Weanlings for Education and Profit

The horses were used to teach a class of inexperienced students horse care, and then were sold as yearlings in a private auction benefiting the Rutgers equine research program. The program was so successful the college currently is working with
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A research group at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has found a unique way to perform multiple research projects where humans, horses, and the university benefit.

In fall of 1999, Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD, Dipl. ACVN, Associate Professor in the University’s Animal Science Department traveled to North Dakota to select 10 Quarter Horse/draft cross weanlings to be used for research and teaching. A lot was learned about managing transport stress and glucose and insulin metabolism from this group. The horses then were used to teach a class of inexperienced students horse care, and then were sold as yearlings in a private auction benefiting the Rutgers equine research program. The program was so successful the college currently is working with its second group of weanlings. This time Ralston took some of her students with her to North Dakota to select and work with the foals and document the trip to Rutgers.

What’s exceptional about these horses is that they were purchased with the help of the North American Equine Ranching Information Council (NAERIC) and are foals of mares which provide pregnant mare urine (PMU) for hormone therapy for women (see "Use or Abuse?" at www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=738; www.naeric.org). The weanlings of 1999 had never been handled, so naturally they were a little stressed on the 33-hour trip to New Jersey. Ralston and her assistants studied the efficacy of vitamin C supplementation on the prevention of "shipping fever," a respiratory condition associated with the stress of transport.

"We were supplementing these horses with five grams of vitamin C twice a day and 800 IU (International Units) of Vitamin E for only five days after transport that first year," Ralston said

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Written by:

Stephanie L. Church, Editorial Director, grew up riding and caring for her family’s horses in Central Virginia and received a B.A. in journalism and equestrian studies from Averett University. She joined The Horse in 1999 and has led the editorial team since 2010. A 4-H and Pony Club graduate, she enjoys dressage, eventing, and trail riding with her former graded-stakes-winning Thoroughbred gelding, It Happened Again (“Happy”). Stephanie and Happy are based in Lexington, Kentucky.

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