August 2012
31 posts
Last Day of Work-Day 88
Wednesday, August 15th It was our last day of work, which was bittersweet and fun. I definitely had a great experience at KER and learned so much! We ended the day with cake and some good photos!
Our cake with an inside joke from Dr. B!
Ali and I with our cake
Day 87
Tuesday, August 14th I spent most of the day working and then packing!
Day 86
Monday, August 13th Our London crew came back and reported back with all positive news-the Games went very well for KER, who is the official feed provided for all the horses in the Olympics. Even with them back, we still made time to go to Keeneland for the morning workout and we got to spend time chatting with the trainer for Dr. Pagan’s racehorse. It was interesting hearing about how he...
Day 85
Sunday, August 12th We had our day off, so we went to the pool and went to watch polo in the evening.
Day 84
Saturday, August 11th We had our day of work and then we had our going away party that our housemate Clay hosted for us. We had a grillout and dancing and it was a lot of fun and a good end to the summer!
With Ali, Clay, and Jeffery (who lives at the house during the year)
Had a great time with some great KY friends!
Day 83
Friday, August 10th Today was our visit to the Gluck Equine Research Center, which is part of University of KY. It was very cool, lot’s of research, and they do a lot within the industry/what they study there.
Random picture of Simon and I, one of the horses at Anna’s barn.
Day 82
Thursday, August 9th Today, along with the string of horse problems from previous days, Hero started to choke, so we went with Dr. B out to Anna’s barn to check it out. In the case of a horse choking, you stick a tube down its esophagus to push the obstruction (usually a lump of drier, compact feed) down it’s throat and it can breathe again normally. We do give them some ace so they...
Day 81
Wednesday, Aug 8th Clyde, one of our old horses, has bad feet. When checking on him today we noticed he was very lame and could barely walk. Turns out one of his hooves had been chipped badly sometime in the night and he was in quite a bit of pain. We ended up going out and putting a pad on his feed, combined with covering it with sole paint. He got a new pad before we left that we covered...
Day 80
Tuesday, August 7th Today started the series of bad luck during the next couple days of this week. After bringing my beloved Casper in, he started colicking, so we had to take action. We first made sure his lung wasn’t full of fluids, he got a bloody nose in the process, then we had to IV drip him. Luckily he ended up pulling out of it but it was scary for awhile. Otherwise, another work...
Day 79
Monday, August 6th Our last full week of work! Started out doing the same old, same old.
Day 78
Sunday, August 5th
On our day off we just hung out and went to watch Polo at the Horse Park in the evening, with a little over a week left, it was a good time to relax!
Polo match
Hitting the ball
We were pretty close!
Day 77
Saturday, August 4th After work today we went to the Hats Off Day at Kentucky Horse Park-it was an event to celebrate the horse industry and I got a ton of freebies including two hats! Which brings my Kentucky Free Hat count to 7. After walking around for awhile we went to watch the 50K Rood and Riddle Grand Prix (show jumping) and that was pretty entertaining. I even won an American flag...
Day 76
Friday, August 3rd So today it was pretty rainy at work. In between breaks we went to take a tour at Woodford Reserve Distillery and I got a bottle of bourbon with my name on it! A true Kentucky souvenir.
Day 75
Thursday, August 2nd A rainy day at work, we scrubbed up Fatman, one of our old boys, since he is dealing with some skin issues. But otherwise, treadmill, walker, and muck out as always!
Day 74
Wednesday, August 1st Today at work we had a product meeting with one of our sales people, Chelsea. She discussed the KER products with us and what they are meant for. Definitely learned a lot and then we went and took a tour at Old Friends as well, which is a retirement home for retired racehorses. They do a lot of great work. For info on KERx Products: http://www.kerx.com/products/
Day 73
Tuesday, July 31st We got off of work early Tuesday to play POLO! We had our first lesson and it was a blast! Jorge Vasquez, who is the coach of the Uni of KY Polo team, taught us how to play and we had a great time. Oh and we visited the Alltech Brewery in Lexington during the day as well, sadly didn’t get to try their brews, but they make Kentucky Ale, still neat to see!
Alltech...
Day 72
Monday, July 30th A normal day of work.
Day 71
Sunday was our day off so we went riding with Robin’s friend Nicole at Robin’s place and then we went to hike the Red River Gorge and Natural Bridge park! It was a great time and recommend it to anyone!
Riding at Robin’s on Wiz, a Morgan horse.
Essentials for a trail hike
Nature time!
Nature Bridge-all natural!
Atop Nature Bridge
The landscape at Nature Bridge...
Day 70
Saturday, July 28 Another day of work and hanging out.
Day 69
On Friday we worked and also toured Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, they are one of the best equine hospitals in the world.
Surgery room
Recovery room-very padded and 24 hour watch when horses are recovering.
The most advanced x-ray machine in the world
Fancy treadmill
Artificial insemination room
Day 68
Thursday, July 26 Thursday was another day of treadmilling, walking the horses, and mucking out stalls-went to Robin’s for dinner as well.
Day 67
Wednesday, July 25 It was a usual day at work, except for floating of teeth and cleaning the horses sheaths. The other interns finally peer pressured me to clean Bob’s and do it, but really it’s a good skill to have if you have a gelding one day. Needless to say it wasn’t too bad. After work we went to check out a BBQ place our neighbor works at and it was quite tasty!
...
Day 66
Tuesday, July 24 On Tuesday I spent the day shadowing a sales rep at Hallway Feeds. Hallway Feeds is a partner with KER and a big feed company. Anyways, I went and shadowed a sales rep who’s been working with Hallway for ten years and he loves his job. It was a great day-we first went to the KY Horse Park and met with possible clients and horse people that were trying out feeds of ours...
