe, horses that are used for sport or for breeding purposes aren’t allowed to be given steroids or certain chemicals that we use here in the United States. Horse meat is also a product that is produced for consumption in Europe, and there are many regulations that we learned about regarding this. The one that stood out to me the most was from the feed manufacturing plant. They said that horses who have ever been given any type of medicine are not eligible to enter the food supply chain. This is very different from the United States since animals who have been given medications are allowed to enter the food supply chain if they have been off the medication for a certain amount of time. Learning this, really showed me the stark differences in regulations between the United States and European countries.
The activity that stood out to me the most on the trip was the visit to the horse milkery. When I learned that this is a place that we’d be visiting, I was very interested. I didn’t think that horse milk was something that people drank or even gathered from a horse, and then I thought that maybe it was something specific to Europe. However, after visiting it, I learned that horse milk is a very small industry and isn’t consumed by many people. We got to watch a demonstration of how a horse is milk, and it is done very similarly to how a cow is milk but a lot less is gotten from a horse than a cow. The farm was family owned and they made a variety of products from the milk, including face cream, lotion, and hand soap. This farm showed me that there can be a market for anything, even if it is a foreign concept to me and no matter how niche the product is.
4. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write 1-2 paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
As an animal science student, I plan to work with animals but am not sure if that will be companion animals or with larger animals. However, in order to go into this field, it is important that I have a grasp on the many different aspects of what it means to work in the animal science field. Throughout my life, I have gained very little experience with the equine species. Experience that I lacked until I participated in this study abroad experience. The knowledge that I gained about the equine industry in the United States and in Europe has really helped me to expand my knowledge on this topic that I knew very little about. It provided me with opportunities that I otherwise wouldn’t have been shown otherwise, and it has encouraged me to look into the possibility of finding a career within the equine industry.