Thanks

26 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Farrier Family Portrait, Germany, circa 1900.

To the Hoof Blog's USA readers:
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving from the Hoof Blog!

I hope that you all have wonderful holidays with your families and friends and horses and dogs. I am most thankful for the opportunity to write for you and act as a conduit for new and old information. Most of all, I'm thankful for the friendships I've made with other professionals in the horse industry and I appreciate the way that you all keep me inspired.

Enjoy your turkeys and your football games!

Note: if things get slow today, I would refer you to last year's Thanksgiving blog post, which was one of our most popular ever: it revealed the long-forgotten story of the shoeing of turkeys. I will never top that one. Enjoy!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Rood and Riddle, AllTech and AAEP Partner to Add Education for Veterinarians and Horse Owners to 2010 World Equestrian Games Experience

19 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

(received via press release; please note that this event will immediately precede the opening of the Games. For those who may not know, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital is a large referral equine healthcare complex outside Lexington, Kentucky.)

Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital’s role as the Official Veterinary Partner of the Games will not be limited to providing veterinary support during the competition but will also include hosting educational forums for veterinarians and horse owners. Rood & Riddle, Alltech and the American Association of Equine Practitioners have joined forces to sponsor a sport horse symposium for veterinarians and another for horse owners, to be held in conjunction with the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, which opens September 25 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

The continuing education program for veterinarians, titled “Promoting Peak Performance in Equine Athletes,” will be held from September 22-24, 2010, at the Marriot Griffin Gate Resort in Lexington, KY. An international roster of speakers will present in-depth, current information on orthopedic problems, diagnostic imaging, equine podiatry, lameness versus neurological disease, upper and respiratory disease, muscle disease, and nutrition with focus on the veterinary care as it applies to the equine athlete.

Featured speakers include orthopedic surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage, and internal medicine specialist Dr. Steve Reed from Rood & Riddle, and Dr. Kent Allen, Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, and Dr. Jean-Marie Denoix.

A one-day horse owner workshop is scheduled for September 24, 2010 at the Embassy Suites in Lexington. The workshop will be conducted by veterinarians and nutritionists to provide horse owners, trainers, managers, and riders with valuable information for managing injuries and maintaining peak performance in the sport and performance horse.

Registration will be available for both programs in June 2010. Final program and schedule information is expected to be ready for release in early spring 2010. A group of rooms will be available at the Marriott at a special symposium rate for veterinarians registered to attend. This information will be available on the Rood & Riddle, AAEP and Alltech websites with announcements distributed to multiple media outlets.

In addition to these excellent programs, Rood & Riddle will also host hospital tours, short lectures and demonstrations throughout the weeks of the Games. Some of these offerings will be available in the exhibit area at the Kentucky Horse Park. Schedules and appointment information for these special events will be posted at www.roodandriddle.com in May 2010, and will also be promoted through other media releases.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Equine Obesity Update: Do Horse Owners Comprehend the Dangers?

14 November 2009 Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com



There's no doubt that the horseowning public in the United States and abroad is becoming more aware of the problem of obesity in horses. Just look at the variety of new feed products and supplements designed to help horses lose weight, and you will see just the first wave of a marketing tsunami aimed at assisting horse owners in reducing the weight of the horses.

The problem may not lie in just recognizing obesity, however. For many horse owners, telling them their horses are fat is akin to telling them that they have spoiled a child with candy. In their eyes, fat horse is a sign of a well-fed and much loved horse, but they may not connect the dots to the real health risks associated with obesity, such as insulin resistance and a high risk for laminitis.

In this video, the British international charity World Horse Welfare updates us on their progress in educating horse owners and also in surveying horse owners for their perceptions of obesity in horses. You'll also see a severely overweight pony that was confiscated by officials as a welfare case because of its obesity. This was the first prosecution of horse owners for welfare violations directly related to overfeeding a horse.

I love the last part, where the pony stands next to a pile of bags of feed equal to the weight he has lost.

Thanks in advance for sharing this video and keeping public awareness of the dangers of equine obesity at the forefront.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

New DVD from Hoofcare Publishing: Recognizing the Horse in Pain

12 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com




California sport-horse specialist Joanna Robson DVM examines problems of performance-related discomfort and subtle lameness in English and Western horses in this brand new 75-minute DVD packed with information on the effects of badly-adjusted or ill-fitted tack, lack of attention to saddle fit, poor condition in horses, and a long list of behavior and attitude problems that can be traced to musculoskeletal tension or pain.

Chiropractics, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, themography and farriery are just a few of the modalities that are touched on in this all-inclusive, holistic look at the horse in training. The filming is excellent and the horses are "real".

As Dr. Robson says, these are the horses who aren't going to be helped by a prescription of "bute and stall rest". Their pain has a cause, and removing that cause will return them to the training regimen their owners and riders want them to follow.

The DVD is available now for $60 plus $5 post in the USA, $8 post elsewhere. It is NTSC (North American format) and may not play on PAL-only (European) systems.

Click here to read a lot more about this DVD, download an order form, or click through to our PayPal order center using the button below. Order by phone by calling 978 281 3222; email orders to dvd@hoofcare.com; fax orders to 978 283 8775.

Cboose USA or non-USA Shipping

DVD ($60) + USA Shipping ($5) = $65.00 DVD ($60) + non-USA Shipping ($8) = $68.00

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Clipper Folly: A Sad Chapter in Horse History from World War I

11 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Looking over today's post about World War I and Armistice/Veteran's Day made me remember the post from last spring when I showed the mysterious post card of British farrier Ted Adams in his army uniform astride this nice big horse. Look below to see what he wrote on the back on the photo; it's quite mysterious. Click here to go back and read the original post, when I said I had a theory what happened to the horse.

I forgot to share my theory with you, but it seems like this is the right time of year to do it, and this is a good story--though a sad one--that you can tell when the conversation lags this fall.

Hundreds of thousands of horses served the British and American forces in France during World War I. They lived in the open, tied to simple picket lines. When the first winter came, the horses were allowed to grow thick coats to keep them warm, but they soon were riddled with lice and itchy with various rashes, mange, and fungus, which spread easily from wooley horse to wooley horses and on down the picket line.

The British Army's solution to this nuisance was to order that all horses be clipped from head to toe so vermin would have no place to hide, and so fungus could be exposed and treated.

Clipped horses are fine in the warm stables back home in England, but these horses lived outside. If they had blankets, they were often soaking wet.

Many of Britain's best horses died that first winter--not from bullets, not from exhaustion, not from disease. They died from cold and wet.

You'll notice that Ted Adams' fine big horse has been clipped from head to toe; only his legs were left. Look in the background and you'll see that there are no leaves on the trees. Ted himself is wearing what looks like a winter uniform.

By 1918, the British had figured out that a sensible compromise was to clip the legs and belly. But by the end of the war 256,000 horses had died. Virtually all the horses who survived the war were sold to French butchers or abandoned in the Middle East, as was the custom.

These four Royal Artillerymen are setting to work on this horse with a hand-cranked clipping machine. Double-click on the photo to see the enlarged view. All photos in this blog post were provided and documented by the astute military photo-historian I know online only as "Sunnybrook". (That's the way she likes it.) She is one of the treasures that makes the Internet a fascinating place.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask.

     Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

     To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

     Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Historic Gems for Veterans Day

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, World War I ended. It was November 11, 1918.

Here we are almost 100 years later, and the original "Armistice Day" has become "Veterans Day". A lot of people will hardly blink.

Looking back to World War I, I found this very interesting poster that I thought I'd share with you. Someone designed a horse-drawn horse ambulance that made a lot of sense. The ambulance was rear-entry and front-exit, so that an injured horse never had to back up. I think that is brilliant. When the ambulance arrived at the stable or hospital, the pulling horse was unhitched and the injured horse led forward through the traces.

But in the heat of battle, how many of these ambulances would be needed for all the injured horses?

Here's an Army enlistment poster you won't see anymore. The US Army in World War I needed thousands of men to care for the horses...and they were willing to train them how to do it.

Going back a little further, to the Civil War, here's a rare photo of a forge wagon and also a sketch of the design; this was no doubt the Stonewell truck body of its day. 

Today's not a day to glorify war but to honor those who served, whether a century ago or a year ago. Think about them as you go about your routine today.

Images in today's post are from the collection of the Library of Congress.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

AQHA: Uniform Medication, Welfare Rules for Western Performance Across Breed and Sport Lines May Be Possible

9 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

The American Quarter Horse Association reported today that western breed and sport industry alliance partners reached a general consensus involving humane treatment and equine welfare during a meeting October 20 and 21 at the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum in Amarillo, Texas.

Attendees included representatives from the American Quarter Horse Association, United States Equestrian Federation, American Association of Equine Practitioners, National Cutting Horse Association, National Snaffle Bit Association, National Reining Horse Association, National Reined Cow Horse Association, United States Team Penning Association, American Paint Horse Association and Equine Canada.

