So welcome to week five of the Horse Course. And this week we've been going around campus kind of showing you the cooler stuff that we have here at University of Florida and I thought this week will be kind of neat to kind of show you inside the studio where all of this you know creation of the class took place, where we recorded a lot of our lectures. So you see the computer screens behind me that's where we recording in studio and the the video text. Do all the magic, the wizardry and be able to put the slides behind me on the green screen. So you know in this class obviously it's taken hundreds of hours of us to put this together. We started recording lectures in the first week in January and we actually finished it in the first week of May. So just a few weeks before we launched. We actually finished our last lecture. So it's been a long journey, but obviously, you know, the response has been really great, and it's just, to me, it's well worth it. You know, we're making the world better for these animals and for you. So that is my motivation, again, for doing the class. This week, just kind of wrapping up week four. You know, we, we had some really discussions going on with, you know, nutrition and feeding horses and people have been really sharing a lot of great strategies. You know on how they are feeding their horses or overcoming problems. So again if you haven't been to the discussion boards, I highly recommend, because you learn so much from each other and that's just such an, an awesome part of this class. That's what just really makes me you know, really excited is, is to see the interaction with people from all walks of life. This week one of the top threads was from Alf from Scotland. And he was asking about the 3% rule that I was kind of discussing in, in the lectures on feeding horses. And you know, what I was trying to say there is, you know, nutritionists are looking at the diets, what we're feeding animals and they're realizing that if we feed them, you know, more forage, more fiber, these animals tend to do better because again, that's more their natural diet. So that's where that 3% rule kind of comes in. Never would you take 3% of concentrate, you really want to feed more of the forge or high-fiber diets. But with that being said, the 2.5% is still kind of the golden rule that you should base your diets on. Now, what was interesting about this thread is Evelyn Williamson from New Zealand kind of asked about soy-based diets. So this conversation kind of morphed into, you know, the effects of feeding more soy, because. So, with protein again, if you remember from the lectures is where we get a lot of our protein. You know, not only in our human diets, but also in these horse diets. And she was asking, you know, what's that effect on horses? And to be honest, we really don't know. There hasn't been a lot of research. But my lab, and with, in conjunction with Dr. Laurie Warren and actually Angie Atkin who you watched in Behavioral videos last week. Is kind of basing her PhD research on looking at soy based diets effects on horses, and effects on white rhinos or rhinoceros because we're really interested in. Not only is you know, Dr. Warren and Angie interested in the nutritional aspect, but I'm very, very interested and so are they in the reproductive aspect. Because, these animals are having trouble breeding in captivity. And we suspect it might be these high soy diets that we're feeding. So, you can jump in on that conversation. It was pretty, pretty amazing interaction going on again with the students. Another thread that was brought up was the initials O.K. And he's from San Francisco, and he was. You know stop having fun was the title of the thread and he was talking a little bit about perry valves and that people were taking offense to the assignments if they were having if if the student was having fun with it. And to me that was kind of sad because in this course if you can't tell I want this course to be fun. You know with a virtual horse care assignment with the games being provided. You know, I'm trying to come as mu, as much energy as I can. You know, you can have fun while learning. And I know some people might be, you know, serious and take offense to that. But if you do, I just, you know, don't, don't, you know, mark down the student because it's kind of a fun assignment or they're having fun with it. Just stick to the grading rubric. Look for content, not delivery, okay? Look for the content in there, and grade off that. That, that's, that's all I ask. So that kind of wraps up week four. Going into week five, we are going to be talking a lot about health this week. We're going to talk about first aid, emergency situations, and then really get into the importance of talking about diseases and parasite control. Now, I've tried to take a global approach with this. So, you know, keep that in mind but please chime in on the message boards, specially if you have some emerging diseases that maybe I don't cover. I tried to cover as many as I could, but share that with your students. I think that's really important. So, again another important week. You know, really important to, to the care of your animals so, I look forward to the interactions on the message boards with that. I will say, you know, in all my lectures I say this and in all the notes I say this, if you're unsure of something, especially with health, you know, talk to your veterinarian. Or if you don't have a veterinarian, an animal health specialist in your part of the world and ask questions. I mean, that's what they're there for, you know. You should have access to that. Even on the internet now today you have access to a wealth of information and a wealth of resources in veterinary medicine. So don't be afraid if you're unsure of something to you know, ask for help. Now just a couple of week reminders that, you still see these popping up with the peer assignments you know, past the deadlines, I missed it I can't turn it in. You know, unfortunately that's the only really hard deadlines we have tokeep. We can not go back and submit your assignments or redo the assignments. There's just no way to do that it's, it's just the system we're in, but with thousands of students I really hope you understand that. If you miss some assignments and you were saying going for a statement of accomplishment with distinction because that's where the assignments are factored into a grade. You know, we're going to be offering this course again within a, you know, six months we should be have a target date set. And you can start from the beginning there. If you're just going for a statement of accomplishment, you just have to do the quizzes and the quizzes are not due until the final day of the course. So, you know, unfortunately we can't change that. That's just the way it is. But with that being said, you know, let's have a good week. And actually, I'm going on vacation, but I'll be monitoring the boards, again, everyday. And I'm also going to be shooting my own video next week in Texas, so I will see you then. Take care.
