New Jersey has an abundance of horse farms with rolling green pastures and well-managed grounds. Three years ago, a joint project between the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University, the Rutgers Equine Science Center, and the N…

The Equine Science Center at Rutgers University partnered with the University of Minnesota in procuring blood samples from over 700 Standardbred horses in New Jersey and New York for a new group of studies aimed at identifying genetic factors underlying musculoskeletal diseases in horses… “The Equine Science Center was proud to be able to show our colleagues from Minnesota some of the best Standardbred horses in the country,” said Karyn Malinowski, PhD, professor of animal science and the director of the Rutgers Equine Science Center. “To be able to get blood samples from these top-tier competitors will not only help to diversify the genetic studies taking place, but will also provide great performance data to be used by the trainers of these horses. My heartfelt thanks goes out to the over 20 trainers who participated in the data collection.”… Sampling in New Jersey and New York took place Sept. 10-13, and will be added to a larger sampling conducted by the University of Minnesota team.

Carey Williams, MS, PhD, received the 2015 American Society of Animal Science and Equine Science Society’s (ASAS-ESS) Equine Science Award… Williams, associate director of Extension at the Rutgers University Equine Science Center and an associate professor in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Department of Animal Sciences, was honored at the society’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida… Williams was principal investigator on a successful grant titled “Sustainable Pasture Management for Horses,” the first to be awarded to an equine project from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension (SARE, a program of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service). The program emphasis led to improved pasture quality and water-soil conditions on horse farms meeting SARE’s mission for sustainable projects.

With careful planning and consideration you’ve built the perfect shelter for your horses. You look out to their pasture and admire its optimal design and placement. You look over to your horses. They are not in the shelter. Rain or shine, day or night, your horses are standing out in the elements, quite happily, no less, and completely impervious to all the trouble you have gone to on their behalf… Familiar though this scenario may be, it’s still important to provide shelter for horses, says Karyn Malinowski, PhD, director of the Rutgers Equine Science Center at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. Whether it’s a natural windbreak provided by the terrain, shade from a tree, or rain refuge by a man-made structure, there are times when horses do seek and use shelter… “Horses don’t necessarily need run-in sheds, but certainly access to some form of shelter is key,” says Malinowski.