“Never before have so many leaders in the performance-horse disciplines gotten together to seriously discuss medication and animal welfare in relation to our events,” said Gary Carpenter, AQHA's executive director of breed integrity and animal welfare. “In-depth discussions led to a good, overall agreement on these vital subjects and the direction we need to go in the future.”

Meeting participants discussed the merits of developing a uniform therapeutic medications program and humane treatment policies that could be adopted by all of the groups involved. Executive directors from these associations scheduled a follow-up meeting for January 2010.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Breeders Cup Lowlight Video: Quality Road-eo Gate Panic Delays the Classic

8 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoofblog at Hoofcare.com



All hail the supermare Zenyatta for her amazing, gutsy win of the Breeders Cup Classic yesterday. While her race will be replayed again and again for years to come, if you missed the race on television you didn't see the starting gate mishap that lead to Quality Road being scratched. Here's a YouTube.com clip of that portion of the race from the Partymanners racing archive. This footage would otherwise be lost to history, and includes an update from AAEP Veterinarian-on-Call Dr. Larry Blamlage of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.

I hate to see a horse in such distress anytime, let alone on national television. The gate crew are well-schooled in handling these situations but this horse--whom many of you will remember for his famous quarter cracks--narrowly avoided hurting himself, his rider and people on the ground. I know he is a very big horse and I was happy to hear that he is ok today.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Patchwork Network: Rip Van Winkle's Engineered Hooves Will Carry Him a Long Way from Tipperary to Breeders Cup on Saturday

Irish champion Rip Van Winkle may be a bionic horse. He will run in Saturday's Breeder Cup Classic in spite of a history of hoof problems that would have sidelined many. His trip to California from Aidan O'Brien's training center in Ireland is the culmination of a stellar performance record in recent months...and the result of a concentrated focus at managing hoof problems so that the horse can have a chance to prove his worth.

Traveling at the side of Rip Van Winkle is Ballydoyle training center farrier Michael O'Riordan. Eight horses made the trip from Tipperary, but it is Rip Van Winkle who occupies much of the farrier's time and concerns.

In an interview this week, O'Riordan described the process of monitoring the hoof health of the Ballydoyle group. He provided more details about the horse's problems in the past, which he believes are related to some sort of structural deficiency in the horse's hoof walls.

"He's a beautiful horse," O'Riordan told me. "He has near perfect conformation and is very free moving. He doesn't pound the ground when he runs so that's not it.

"His hoof walls are so thin. I believe it must be a mineral imbalance of some kind that has weakened the wall."

Rip Van Winkle's problems had O'Riordan on the problem-solving mission much earlier this year when he began using Yasha glue-on shoes on the horse for the quarter crack problems. When a wall separation compromised a hind foot, Ballydoyle brought in the Yasha shoe developer and quarter crack repair specialist Ian McKinlay, who traveled to Ireland to work on the hoof.

Wearing Yasha shoes on his patched feet, Rip Van Winkle was able to race this summer and win major stakes races. This fall, a quarter crack in the fourth foot was a shock as the Breeders Cup approached.

Over the past year, Rip Van Winkle has had his feet resected and rebuilt, his cracks laced. His feet have grown out and his hooves are now reinforced with acrylic. The new hind foot problem has been laced.

How will Rip Van Winkle like the Pro-Ride surface? O'Riordan said that training on it has gone well. At home, the horse canters on wood chips and works on grass, and his stakes races have been on grass.

Rip Van Winkle's Yasha shoes are cushioned Victory racing plates without toe grabs. O'Riordan said that most of O'Brien's horses had been switched to small toe grabs on their hind feet, but not Rip Van Winkle or Mastercraftsman. All the Yasha shoes have toe clips, front and hind. Rip Van Winkle has a normal size foot, a size 6 Victory plate.

Mastercraftsman is also wearing the Yasha shoes glued to all four feet, but O'Riordan said that the shoes were put on that horse for comfort and that the horse has no problems and is a nice mover. He feels that the soft heels on the Yasha shoes are kinder to the foot and don't wear down the heels.

O'Riordan's job this week is to keep an eye on the hooves of eight horses. He won't blink until Saturday's races are over. He'll head straight back to Ireland on Tuesday, but will hope that his trip includes the scenery of the winning circle at the culmination of the Breeders Cup Classic.

"We wouldn't be here without the Yasha shoes and Ian McKinlay's lacing technique," O'Riordan stressed.

"If you see paramedics in the winner's circle, you'll know they're reviving me," he joked.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.


Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Conference Will Present "2009 Spot Courage Award" to Molly the Pony's Caregiver Team for Exemplary Awareness and Prevention of Support-Limb Laminitis

5 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Molly the Pony will be an honored guest at the Laminitis Conference in Florida this weekend. Her caregiving and medical team will receive the Spot Courage Award for their diligent care of Molly with a goal of preventing laminitis in her "good" front leg. (Pam Kaster photo)

There's a saying that goes something like this: "There are two kinds of ponies. Those that have laminitis and those that will have laminitis." Add in a complex weightbearing overload and what would be the odds that laminitis would not cripple, if not kill, a three-legged hurricane-survivor pony? Well, read on! The following text is edited from a press release received today:

The Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot is pleased to announce that Molly the Pony will be receiving the Spot Courage Award at this year's event. Molly the Pony was rescued by Kaye and Glenn Harris after Hurricane Katrina, and is one of the world's only prosthesis-wearing ponies. The conference will be held November 6-8, 2009, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, FL.

"One of the first questions I am usually asked is how is it possible that Molly does not have laminitis," said Kaye Harris, Molly the Pony's owner. "Laminitis was the major fear and the reason the doctors originally did not want to perform the operation, so I think it is very important that there is a conference that researches ways to treat and cure this disease. I'm very excited to be accepting this award on behalf of the team of people that have taken care of Molly, as well as on the behalf of Molly. Molly is a very courageous pony and I'm thrilled to be coming here and meeting this group of people."

Molly the Pony will be receiving the Spot Courage Award on Friday, November 6, at 1 p.m. during the Conference. Dr. Rustin Moore will present the award to Molly and her owner, Kaye Harris. Following the presentation of the award Harris will speak briefly until 2 p.m. about her experiences with Molly.

This photo shows what was left of Molly's right front leg after a pit bull attack and before Dr. Moore's surgical intervention. (Kay Harris photo)

Following Hurricane Katrina, Molly was abandoned by her owners and taken to a rescue shelter. During her time at the shelter a pit bull terrier attacked her and it caused severe damage to her right front leg. Harris was taking care of Molly at the time, and turned to the equine hospital at Louisiana State University (LSU) for help. Dr. Moore performed the rare and difficult surgery involving amputation and a prosthesis to offer Molly a new chance at life.

After her traumatic experience, Molly has gone on to be a symbol of hope for those in difficult situations. Molly the Pony is a children's book about the pony and her experience, providing inspiration for thousands. The book will be available for purchase during the Conference, and Molly the Pony will be making other appearances at local children's hospitals during her visit in Florida to spread her message.

The goals of the Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot are the better understanding, prevention, and treatment of laminitis and other diseases of the equine foot. The format includes scientific and practical tracks with topical sessions, followed by small group practical workshops providing information that attendees can incorporate into their daily routines.

When I visited Molly in New Orleans in June, I noticed lots of things. In particular: she lives on fine sand, as you can see here, and her good leg is judiciously supported by a sportsmedicine "suspensory" boot. She also wears a donated Soft Ride boot at times. I'd like to see what the bottom of her good foot looks like. She also spends time in a sling, especially when her hooves are being trimmed. (Fran Jurga photo)

The Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Disease of the Foot brings together the world's experts and visionaries on laminitis to create an innovative, educational, and entertaining program for conference attendees to help educate the public and further the fight against laminitis. The Laminitis Conference is led by its Director, Dr. James A. Orsini, DVM, DACVS, a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Professor of Surgery in the School of Veterinary Medicine.

For more about information about the Fifth International Equine Conference, please visit: http://www.laminitisconference.com.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Do You Speak Farrier? The 2010 New Dictionary of Farrier Terms Will Help!

3 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog from Hoofcare.com

To order your copy, call 978 281 3222 or email books@hoofcare.com

Cost is $19 plus $4 postage in USA; $8 elsewhere.

This little slide show from author David Millwater gives a preview of the new edition of the outstanding reference, New Dictionary of Farrier Terms. We have always tried to make this book available over the years, but the book is now all grown up, with a spine, glossy cover and expanded listings.

I hope this book will become the accepted reference for defining farrier words so that authors and editors can all speak the same language. I don't always agree with Dave, but he is such a good writer and a diligent compiler of the lexicon of his profession that I don't mind losing out to him (sometimes).

Farriers will (or should) know all the terms in the book, but may be stuck sometimes to define what a London pattern anvil is or what "interdigitate" really means in the laminar bond. This book will help.

For everyone else, this book helps de-mystify the language of the back of that truck and the furthest corners of the smithy. It won't cure your horse or keep your shoes on, but it will help you sound like you might know what you're talking about. How you string the words together is up to you!

