E d i t o r i a l THE COMPUTER A N D THE HORSE

I N D U S T R Y

The availability of microcomputers has brought many c h a n g e s in a l l a r e a s o f the h o r s e i n d u s t r y . M i c r o c o m p u t e r s are used in v e t e r i n a r y research , veterinary practice management, horse farm record keeping and management, pedigree tracing and analysis and other areas. Recently the selection of breeding mates for the Austrian Lipizzaners was taken over by a computer.

Because the use of microcomputers has become so widespread in the horse industry and will probably continue to become more popular, we think it would be timely and helpful to have a regular section in this Journal for articles on computer technology. We encourage readers to submit articles for possible publication.

There are many excellent computer programs being used for the management of stud farms. A good one for the small Thoroughbred farm is called Stud Master. This program is written in dBASE-II and currently runs on IBM and IBM compatibles. It is sold by Clarion Computing, 446 Gore Road, Onalaska, WA, 98570.

Here's how it works. Each morning you ask Stud Master for the Daily Work List. The program will look at every horse in the data base and, in keeping with the time intervals you specify, report by category the work to be done that day. It will print a teasing list of mares approaching estrus, a farrier's list of horses to be trimmed, etc. At the end of the day, after collecting these various lists, now initialed as done, you will enter the new values for each horse as required. That evening, as y o u review progress or as owners call, you bring the information on screen and have the status of every horse on the farm at your finger tips.

Stud Master is menu driven: you move through it by selecting from a series o f"menus" or choices, one menu leading on to another. This is the main menu:

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: i. To return to the operating system (quit) 2. To add new client 3. To edit client record 4. To update f rom daily work list 5. To find specific horse 6. To select blank forms for printing 7. To select reports

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8. To change time interval defaults 9. To establish foaling date from date last bred

The program has very good documentation, ie, there is an easy to read, helpful manual that is quite complete. The two main data bases in the program are a client data base and a horse data base. The client record contains the usual information as name, address, phone, horses owned, etc. The horse record has the following fields: sire, dam, booked to, owner, customer no., arrival, departure, foaling date (at side), sire of foal, foal I.D., breeding status, foaling date, first bred, last bred, last estrus, last hoof trim, last progesterone, last tetanus, last clean culture, last other A, last other B, last other C, insurance co., value, last estrus, last flu-vac, last rhino, last prostaglandin, last worming, pregnancy confirmed.

The first version of the program has five ready-made forms that are used on a stud farm on a regular basis. These can be printed out on the printer with any client/horse information included. These are: teasing form, boarding contract, breeding contract, syndication report and owner questionnaire.

A number of reports can be generated from within the program. These include daily work sheet, all horses with owner, client reports, specific horse data, all mares 17 days past estrus (tease), all mares 24 days past last cover (twin check), all mares 42 days past last cover (conf. preg), all mares 60 days in foal (rhino 1), all mares 180 days in foal (rhino 2), all mares 300 days in foal (rhino 3), all mares 1 day after foaling (worm), all horses 90 days after last worming, all horses 42 days after last hoof trim, all foals 42 days after birth (worm), all in-foal mares 326 days after last service (foal watch), all mares on hormones and report of mares bred (on Jockey Club format). Also a user specified report is available.

A. H. Lewis, author of the program says, "All programs in active use evolve, and we look forward to your comments regarding Stud Master as one means of establishing its evolutionary path. For example, it may become necessary to have specific breed versions of the program, and perhaps veterinary practice m a y require changes to accommodate embryo transplants, etc. Telephone trouble shooting comes as a part of the package. Future versions of the program will be available as up-dates to registered owners at nominal cost. WEJ

EQUINE VETERINARY SCIENCE