# BHS Stage 1 Exam - My Experience



## clarajj83 (31 May 2013)

I saw that somone else had written about their BHS Stage 1 exam (which I found very helpful!) , so I thought I would add my exam experience as well, in case anyone is interested. I took my Stage 1 in March this year (2013). I will also add my Riding & Road Safety exam experience at some point, and my Stage 2, once I have done it!
Be warned, this post is very long, so it may send you to sleep!! I have had to split it into a few posts. If you have any questions let me know.

*Stage 1 Exam Day*
Upon arrival in the morning we were briefed by the chief examiner, and 2 other examiners. The chief examiner said he would flit between the two groups throughout the day and act as a moderator of sorts. The examiners all seemed friendly. They checked our membership, and then told us our groups. There were about 10 of us, so we were split into 2 groups. The majority of the candidates were dressed in navy show jackets, jods and boots. I was a little surprised at this as I thought it said in the dress code that although dark jackets are permitted the lighter hacking jackets are preferred. Anyway, I wore neither (!)  I just had a navy Gap v-neck over a white shirt, tie, cream breeches, jodhpur boots and I had borrowed a pair of leather gaiters. Either way none of the examiners commented on our clothing or checked that our hats were up to standard so clearly they werent too bothered. We were allowed to wear outdoor jackets / anoraks during the practical/theory units as it was cold outside.


My group did *Unit 1: Brushing off horses including putting on and taking off equipment*  first. I shall call the examiner Ms X for reference. We were each allocated a horse in a stable. The stables were dotted around the yard a bit so we didn't feel like Ms X was or could watch our every move. We were instructed to go in and to prepare the stable to work in and brush off the horse.  Outside the stable was a skip, pitchfork/shavings fork, grooming kit, bucket of water. This is what I did, in this order: spoke to the horse before entering the stable so she wouldn't be alarmed; tied her up securely; skipped out the stable. (No need to remove the water bucket as they had automatic drinkers). Once done, Ms X then asked us to firstly to show how to pick up the feet and then comment on the state of the shoes. This went fine, I just said something along the lines of, "The shoe looks a couple of weeks old, the toe has overgrown it a little however there is not a lot wear on the shoe itself, this may be because she's only really been ridden in a school with not much road work"..etc. Once done Ms X then instructed me to continue brushing off the horse. It is worth noting that I took the exam in March so it was still pretty cold, so I didn't completely remove her rug when I was grooming her, I just folded it back over her quarters and vice versa. Ms X then spent ages with the other candidates, and in that time I had finished grooming. After about 10mins she returned and asked me to show her how I would sponge the eyes / nose. She said not to actually let the sponge come into contact with the eyes as the sponge was dirtyso I mimed sponging, and explained what I was doing (e.g. wipe down and outwards to avoid re-contamination). Ms X then told me to show her some "vigorous" brushing with the body brush, and before I had even begun she had disappeared again! She returned another 10 mins later. I demonstrated my vigorous brushing again. She then asked me to show how I would brush the face. I used the body brush, although later I remembered I had seen a small face brush in the grooming box, which I guess I should have used. Anyway, I didn't remove the headcollar when I brushed the face - the Ms X didn't say anything about that but perhaps I should have done? The horse I had was a bit mare-ish and wasn't too keen on the whole grooming thing. 
Mrs X went away again, came back, and asked me to put on a tail bandage, standing to the side of the horse (luckily she had a very nice tail to work with!) Once it was on she asked me to show her how I would take off, which I did. I went out the stable to roll the bandage back up but Ms X said to do that later as we had to press on with the rest of the unit.