The New DFT belongs on the shelves of authors, editors, translators, veterinary hospitals, educators, lawyers, insurance companies, breeders, trainers, horseowners, merchants and, of course, libraries. Did I forget anyone?

I hope the sales from this spiffy new edition will encourage David Millwater to continue his calling as a word detective and delve more into the origins of farrier terms (one more time: why do they call it canker?) and that this project will flourish and my arguments with him never end.

Take my word for it: if we all agreed, Hoofcare's world would be a much less interesting place.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in b

ox at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Dressage Hoofcare: Rob Renirie at Global Dressage Forum

3 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Dutch team farrier Rob Renirie at the Athens Olympics (photo courtesy Anky.nl)

A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum.

The Forum, in this case, would be the Ninth Global Dressage Forum, held last week at the Academy Bartels training center in Hooge Mierde, the Netherlands. And the funny thing was that a farrier was a speaker at this event for the first time, and no one thought that unusual at all. What's more, they paid extremely close attention to his advice.

The farrier? I can only think of a few who can hold the attention of an arena full of dressage experts, many of whom would be testing their own opinions against the farrier/speaker's.

But no one can argue with this farrier's results. Horses from many countries shod and/or trimmed by Rob Renirie have won an amazingly consistent stream of Olympic, World, and European medals for the past ten years. He jokes about it, pokes fun at his clients, but has taken care of the horses they've asked him to keep in tune with the ground.

No, Hoofcare & Lameness was not lucky enough to be in Holland for Rob's lecture, but we have friends all over the world and some of them were very helpful at this event. Astrid Appels of EuroDressage.com has written an excellent summary of Rob's presentation on her web site, and I would encourage you to go there and read the entire article (and see the photos).

While Rob is best known for his Olympic gold medalist client Anky Van Grunsven, he cares for the hooves of many of Europe's top horses and travels with the Dutch team to international events. He also works with veterinarians on a regular basis, both on sport horse injuries and special clinical cases.

Here are some key points from Rob, as passed along by Astrid. Remember, English is not Rob's native language, although he speaks it very well:

"The frog is important for the blood supply and to absorb shocks. You have to leave it as big as possible and leave the bars in. The sole is as thick on the toe as on the heel. You have to leave the toe as thick as possible."

"The coronet band determines the shape of the shoe."

(Referring to Adelinde Cornelissen's successful European Championships dressage horse) "Parzival had flat underrun heels and the wrong shoes. He is wide in front and narrow in the heel. We worked on him a few times and the horse had a tremendous recover in his feet."

Rob restated his sentiment from lectures in 2007 at the laminitis conference in Palm Beach that side clips are undesirable and can distort the wall. "They get too tight on the feet."

"Do not correct the feet, but protect the feet."

"We keep our horses as prisoners in a stable, which is not good for the blood supply."

Rob restated that his own horses are not shod and that he feels that is the best way for a horse to be, qualifying that advice for horses that don't have hoof problems and are not moved between radically different surfaces.

After the lecture, a group of attendees had a special opportunity to enter the stables of Dutch team rider Imke Schellekens-Bartels, and review the hooves of some of the horses at hand.

Note: Rob has a web site, though there's not much on it. There is some nice music and some images of his work and especially his fabulous shoeing van and some scenes from his worldwide travels. Click here to go to Rob's web site; just click on the photos at the lower left and they should begin to change.

Thank you to Eurodressage.com

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Here Lies the Farrier...And There Goes Tam O'Shanter

by Fran Jurga | 31 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Lichen covers this fascinating old gravestone in the Alloway kirkyard near Ayr, Scotland. Surely a farrier lies here. Was he the farrier who inspired the lines in the poem: "That every naig was ca'd a shoe on, The smith and thee gat roaring fou on"? (Tam and the smith had a drink for every shoe that was nailed on.) Or did he die earlier so it was part of this scene: "Coffins stood round like open presses / That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses /And by some devilish cantraip slight / Each in its cauld hand held a light."

Happy Halloween! Here's the third installment of Celtic-themed Halloween blog posts.

There are many farrier headstones in cemeteries around the world. Grand anvils and headstones sporting horseshoes decorate churchyards and forgotten family plots. But I think this one is suitable for Halloween!

You'll find this stone in the churchyard at Alloway, near Ayr in Scotland. Surely this farrier was also a pirate (note the skull and crossbones) and someone with royal ties (note the crown).

This graveyard is not far from Closeburn, the home town of the late famed farrier Edward Martin, and I must assume that Edward knew of this stone, though I don't recall him showing it to me when we went to Alloway.

And of course Edward would make sure you would go to Alloway, as it is the town of Robert Burns's birth as well as his famous poem, Tam O'Shanter. This is the universal tale of a man who simply stayed too late at the pub one night, drinking with the smith and his other pals, and had to count on his good mare Meg to get him home in foul weather. It is interpreted many ways when it comes to people's views on alcohol, witchcraft and lewd behavior. But there is never any doubt about the character of the horse involved.

Tam gives his mare Meg her head to find her way home and probably snoozed in the saddle. Passing through Alloway, he's startled to see the church ablaze, with witches dancing in every window as the devil plays the bagpipes and the graveyard's coffins open wide.

Tam was shocked to see half-dressed women from the village cavorting with the devil. But in his drunken state he called out in admiration to one attractive woman in a "cutty sark", which set them all in pursuit after him.

The Brig o'Doon, or bridge over the River Doon in Alloway. Apparently, a witch can't cross a running stream so Tam spurred his mare on. Once across, Tam O'Shanter would be safe from the witches, though he would still have to answer to his wife. But his horse would never be the same again.

I won't spoil the story for you. You can read the interpretation here. But let it be known that Meg the Mare takes care of her Tam that night...though she spends the rest of her life as testimony that something did happen that night, even if it was the most elaborate and world-famous tale a husband ever made up for why he was late coming home from the pub. The poem is actually a patchwork of bits from several local crimes and witch sightings, including one that did happen at the Alloway graveyard. The place really was believed to be haunted. And still is!

Spooky enough for Halloween, don't you think?

The Original Jack with His Lantern Was a Blacksmith

by Fran Jurga | 31 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog


So here's the way the story goes...I''ll tell the short version because it's an Irish story and you know how long they can get.

There once was an Irish blacksmith named Jack. He was a miserable man, and he spent his nights in the pub trying to make everyone around him miserable, too. One night he made a deal for a last drink with the devil, who demanded to be paid back, but Jack tricked the devil, who promised him he'd take his soul.

When Jack died, he was refused admission to heaven for all his evil, selfish deeds, and sent to the gates of hell. The devil met him there and recognized him as the Irishman who had cheated him and refused to even let Jack into hell.

Where would Jack go? The devil didn't care, but Jack had better get going. Jack pleaded for a coal so he might see his way as he wandered through the darkness.

The devil granted his wish and squashed a glowing coal into a half-eaten turnip. Jack wandered off and wandered forevermore. It's said his coal and turnip could be seen across the countryside of Ireland at night as he wandered aimlessly, the ultimate ghost. And of course as a smith, he had the skill to keep the ember going and made the most of the devil's generosity.

Irish children imitated Jack's lantern and Irish-American children switched from turnips to pumpkins. They placed the glowing vegetables on doorsteps on Halloween to scare away the haunted souls like Jack.

She Strolls Through the Horse Fair on Halloween...

by Fran Jurga | 31 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

I've been saving this picture for today. It's from a portfolio of images, mainly farriers, taken at the Smithfield Horse Market in Dublin, Ireland, one of the last urban horse sales in western Europe. The travelers bring horses and ponies and donkeys into the city the first Sunday of each month to sell or trade them. They've been doing it exactly this way, in the shadow of the Jameson's whiskey distillery, since 1665, as much as the city has tried to stop this chaotic manure-producing festivity. Dublin is one of the last cities where horses are kept within the city by private owners, many by young boys who tether them on any available greenspace.

One Dublin photographer, Teresa O'Brien, is especially taken with the farriers who skip church and show up to shoe the horses at the market before they are sold. But she only photographs their hands. I've never seen the rest of these men. Later, she moves through the crowd and her lens finds a hand on rusty hames or in this case the hand of a traveler (gypsy) matriarch's multi-ringed fingers.

Imagine this woman draped in her long dark hooded coat and leaning on her cane. She is walking among the horses on a chilly October morning. She speaks to no one. Is she buying or selling or is there something spooky going on here? Is she the ghost of horse markets past?



Click here to read a little more about and see a little more about Smithfield Horse Market.

Smithfield Horse Market and the gypsy horse fairs of Ireland and England are some of the last horse fairs. I grew up staring at a print of the painting The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur (above; the original painting is 16 feet long and hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City). It is still one of my favorite paintings because there is so much going on and the horses are so well-formed.

But if you think about it, what will go on this Sunday morning at Smithfield hasn't changed much from Bonheur's basic scene, which shows the horse market in Paris in the 1800s. Someone should document the few horse fairs that still exist. I know there are still big ones in India and Mongolia--where else are they still held?

