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CORVALLIS - Students and colts in the Oregon State University equine sciences colts-in-training program enjoyed a strong finish at the end of the 2003-04 academic year, thanks to the success of the program's second annual colts-in-training sale.

The 17 colts offered in the fundraising event - sponsored by the OSU Animal Sciences Department equine program - brought in $27,500. The OSU Horse Center receives 10 percent of earnings from the sale with the balance going to the original owners of the colts.

"The sale is a great fundraiser for the OSU equine program and Horse Center, but it's also a very important part of our educational program," said Christian Rammerstorfer, an assistant professor of animal sciences and co-organizer of the sale.

The students and colts enter the training program in January and finish at the end of spring quarter, Rammerstorfer explained. Students are assigned colts and learn how to care for and train the two-year-old quarter horses for riding, he said.

"The colts-in-training sale is a key learning experience because the students know their efforts to train the colts will be evaluated by knowledgeable horse owners who come to the spring sale hoping to acquire quality riding horses," Rammerstorfer said.

"The colt training program and sale is a wonderful way for students interested in the horse industry to obtain hands-on production and market experience while still in an academic setting," he said.

Rammerstorfer added that the success of the colt training program is due in large part to the close cooperation between the OSU Animal Sciences Department and Oregon ranchers who have consigned colts to the program.

"For example," he said, "10 of the fillies in the sale were consigned by Jim and Alicia Bentz of the Bar Dot Ranch in Drewsey, Oregon."

For more information about OSU equine science studies, contact Christian Rammerstorfer at [email protected].