We were then asked to fetch the tack and tack up. All the tack was marked with the horses names. My horse had a running martingale and a flash noseband. I took the straps out of their keepers in case they needed to be adjusted. The saddle was left outside the stable (resting on the pommel, against the wall). I went in, "measured" the bridle to her face to check it was an ok fit, and then put the bridle on. The noseband was way too high, so I had to adjust it to the correct fit. Once done, I put the headcollar back on, and folded the rug back. I put the numnah on first, then the saddle, attached the martingale, did up the girth and hey presto!. I put the rug back over the saddle and waited for Ms X. She eventually came over (she had been spending a lot of time watching 2 of the girls in the group). She asked me to name the parts of the bridle. Then she asked me whether I thought that saddle fitted the horse. I said yes, but I wasn't too sure as I could tell it wasn't a GP saddle, which she confirmed. I named a few parts of the saddle for her. She then asked me to untack and select and put on a turnout rug. I put all the tack away, got the turnout rug (which was amongst a bunch of rugs hanging up in the stable), arranged the rug OUTSIDE of the stable (remembering to knot the belly straps), went back in put it on the horse the correct way, no throwing it over her back! Ms X returned and asked me to show her how I would take the rug off. I started with undoing the leg straps - undid one, went round the front of horse to undo the other and Ms X had disappeared againShe came back once more to check, and that was it. We were told to take the headcollars off the come out of the stables.

FYI, and I only learnt this 2 days before my exam, when I was doing a mock: in your exam when the horse is tied up, every time you go in front of it, or have to go under its head, unclip the lead rope from the headcollar, walk in front/ around the horse, then re-clip the lead rope. They don't tell you to do this in the books but it is a major safety issue - if the horse suddenly does something when you are walking right under its nose and he is still clipped to the rope you could end up being garrotted!
Another thing, when doing anything with the horse's head - brushing his face, putting on the bridle etc - undo the release knot in the lead rope, but leave the rope in the baler twine. Again, this is for safety. 

We then gathered in a group. She told one of the girls she could go and get ready for the next unit. She told the rest of us that we needed to answer a few questions first. It is worth pointing out that the girl who got to leave "early" had been in the stable next to me and had volunteered information throughout the whole time and explained herself well. I think the rest of us had been a little too quiet, and basically only spoke to answer the question, and didn't offer up any more info. She asked the remaining group questions on tack cleaning  how often would you oil the tack, what would you do with really filthy/wet tack, whether you would clean the bit with metal polish (errrmmmm, no!), what brushes would be used on a grass kept horse etc, and that was it.

See next post...


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## clarajj83 (31 May 2013)

continued from previous post...

The next stage was the ridden section: *Riding horses on the flat and over ground poles in the light seat*, which I was dreading the most! 

We were each allocated a horse and were then asked to trot the horse up. Remember to turn the horse away from you! I forgot this the first time! Also make sure you are positive when trotting the horse up, so that he actually trots, and doesnt just do a fast walk! Tack check done, we were then told we could either use the mounting block or get a leg upphew!!! I had been really worried about mounting from the ground, because although I have practiced I am quite short, a little on the chubby side and not exactly sprightly!! Anyway, needless to say as I was riding a 17hh I got on at the mounting block. We were given time to adjust our stirrups, remembering to keep your feet in the stirrup! - and we were off. I was lead file as I was on the biggest horse with the biggest stride. We were instructed to rising trot. As my horse has such a large stride and I was leading file I had to keep an eye that I wasnt going too fast and losing the ride behind me. We were instructed to do a 20m circle one at a time in trot then rejoin the ride. We then changed rein, and we each had a bit of a canter. I lost my outside stirrup just as I went round the corner in canter, right next to the judges gallery. Thankfully, and probably for the first time ever, I found it again in about 10 seconds (usually takes me ageees!). I am sure the examiners must have noticed that little mishap.

We were then asked to halt, quit our stirrups and cross them. We did a bit of sitting trot, then each person at the end of the ride had to halt at either B or E, wait for the ride to catch up behind them and then they would take leading file in sitting trot. We then rode a serpentine (with me back as lead file again) in sitting trot, something I was little nervous about but I stayed on. Throughout the entire no stirrups exercise I had to constantly remind myself to breathe and relax!  

It was now time to change horses. I can't remember whether we had to trot them up again. Again we had a choice of leg up or mounting block. I went with the block. The horse I had ridden first went in lead file with another person, and I went in behind them. We did some walk, trot and canter work, including cantering a half circle to the rear of the ride, and then we all halted and shortened our stirrups to take the light seat. These exercises in the light seat I thought went the worst out of the whole ridden section, and I think this was down to my nerves. I didn't feel balanced, and I probably didn't have my horse going forward enough. I was also letting myself get distracted by the other riders and thinking how well they were doing compared to me and so on, not a good thing to do in the middle of an exam!!!I definitely found it easier to canter in the light seat than trot (don't we all), and then it was over. It all went very quickly.

