The highest prices were for three yearlings that will likely be used for racing, said Jim M. Bowen, interim director of the center. A yearling from the sire Secret Hello and dam Cup Custard (a granddaughter of Secretariat) brought $13,000; a yearling from the sire Housebuster and dam Purposeful brought $7,700; and a yearling from the sire Storm Broker and dam Christmas Cactus, brought $5,200.
Members of the Briar Patch 4-H Club in Fauquier County helped by performing duties ranging from carrying information from buyers to the auctioneers to the cleaning of stalls.
The Virginia Tech Middleburg Agricultural Research and Extension Center has approximately 45 Thoroughbred broodmares who produce between 25 and 30 foals annually. The growing foals provide researchers an opportunity to study how nutrition affects metabolism and skeletal development.
The research objectives are to develop pastures and pasture supplements that improve the reproductive efficiency of mares, optimize growth in the young horses, enhance athletic performance, and protect and improve the land and waters. In addition, research projects are being conducted that utilize the horse as a model for insulin resistance and skeletal development in ways that may prove beneficial to human medicine.
Research is also conducted on horses' health problems and a group of studies involves exercise physiology. The center has a high-speed equine treadmill and uses a 50-mile endurance ride to test the horses for the research. Many community participants volunteer to ride the horses for
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Contact: Mary Ann Johnson
jnayram@vt.edu
540-231-6975
Virginia Tech
15-Oct-2004