Day 65
Monday, July 23rd It was Liz’s birthday, so we decided to go see the Dark Knight Rises after work. I LOVED it. I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. Amazing ending to a great trilogy and the end of the movie pulled everything together.
Day 64
Sunday, July 22nd A fast day of work, just mucking out stalls, then off to the pool to relax.
Day 63
Saturday, July 21st Working the treadmills and walker with the horses as always.
Day 62
Friday, July 20th Friday was my day off, so I headed up the Darley Stud farm and Four Roses Distillery.
Gravesite of Affirmed, the last triple crown winner
Darley Stud
One of the studs
The property at Darley Stud
Holy Bull hanging out at Darley Stud
Four Roses Distillery
Bourbon barrel swing
Fountain with bottle decoration on top at Four Roses
The bourbons I tried
July 2012
28 posts
Summer Interns Work and Learn-Kentucky Equine... →
A little article about Ali and I’s experience!-click the title to jump to the site.
Day 61
Thursday, July 19 Well, Thursday was the first day without the main KER crew here, so it was just me and the new year longs, and of course everything went just fine! We’re splitting the new boys into the groups so one day some horses will treadmill and the next they will go on the walker. We are not in a trial at the moment but we are keeping the horses in shape for a exercise trial in the...
Day 60
Wednesday, July 18 We had our last day of work with most of the KER staff, as they are going to London for the Olympics. If you didn’t know, KER has been the official horse feed and supplement provider for the olympics the past 12 years (4 olympics). So they are off to London and I along with Dr. B and the other girls will be managing the barn and exercising until they get back. Many...
Day 59
Tuesday, July 17th Just another day with work, except that we started up working with the new boys more in our barn, which we are walking on the walker for now, and the ones in the main barn who were already there we are treadmilling as always as well.
Day 58
Monday, July 16
Just another day of work! Oh and our new year long intern arrived, her name is Steph and she’s from Austria but has been studying and in school in Australia. She’s pretty nice, as is everyone else so far, so we’re looking forward to the new addition. Oh and we went to the pool, so that was nice.
Day 57
Sunday, July 15th Sunday we worked in the morning mucking out stalls and inputing data for the serum and plasma results for the feed trial with the horses, in the afternoon I just lounged out all day at home, it was great!
Day 56
Saturday, July 14 On Saturday we walked the main barn boys and cleaned stalls, and afterwards we were off to see the championship and stakes classes at the Red Mile track for the Junior League show. We went last Monday as well, but tonight were all the big guns and it went pretty swiftly. All the horses were great and the classes interesting just like Monday’s. And of course, the people...
Day 55
Friday, July 13 On Friday, we had our last day of drawing blood from the grey barn guys for the feed trial, and all was successful! We then let them out into the field for a couple days so they could enjoy grazing and eating the grass. They finally had their vacation to be horses. We brought up three of the four boys up to the main barn this week while Pi went to join the other horses on breaks...
Day 54
Thursday, July 12 Thursday was my day off, so I decided to go and tour Lane’s End, the farm where horses such as Curlin, A.P. Indy, and Zenyatta are housed. It was a great tour, they brought out about 5 stallions, we had plenty of time to take pictures, and it was a very nice premises. After that, I hung out at home and then we went to Robin’s that night for dinner and she made us...
Day 53
Wednesday, June 11th Work!
Day 52
Tuesday, July 10 This week we have been training in the new year long intern, Liz who is from Canada, and finishing up the feed trial with the grey barn boys. We left work early that day to go to the Fasig-Tipton July Sale. Fasig-Tipton is an auction house for the thoroughbred industry and is the oldest of t’s kind in the US. When we were there the sale going on was for yearling horses,...
What is a Feed Preference Trial and How is it...
As stated by KER, “The most nutrient-dense feed-stuffs are not always the tastiest to horses. To boost palatability, flavorings are sometimes added to concentrates. To investigate which flavorings are well received by horses, feed preference trials are conducted. During a feed preference trial, all external factors that may affect decision-making are removed or minimized as much as...
Day 51
Monday, July 9th After our normal day of work, we went to the 76th Annual Junior League Horse Show at Red Mile, the first of the triple crown events in the Saddlebred world. We watched many types of classes, including saddleseat, roadsters in saddle/carts, and hackney pony and cart classes. The horses were big and the show was very flashy and all-american. The people watching was great as well....
Day 50
Sunday, July 8th Another day of work as always, we transitioned the feeds into our last week of the guys on the feed trial, and kept cool.
Day 49
We worked on Saturday, but afterwards was Red, White, and Boom concert! The lineup was amazing and the venue was awesome…despite the 112 degree weather. We were there well into the night enjoying the artists, fireworks, and the lemonade.
Whitaker Bank Ballpark
Keeping cool in our festive outfits and with some lemonade on my part
The lineup
Keeping cool by standing up most of...
Day 48
Friday, July 6
Bleeding time! I took blood 40 times this past Friday from the horses. It was extremely hot, so we tried to keep them as cool as we could. We also tried a new place to eat, BD’s Mongolian Grill. Pretty much is like Huhot Mongolian grill in our area back home, we went there for Amanda’s last dinner as she would be leaving Monday, the 9th.
Day 47
Thursday, July 5th We had our Thursday night dinner at Robin’s place but during the day, I traveled to Frankfort, Kentucky’s capital, to tour Buffalo Trace Distillery. You’d think I would be sick of visiting all of these distilleries but nope! In Frankfort they have a candy place that is the original maker of Bourbon balls as well. Check out the photos:
[Watertower at Buffalo...
Day 46
Wednesday, July 4 Happy Fourth of July! We worked the day with the horses then spent the fourth having a grill out at one of our coworkers houses. It was a good, relaxing night.