We all dismounted and the examiner came over and asked us a bit about each horse from *Unit 2: Horse Husbandry, Identification and Handling*. She asked me the colour of the horse, how I would know if he was unbalanced (I said falls in at the corner / counter canter / rushes his paces etc) how many beats there were in walk and what were the footfalls, and then she asked me to name the points of the horse, starting at the head. I got to the crest and she said that's fine, and walked off.

We then all sat door in the gallery and the examiner covered pretty much everything in the first half of the syllabus from *Unit 3: The Principles of Caring for Horses*. She asked us questions on accident / emergency procedure, fire precautions, suitable clothing, highway manners, role of the BHS, morning / evening inspections, signs of good/poor health in a horse, reporting an unwell horse. She didnt ask us anything that wasnt covered in the Stage 1 books/syllabus. It was relatively casual discussion, she would go around the group and everyone would say an answer. She wasn't afraid to tell people to be quiet if they were "stealing" all the answers, and she encouraged the quieter ones to talk. As long as you have revised the syllabus/stage 1 book then you shouldn't have a problem here.

After that we then walked back to the yard to do the practical half of *Unit 2*. As there were 5 of us we were split into pairs, with one person on their own, we then had to select appropriate tools (barrow, pitchfork or shavings fork, broom) and muck out a stable. My partner and I had a straw bed: again there was an automatic drinker so we didn't have to do anything with that, and there was a built in hay rack - if there had been a haynet then we would have removed it. We removed the droppings and wet, and chose a wall to bank all the clean bed up on, and just started to methodically clear it. The examiner came round and watched us for a minute, then asked us some questions about different beddings  nothing too in depth, and what is the use/importance of a bed and so on. My partner was the girl that that talks/volunteered a lot of information so she didn't leave me much to say, so I just expanded on the advantages / disadvantages on straw as a bedding (relatively cheap in comparison to other bedding, provides a warm bed as it traps the air)

We weren't asked to set the bed fair, the examiner literally told us to put down our tools in the middle of mucking out and then come and join her on the yard. We covered some more of *Unit 3*, standing in a group in the yard. She asked us to describe the horse's natural lifestyle, signs of dangerous behaviour in a field and being ridden, how to turn out and catch a difficult horse, signs of a horse sick field and how to remedy it. She did ask us where you would place a water trough in a field. I didn't know the answer to this (apparently it should not be near the entrance or gate, and not under low hanging trees). We werent asked about the muck up/disposal of waste.

...see next post


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## clarajj83 (31 May 2013)

...continued from previous post

The last section covered the feeding/watering part of *Unit 3. *We all sat in the feed room on hay bales for this. We had Ms X again as our examiner. She asked us to show how we would carry certain things - water buckets, haynet and a straw bale. I had to demonstrate how to carry a straw bale. I was bit vague about the exact BHS way of doing this, so I just picked it up and kind of rested it on my chest / torso, like you would a feed bag. Ms X was not very impressed with this. After I demonstrated it she said, "Well I suppose that is one way of doing it but I am not sure how you would be able to see." This made me laugh, and then she added that I was also now covered in straw (which was true). She told me to sit down again after that! We were asked to demonstrate how you would carry and hang up a haynet. There were 2 rings to use at different heights; once we had tied the haynets up she asked us whether the height would be suitable for a 12hh pony / 16hh horse etc, which is just common sense really. We covered a few aspects of the dangers of haynets and other ways to feed hay (in a rack, on the floor etc).  We also had to show her how we would weigh a haynet using a spring balance thingy (forgotten the proper name) we didnt have to actually weigh the net, we just had to show her.