From Sim to Mo-Cap to Slo-Mo: Have Another Look at the Horse in Motion

by Fran Jurga | 28 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Today I hurt my eye and it made the world a different place. Depth perception was different, some things don't quite line up, and this computer screen is a little blurry so this post will be a media-rich one. I'll let the videos tell the story.

And the story is exactly what I have been experiencing: how do we look at things? You read research reports and case studies and observations on this blog all the time, but they are from the viewpoints of different original sources. Here are some examples of the sources the Hoof Blog uses.



This is a computer-generated leg model from the University of California at Davis. The model lives in a perfect world. Someone designed a limb with arbitrary (or perhaps intentional) conformation and measured the resulting tendon, ligament and muscle forces if this ideal limb was moving over a perfectly smooth, non-deforming surface.



This is what we now call "traditional" two-dimensional video analysis, often used for before-and-after shoeing and trimming evaluation.



This very brief clip is 3-D analysis. You might want to use the play button to start and stop it and see more detail.



Finally, here's high-speed video, or what you might call high-quality slow motion. This polo pony is exhibiting the same stride characteristic as the computer model at the top but wow! he is influenced by the weight and lean of his rider and the variable deformability of the field as well as, no doubt, probably some conformational traits that offset his limb alignment. This is the real world.

There are plenty of other ways to capture horses and model their movement to study and analyze them; the idea here is that when you read an article, the authors may be extrapolating data from a computer model or from subjective observation with no data collection. You have to read the fine print and always take into consideration how a study was conducted and how many horses were in a study.

Does the moving horse interest you? Cornell University will host a veritable festival of motion capture, slo-mo and gait analysis at the 26th Farriers Conference November 14-15 in Ithaca, New York at the College of Veterinary Medicine. The early registration deadline is Friday so get organized and save $50 over the on-site fees.

Speakers at Cornell include farriers Scott Lampert of OnTrack Equine in Minnesota and Mark Aikens from Anglia Equine in England, both of whom are leaders in using videography in analyzing how shoeing and trimming effect horses' movement. Dr. Jeremy Rawlinson of Cornell will demonstrate the use of Cornell's force plate system and de-mystify the concept of ground reaction forces.

Hoofcare & Lameness is thrilled to be a part of this event. For a full schedule and list of speakers, and to register online, click here or go directly to http://www.vet.cornell.edu/education/conferences/farriers/


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

A Tribute to Bracy Clark: It's the 200th Anniversary of Natural Hoofcare

by Fran Jurga | 26 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

What year is it?

Patrick Ryan was, according to this slip of paper, a doctor (?) of horseshoeing in Baltimore, Maryland in the late 1800s.

You might have to double-click on the image to read the fine print, but across the top of the bill head, Mr Ryan promises "Horses Shod According to the Natural Formation of the Hoof. Satisfaction Guaranteed."

There's nothing new about the new school of thought on natural hoofcare. In the 1800s, a legion of learned professors and prickly posers preached any number of plausible and implausible theories about the so-called natural function of the hoof, as they interpreted it to be at that time. Most of the theories involved employing the frog by using a thin shoe or even a three-quarter shoe that exposed the heels and base of the frog to concussion, in the belief that that would stimulate the pumping action of the frog.

Professor Bracy Clark in England was the leading proponent of truly natural hoofcare, and his writings are quite interesting and worth a read. Just the reverse of Ryan in Baltimore, he was a veterinary surgeon--in the earliest days of the profession--who left academia behind and chose to shoe horses and study the hoof for the rest of his life.

Professor Clark enjoyed a renaissance about ten years ago when Dr Hiltrud Strasser chose selections from his vast body of writings to defend some of her theories. What many people missed was that he was a highly respected veterinarian and actually has a very broad body of writing on the anatomy and function of the foot and its diseases, far beyond simply expressing displeasure with shoes. In fact, he tried tirelessly to invent horseshoes that would work in harmony with the natural function of the foot and not stifle it.

The author/historian Major-General Sir Frederick Smith writes of Bracy Clark, "No writer in the profession before or since [his] day has brought to bear such a degree of scholarship."

In fact, Bracy Clark's first writings were exactly 200 years ago, in 1809. So let's tip our caps to him today. I recently learned that a packet containing Professor Clark's 1809 manuscript sold at auction for 3,130 British pounds--that's roughly $5,000 for some very frail old farrier papers.

Bracy Clark's forge near London's Regent's Park

To quote from an article by Ian McKay in the October 2009 edition of Book Dealer:

...This little collection opened with an illustrated 1809 account of A Series of Original Experiments on the Foot of the Living Horse. On the back of the frontispiece to this main work is a tipped-in prospectus in which Clark explains that he plans to publish his discoveries from time to time but ‘…must depend upon the intelligent and opulent for support in reimbursing the expenses…’, while bound in at the end is a single explanatory leaf, titled A New Exposition of the Horses Hoof, that refer to a pasteboard model of that equine extremity.

Other tracts in this little volume included Essays… on …the Nature and Cure of the Split-Hoof, Vulgarly Termed Sand-Crack and …the Causes and Cure of Running Frush in Horses’ Feet, both of which are dated 1818, plus another of 1822 …on the Canker and Corns of Horses’ Feet.

Another of the seven items that make up the collection is the advertisement ...., in which Bracy Clark announces that he has retired from all work with horses, ‘except what relates to the feet only’, and has opened a "…forge, in the Edgeware Road, near the Paddington Turnpike, for shoeing Saddle Horses, more especially, upon a New Plan, which admits the natural expansion of his Foot, and is more durable than the common shoe."

I got out my magnifying glass and was able to read some of the tiny print in Professor Clark's ad. I could read that he added at the bottom "Shoes made and sent (for ready money) to any part of the kingdom. No rasping off the natural rind of the hoof, no frog scalping--or notching of the heels allowed. A lecture on shoeing and the nature of the foot is delivered by the inventor the first Monday or every month at 12 o'clock. Admission 5 shillings." He would teach "professional characters" how to shoe according to his method for one price, and the sons of shoeing smiths for a reduced rate.

And now the big question: who bought these precious historic manuscripts? And what will he or she do with them?



Click here for original document: Bracy Clark Expansion Shoe -

Here's Bracy Clark's treatise on his tablet expansion shoe; the images are on the last pages. You can click on "full screen" at top right of the image box to read it easily and print it. The pages may load slowly, depending on the speed of your connection. I hope you will read it and realize how articulate this man was in describing the foot and his theory of hoof expansion. Read the part where he says that this shoe is his gift to horses, and that he is not patenting it so that more horses can benefit from it. In that sense, reading this reminds me of the Steward Clog.

What would I give to go back in time and head to Regent's Park for one of his Monday lunchtime lectures? This fellow's writings are worth a read, a re-read and many good long discussions to see where and how we've changed the way we look at the hoof's function. What would he say if he showed up today?

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Next Stop on the Pub (Art) Crawl: England's Old Smithy Pub

by Fran Jurga | 24 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Old Smithy, originally uploaded by ronclark5329.

Here's the second stop on our tour of the great pub signs of the world that honor the horse's hoof and its culture and craft. I don't know where The Old Smithy is, but perhaps one of the blog's readers from the British Isles will fill me in.

Thanks again to Mr. Ron Clark, the expert and tireless photographer of interesting pub sign art, for capturing another beautiful sign to share with us.

I thought this image was just stunning and if I was driving down the road and saw this hanging from a building I'd probably smash into something (although I usually do that anyway when I drive in Britain).

I think the artist was pretty creative on this one: what do you see in this picture that you probably wouldn't see in real life...on either side of the Atlantic? Click on the word "Comments" below and type in your answers.

Blue Tongue Dressage: Hyperflexion Still a Welfare Issue

by Fran Jurga | 23 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



This video clip was shot at an FEI World Cup Dressage qualifier in Europe last week. Luise and Julie from Epona TV were surprised that a rider at this level schooled this stallion for as long as two hours in a hyperflexion frame.

They grabbed the camera when they noticed that the horse's swollen tongue had turned blue. The horse's lips were curled and apparently even the rider could see it, as he stopped and put the horse's tongue back into its mouth.

Apparently the schooling ring steward did not see anything wrong with this rider's method.

Click here to read the full story about this videotape and about the effects of the curb rein and bit of a double bridle on the horse's tongue.

FEI rules discourage what is called hyperflexion, rollkur or "bite the chest"--riding with the horse in an overbent neck and head position for a prolonged period of time. The practice is the subject of last year's best-selling horse book, Tug of War: Classical vs Modern Dressage by German veterinarian Gerd Heuschmann.

Since last spring, Heuschmann's DVD If Horse's Could Speak has been on sale and goes even further than the book to tie overschooling, disconnected riding and especially overflexion/rollkur to unsoundness and musculoskeletal injuries in dressage horses. But it is very, very hard to prove the dots are connected.

Here's a clip from the If Horses Could Speak DVD (this is a German trailer, even though the actual DVD has an English soundtrack, not subtitles):



The DVD is 75 minutes long and is sold in North American format (NTSC) format. The cost is $60 per DVD plus postage. Click here to read more and order from our secure web page. You can order the book as well.

