Alltech Biosciences & University of Dublin Research Farm Part 2

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It is me again. The wifi wear we are staying is a little hit and miss so I wasn't able to finish my blog from the 16th. So here is the rest of it. After Alltech we headed off to U of D"s Lyons Research Farm. Once there we met Dr. Barbara Murphy one of the faculty at U of D. Dr. Murphy gave us a tour of the equine research program. She was also kind enough to tell us about some of the research she had been doing. If you ever wanted to see 23 college students and 2 professors get excited about research this was most definitely the time. One of her research projects had to do with circadian rhythm affects how a horses muscles perform. To briefly summarize what she found was that if you routinely work your horse at the same time his muscles will perform better. Now that is just a very brief summary of her findings on this project that we all thought was amazing. Her second research project had to do with how light affected a horse. This was probably my favorite of the two. She actually has invented a mask that she is patented. It resembles a fly mask that has a light built into it. It can be used on show horses or on broodmares. We were all excited about this. We were like kids in a candy store. All in all we had a great day. I can't wait to see what the rest of the trip holds!! Thanks everybody for reading! Sincerely, Erin Gilley

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