We went on to feeding and were split into pairs again. In turn we had to name a rule of feeding, and then our partner had to say the reason for the rule e.g. Rule: feed little and often, Reason: horses are trickle feeders by nature, graze between 16-20hrs a day and you want to mimic this and so on. Then we had to do the same for the rules of watering. Ms X then got out the box of feed samples, which were all in jars. We each had to pick a jar, then give it to the person on our left. I got linseed, which I was pleased with, however, Ms X took it off me (I don't think linseed is really covered in stage 1) and I was told to pick another. I picked barleyat least I was pretty sure it was barley because I'm terrible at telling the difference between rolled barley and rolled oats!! We each had to name the feed and briefly describe why you would feed it, what it is for and so on. Once that was done, the group was split in 2 and Ms X gave us some scenarios - from what I remember ours was something like, "What would you feed in kgs or lbs a 12hh pony, in light exercise, ridden by a novice child, who lives out in the summer." I tried to avoid giving specific answers as I didn't know the weight of the pony, so said I would let the pony live on grass, and unless it showed signs of deterioration in condition / when ridden then I would give it maybe 5-10% hard feed, 90-95% in bulk (grass in summer/hay in winter) and see how the pony faired from there. She was fine with that. She asked if I would feed the pony barley as the hard feed and I said no, more likely pony nuts possibly with some chaff to stop it bolting the food.

She asked a similar question to the other group, but used a 16hh horse in light work as an example. The girls were very hesitant in their answers and took a while to figure it out, and Ms X immediately picked up on this and starting asking them even more questions, which made them even more flustered. She then asked one of them how many sections of hay would you give the horse, which she didn't know the answer to. So Ms X asked if she knew how much a bale of hay weighed, and she didn't know that either. To be honest I didn't have a clue how much a hay bale weighed either and was relieved she hadn't asked me this, but she seemed very surprised that this girl couldn't answer, and then asked her, "Do you have any idea what you would feed a 16hh horse?" It all got a bit awkward and I felt really sorry for the girl, who was probably only 16-17yrs and was obviously really embarrassedShe didn't ask her anymore and that was the end of the feeding part, and the examHurrah!!

P.S. After the exam I told my BHS instructor that this girl had been asked how much a bale of hay weighed, and my instructor was surprised she was even asked this and didnt think she should have been.

The whole exam day started at 8.30am and finished around 1pm. As I said we had 2 examiners and 1 chief examiner. I think the chief examiner spent the majority of his time watching the riding with one of the other examiners. The day went pretty smoothly in terms of organisation. We were given toilet breaks, a water break, and the examiners werent monsters, they were on the whole approachable and came across as interested in what you had to say.
From taking my stage 1 I learnt that you have to be confident when answering questions, try and expand on your answers when you can and volunteer information. If you have lots to say and are confident in saying it (and it makes sense!) then I felt the examiners tended to leave you alone. If you are quiet/shy/hesitant and give monosyllabic answers then they will focus on you and start to watch you more and ask you more questions.


I did my stage 1 training at the same place as I did my exam so I knew it pretty well, and I had ridden the horses before. My training consisted of 1 lecture and 1 ride a week. The lecture was a mix of theory and practical which was invaluable. I trained for about 5 and a half months before I took the stage 1 exam. When I started training, I honestly thought it would take me a year to get up to standard, but it is amazing how quickly you can progress if you put the time and effort in. I also had a pony on loan with whom I practised with as well, and I worked at a local riding school every Sunday. I did all this whilst working full time in London during the week  I dont want that to sound like I am bragging or that you should be impressed, I just want to show that you can study and pass your stage 1 even though you dont work with horses on a day to day basis &#61514;

My centre ran a mock exam a couple of days before the actual exam which was incredibly helpful.
You do have to study for the exam (I used the BHS Stage 1 books), I wouldnt recommend going into the exam with no preparation as there are certain ways of doing things that you need to demonstrate, and the books/ a BHS instructor will cover all this.

I got my results by post about a week later, and had passed, thank god!


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## Fjord (31 May 2013)

Brilliant write up! That's really interesting, thank you for posting. Well done for passing.


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## Steorra (31 May 2013)

I'm normally a browser rather than a poster, but have logged in to say thanks for the detailed write-up!


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## Tnavas (31 May 2013)

If I remember rightly - long time since I was taught this but I think an average small bale of Meadow Hay weighs around 56lbs.

Thanks for the great write up - I too did my exams like you, working full time in London, up at the stables every night and both days weekend. It requires lots of self discipline and study - I did mine to Stage 4, BHSAI, ABRS Grooms Diploma and BHS Stable Manager. I really enjoyed the studying and I enjoyed taking the exams too. All these were done 35 years or more ago! But recently I did an Equine Nutrition course with Edinburgh University - on-line - was great fun.

