Equine Studies at the University of Maryland
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University of Maryland Horse Conference
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Carroll Community College, Westminster, Maryland


We are excited to announce the First Annual University of Maryland Horse Conference to be held Saturday, November 19, 2005 at Carroll Community College in Westminster. Keynote speaker, Dr. Temple Grandin will speak to us about Equine Behavior and Welfare. Other topics cover Health and Nutrition, Equine Business, and Pasture Management. Please see the list of speakers and topics below, handouts are also available - click on the title for a PDF version. Thank you to all the folks that attended - we had a great turnout! We would also like to thank all our sponsors and the vendors for participating.

Click on the speaker's name to get contact information as well as a brief bio, if available.


8:00 am - Registration and vendor displays

8:45 am - WELCOME - Rob Burk, Executive Director, Maryland Horse Industry Board

9:00 am - CONCURRENT SESSION 1

Preparing for Pasture Renovation and Seeding
Doug Tregoning, Maryland Cooperative Extension

Health Care for the Novice Horse Owner
Dr. Bill Hawkins, United States Department of Agriculture
Sponsored by Right Lead Tack Shop, Westminster, Maryland

Financial Assistance for Conservation Practices: Who, What, When and Where?
Elmer Dengler, USDA/NRCS

10:00 am - CONCURRENT SESSION 2

Safety on the Horse Farm Can Help Keep Your Insurance in Check
Ron Saacke, Virginia Farm Bureau

Managing your Pasture for Forage Productivity and Longevity
Ken Sechler, Southern States

Equine Nutrition 101
Dr. Amy Burk, University of Maryland

10:50 - 11:10 am - REFRESHMENT BREAK

Please take the time to visit our sponsors and vendor displays!

11:10 am - CONCURRENT SESSION 3

Liability Issues in the Equine Industry
Michael Daney, Lord and Whip

Pasture Forage and Weed Identification
Dr. Scott Glenn, University of Maryland

The Ins and Outs of Hay Quality and Selection - Myths and Rumors
Erin Petersen and Dr. Les Vough, University of Maryland

12:00 - 1:30 pm - LUNCH - sponsored by...

1:30 pm - KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Animal Behavior and Welfare
Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University
Sponsored by the Maryland Horse Industry Board

2:30 pm - CONCURRENT SESSION 4

The Sacrifice Lot - an Essential Tool for Rotational Grazing and Pasture Management
Eric Hines, Carroll County Soil Conservation Service

Feeding and Care of the Older Horse
Dr. Shea Porr, Buckeye Nutrition

How to Write a Business Plan
Keith Wills, MidAtlantic Farm Credit


Speakers for the 2005 University of Maryland Horse Conference

 

Amy Burk, PhD
Assistant Professor/Extension Horse Specialist
Department of Animal and Avian Sciences

1117 Animal Science Center
College Park, MD 20742
Tel.: 301-405-8337; Fx: 301-405-8831
E-mail:
PhD - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001

Dr. Amy Burk grew up in Anne Arundel County, MD, riding and competing horses while a member of the Maryland 4-H and U.S. Pony Club. She received a B.S. in Biology from James Madison University in 1995. She completed her graduate work in Animal and Poultry Sciences as a Pratt Fellow in Animal Nutrition at Virginia Tech, earning an M.S. in 1998 and a Ph.D. in 2001. The main areas of her equine nutrition research were digestibility of hay and pasture species by horses, and folate status and supplementation in the horse. Dr. Burk joined the faculty of the Animal and Avian Sciences Department at the University of Maryland in August 2001. She teaches equine science and horse management courses, coordinates the graduate training program and equine nutrition and physiology research, and provides statewide educational leadership to the Maryland 4-H Horse Program. Dr. Burk dabbles in eventing with her 7 yr old Thoroughbred gelding named Chief.


