Animal Integration Essay

Meet Sassy! Sassy and I became friends when we meant during the equine section of my Animal Science 1065 class. I chose Sassy for the subject of my animal integration paper because we instantly had a connection and I knew I would enjoy learning more about her. Sassy lives on MU’s South Farm at the MU Equine Center. She is seventeen years old now, although she has been with the MU equine family for a while now, much of her early life is still unknown. Throughout this Essay I will discuss my finding on how Sassy the horse relates to the topics of; physiology, reproduction, genetics, nutrition, as well as discuss the life cycle of a horse like Sassy and the laws prohibiting horse slaughter. The life cycle and physiology of Sassy is much like that of any other horse. She was born a foal and was feed her mother’s warm milk along with grass and hay for about a year. During the time period of being a foal the horse’s legs grow in strength. Although the foal maybe wobbly at first, it does learn to walk over time. After a year, the foal becomes a yearly. Since Sassy is a female horse she was called a filly, male yearling are called colts. During the yearling stage a horse is approximately the same size as its’ parents. Once a yearling has completed puberty and reached maturity it is referred to as an adult horse. Sassy is a female and is referred to as a mare. Male horses are called Stallions. Sassy is now in her twenties and is enjoying a relaxing life at the MU equine center. There she is cared for and loved and mostly used for demonstration and teaching purposes. Sassy has been at the center for the longest out of most of the mares and is very much considered the alpha mare. Sassy has already started to show signs of a geriatric horse, such as her sagging back. At the center is most likely where Sassy will stay and peacefully finish out her life. Fortunately for Sassy she will be able to live out her life fully without worry at the equine center. If Sassy lived somewhere else though this might not be the case because in many countries horses are slaughter for meat. Countries where horse is consumed as a common meat source, horse slaughtering is treated much like the slaughtering of cattle, very routine and normal. Here in the United Sates house slaughter is very low because of meat regulation issues. Most horses in the U.S. regularly receive medications that are outlawed for use in food animals. Also, because many Americans consider horses to be along the same line of cats and dogs, a very high percentage of people are against the slaughter of horses. Even though so many people highly disagree with the issue, as long as the slaughtering is done by a certified, inspected party, and done properly, it is not illegal. Though not for slaughter, Sassy was bred numerous times. Sassy was a great horse to learn about reproduction from due to the fact she has had many foals. Even though see was not pregnant at the time of which I was observing her. She has ben pregnant ten times in the past. Sassy is now “retired’ from breeding. As we learned in class, horses are seasonal breeders and here in the northern hemisphere they typically breed from April to October. A mare, such as Sassy, has a cycle length of about 21 days, has ovulation duration of about 24 hours and a pregnancy length of roughly 11 months or 310-365 days. All of Sassy’s pregnancies have been at the MU equine center and were very successful. Due to the fact that Sassy had many offspring Sassy had many great examples of genetics. Genetic traits in Sassy herself were also very easy to observe. Just from watching her I was able to pick up on several of her genetic traits. Frist, I noticed her coat, which is a flea bitten grey. Without knowing her parents its hard to know for sure how she inherited this coat color. The only thing we can know for