Program Reviews

This program was really great and allowed me to meet a bunch of new people with different backgrounds riding different horses. The cultural experiences give you a taste of Scottish culture that makes you want to come back and experience more. The staff is all very friendly and willing to help make the program an individual success for each student . I would recommend this program to anyone interested.

This program was fantastic, I have absolutely no complaints about my 4 weeks spent here in Scotland. This campus and staff were welcoming and made for a great trip. | cannot wait to get home and share my amazing experiences with students who wish to go on this trip next year. The trips around Scotland were perfect, it was a good break from campus while also learning more about the Scottish culture and history. I learned so much about the English Discipline, as I came from a Western background. If there was anything I would change about the course, it would be the structure of the fitness course to do be such a large workload. I found it a bit difficult to manage all the new experiences and opportunities, while also completing all the assignments that were assigned in this course.

I loved the combination of class credits and riding time, and the equestrian centre here is top notch. All of the staff are very friendly and willing to help you with anything. You get your own dorm room with a bathroom, along with a common room with a fridge to keep food. There are some planned excursions that are a lot of fun, and also some free weekends where you can do your own thing. It went by very fast but I do think it was a very good amount of time to settle in and get to experience the culture of the area. My only complaint would be that there was limited access to computers, so maybe a bring a laptop with you if you can.

This was a great experience. I love how hands on they were. The lesson horses were wonderful. I definitely would recommend the program to anyone that loves the horse. I enjoyed the outings that they scheduled and I adored the people that ran the program. My favourite part was going to the Scottish Borders to the Floors Castle Stud Farm. All around it was a wonderful trip. I would definitely come back if I had the chance.

The UK has always been one of my favourite places in the world that I had never been to, until now. I found this program by simply doing a google search for equine study abroad in Europe. I knew I wanted a study abroad in Europe working directly with animals. When I found this study I knew it was the one. It has been everything I wanted and so much more. The Scottish people are so very nice and welcoming and so much fun to get on with. The horses were great and so well taken care of. Exploring castles, the countryside, hiking, everything has been the most fun I have had in my entire life. I have wanted to move to Europe for a long time, and now Scotland is a huge consideration for the place I might move. When trying to find somewhere to go or figure out how to get there, all of the people at the college, as well as around the towns, were always ready and willing to help us in any way they could. Louise has to be one of my favourite people here. She is such a nice sweet lady and so much fun to talk to. She instantly me feel welcomed and at home the moment I met her at the airport. I have felt completely at home in this whole country, more so than I do in the States. I absolutely recommend this program and would even do it again myself if I could!

The past four weeks in Scotland has been very enriching, and the courses have been very interesting. Through this program, I have improved my English riding technique, had the opportunity to do small jumps, and dressage work. The instructors for riding will give you many critiques as well as encouragement. There are a variety of horses (and with that, temperaments) here at the stables at the Oatridge campus. The equine anatomy and physiology course has been interactive and hands-on. When we were learning about the muscles and bones of the horse, we had the chance to stick labels on live horses and see where these structures were on the actual animal. We learned about the major organ systems in the class. There was an overview of each system and some details about the types of cells in each system. The equine fitness class has taught me more about the different disciplines that you can train a horse for. I haven't competed with horses while growing up, so this has been a great introduction into eventing, dressage, polo, and other areas of competition. I've also liked getting to see how different muscles and skills are necessary based on the discipline. Overall, I have learned quite a bit from this program from riding to the fitness required for different levels of horse competitions. I have not been a big fan of the food here. The options are different than what I'm used to eating back home. There are usually more options with curry and ALWAYS chips (fries) offered with every meal. However, there is always at least two options for food and supplementary food can be purchased from the nearby "Walmart" (ASDA), which we frequent on a weekly basis for supplies. The landscape of Scotland is truly the rolling green pastures with some mountains in the distance. It's simply gorgeous, and the locals are very friendly. I've also learned more about the culture (including common Scottish lingo) and met people from a wide variety of horsie backgrounds.

