UW extension adds equine specialist for resident resource

No one may have had earlier hands-on equine experiences than the new University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service equine specialist.

There's a photograph of Amy McLean's father holding his infant daughter, who is reaching out and petting the family's pet, P.J. a guard donkey for their place. There was probably some imprinting going on data that shows equines imprint at an early age but this imprinting was the other way around.

Her equine voyage continued. "My first horse was a mule," said McLean, who is soon to receive her doctorate in equine nutrition.

Horses, mules, donkeys all are under equine. Based in the Department of Animal Science in the College of Agriculture, McLean will teach and disseminate equine information to state residents via the extension service.

She saw the position first advertised last October while at Michigan State University (MSU) working on her doctorate. "I thought it was the perfect job teaching and extension," she said. "I enjoy research, but I enjoy teaching more."

A Georgia native, she was raised about 50 miles from Atlanta by a father who grew up in Atlanta and a mother from New York's Manhattan. Her parents began a donkey-mule business when they found that someone always seemed to want to buy the mule McLean would be riding at shows.

"Their average customer is in their 50s or 60s," she said. "Most had never owned a horse before. A lot of them had just retired or have their own business."

New-to-horse ownership folks suddenly had a horse, mule or donkey but no background knowledge about how to properly care for it.

"I know there is a big need," said McLean. "There is such an increase in horse owners in their middle age. The kids are off to college, or the people are retired and want to fulfill a dream of owning a horse. The problem is, this is the group that needs the most education. Most want to improve their knowledge, but how?"

McLean will be able to do that as an extension specialist. There are also other sources she points out. While at MSU, McLean wrote courses for the online My Horse University (MHU). MHU launched its first online course in 2006. It offers horse enthusiasts science-based research in all of its courses. See www.myhorseuniversity.com. MHU was created by a venture from MSU Extension, the MSU Department of Animal Science, and MSU Global, an entrepreneurial academic unit that enhances MSU's role in enriching community, economic and family life in Michigan and beyond.

Its information and courses are available to anyone, and McLean has recommended it to UW extension educators as a source of equine information for Wyoming horse owners.

McLean is wrapping up her doctorate research at MSU while at UW. It studies how training and harnesses can affect the health and longevity of donkeys in Mali in West Africa.

"The donkey is the tractor, truck, garbage hauler, taxi, and ambulatory service you put a sick person on a cart," she said. "Donkeys are a very essential part of very, very poor people."

Most donkey owners there drive their animals with a stick, leaving lesions and scars and resulting in sickness the end results are the donkey is not able to work. "The problem is they overload their donkeys and have to beat the donkeys to make them go. They are exhausted, not fed properly and work long hours," said McLean. The type of harness and cart used causes pressure points and lesion.

McLean's research looks at a donkey's reaction to stressors being driven with a stick and wearing bad harnesses versus other leading methods and better harnesses. She is finding the heart rate of the donkey increases when it is harnessed with a poor-quality harness and a poorly balanced cart, which causes more stress to the donkeys. A quality harness applies less pressure per square inch. Also, her findings indicate the type of training method can influence the donkeys' behavior and interactions with humans.

An article about her Mali work is at http://news.msu.edu/story/6436/.

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Posted on Friday, September 18, 2009

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