Cook College at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey has announced the launch of its new web site dedicated to the college’s Young Horse Program. The unique program allows opportunities for college students to learn training and handling techniques of young horses while helping with valuable nutrition research projects.

Each year, students travel to North Dakota and Canada ranches to purchase foals from pregnant mare urine (PMU) farms for the program. The students learn how to gentle foals prior to the youngsters arriving at Rutgers. As they train and work with the foals, they design and conduct research projects that pertain to the nutritional needs of growing horses. Specifically, they are trying to optimize management of young horse diets to prevent developmental orthopedic diseases.

The students sell their charges at auction each spring.

Sarah Grossman, a Cook College graduate who is now a vet student, designed the web site, which can be viewed at https://web.mac.com/ru_horses/, and students Liz Houston and Chelsea Bullock have completely refurbished the site to its current state. Several sections are still in progress, but they will be updated in the coming months