Facilities: Horse Research Center (HRC)
Equine Faculty and Staff Directory
Established in 1969, the HRC is a 320-acre complex located seven miles north of Ocala in Marion County, the center of Florida's horse breeding industry. The center provides facilities for research on problems important to the horse industry.
The center includes the following facilities:
- Mare and foal barn with 22 stalls, feed room, office, and weight scales.
- Weanling/yearling barn with 24 feeding stalls, feed room, 4 dry lot paddocks, and weight scales.
- Pony handling facility with catch pen, 2 working chutes, stocks and scales.
- Four, 1-acre stallion (details)paddocks.
- Laboratory building with 3 laboratories, surgery suite, and x-ray (picture) room.
- House for farm manager or employee.
- Two resident trailers for students or employees.
- Main office.
The HRC maintains a breeding herd of about 30 Thouroughbred and Quarter Horse mares and 3 to 4 stallions. Quarter Horse yearlings are sold by sealed bid in May or June. Thoroughbred yearlings are sold at the Ocala Breeders Sales in August. Sixty to 100 ponies are kept for reproductive physiology research.
Primary research efforts conducted at the center are:
- Nutritional factors influencing skeletal development in growing horses--emphasis is on trace mineral levels, mineral interrelationships, and bone mineral content.
- Mechanisms of seasonal reproduction in mares--key effort is to develop tools to control the springtime transition of reproductive activity.
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