Horses, A Family Affair!

It should be pretty apparent if you have been following our blog by now that everyone in the horse group at Purina Animal Nutrition is passionate about horses and interacting with them. If you are involved with horses you know that it is far more complex than your average job or hobby, it is more of a lifestyle. Dr. Gordon posted a couple of weeks ago about our first foal of the year, we are now up to six on the ground and three more to go. As the manager of our research herd and faclility, one of my responsibilities is getting foals on the ground safe and sound. We use several tools to help us out. We have a special camera system and a birth alarm which are the most frequently used. We make every effort possible to be present at birth just in case the foal or mare needs some help. This past Friday I had just picked my children up from school when the birth alarm was activated, I had only been away from work for about an hour. I raced back to the farm and made it in time for my children to witness seeing their first foal being born. What a great experience, they are still talking about it 6 days later! It can be tough splitting time between the barn and family, but I feel it is important to instill in my kids the passion, time, and committment it takes if you want to spend time with these great creatures. I had lots of help bedding a fresh stall for the new foal and mare.

Then we had to get a chance to say hello for the first time before moving to our clean stall.

Being able to experience these things while at work is a chance not many people get. It is just one of the reasons we all work here, and carry so much passion for the horse with us every day. Raising these foals to become future research horses and eventually someones personal horse is a lot of responsibility, but it is one we take seriously. When someone buys a horse from us for their own personal use I know someday it will be a family treasure that hopefully they can use for their own family experience someday! We still have at least a couple of late nights left to go to get the rest of our foals on the ground, but I know I will miss getting those late calls to  get to the barn once we have everybody safe on the ground!