Only thing I would have done differently was to saddle the horse first as it was already tied up, and the body brush on the face is correct. 

I now examine for Pony Club to B level and because I know what it's like to be examined I feel I can put my candidates at ease.

Looking forward to hearing about the next exam.


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## Penks (31 May 2013)

Brilliant write up and well done on passing


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## Feathered (31 May 2013)

Really interesting, thanks for taking the time to write all that!


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## amage (31 May 2013)

That was an excellent write up and I found it very interesting even though I wouldn't be interested in taking the exams. Just one point I wanted to make though...you mention counter canter as a symptom of being unbalanced. That is incorrect...cantering on the wrong leg is  a sign of unbalanced...counter canter requires good balance! Well done on passing


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## clarajj83 (1 June 2013)

Tnavas said:



			If I remember rightly - long time since I was taught this but I think an average small bale of Meadow Hay weighs around 56lbs.

Thanks for the great write up - I too did my exams like you, working full time in London, up at the stables every night and both days weekend. It requires lots of self discipline and study - I did mine to Stage 4, BHSAI, ABRS Grooms Diploma and BHS Stable Manager. I really enjoyed the studying and I enjoyed taking the exams too. All these were done 35 years or more ago! But recently I did an Equine Nutrition course with Edinburgh University - on-line - was great fun.

Only thing I would have done differently was to saddle the horse first as it was already tied up, and the body brush on the face
		
Click to expand...

Thanks! Encouraging to hear how far you have got whilst working full time.

She did have a martingale on which was I put the saddle on after the bridle


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## clarajj83 (1 June 2013)

amage said:



			That was an excellent write up and I found it very interesting even though I wouldn't be interested in taking the exams. Just one point I wanted to make though...you mention counter canter as a symptom of being unbalanced. That is incorrect...cantering on the wrong leg is  a sign of unbalanced...counter canter requires good balance! Well done on passing
		
Click to expand...

Thank you! And I have taken note re your counter canter comment , thanks for the advice


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## clarajj83 (1 June 2013)

Thank everyone for your comments! Glad you found the post interesting! X


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## Echo24 (1 June 2013)

Thank you for such a detailed post! I also work and did loan a pony and didn't think I'd have the time to do stage one but you've proved it is do able even with a full time job!

The day sounded scary though, I would have been a huge bundle of nerves! Well done on passing  Stage two next?


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## clarajj83 (4 June 2013)

charcoalfeathers said:



			Thank you for such a detailed post! I also work and did loan a pony and didn't think I'd have the time to do stage one but you've proved it is do able even with a full time job!

The day sounded scary though, I would have been a huge bundle of nerves! Well done on passing  Stage two next? 

Click to expand...

Thank you! Yes Stage 2 exam is in the next couple of months...


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## TandD (4 June 2013)

you were really heavly questioned!!! i did mine in feb (passed thank god!) but didnt have anywhere near the examination you did!

there were others in my sections who did get questioned quite a bit, but they weren't willing to give infomation or got it consistently wrong...i kept being shut up  (well you wanted to know about the items in the grooming kit......so ill give you all of them!)

well done on passing! only 3 stages left to go!!!!


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## its_noodles (4 June 2013)

really good to hear about ur stage 1 experience. good luck with stage 2...but dont know if i ever want to do it...


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## FlaxenPony05 (4 June 2013)

That was really interesting, thank you.


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## Tnavas (4 June 2013)

TandD said:



			you were really heavly questioned!!! i did mine in feb (passed thank god!) but didnt have anywhere near the examination you did!

there were others in my sections who did get questioned quite a bit, but they weren't willing to give infomation or got it consistently wrong...i kept being shut up  (well you wanted to know about the items in the grooming kit......so ill give you all of them!)

well done on passing! only 3 stages left to go!!!!
		
Click to expand...

This made me laugh as I kept being shut up in my exams and now as an examiner myself I do it to some of my candidates - usually means that you are doing well, and those that aren't satisfying the examiner get asked more.

Good Luck for your Stage 2


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