Preparing Horses for Transit and Competition

When it comes to transportating your horses, preparedness is essential for the safety and health of both you and your horses

Vaccination of Horses

A comprehensive health plan for horses includes vaccinations. Vaccinating a horse prepares its immune system to recognize and diminish the effects of a spe¬cific disease. Vaccines are not 100% effective in disease prevention or management, yet vaccinations can be very beneficial in guarding a horse against illness if the horse is in good general health. Management of overall health in conjunction with a vaccination program is the most effective way to ensure the health of your horse. While vaccinating your horses will help protect them in the event of local disease outbreak, vaccinations alone are not an effective health plan; proper nutrition, parasite management, and routine hoof and teeth care are also critical components of horse care

Feeding Horses in the Winter

On average, a mature horse will need to consume between 1.5 and 2% of dry feed based on their total body weight each day. For a 1,200-pound horse, this means that they would be eating roughly 24 pounds (1,200 pounds x .02) of dry feed daily. Let’s assume that properly handled hays and grains are 90% dry material; this means that 10% is in the form of water, rather than dry nutrients. We would need to add 10% to the total amount fed to our horse, meaning the average 1,200-pound horse will eat approximately 26–27 pounds of feed each day. The majority of this feed should be high-quality grass hay or alfalfa/grass mix. High-quality hay should typically be green in color, contain many of leaves, and should not smell musty. However, these characteristics are simply guidelines. To accurately assess the quality of your hay, the hay must be analyzed in a laboratory. Contact your local county Extension office for assistance submitting a hay sample for analysis

Estrus Detection in Mares

In a successful horse-breeding program, it is im¬portant to understand the reproductive cycles and be¬haviors of a mare. The reproductive cycle of a mare is called the estrous cycle and lasts an average of 21 days from one ovulation to the next. Estrus is a period of time within the estrous cycle when the mare is recep¬tive to being bred and typically lasts from 5 to 8 days. The efficiency of your breeding program can be af¬fected by your ability or inability to detect estrus in a mare. When a mare is in estrus, it is often referred to as being in “heat” or standing to be bred. Today there are a wide variety of methods used for detection of estrus in the mare. Before discussing the methods and signs of estrus, some background information about the es¬trous cycle must be given. Developing a thorough un¬derstanding of estrus and the estrous cycle in the mare during the breeding season is crucial for improving current breeding practices

Checking-in to Create Instructor-Student Immediacy in Honors

Weekly, self-evaluative briefs are used to assess students’ general wellbeing during the coronavirus crisis. Authors discuss the efficacy of personalized check-ins and remote, interpersonal rapport, suggesting a positive impact on student learning outcomes

Student Preferences for Faculty-Led Honors Study Abroad Experiences

A critical component of any education, particularly an honors education, is an interdisciplinary curriculum that enriches the college experience. At South Dakota State University (SDSU), the Fishback Honors College strives to provide a robust and holistic educational experience through innovative honors courses paired with enriching co-curricular programs. One way to meet these goals is an honors study abroad experience included as part of the Fishback Honors College curriculum. The study abroad course is an integral part the honors curriculum, fulfilling the requirement of an interdisciplinary colloquium course and thus making it accessible to students from every field of study

The Value of Honors: A Study of Alumni Perspectives on Skills Gained Through Honors Education

Honors education is often marketed as a means to offer enhanced value to a collegiate education. This value has the capacity to bolster a student’s academic experience, to add to his or her comprehensive skill set, to enhance a resumé, and to improve professional development. Ernest Pascarella argued that theoretical value without data is often used to justify collegiate programs such as honors and criticized those practices for lacking research and data to validate the claim of enhanced value. The current research was designed to obtain validation by eliciting the perspectives of alumni from South Dakota State University’s (SDSU’s) Honors College on the value of their honors education. The data presented here sought to fill a gap in honors research by identifying what skills honors graduates value from their honors education and determining whether post-graduation value aligns with the SDSU Honors College’s student learning outcomes. Assessing the effectiveness and value of honors education is a challenge, heightened by the fact that no two honors programs are exactly alike. However, there have been attempts dating back at least as early as 1995 to assess the value of honors education. Among these attempts are studies on grade point average (GPA), student involvement, exposure to collegiate “good practices,” student awards, and measures of emotional intelligence among honors students. These studies have largely been conducted with undergraduate students in an attempt to justify the value of an honors education, but these previous studies can help scholars assess where future research is needed

Native Elder and Youth Perspectives on Mental Well-being, the Value of the Horse, and Navigating Two Worlds

Purpose: Native American youth experience significant challenges to mental well-being. As part of a larger study to evaluate hope and resilience in a Plains tribal population, the purpose of this study was to learn from Native American elders and youths what they feel is needed to for youth to grow up healthy on the reservation, and to identify connections between horse use and mental well-being.Sample: Six Native American elders and eight Native American youths from the same Plains tribe.Method: The research team conducted Talking Circles with youths and elders. during the Talking Circles, participants identified community-specific questions for inclusion in a resilience measurement and provided personal stories regarding the relevance of the horse to well-being.Findings: Both groups felt cultural traditions and language, education, relationships, and interactions with horses have significant roles in enhancing identity development and resilience in youth. However, elders indicated that tribal youth seem to struggle in navigating two worlds. Elders expressed that for youth to be well, they need to return to traditional ways within the realms of culture, language, education, and relationships. On the other hand, the youths were more confident in their ability to navigate two worlds, and wished to seek opportunities to blend their traditional and contemporary lives.Conclusion: The challenges of navigating two worlds for Native Americans are experienced across generations. Both youths and elders said that resilient youth are able to successfully navigate these challenges when they: (a) know their indigenous identity, (b) participate in cultural activities, (c) have strong family ties, and (d) are able to learn in an environment where their culture is championed. We propose that future efforts must include community-based participatory methods in the development of interventions that include use of the horse to strengthen Native American youth resilience and foster health and well-being

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Kinase Domain Region Receptor Are Involved in Both Seminiferous Cord Formation and Vascular Development During Testis Morphogenesis in the Rat

Morphological male sex determination is dependent on migration of endothelial and preperitubular cells from the adjacent mesonephros into the developing testis. Our hypothesis is that VEGFA and its receptor KDR are necessary for both testicular cord formation and neovascularization. The Vegfa gene has 8 exons with many splice variants. Vegfa120, Vegfa164, and Vegfa188 mRNA isoforms were detected on Embryonic Day (E) 13.5 (plug date = E0) in the rat. Vegfa120, Vegfa144, Vegfa164, Vegfa188, and Vegfa205 mRNA were detected at E18 and Postnatal Day 3 (P3). Kdr mRNA was present on E13.5, whereas Fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 receptor (Flt1) mRNA was not detected until E18. VEGFA protein was localized to Sertoli cells at cord formation and KDR to germ and interstitial cells. The VEGFA signaling inhibitors SU1498 (40 μM) and VEGFR-TKI (8 μM) inhibited cord formation in E13 testis cultures with 90% reduced vascular density (P \u3c 0.01) in VEGFR-TKI-treated organs. Furthermore, Je-11 (10 μM), an antagonist to VEGFA, also perturbed cord formation and inhibited vascular density by more than 50% (P \u3c 0.01). To determine signal transduction pathways involved in VEGFA’s regulation of testis morphogenesis, E13 testis were treated with LY 294002 (15 μM), a phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway inhibitor, resulting in inhibition of both vascular density (46%) and cord formation. Thus, we support our hypothesis and conclude that VEGFA, secreted by the Sertoli cell, is involved in both neovascularization and cord formation and potentially acts through the PI3K pathway during testis morphogenesis to elicit its effects