I thought that by the time the DVD was translated and available here in the USA the subject of rollkur would be forgotten but I guess that is not the case.

In a special interview with Olympics champion Anky Van Grunsven on Epona TV, Anky defends her use of hyperflexion as a training method, saying that she uses it for a few minutes at a time, then lets the horse relax, but that she only uses it on her advanced horses, and horses that are strong enough to do it, and for whom it is easy to go to that frame. She said she varies the time that she stays in the overbent frame from horse to horse, depending on how strong the horse is and how it reacts to being in that frame.

In a riding demonstration, Anky pointed out that her horse was pricking his ears while in the overbent frame.

Julie and Luise's Epona TV is a subscription-based library of equitation-science videos with interviews and demos by Gerd Heuschmann, Hilary Clayton, and many behavior and welfare experts. They are making a tremendous effort to provide a service that is a level above what you will find almost anywhere else on the Internet.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

World Champion Anvil Shooter at Work

by Fran Jurga | 21 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Our mid-week humor is provided by a demonstration of anvil shooting, which is usually pretty entertaining in itself but the fact that the main character in this YouTube video claims to be the world champion suggest that there is some sort of a competition in anvil shooting.

How on earth would you judge the winning shoot? Are points given for technique or difficulty? I might have to get some ear plugs and a helmet and go check this out. The failures might be entertaining.

I thought anvil shooting was illegal; obviously it is not in the state of Missouri.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Breeders Cup: The Agony of De Feet

by Fran Jurga | 21 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

What kind of horse shoe is this?, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.
Imagine the confused looks when someone spots this horse's hoof print.

The Daily Racing Form announced today that the defections are beginning; the field for next month's Breeders Cup Classic has lost a few interesting entries.

First it was the news that the fast-closing gray Macho Again would not make the trip west to Santa Anita after developing a cough while training at Churchill Downs in Kentucky.

Then it was the withdrawal of California-based Rail Trip, pulled from contention because of bruised frogs. Apparently Rail Trip sloughed his frogs after his last start at Del Mar and his feet are still tender, according to Steve Andersen of the Form.

The race is still three weeks away, so the horse's trainer must be pretty concerned about the horse losing training.

(For Breeders Cup readers: The frog is a fleshy triangle-shaped pad on the bottom of a horse's foot.)

Sloughed and bruised frogs are a common complaint from horsemen in California on the artificial tracks. The problems could be compounded by the heat of the track in summer months. It is normal for real-world horses to shed the outer layer of their frogs, but racehorses are shod and trimmed so often that their frogs are kept neatly manicured.

Horseshoers at the track have a lot of tricks to help a horse with sore frogs. This photo by our friend Sarah K Andrew was taken during Breeders Cup week at Santa Anita last year.

This horse is wearing a frog-protection plate, sometimes called a mushroom shoe. It can either be an aluminum plate that goes between the shoe and the hoof (some of them look like hockey goalie masks and are called spider plates), or it can be a shoe.

Frogs come in all shapes and sizes. This is Visionaire's frog before the 2008 Kentucky Derby. It probably didn't contact the ground. The frog shape and size of winning horses has never been documented. The width of the frog also determines how the shoe is shaped and how the heels are covered. This shoe is almost an oval; it is probably a hind foot. (Dan Burke/FPD photo)

The same type of shoe or plate is used to relieve pressure on sore heels. The horseshoer may medicate the frog and pack felt or foam rubber under it if the goal is to cushion a sore frog.

Conversely, if the frog is healthy and the goal is to relieve sore heels or a quarter crack, the horseshoer will use the plate to "engage" the frog to bear weight while trimming the heels to relieve weight on them.

This perfectly heart-shaped frog belonged to Gayego before the 2008 Kentucky Derby. Compare it to Visionaire's. Gayego is slated to run in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Sprint. There's no statistical relevance between frog size or shape to speed or performance. Notice how much space there is between the heels of the shoe. (Dan Burke/FPD photo)

There are many reasons a frog can be sore. Infection from thrush or canker is the most common but abrasion also can cause soreness, particularly if a horse has a bulbous, protruding, or fleshy frog. Frogs can and do bleed if they are aggravated enough.

The type of shoe shown here might have been just for training and the horse was reshod with regular plates before training at speed or racing. Standardbreds will race in frog plates, though.

Since the horse spends most of the day in its stall, the trainer would pack the sore hooves with a favorite packing or wrap Animalintex poultice against the bottom of the foot. Turbo tubbing, salt water soaks and spas, foam-lined boots and changing stall bedding are some other treatments that trainers may try to get the frogs back in racing shape.

Away from the dry California climate, a frog could be sore because of excess moisture. In that case, the trainer might medicate with a hoof product containing ingredients from the formaldehyde family to wick moisture, or paint the feet with iodine.

Exercise, even walking, would be considered therapeutic, unless the horse is lame. Circulation can help feet recover and grow.

Protecting soles and frogs and preventing injury will be on the minds of trainers who ship their horses to California for the Breeders Cup. When the European and East Coast trainers see local horses sporting plates like the one in this picture, they will catch on very quickly.

Video: Breeders Cup Piques Interest in Surfaces; Instrumented Horseshoe for California Racetrack Surface Study at Keeneland

by Fran Jurga | 19 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

UC Davis's instrumented shoe might be one of the most expensive horseshoes ever made. The soundtrack is "Going the Distance" by CAKE.

Are you counting the days to the 2009 Breeders Cup, the international championship of Thoroughbred horse racing? If so, get ready to start counting the ways that Santa Anita's Pro-Ride racing surface will be interpreted as enhancing or handicapping the chances of the top runners.

The running of this year's cup at California's showcase racetrack has inspired a renewal of the debate of just how safe and just how fair to bettors and horsemen the artificial surfaces will be.

Perfect timing, then, for the J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory at the University of California at Davis to release this little video slide show about its use of an instrumented horseshoe in their study of horse racetracks at Kentucky's Keeneland racecourse. This study was conducted on Polytrack, not the Pro Ride used at Santa Anita.

The study is comparing hoof impact on synthetic, dirt and turf surfaces. Three horses were tested. Hoof accelerations and ground reaction forces (GRF) were measured for the front legs with an accelerometer and a dynamometric horseshoe during trot and canter (not the gallop). Maxima, minima, temporal components, and a measure of vibration were extracted from the data. Acceleration and GRF variables were compared statistically among surfaces.

The dynamometric horseshoe contained piezoelectric sensors sandwiched between two aluminium plates.

Results of the study according to the abstract:

1. The synthetic surface often had the lowest peak accelerations, mean vibration, and peak GRFs. Peak acceleration during hoof landing was significantly smaller for the synthetic surface (mean ± SE, 28.5g ± 2.9g) than for the turf surface (42.9g ± 3.8g).

2. Hoof vibrations during hoof landing for the synthetic surface were American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR). Click here to read the abstract as posted by AJVR.

The debate is contentious enough that it will take a lot of studies of many parameters to quiet skeptics. The defection of the USA's top racehorse, champion Rachel Alexandra, has been attributed to her owners' distaste for running on synthetic tracks. Conversely, top European horses are flocking to Santa Anita and defecting from turf to "dirt" races with the belief that their turf races prep them for spectacular results at Santa Anita. Last year's Classic winner Ravens Pass followed that formula. The Bird cousins, Summer and Mine That, have relocated to Santa Anita and trained over the Pro Ride surface on Saturday.

Watch for more reports from Santa Anita as the surface debate is sure to elevate in the next two weeks.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

First Stop on the Hoof Blog's Pub (Art) Crawl: The Farriers Arms

Farrier's Arms, Worcester, originally uploaded by ronclark5329.

Mr Ron Clark is a photographer in Great Britain with a delightful passion for photographing pub signs. Among his archives are quite a few with horse themes and many with horseshoes, farriers, heavy horses (always my favorite) and related namesakes, usually accompanied by interesting or downright beautiful artwork and ornate brackets, signposts and lanterns.

Over the next few months, The Hoof Blog will be showcasing some of these unusual bits of artistry, and we invite you to send in your favorites as well. It is very kind of Mr Clark to open images from his collection to viewing on the blog.

And there are some real beauties, as well as some intriguing titles. They'd make a beautiful book.

I'd love to know who paints the pub signs and if there are rules to follow or if they all just happen to be tastefully done.

The Farriers Arms is quite a modern pub sign and is a reproduction of the famous painting, "Shoeing the Bay Mare"; the well-known image was originally created by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer in 1844 and is probably the most universal farrier image in the world. Landseer's other horse and dog paintings are beautiful, too.

Get ready for a long (artistic) pub crawl around the British Isles and, if we're lucky, other places in the world! Email hoofblog@hoofcare.com with your favorites or leave a comment below.

The Farriers Arms, by the way, is in Worcester, England.

Laminitis Conference Discount Deadline Is Today!