Michael Daney
Shareholder
Lord & Whip, PA
Attorneys at Law

Charles Center South, 10th Floor
36 South Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-3020
Tel.:
E-mail:

Michael Daney graduated from the University of Delaware and received his law degree from the University of Kentucky. He served as counsel to the Delaware Racing Commission for four years before entering private practice. His primary practice areas are civil litigation, workers' compensation, regulatory law, legislation and equine-related matters. He represents his equine clients in insurance-related matters involving negligence claims, veterinary malpractice, mortality insurance disputes, premises liability and fertility insurance disputes. He prepares and handles contracts and contract claims involving purchase agreements, ownership rights, stallion syndications, boarding contracts, leases and sale disputes. He also represents clients before the Maryland Racing Commission involving medication rules disputes, licensing issues, riding infractions and eligibility and claiming issues. He also is involved with legislative oversight and lobbying for a variety of clients.

Mr. Daney has appeared as a speaker for the National Equine Law Seminar, the University of Baltimore Equine Law Symposium, and the Maryland Pleasure Horse Seminar. Mr. Daney is admitted to practice in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. He is also a member of the Equine Law Committee of the Kentucky Bar Association.


 

Elmer Dengler
Maryland Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative Coordinator


USDA/NRCS

E-mail:

Elmer is a graduate of Penn State University, College of Agriculture who has worked on pasture and livestock management issues for over 25 years while being employed by the SCS / NRCS in Montana, Rhode Island, and Maryland. He coordinates all issues involving pasture management in all of the Federal technical and financial programs in Maryland. Elmer is the developer of the NRCS Maryland Grazing Handbook and manager for the C-Graz grazing planning tool in Maryland, He has been around horses all his life and has hunted for elk on horseback in the Scapegoat Wilderness of Montana. He balances his time between family, church, and natural resource management.


 

Temple Grandin
Associate Professor

14A Animal Sciences
Department of Animal Science
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1171

Dr. Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and an Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities she has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on thier animals during handling.

She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare. Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.

She obtained her B.A. at Frankin Pierce College and her M.S. in Animal Science at Arizona State University. Dr. Grandin received her Ph.D in Animal Science from the University of Illinois in 1989. Today she teaches courses on livestock behaviour and facility design at Colorado State Univeristy and consults with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling, and animal welfare. She has appeared on television shows such as 20/20, 48 Hours, CNN Larry King Live, and has been featured in People Magazine, the New York Times, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and Time Magazine. Interviews with Dr. Grandin have been broadcast on National Public Radio. She has also authored over 300 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design. She is the author of "Thinking in Pictures", "Livestock Handling and Transport," and "Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals."

Dr. Grandin's travel and presentation is sponsored by the Maryland Horse Industry Board.


 

Eric Hines
Conservation Planner
Carroll County Soil Conservation District


Natural Resources Conservation Service
1004 Littlestown Pike, Suite B-1
Westminster, Maryland 21157
Tel.: (410) 848-6696
E-mail:


Eric Hines is a Conservation Planner in Carroll County Maryland with USDA/NRCS. In 1995 he earned a BS from the University of Maryland in Agronomy, Soil and Water Conservation. He served for 2.5 years in West Africa as a Sustainable Agricultural Extension Agent with the United States Peace Corps. Since 1999 he has work as a Conservation and Agricultural Planner in Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, and Carroll Counties where he has been assisting landowners and agricultural producers, including many equine operations, to plan, design, and install Conservation Best Management Practices to help improve soil and water quality. As a Conservation Planner Eric works regularly with many of the Federal, State, and Local conservation cost share programs that are available to agricultural operations and landowners.


 

Erin Petersen, MS, PAS
Lecturer/Extension Horse Specialist
Institute of Applied Agriculrure

2115 Jull Hall
College Park, MD 20742
Tel.: 301-405-4690; Fx: 301-314-9343
E-mail:

Erin Petersen was born and raised in Loveland, Colorado. She earned a BA degree in Political Science from The University of Colorado in 1994. She also holds a BS degree in Equine Science from Colorado State University (2000). Petersen remained at Colorado State University, earning an MS degree in Animal Science in 2001. Her research focus was aimed at investigating nutrition of the growing horse as it relates to bone development. Ms. Petersen is a state Extension Horse Specialist and the Program Coordinator for the 2-year Equine Business Management Program at the Institute of Applied Agriculture. She teaches courses in Equine Nutrition, Health Management, Reproduction, Behavior and Pasture Management. Erin is owned by three cats, one dog (who thinks she's a person) and three horses who like to occasionally take her on trail rides or practice Dressage.


