Horse Research Farm
Overview:
The Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Kentucky operates
a 100 acre horse farm for teaching and research. The farm is located
about 10 miles from the main University of Kentucky campus. The farm
includes two separate barn areas with more than 15 pastures/paddocks
of various sizes. The farm routinely maintains 60 to 80 horses, depending
upon season and research needs. The farm is staffed by a full time
manager with an M.S. degree, a full time animal technician and a number
of student workers.
The Nutrition
Barn and Training Barn:
 The
Nutrition Barn is a 144' x 24' structure
that partially covers 12 individual pens. Each
pen is 12' wide and 48' long and is equipped
with an automatic waterer. The
pens easily accommodate mature horses,
growing horses and mare/foal pairs. The
Nutrition Barn is an ideal environment
for feeding individual horses without
imposing box stall confinement. It
is well suited to studying the effects
of dietary changes on growing horses,
exercising horses and broodmares. The
Nutrition Barn is adjacent to a 60' round
pen and a recently constructed high speed
6-horse exerciser. |
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 The
Training Barn is entirely enclosed
and contains 18 box stalls in a back-to-back
configuration with a tanbark walking
area around the outside. The Training
Barn includes a feed room, a small
laboratory, a restraint stock and a
motorized treadmill. Six stalls
in the Training Barn are equipped
with automatic grain feeders and have
rubber mat flooring. These stalls
are useful for studies on digestibility,
palatability and feeding behavior.
Just outside the Training Barn is a
wash rack and a large animal platform
scale. Immediately to the north of
the Training Barn Interior of Training
Barn are four 48' x 48' dirt paddocks
used for turn-out of stalled horses.
The Training Barn and Nutrition Barn
are close to 6 larger paddocks. |
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The Foaling
Barn and Breeding Area:
 The
Foaling Barn contains 11 large box
stalls suitable for foaling and
a 48' x 48' breeding shed.
After foaling mares and foals can
be maintained in the Foaling Barn,
or moved to the Nutrition Shed/Training
Barn area. Adjacent to the breeding
shed is a small laboratory/office
area. The Foaling Barn is surrounded
by 12 paddocks. Each paddock is 2-4
acres and contains mixed grass pasture.
Several of the paddocks have run-in
sheds. |
Laboratory Facilities
and Equipment
Most laboratory facilities
at the research farm are used for initial sample
handling. The majority of the sample analyses
occur in laboratories in the Department of
Animal Sciences. The Department of Animal Sciences
has modern facilities and equipment for conducting
a large variety of analytical procedures including:
gas chromatography, HPLC, atomic absorption
spectrophotometry, automated nitrogen analysis,
automated ADF/NDF analysis, Cobas/Fara chemistry
analysis (free fatty acids, triglycerides,
creatine kinase, total protein, etc), automated
glucose/lactate analysis, in vitro incubations,
etc.
| Animal Resources
 The
core herd of horses consists of 12
mature geldings (primarily thoroughbreds),
18 to 24 broodmares (Thoroughbreds
and Quarter Horses), 1 Quarter Horse
stallion, 2 thoroughbred stallions,
and 2 ponies with cecal fistulae. The
University of Kentucky does not
operate a riding program, and all horses
are maintained for research purposes.
Foals produced on the farm are progeny
of stallions maintained on the or of
area stallions. Foals are sold as weanlings
or yearlings through public auction
or private sale and are an important
source of income for recurring costs
on the farm (feed, health care, maintenance,
etc). |
In the last decade, the farm
has produced stakes winners including the 1998
Canadian thoroughbred 2 year-old champion male
(Riddell's Creek), and a number of successful
show horses including Mito Weeper, the 1996
AQHA Youth High-Point Hunter Hack Horse and
UK Fancy Mito, winner of the Miller's Hunter
Under Saddle Futurity at the 1993 All American
Quarter Horse Congress. These accomplishments
are of little significance to the equine nutrition
research program except that they illustrate
that the genetics of the research herd are
representative of horses performing successfully
in both the racing and show industries.
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