Monday, September 24, 2012

#96 10-28-2012 Sharpe's Tips for Horse Owners


Welcome to episode #96 of hoofbeats. Today we will be in conversation with Debra, who works at Sharpe Farm supplies. Besides working with Sharpe's, I run a reproduction business ironhorseequine.com. I did a BSc (Agr) and MSc at the UoG, I used to work at the former Equine Research Centre at the UoG, have trained horses at the African Lion Safari, worked on the racetrack training Thoroughbreds in California, and have done lots of horse work so we would have tonnes to talk about!" We talk with our expert guest about some general horse care and the current hay shortage.

Debra Ottier, who has been active in the horse community since 1985, having helped her uncle race thoroughbreds on the racetracks of California. She graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in Animal Science, with a minor in Animal Nutrition in 1991. She worked for 8 years at the former Equine Research Centre assisting in research areas such as exercise physiology, nutrition, reproduction, nuclear medicine and horse management. While working at the ERC, she continued research and attained a Masters of Science in Reproductive Physiology from U of G. She also created a distance learning program which had 5 courses in Reproduction, Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, Equine Management and Facilities and Design for horse enthusiasts to learn horse management from home. The course had over 650 students take the different courses available. After graduating, she started Iron Horse Equine, a mobile reproduction unit which collected and processed stallion semen and held many workshops and seminars in a variety of areas pertaining to the horse industry.

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