Hoof Blog News Flash!
Your Hoof Blog Discount for Laminitis Conference Registration

REMINDER!

Hoofcare & Lameness subscribers save $50 on registration for the

5th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot

November 6-8, 2009 West Palm Beach, Florida

Important information: Your registration includes all meals plus the now-famous Saturday night dinner cruise.

But the deadline to contact the conference is today, October 15!

Speakers include (among many) Hoofcare & Lameness authors Chris Pollitt, Paul Goodness, Katy Watts, Scott Morrison, Michael Wildenstein, and many more.

Laminitis researchers from around the world will report on university-based research while a practical program brings the latest and most creative treatment and management information for all types of foot problems from lameness specialist veterinarians and clinic-based farriers.

A special presentation by Dr Pollitt will feature his high-definition videography of wild horse hooves in Australia and his extrapolation of wild horse hoof data as it compares to and contrasts with domestic horses, as well as the normal hoof functions in contrast with laminitis hoof functions.

New to the conference will be Dr Simon Collins of the Animal Health Trust in England, who has worked with Dr Pollitt on using human medicine's "Mimics" software to present CT scans of laminitic hooves as 3-D structures which Dr. Pollitt says he can "dissect on his computer screen". (I want to see that.)

Dr. Mike Steward from Oklahoma will review and update his development of the Steward Clog low-tech support system for laminitis and Dr Amy Rucker of Midwest Equine will focus on venograms and coronary band resection.

On the non-laminitis side of the conference, Pat Reilly, Paul Goodness and a support crew from Forging Ahead, James Gilchrist, and Michael Wildenstein will have farrier expertise to share, along with Dr. Morrison from Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital and Dr Rucker, who many of you will remember from the Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium.

The reduced registration rate of $550 per person to the Hoofcare & Lameness community is even lower when two people register together. Please check the conference web site for details. Conference brochures were sent to all Hoofcare & Lameness subscribers, but if you didn't get one, let the conference registration know that you haven't had reference to the program.

The web-based registration is for convenience. Call the conference with questions or to register by some other means. Hotel information is also on the conference website (www.laminitisconference.com)

The conference admin phone number is 781 697 0469. Email is sponsor@laminitisconference.com. If that doesn't work, call me at 978 281 3222. I probably cannot answer your question, but I can find someone who can.

Thanks for supporting this conference.

Link to conference web site:

http://www.laminitisconference.com

Link to blog post about Dr. Pollitt's hoof imaging tech:

http://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2009/09/pollitts-laminitis-images-have-new-look.html

Link to an article about the conference and the 20th anniversary of Secretariat's death:

http://special.equisearch.com/blog/horsehealth/2009/10/remembering-secretariat-laminitis-is.html.

Equine Obesity: A Criminal Offense for Two Pony Owners in England

by Fran Jurga | 14 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Pony stallion Dale, before (top) and after (lower) his rehabilitation by World Horse Welfare.

A married couple in Lancashire, England have been banned from keeping horses for five years in one of the first court cases in Britain since a new animal welfare law has been enacted. The two were found guilty of causing suffering by not addressing their ponies' obesity and hoofcare issues.

Keith and Lynn Hall pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a 21 year old mare called April and failing to meet the needs of a 12 year old stallion called Dale. They were also given costs of £500 each and a three month curfew was imposed, enforcing them to be resident at their home between the hours of 10pm and 6am. They indicated their immediate intention to appeal their five year ban.

When World Horse Welfare and RSPCA officials visited the couple’s rented field in November 2008, they found that April’s feet had not been trimmed for a very long time and she was lame and in terrible pain. Her companion Dale had been allowed to become grossly overweight.

Both ponies were seized and taken to a World Horse Welfare farm where they immediately received the care they needed. Dale was put on a strict diet and exercise program and has recovered well but sadly April did not respond to treatment and the difficult decision was made to put her to sleep and end her suffering.

World Horse Welfare Field Officer Chris Williamson says: “This is one of the first cases under the new Animal Welfare Act involving an obese horse and I am pleased that the serious welfare implications of allowing a horse to get into this condition were taken into account in the sentence.”

Please visit www.worldhorsewelfare.org for more information. World Horse Welfare provided background and photos for this blog post.

Blogger's comment: Is it possible that the owners were trying to make the ponies look like Thelwell's cartoon characters? Are there people who believe that ponies are supposed to be fat, cresty-necked and lame?

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Video: Sea the Stars Tribute (Play It Loud)

by Fran Jurga | 14 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Click the box second from the right at the bottom of the screen to make this full screen; hit the audio button to increase the volume. Just hit "escape" to exit the full screen mode. Make it big, play it loud. Go ahead and cheer.

A sigh came out of me from some deep place today when I learned that the world's #1 racehorse, Ireland's Sea the Stars, will not be coming to the USA after all. He will not be running in the Breeders Cup at Santa Anita next month.

After winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris last week, he'll be transitioned to stud duty.

This nicely edited tribute clip-mash is a great salute to his stellar year at the top of the racing world.

So many years we endure the coming and going of racing stars, the tragedy of injury, the revolving door of media favorites. And this year, we're so lucky to have some (pretty) sound, athletic horses. They are running their hearts out and performing consistently, even on off tracks.

If you have some time, go to YouTube and look up the channel of Partymanners and watch the races he has posted there of Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, Summer Bird, Careless Jewel, and so many others. Check out Muscle Hill over in the Standardbred world.

We have a dream team of superstar horses out there, minus one now. But retiring him on top, and presumably uninjured, is pretty special too.

Maybe my sigh was a sigh of relief.

Click here to read an article about Sea the Stars from The Times of London.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Plastinate Anatomical Tools Make Everything Perfectly Clear

by Fran Jurga | 12 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



It's Columbus Day, so you're invited to "discover" a new equine anatomy reference tool that will be a boon to your ability to creatively and constructively communicate with colleagues, clients and students no matter where you are.

Plastination is a tissue preservation process that gained worldwide fame this decade with the Body Worlds museum exhibit. The last I heard, Body Worlds was set to overtake King Tut as the most viewed exhibit in the world. It shows human organs and muscles preserved in various positions or medical conditions. But everyone I know came out of it saying, "Wow, if they could just do that for horses..."

And someone has. Germany's veterinary anatomy expert Dr Christoph von Horst has patented a process for preserving veterinary specimen in this way; he's done birds and rats and ticks and dogs. But thanks to the encouragement of people like Dr. Chris Pollitt and a loud cheer from Hoofcare and Lameness, Dr Von Horst is preparing spectacular hoof and distal limb anatomy specimen, and you end up with a hoof music video slide show on a day of discovery.

I remember for years how I struggled trying to learn anatomy from textbooks. I couldn't get the 3-D part. I believe that 3-D models from HorseScience are the absolute way to learn and study anatomy and that they revolutionized my ability to understand the hoof, to the extent I can say that I do, along with the Glass Horse cd-rom of animated distal limb anatomy.

These plastination models are a step somewhere between anatomy models and an x-ray. They come in different models, designed for more or less portability. Many will slip inside a briefcase or agenda planner...or even a jacket pocket.

I can't wait for you all to see these teaching aids. They are like living x-rays...in equally-living color! They are actual paper-thin slices of tissue vacuum sealed inside layers of crystal clear acrylic resin.

You can keep one in your briefcase, or collect a set to show different conditions like laminitis, a navicular cyst, ringbone, etc. or use them to show where a shoe will sit, where you will trim (or won't trim) or where an injection or surgery site will access a joint or problem.

This specimen illustrates ringbone quite clearly but, like most anatomy models, the medical history of the animal is not available for reference. (Dr. Christoph von Horst image)

The plastinate tissue is very clear and well-defined because it is paper-thin and light passes through, illuminating the details and edges of structures and their relative textures. (Dr. Christoph von Horst image)

The specimen come in two types: flat sheets, which are about 3/8" thick, or the block versions, which are about 3/4" to 1" thick. The blocks are stunning and look fantastic on a desk or bookshelf, particularly if there's a light nearby. They make a beautiful gift or presentation award.

Of course, no two are alike. Hooves are available in sagittal, coronal and transverse sections, with the vast majority being sagittal, since that is the primary view people are accustomed to using for reference.

Right now we even have a foal's limb and a huge draft horse lower limb with what Dr Von Horst labels as lymphangitis-type swelling. There's also a stunning example of pastern ankylosis.

Even a large joint like the hock can be encapsulated into a plastinate specimen. (Dr. Christoph von Horst image)

Also available are laminated posters of several popular types of distal limb and hock plastinates; you can write on the plastic, draw a shoe or cast on, or use the poster for teaching by asking students to fill in labels for specific structures. Plastic casts of the blood supply and plaster casts of hooves are available by special order.

The best news? Prices start at under $100, plus shipping, with the blocks selling for about $200 at the current exchange rate.

Be sure to visit the Hoofcare and Lameness booth at conferences this fall to see these amazing teaching and learning aids, or contact the office to arrange an order to be selected and shipped directly to you.

