• Gender: Filly
• Born: April/May 2009
• Color: Sorrel
• Weight as of 4/5/10: 373 kg
  
• Height as of 4/5/10

• Sire: Prodigal Snifty Hank (APHA)
• Sire Height: 15h
  
• Dam: 48/78 (Belgian)
  
• Siblings: RU Jennyanydots- class of 2009 (full sister),  RU Hermes-class of 2005 (maternal half brother)

• Student: Erin Koci
  
• Sponsor: Carla Prentiss and Liz Durkin
  

    RU Genesis is doing extremely well and has adjusted to her new home at the Red Barn quite nicely. Genesis did not have any problems loading on and off of the trailer when we moved the horses a couple of weeks ago. She seems to enjoy the Red Barn and loves to explore her new surroundings.
    Genesis is finally starting to lose the “fuzzy” look that she has held on to for the past few months. Although she still has a lot more hair to lose, I am hopeful she will have her spring coat in by Ag Field Day. We have begun the Ag Field Day sessions with the students who will be showing her in the horse show, and so far Genesis seems to be doing extremely well. I have every confidence that both of her students will have her ready in time for a wonderful performance on that day.
     Genesis and I are continuing to work on her training as well and she is shaping up to be a wonderful horse. She rarely gives me trouble when I pick out her feet and she continues to get better at her turns every day. We have not done any behavior tests since we moved the horses over to the Red Barn because we are focusing on Ag Field day.

RU Genesis continues to grow and change every day. Although she is a little bit smaller than the other yearlings, we are not too worried about it.  
    Genesis is doing extremely well and we have recently begun trotting in hand. She picked it up very quickly and I expect her to continue to do very well. Genesis and I have also worked out most of the remaining kinks with her turns on the forehand and haunches, which she seems to be less confused about now. She is also doing much better with her feet and she usually gives me very little trouble when I ask her to pick them up. Genesis has finally begun shedding out her extremely fuzzy winter coat, although each time I groom her a large quantity of hair is removed, she still looks very fuzzy.
    We have continued doing behavior tests with all of the horses. Some of the tests were grooming with a dust buster vacuum (Very noisy!), and being approached with a fake fur coat that looked like a large wolf. Genesis did very well with both. Although, she did not seem very happy about having the dust buster on, she did not overreact. During the fur coat test, she did not even notice that it was in front of her stall at first and when she finally did notice it she sniffed at it briefly then went back to eating her breakfast.

     Genesis is still doing very well and I hope to introduce some new training to her in the very new future. As of right now, Genesis and I are working on improving and fine tuning some of her training, which she seemed to have forgotten over the winter break. She needs much improvement on turning on the forehand and a little bit of improvement on turning on the haunches. I expect she will pick them both back up in no time at all. She is doing very well with her feet, I still have an occasional problem with her left front foot but she is getting better every day. Genesis is beginning to look less like a weanling and more like a yearling every day and I am eager for the spring to see how well she sheds out that very fuzzy winter coat of hers.
    We recently did a behavior test to reassess the training levels of all of the horses. I personally believe Genesis could have done much better on the test, and I am going to continue working with her on all levels of her training in order to improve her results of any future tests.

    RU Genesis continues to learn and grow every day. Currently she is 296Kg, 51 inches at the withers and 53.25 inches at the rump. Although, she is still smaller than two of the other weanlings, I believe she will catch up to them in no time.

    Genesis has been doing very well and is able to learn new things very quickly. She is picking up her feet on her own when asked and only pulls away every so often. I have even started picking out her feet while she is tied inside of her stall. She is also leading much better and can now lead from either side without any hesitation and is beginning to walk at a quicker pace. We are still working on turning on the forehand and haunches. She seems to get the two confused sometimes, but I believe she will have it down in no time. Recently, I have taken Genesis down the “scary aisle” and although she was a little nervous, she walked much more confidently than she had during previous occasions. Unfortunately, Genesis is still very fuzzy looking regardless of how much I groom her. It has been very difficult to take pictures of her that look decent because of how her coat looks. I hope that come spring, she will shed out quickly! 

    We have continued doing behavior assessments over the last month in which Genesis did very well. We have done three more tests: reaction to clippers, a jolly ball and towel,  and a cardboard walkover. The first test was with the clippers, and Genesis did pretty well. She allowed Dr. Ralston to touch her with the clippers off and moved away at first when they were turned on but allowed them to be rubbed on her neck while still on. For the second test, we used a jolly ball and a towel. Genesis did very well with this too, approaching and sniffing the jolly ball without fear and allowing the towel to be rubbed all over her. Finally for the third test we used a piece of cardboard on the floor in the barn that we wanted the horses to walk over. Genesis again did very well with this as well. At first she sniffed it but walked over it without much hesitation

    RU Genesis has been adjusting to life at Rutgers very well over the last couple of months. Genesis is currently 258kg, 50 inches at the withers and 52.25 inches at her rump. Genesis has been eating very well and seems to enjoy the hay cubes we are using for our nutrition study this semester. All of the weanlings are still getting one pound twice a day of pelleted feed formulated for growth because of how rapidly they are growing age plus they need the extra minerals. Although it took a little while to get her to eat the pellets, she is now eating all of it happily.

    This semester we have started doing behavior assessments with all of the horses. So far, we have done two. The first one was in the round pen and it consisted of some of the basics such as leading from both sides, picking up feet, and standing still for a minute. The second one consisted of the some of the same basic principles except it took place in the “scary aisle” of our barn. Genesis did very well on the first assessment; she stood perfectly for the entire minute, and allowed Dr. Ralston to pick up her feet with only a little bit of hesitation. She was not too happy about being led from the right side however; she adjusted quickly and walked well. The second assessment was a little bit more difficult for her as I am sure you can understand why, the aisle is called the “scary aisle” for a reason. She was very unsure about walking down the aisle and she stopped frequently. She did what was asked of her but she needed a lot of encouragement. I believe she did well given the circumstances.

    Genesis is a wonderful filly who is quick to learn new things and has a great personality. We have almost perfected picking out her feet; she only needs a little bit of encouragement to pick them up on her own when asked. She is leading well and although she can move a little slow sometimes, she seems to get better every day. We are still working on walking around the barn and up and down the “scary aisle” and it is still a work in progress. We have also started working on turning on the forehand and turning on the haunches. She was quick to pick up turning on the forehand. For some reason Genesis never shed out her baby coat before she started growing in her winter coat, which is why at the coming out party she looked so fluffy. I am trying fruitlessly to tame her winter coat but I fear I may fail.