I’m really starting to appreciate the cooler November weather! My winter coat is already coming in so I’ll be toasty warm soon enough. The leaves are changing color, and the Rutgers Farm looks beautiful. It looks like Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Lots of things come to mind when I think about the holiday: good food, spending time with those you care about, and being thankful. I know I’m thankful for everyone at the Equine Science Center. What are y’all thankful for this year?
October really flew by! That means two things: Halloween is almost here (check out my Halloween blog!) and November is right around the corner. It’s time for the annual Rutgers Equine Science Center Evening of Science and Celebration. Everyone is invited to join us at my favorite event of the year. Make some room in your calendar on Thursday, November 14th from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. You can register for the event by going to https://go.rutgers.edu/Evening2024.
It looks like Halloween is sneaking up on us this year! Lots of things come to mind when I think about the holiday, like treats, costumes, yummy treats, spooky monsters….did I mention treats? Check out my blog from last year to see how you can get your horse involved in some Halloween fun. As much as I would love to continue talking about snacks, I’ve got something else to talk about today: skeletons! They might sound spooky, but I guarantee you, there’s a lot more to them than just being a Halloween decoration.
The fall weather is just around the corner, and I could not be more excited! The leaves will be changing soon and Cook campus is going to look prettier than it already is. We can chat about the weather later though. We’ve got a career to learn about! This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with one of our friends over at the county offices: Eric Martin. He is a member of the Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management and Preparedness, and part of his job is to help keep animals safe during disasters. Even though his background involves a lot of human search and rescue training, he is incredibly dedicated to his current work involving animal rescue. As you will certainly see, he has quite the passion for raising awareness!
The fall semester is in full swing here at Rutgers! For everyone at the ESC, that means we’re going to have a lot of student help for our studies. Doing research on the farm takes a lot of extra hands (and hooves). It’s also really great for when we run our equine treadmill to show the general public the kind of work that we do. I’m sure you guys have heard about that in a lot of my previous blogs, but I wanted to take the time today to describe what it “looks” like!
The fall semester has officially begun here at Rutgers! It’s nice to see all the students back on campus; the farm gets so quiet during the summertime. I hope y’all have had a smooth start to your school year too. I’m sure many of the Rutgers students would agree with me when I say that the “first day of school” feeling never goes away, even when you’re in college!
It looks like we’re nearing the end of the summer! I can’t believe that it’s already time for my yearly “back to school” blog. I’m sure many of you have spent lots of time outside this summer enjoying the warm weather, hopefully with both your horse and human friends. Even though it’s great to see all your classmates and teachers again this school year, being inside means that it’s a bit easier for everyone to get sick. The same is certainly true for horses! That’s why today I’ll be sharing a bit about contagious respiratory diseases.
I can’t believe that it’s already August! This summer is really flying by fast. That reminds me, isn’t there a big horse race around this time? If you guessed the Hambletonian Stakes, you’d be right! That’s the Standardbred race held on the first Saturday in August at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, NJ. While that’s certainly a fun weekend activity, I want to update y’all on Friday’s event: the 2024 Hambletonian Continuing Education Seminar.
I’m glad I got to see a lot of you at the Summer Showcase a few weeks ago! It’s always great to see everyone get excited about learning something new. This week, we’re chatting about something that isn’t new to me, but it might be new to you: the Rutgers Mounted Patrol! This is a topic near and dear to me because being part of the mounted unit was my first job here at Rutgers.
Speaking of fun events, I recently noticed a bunch of new students on the farm. I thought to myself, “it can’t be the start of the fall semester yet, there’s no way the summer flew by that quickly!” It turns out that it was still indeed summer, but the Animal Sciences Department was hosting some students from another university. They were part of a really cool program, USDA NextGen, that provided hands-on learning opportunities to students in agricultural and animal sciences. These students in particular were from LaGuardia Community College (LAGCC), which is located in Queens, NY. They got to stay on Cook campus for about three weeks and learn all about the farm, its animals, and animal science research here at Rutgers.
My first job at Rutgers University was on mounted patrol. I also carried the Scarlet Knight mascot at football games. One day I became famous when I got excited, stepped onto the field and became the only horse in history to receive a penalty in a football game! And I’m curious and mischievous! I love to be outside, so don’t ever leave my stall door open. I love all kinds of food – just about nothing at a picnic is safe. I also don’t like cheese puffs. That cheetah on the bag scares me to death! After 22 years on mounted patrol, I’m proud to be back, working for the Rutgers Equine Science Center and telling everyone what I know.
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