If you have trouble with my video widget, you can also view the slide show on Hoofcare's slowly-expanding video channel. The widget seems to be skipping over some of the images in favor of text slides.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Friends at Work: Farrier Steve Stanley at the Red Mile

Farrier Steve Stanley -- 2009 Lexington, originally uploaded by USTrotting.

Thanks to the US Trotting Association for this nice photo of Steve Stanley working at the Red Mile harness track in Lexington, Kentucky two weeks ago. Steve wasn't looking up and smiling for the camera because he was working on a shoe for three-year-old filly Southwind Wasabi, who would go on to win the Moni Maker Trot that day.

The filly came from last place to win the race. She is owned and trained by the same connections as the 2009 Hambletonian champion, Muscle Hill.

Good work, Steve, congratulations!

Video: Relieve Discomfort During Hoof Trimming for an Arthritic or Foundered Horse

by Fran Jurga | 11 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Long-time University of California at Davis farrier Kirk Adkins shares some tips that may be useful when trimming or treating the hooves of older, arthritic horses or horses that have difficulty standing on three legs because of painful laminitis or neurological conditions.

This video may be helpful for some horses out there, and I thank Kirk for taking the time to put it together. I have also seen people stand horses on padding, put padded boots on the feet not being worked on, and keep thick scraps of carpet close at hand for cushioning.

If I had to guess, I'd say the "lean against the wall" option is the one I hear recommended most often, but that's not very safe for the horse or the humans around it.

None of us likes to see a horse go into restraining stocks like those used for a draft horse, but there are some interesting hoist rigs that people are making that, if used safely on horses that are well-trained or sedated, may be useful to just get the horse elevated enough to relieve the pain of standing on the opposite foot.

If you have ideas for solutions to this problem, please share them with Hoofcare and Lameness.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Friends at Work: "Go Over to the Pub and Get Paddy the Farrier..."

Farrier at work, County Kerry, Ireland, originally uploaded by yetiger.

Here's a little humor for a Sunday.

Show me a photo of normal people doing something and I'll try to imagine the relationships between them, and what they were doing and saying before and after the shutter clicked. Just a little mental exercise.

This photo was made to order. All the information I have is that it was taken in the town of Boolteens in County Kerry in the west of Ireland in 2006.

My story is that the owner of the pony gives tourists rides somewhere around the Ring of Kerry and his pony lost a shoe so he went looking for a friend whose uncle's sister-in-law is married to a farrier.

Half a day later, after hunting down and visiting with the uncle and the sister-in-law, and promising to take along a grandchild, they narrowed down the whereabouts of the farrier to the village pub (the building in the background looks like it could be a pub). They went to the forge and got his shoeing box and hoof stand and stormed into the pub, much to the farrier's surprise.

Would he come out on the sidewalk and nail the shoe back on? Since they had all this gear, he couldn't refuse, just merely shrugged and asked, "What took you so long? We heard you been leading that lame pony all round the village half the afternoon?"

And the grandchild is still tagging along because, in Ireland, kids always tag along.

I love the wave of the horse holder, who could be the owner of the pony but his friendly expression makes me think he could be the landlord (bartender).

The intense gaze of the fellow in the white shirt makes me think he's the owner of the pony. He's thinking about all the money he's not making while the pony is unharnessed from the trap. And he's no doubt ready to haggle with the farrier over the price.

What story would you make from this photo?

Video: CNN Finds Out What a Farrier Is

Congratulations to Georgia farriers Doug Workman and Dave Purves for a great job introducing a CNN news crew to the finer points of horseshoeing. Explaining the rocker toe was probably too complex for the minute-and-a-half time slot...but maybe they'll be back!

Thanks to Allison Zeger at Farrier Products Distribution for her help with the ornery html code for this video!

Friends at Rest: Don Davis

If Macy and Woolworth and Bean and Sears are some of the great family names of American retailing industry, you could certainly make a case for "Davis" being one of the great names of the American farrier industry. The Davis family's Ken Davis and Sons in Richwood, Ohio is one of the largest and deepest farrier supply stores in the world. They carry everything...or will get it for you.

So it is with great sadness that we tell you that one of the family icons has passed away.

R. Don Davis was one of the two sons in Ken Davis and Sons when he started working with his father and brother Jon in the 1950s. I'm sure when he was going from farm to farm to sell horse supplies to the Amish back then, Don had no idea what his efforts would turn into, or that after 50 years, it would still be a family business. Don's sons Dean and Scott run Ken Davis and Sons today, and do a great job of it.

In the past ten years or so, many new farrier supply companies have sprouted up and some of the great old ones have passed to new hands. Ken Davis and Sons is one that always seems to stand with one foot in the past and one foot in the future...much like many of the great farriers I have known. It seems to be a surefire formula for success.

For information about services for Don, visit www.stofcheck-ballingerfuneralhome.com.

Brumby Research Results: Wild Horses Switched Between Terrain Types in Australia to Observe Transition; Wild Hoof Researcher to Speak in Missouri

by Fran Jurga | 29 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The Australian Brumby Research Unit has completed an experimental transfer of horses between different terrains, over 1000 miles apart. The results were recently announced after massive amounts of data, including hoof growth vs. wear measurements, were compiled. The purpose of the switch was for scientists to observe and document the transition that horses go through when environmental conditions change.

PhD candidate Brian Hampson commented in the research group’s newsletter that one mare, Christine/Footloose, had been removed from the program. Christine had been moved from a soft coastal environment to a hard desert terrain, and the researchers judged her wear to be exceeding her growth, in spite of the external remodeling of her hoof into a more ideal natural form.

Hampson reported that the mare’s sole depth had been reduced but that her wall thickness had not been affected by the transfer at the proximal border but had been reduced slightly at the distal border, due to rolling wear on the harder ground.

Brumby Christine as she appeared when taken off her soft coastal habitat (top two photos) and after three months in hard substrate desert terrain (bottom two photos), as part of an experimental switch between herds in Australia. Her hoof wear was 3x that of another mare and she lost considerable condition (weight) during the period. Researchers decided to remove her from the experiment even though her feet, as shown, seemed markedly more healthy and robust by natural hoofcare parameters but welfare was of equal concern.

“Christine’s feet…had totally transformed from long splayed feet to stout hard feet,” Hampson wrote. “They look great but the data tells us they were in a state of imbalance with wear exceeding growth…She was not coping with the change in substrate and the change in environment, including diet. Seeing the condition (she) was in following three months in the new environment makes us relieved that we didn’t put domestic horses into this environment as was initially planned…It appears some horses may not cope well with such a drastic change in environment.”

The research team has shortened the duration of the desert swap from 12 to 8 weeks to reduce the chances of deterioration of other horses in the program.

The publication of Pollitt’s team’s results stimulated a critical rebuttal from long-time US wild horse hoof expert Jaime Jackson, author of The Natural Horse. “Bungle in the Jungle” was Jackson’s title for critiquing several aspects of Pollitt’s and Hampson’s efforts, including questioning the wisdom of inviting Hampson to speak in America.

The mare Christine especially hit a nerve with Jackson, who felt that the mare would have been better served to be left out in the desert to tough it out. His critique outlines the basic premise of many barefoot transitionists, who feel that the end justifies the means. The means, which often translates to some level of pain for the horse, is objectionable to many people, and was probably not an option to a university research program operating under strict animal welfare guidelines.

Machiavellian hoofcare principles notwithstanding, Jackson closes his critique with a question to the world at large that is most definitely worthy of consideration. He asks, “Why aren't American researchers out in our own wild horse country? ….We need them out there now garnering important information about diet, habitat, behavior, and more. What we are getting is pharmaceutical funded research aimed at generating and dumping more and more dangerous chemicals, biotoxins, and molasses-laden feeds into horses that only complicate their lives -- and our work as humanitarian professionals. What is needed is useful, well-thought out, and science-based information…” Amen on that one, Jaime.

Jackson's comments can be read on his website, www.aanhcp.net.

USA LECTURE IN OCTOBER

The modern-day man from Snowy River is alive and well and headed for the USA. He who is charged with being kind to a sore-footed brumby, Dr. Pollit’s PhD candidate Brian Hampson, will travel to Missouri on October 17 and present a four-hour lecture outlining what the research team has learned from their extensive studies of wild horse herds in different environments. He will no doubt have to face his critics. He’ll have some out-takes from Dr. Pollitt’s high-definition video documentary of wild horse hooves and will bring freeze-dried brumby feet with him, which will be available for purchase.

Brian’s lecture is presented by a barefoot advocacy group called Liberated Horsemanship. The lecture is from 2-6 p.m. on October 17 at the National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis, MO. Registration is $50.

Dr. Pollitt will present a major lecture on the research project at the Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida on November 7, 2009.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Pollitt's Laminitis Images Have a New Look: MIMICS Software Goes 3-D

by Fran Jurga | 27 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The cover of the Proceedings of the 2009 laminitis conference is a compilation of images of one foot of a chronic laminitis case from the University of Queensland in Australia. The foot's CT scans were converted to 3-D images using Mimics software and the expertise of Dr. Simon Collins of the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England. (Double-click on image for a larger view in a new window, but sorry that the web requires a low-resolution version of a very high-resolution form.)

