Jessica Cha, Entry #2, Obese Horses

Now that I have finished my first two weeks at my lab, I feel a lot more confident about the work that I am doing there. I have gotten into the flow of collecting herbage samples early in the morning, identifying different types of plants, and caring for the horses.

This past week was primarily focused on the nutritional aspect of the research (not the environmental), so we had to gather all the horses in the barn to determine how the different pastures were affecting them. First, we weighed each horse on a large scale, and then we took an ultrasound of the width of fat at the rump. Finally, we determined a body condition score for each horse. This is done by using a scoring system from 1-9, 1 being emaciated and 9 being extremely overweight. We felt the fat in 5 areas: the neck, shoulders, ribs, back, and tail head. Each area was then given a score from 1-9, and the total score was the average of all the numbers. Unfortunately, many of the horses were scored around a 6, and some continuously grazing horses were even around 7.5 and 8. This means that the continuous horses are overeating, selectively grazing on plants high in sugar, or both. Once the research is done, these horses must be put into stress lots to lose the fat.

On a more positive note, the Rutgers Equine Research Center held its summer open house on Wednesday, and I was able to help my PI with her demonstrations. I also found out that my PI had previously worked on another research topic covering the racing horse. She had researched the nutritional and physical necessities of the racing horse, and she set up a demonstration showing a horse running on a treadmill.

Randy, the horse, demonstrating how the treadmill works 

While her research on this topic is finished, I am excited to see the results that her current lab will show, and what she will do in the future.