Hay everyone!
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 peek about one of our current projects:
Muscle Atrophy Scoring System (MASS)
Dr. Alisa Herbst, a postdoctoral associate, is currently working on a system to help assess muscle mass in horses. With the help of her undergraduate team (and your donations!), she is molding MASS into a powerful tool for horse owners. The goal of the system is to allow horse owners to look at different parts of their horse and give them each a score. This will help them pinpoint where muscle loss is occurring and how severe it is. Then, they can make sure their horse is staying healthy over time and talk to their vet about any concerns. Dr. Herbst hopes to really make an impact on the horse world!
If you’d like to hear more from Dr. Herbst, be sure to come back for the next blog where we’ll be taking a deep dive into her research!
Some of you might remember a few of our past projects. We’re really grateful for your contributions!
One of the Equine Science Center’s most recent projects was led by Dr. Ellen Rankins and focused on the interaction between veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and equine therapy horses. Dr. Rankins and her team collected lots and lots of data from both the horse and human participants. She found that the symptoms of PTSD decreased in the group of veterans that were able to work directly with the horses. Check out one of my blogs from last year to learn more about this research!
Be on the lookout for more information over the next few weeks so you can donate! We all appreciate your support of the Center and we certainly couldn’t do all this without you.
You rock!
Your friend,
Lord Nelson