My first week at my lab has been great! The Rutgers farm that I am working at ended up being only 20 minutes away from my house (not the 45 minutes that I was expecting), so I was the first person to show up at my lab on my first day. However, I am a little glad that I left my house earlier, because I ended up getting lost and going to the wrong farm. My PI laughed when I told her. She gave me a tour around the different parts of the Rutgers Animal Sciences Center after all the work was done to ensure that I wouldn't get lost again.
The work on my first day was similar to what I was expecting when I researched during the school year. The farm is split into 2 groups (the rotational field and the continuous field) with around 3 sections per group. Each section has around 3 horses. I was a little surprised when I first walked onto the farm, because of the stark differences between the two groups. There were a lot of rough patches on the continuous field, and the horses did not look as fit as the ones on the rotational field. Although I was able to meet all the horses (all standard bred mares), the first two days were focused on gathering samples of the fields to determine what types of grass were growing on it, and how much of it there was.
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| Rotational Field |
On my third day, we took horses from 2 of the rotational sections and brought them into the barn. There, I learned how to take the temperature of the horses (push the thermometer into the anus and press closely to the horse to ensure that you do not get kicked), how to calculate heart rate, and how to properly brush the horses and clean out the hooves.
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| Stardust, one of the mares we were working on |
Next week, we will be taking ultrasounds of the horses to calculate fat percentage, and continuing the work on the fields. I'm really excited to learn more throughout my weeks here!
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