I really enjoyed my experience at Oatridge in the Study Abroad program. The classes were very informational and gave me lots of practical knowledge about aspects of horses I hadn't known about. Everyone was so friendly and the activities were very interesting and fun to experience with the girls I met here. I really enjoyed riding the different horses at the yard because they were all different but very well trained. Overall, my experience was phenomenal and I would recommend anyone interested in any kind of Equine profession to come have this experience.

I very much enjoyed my experience abroad at Oatridge College. The instructors and workers at Oatridge were all very warm, welcoming, and helpful! They tried to learn our names as quickly as they could, kept up to date with how we were feeling, and if we needed anything they tried to accommodate us as best they could.

The classes were decently fast paced, but as long as I studied a bit after the class and before the assessments, I did fine.

We also got to ride a lot over the course of the program, and by the end of the four weeks everyone was able to do dressage tests and jumping over small jumps, so the lessons were really quite thorough!

I loved the extra trips we made, especially the trips to Loch Lomond and Perth Races.
There were also plenty of hiking places around the college with amazing views, provided you were willing to climb for them.

I had a great time in Madrid! I already speak Spanish so I was able to live with four girls (who were not on Adelante) from various countries and communicate entirely in Spanish (some of them didn't speak English at all). My internship shadowing Dr Enrique Rojas was wonderful and I learned so much about psychology and psychiatry. I sat in on most of Dr. Rojas' sessions, received lessons during free time, and even conducted a few one-on-one sessions with patients on my own. The social-life was also great, I fell in love with Madrid as a city and can't wait to go back as soon as possible!

As a side note (this is neither good nor bad): I wanted to be very independent on this program and I was able to be (especially because I was not housed in Adelante apartments). I lived abroad for almost half of my life growing up and have been to over 35 countries so I loved that, but I would caution others who might not feel as comfortable navigating a new city/language/culture to live in non-adelante housing because you receive a lot less support.

I was a candidate in Adelante's Chile program for three months in early 2017. At the risk of sounding hacknied, the experience was utterly transformative, thanks in large part to Adelante.

After a friendly chat with the feller sent to pick me up from the airport, I arrived to the candidate apartment. Strangely, it was way nicer than it looked in the pictures. Classes at the International Center (Adelante's in-country fixer organization, which also maintains the apartment and a network of homestay families) started a few days later. They were daily group lessons taught by the wonderful Marcela, who took us on excursions in Viña and Valpo as part of the lessons, and advised us extensively on where to buy meat, how to navigate the streets and slang, etc. The International Center crew was not only extremely communicative (and able to speak English, in large part), they took us out and were generally good buddies. I was traveling alone, so that gracious friendliness kept a certain amount of loneliness at bay.

In my second month I moved to a family homestay. There was some confusion here in regard to communication between the International Center and Adelante, but I still ended up in the right place. The host family was extremely accomodating, but a bit controlling. I decided that I wanted to try a different host family a month later, and the Adelante/IC folks had me in a new house the next day. Despite small problems with the host families themselves, Adelante/IC was adament about holding them accountable, and urged me to report any issue that came up.

My internship assignment was spot on. Marcela made sure I knew how to get there and who to talk to (although the beautiful madness of Chilean Spanish made it difficult to chat at first). I was allowed to work at my own pace and take as many tourism days off as I needed. The staff was endlessly cool... if you end up in the area, I recommend you tune in to Radio Valentín Letelier for a (really) broad mix of alternative music.

There are countless wonderful details about the experience that I don't have time to impart, but I gotta mention the excursions to a local vineyard (the first included as part of lessons, the second offered for free when my parents came to visit me) and Charlie (a sweet street dog often accompanied by "the yellow dog," both of whom followed me into supermarkets, churches, and anywhere else). Generally, the atmosphere of the Adelante/IC was one of helpful kindness, and that made good things happen.

I'm omitting a lot of difficult experiences, which were equally essential to the emotional and lingual growth I achieved down there, but none of those were Adelante's fault. In retrospect, I'm awfully grateful for those negative experiences, but pleased to say that they didn't stem from the organization to which I paid $4000.

Adelante is trustworthy and Chile is indescribably worthwhile. Buen viaje, folks. Pick up a slang dictionary on your way.

-Arlo