Children and parents celebrate Foal Patrol
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Children and their parents visited the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Thursday to celebrate Foal Patrol.
Launched in December, the project follows the lives of eight foal mares during their pregnancy. Upon entering the museum, guests can view on iPads real-time streams of several infoal mares during their pregnancy through the actual foaling.
Brien Bouyea, communications director at the museum, explained the reason behind the program was for people to “learn about horses, learn about their breeding process, everything that goes into their nutrition.”
Every child received a coloring book which was created by artist Sharon Crute. Children and parents had the opportunity to meet Crute before participating in other activities including a maze, a coloring station and various galleries.
“Kids can learn about horse health, horse behavior, what goes into a breeding process, how they develop foals and everything that goes along with it,” said Bouyea.
In all, eight mares are involved with the program. Five are located in Kentucky, two in New York and one in Florida.
One of the mares is on Old Tavern Farm on Saratoga Lake.
Bouyea explained how some of the horses, like Bird Town, are famous. Bird Town ran the fastest Kentucky Oaks in history.
Others aren’t as well known but are bred to the likes of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
“Some of them remember the horses from the race track, others are just getting to know these horses now and what happens to them,” said Bouyea. “It’s a lot of good educational content that people can learn about throughout the project.”
The highlight for children and their parents happened at the end of the two-hour event with a mare and foal arriving outside the museum where children were able to interact with them.