Do you know what the New Jersey state animal is? I’ll give you a hint: we’ve got hooves! (I hope I didn’t give it away too quickly, check the bottom of my post for the answer.) That reminds me, next month is the Month of the Horse! We celebrate this amazing animal and its contributions to society (and our state) throughout the entire month of June.

We’ve been having quite the warm weather this week in New Jersey! I always enjoy seeing the students take a break from their end-of-semester studies to spend some time outside, especially when it means coming with their friends to see the farm. That reminds me, we had a lot of new visitors on the farm last week. Hmmmmm, I know they definitely weren’t undergraduate students, a lot of them were a bit too young for that.

RU ready for Rutgers Day? Yes, even those of us at the Equine Science Center like to use “RU” instead of “are you” every chance we get. Anyway, while my friends are doing their part to help prepare for the big event, it’s my job to tell y’all about what we have lined up. Ag Field Day here on Cook Campus is part of Rutgers Day, a free event across all five campuses that showcases the work of the people of the university. This year, Rutgers Day will be on Saturday, April 27th from 10am to 4pm. That means we get to show off everything that we do here at the ESC!

“April showers bring May flowers” is quite the theme here at Rutgers right now! We’ve been getting lots and lots of rain lately, but I know that means greener pastures are right around the corner. Besides, it gives me time to cozy up and do some more investigating for y’all. Can you guess what we’re talking about this week?

I hope you guys remember some of that research I talked about in my last blog! Don’t worry if you need a refresher, go ahead and check out the post about Rutgers Giving Days and come right back here.
Ready to hear some more? I had the opportunity to chat with the Rutgers Equine Science Center’s very own postdoctoral associate, Dr. Alisa Herbst, about what she’s been cooking up. Dr. Herbst has been doing a lot of work to make sure the voices of elderly horses and their owners are heard. She has also developed a unique system for evaluating muscle mass in horses, and most of her current work is related to further refining this system.

RU ready to help support the Rutgers Equine Science Center? Rutgers Giving Days are right around the corner, taking place on March 20th and 21st. As you might imagine, we will be super busy working to raise money to support the research that we do here at the ESC. Here’s a sneak peak about one of our current projects:

I hope you’ve been enjoying the virtual horse management seminar! (Check out my last blog post to hear all about it, there’s still one more session next week!) And now, I’ve got a special announcement about an upcoming opportunity to do some hands-on learning. Want to get up close and personal with some of the Rutgers farm animals? Be sure to attend our Junior Animal Science Symposium on March 23rd! I love that Rutgers hosts this event every year. It’s so fun seeing how engaged everyone is and how excited y’all are to learn about our animals.

I hope y’all got a chance to drop in this past Saturday and check out the in-person Horse Management Seminar! There was such a variety in the presentations, I don’t think I could pick a favorite. Even if you didn’t, we still have something lined up for everyone to enjoy. Like I mentioned in my last blog, we are having a virtual Seminar too! This is especially awesome because we are hosting different presenters who are happy to share even more expert knowledge.

It’s time for our first event of the year: the Horse Management Seminar! As you might remember, we went virtual for the past few years. This time, we have something a bit more special. We’ll have online and in-person options! And do you want to know what the best part is? You can even attend both events to learn even more!

What if you and all of your friends had the same exact birthday? I think that’d be pretty fun! You could all have one really big birthday party to celebrate, and everyone could exchange presents at the same time. Well, we horses are in luck! Some of us get to celebrate a “universal birthday.”