 

Shea Porr, PhD
Equine Nutritionist
Maryland and Virginia

Buckeye Nutrition
330 E. Schultz St.
Dalton, OH 44618
Tel.: 740-272-6077
E-mail:

Dr. Shea Porr gained her early horse experience riding at various Army base riding schools across the country. She finally settled in Texas, gaining a B.S. degree in Animal Science at Texas A&M in 1990. She earned her Masters in Equine Nutrition with a minor in Exercise Physiology from the University of Florida in 1992 and her PhD in Equine Nutrition at Virginia Tech in 1996. Her graduate research focused on the effects of dietary mineral balance and exercise on bone mineral changes in both young and mature horses. More recently her studies evaluated the effect of massage as a recovery method for exercising horses. In 1997, Dr. Porr accepted a position at The Ohio State University, where she taught classes and worked in extension for several years before taking on her current duties with Buckeye Nutrition. She is now the district manager for Maryland and Virginia, and currently consults with horse owners and veterinarians on nutritional management of horses.


 

Ken Sechler
Certified Crop Advisor


Southern States Cooperative

E-mail:

Ken Sechler is a graduate of West Virginia University. He is a senior agronomist with Southern States Cooperative, with 28 years agronomy experience in crops production. Ken has worked with all types of forage production in the mid-Atlantic region.


 

Doug Tregoning
Senior Agent, County Extension Director

Montgomery County Cooperative Extension
18410 Muncaster Road
Derwood, Maryland 20855
Tel.: (301) 590-2809
E-mail:


Doug Tregoning grew up on a dairy and grain farm in Montgomery County, Maryland. He received in BS Degree from West Virginia University in Agribusiness and Agronomy in 1977. He received his Masters Degree from the same institution in 1979 in Agricultural Economics. He has worked as an Extension Agent for Maryland Cooperative Extension out of the Montgomery County Office since 1980. He has worked with equine Extension audiences on pasture/forage/business management issues since 1989. He worked in conjunction with NRCS personnel and Extension personnel in establishing field demonstrations on three separate farms on rotationally grazing horses. He is noted for his presentations on toxic plants and pasture establishment.


Keith Wills
Account Executive/Commercial
MidAtlantic Farm Credit



1614 Churchville Road, Ste. 102
Bel Air, Maryland 21015
Tel.: (800) 442-7334
E-mail:


Keith Wills is an account executive for MidAtlantic Farm Credit, one of the largest ag and rural lenders in the mid-Atlantic region. He works in MidAtlantic’s Bel Air office, and focuses on loans to the equine industry.

Keith Wills has been involved in the equine community for almost fifteen years. In November, he was appointed by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. to the Maryland Horse Industry Board, a group created to promote the horse industry in Maryland. He is also a board member of Baltimore County Farm Bureau, the Gunpowder Valley Conservancy, and the Maryland Horse Council. He serves as treasurer of the following organizations: Baltimore County Farm Bureau Agricultural Education Foundation, Baltimore County Extension Advisory Council, and Baltimore County Agricultural Resource Center.

MidAtlantic Farm Credit has fifteen offices throughout central Maryland, the Eastern Shore of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, as well as southeastern Pennsylvania.


We would like to extend a great big thank you to our Sponsors. Without their support, there wouldn't be a conference!!!

Conference Sponsors ($1000 or more):

Sponsors of Refreshment Breaks/Lunch ($500+):

Sponsors of Speakers ($350+)

  • Right Lead Tack Shop
    842 Littlestown Pike
    Westminster, MD 21157
    410-848-2220; Toll Free 877-848-TACK
  • Southern States Cooperative


  • Pennington Seed Company

Vendors:

Naden/Lean, LLC -- Accounting
Baltimore County Farm Bureau
USDA NRCS MD GLCI
The Ranger Foundation
Maryland Department of Agriculture
The Mill of Bel Air
Land O Lakes Purina Feeds
McCauley Brothers Feeds

 
  College of Agriculture & Natural Resources | Dept. of Animal & Avian Sciences | Inst. of Applied Agriculture
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Last modified: November 30, 2005