When the end of the Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot comes, attendees might remember proportionately less of what they heard...and more of what they saw.

The heightened visual aspect of the exciting biennial conference, which will be held November 6-8 in West Palm Beach, Florida, may lie in the technology side of things, but the impact will be an eyeful that everyone can appreciate.

Leave it to Dr. Chris Pollitt (photo inset at left), assistant director of the conference, to bring the latest and greatest technology to the conference and to enhance his presentations.

The new software is called MIMICS; it is made by a Belgian company called Materialise NV. In a nutshell, MIMICS converts CT scans into three-dimensional forms. I've also seen it used to model a nasal cavity for a surgery case at Cornell's vet school, and for a comparative study of the soft tissue structures of equine feet at Auburn University. Dr. Pollitt says that MIMICS software is used extensively for human skeletal reconstruction surgery and prosthetic implant design and simulation.

"Suddenly I can 'see' an individual horse’s foot from all angles and can virtually dissect it on the computer monitor," Dr Pollitt wrote in the Proceedings.

MIMICS was introduced to Dr Pollitt and to the world of laminitis by British hoof anatomy researcher Dr Simon Collins. Dr Collins will be in Palm Beach to explain how he uses computer modeling in his work at the Animal Health Trust, where he collaborates with lameness experts Drs Rachel Murray and Sue Dyson. His images will be dazzling.

Dr Pollitt wrote in his introductory essay in the Proceedings, "Analyses of feet with chronic laminitis clearly show that distorted tubular hoof growth, lamellar wedge formation and solar loading of the distal phalanx are relentlessly destructive to bone. It behooves laminitis caregivers to understand the unmitigated, severe chronic process and develop proactive, early intervention strategies that will measurably arrest the process. MIMICS in the hands of laminitis scientists will aid this process."

Does anyone besides me see great irony in the way that Dr Pollitt over the years has created stunning visual images of the terribly destructive disease of laminitis? The quality of his images is always worthy of Scientific American or National Geographic and yet the subject is the disease we all dread. Thanks to his artistic eye we all know what laminitis looks like, even though it's the disease we'd most like to see wiped off the equine map.

NOTE: The deadline for registration for the conference has been pushed back to September 28th, since the mail has been so slow in getting the brochures and registration forms to everyone. Brochures were sent to all subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Also, a reduced rate for two-person registrations has been added. Visit www.laminitisconference.com for more information.

Credit: Individual cover images were created by Dr. Simon Collins of the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England using MIMICS software, and are used with permission; they illustrate pathology on the “Bronski” chronic laminitis case studied by Dr. Chris Pollitt at the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit in 2009. Cover montage and design by Fran Jurga will be published with Proceedings of the Fifth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida November 6-8, 2009.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Friends at Work: Stanley Vasques Gives 40 Years to Kauai Horses

Stanley Vasques shoes horses on the beautiful Hawaiian outer island of Kauai; photo by Leo Dubois/The Garden Island

Wherever you are today, you are probably a long way from Stanley Vasques. But we all share an interest in horse hooves and their care. The only difference between most of us and him is that Stanley will wake up this morning and go to work in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Stanley has been shoeing horses on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for more than 40 years. An article about him was published in the island newspaper, and I thought you might like to get to know Stanley and see a little bit of his world.

Click here to read an article about someone who will wake up in paradise this morning and go out and shoe some horses.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

NEAEP Conference Preview: Patrick Reilly Will Report on Hoof Balance Studies

by Fran Jurga | 20 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

A last-minute addition to the 2009 NEAEP conference program is farrier Patrick Reilly from the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. Pat is filling in for farrier David Farley; both Dave and Pat are on the board of the new organization, which has both farriers and veterinarians among its members.

Patrick's lectures will include interesting studies and observations of hoof balance. In the video clip above, you will see that he has been documenting comparative solar forces on the hoof during athletic activities. This video clip shows the extended trot, which will be compared to a working trot in both a straight line as well as on a 20-meter circle. Pat also has some interesting measurements of the solar forces during jumping, and a comparison of differing density rim pads during jumping.

Patrick's videos and the use of pressure-sensitive data collection media give him some opportunities to make observations that bring up plenty of questions. For example, the same horse might land toe first in one gait (such as the extended trot), but land heel first in the regular trot. Also, a horse might land laterally on one footing, but lands evenly with the same trim on another.

Data from the hoof is transmitted directly, rather than through a pressure-sensing plate in the ground

The rider in the video is Patrick's wife, Karen; the flashy horse is her own; they just won a national young horse title last month. Congratulations!

To read more about the NEAEP organization, click here.
To see the foot symposium program and find out about registration, click here.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Hoofcare@NEAEP: See You in Connecticut!

by Fran Jurga | 20 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Don't call the office this week. Hoofcare and Lameness will be on location at the first-ever conference of the Northeast Association of Equine Practitioners (NEAEP) in Ledyard, Connecticut. The new NEAEP organization is kicking off its public persona with a double-barreled lecture series from Wednesday through Friday. One lecture hall is podiatry only, while the other covers a range of veterinary topics, including equine sportsmedicine.

Chances are, you'll find me in the podiatry lectures. The NEAEP has brought together a great group of speakers--including Robin Dabareiner, Melissa Fagerlin, Ian McKinlay, Scott Morrison, Scott Pleasant and Patrick Reilly--and filled a trade show with exhibitors.

I will try to keep the blog updated from Connecticut, but if you are planning to attend--and I hope you are--please stop by the Hoofcare booth in the trade show and say hello!

Registration will be available on site; details are at www.neaep.net. See you there!

PS I chose this nice old illustration as our company's booth logo for this event because it is so old. It dates back to a time when farriery was veterinary medicine, and the art of bandaging a horse was an example of one of the many arts of farriery. NEAEP is an organization comprised of both veterinarians and farriers (and other horse health professionals) and I am looking forward to working with this organization for many years to come!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Horseshoes CSI: Who Shod the Wall Street Bomber's Horse Back in 1920?

by Fran Jurga | 18 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Today's a dark day in New York history, and the day when horseshoes made the headlines of the New York Times...and it wasn't good news.

It was 89 years ago today that a horse and wagon ambled down Manhattan's Wall Street and exploded into bits in front of the Morgan Bank in an attempt to assassinate financier J.P. Morgan. Instead, the heinous act killed 38 innocent people and injured at least 300 more.

When the 9/11 tragedy struck in 2001, few people were familiar enough with New York history to know that it was not the first terrorist attack in lower Manhattan on a September day. The anarchists had tried it first.

All that was found of the wreck were the horses' hooves--all four showed up mysteriously in a neighborhood church. The police combed all the stables and blacksmith shops in New York City looking for clues…by trying to identify these horseshoes. Because the farrier had stamped the initials of his two unions ("JHU" and "NOA"), the NYPD detectives, Department of Justice (this was before the FBI) and Secret Service hoped the shoes could be traced back to horseshoers who belonged to both unions, until the detectives found out who had actually shod the horse.

To quote from the December 1920 edition of the Horseshoer’s Journal: "Of course, no onus is attached to the shoer, but the link of evidence is of greatest importance. (The horseshoer’s identity) lead to the arrest of the party responsible for the awful calamity which shocked not merely the whole of America, but the entire world."

This is one of the hind shoes taken off one of the hooves of the dead horse. The initials stamped in the shoe indicate union membership as a protection mark. Another union farrier might help out and reset the shoe if it was loose, but they would honor that horse as being shod by the brother. This was a code of honor among union horseshoers.

The headline in the New York Times read "200 Detectives Canvass Farrier Shops for Clue to Identity of Bomb Driver". The police began by enlisting their own farriers to analyze the horse shoes and tell them everything they could about them and the horse that might have worn them.

Finally the shoes were traced to the farrier shop of Finnegan and Kyle at 85 New Chambers Street and a farrier from the Bronx named John Heggarty.

How did Heggarty pick the shoes out as his? How would a farrier know his own shoe? Heggarty told the Times that he "found on the fore shoes the horizontal line just above the heel clip which he always has put on his handiwork as the sort of secret identification mark which all horseshoers use, largely for the purpose of know their own work in case of complaint. Haggerty is a non-union man and called attention to the absence of the JHU...from the front shoes, though they were on the hind shoes.

What's going on at the site of the shoeing forge at 85 New Chambers Street in Manhattan today, thanks to Google Maps

Unfortunately Heggarty couldn't (or wouldn't) remember who brought the horse in, and said as way of explanation that he shod eight to 12 horses a day. The shop is near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Fulton Street Ferry, so police speculated that the horse had come from off Manhattan.

Interestingly, farrier unions are among the oldest in America, and in the 1920s, farrier unions espoused what sounds today like extreme left-wing rhetoric. An editorial in the same edition of the Horseshoer's Journal calls on local unions to "oust their Bolshevik members". Was Heggarty a Bolshevik sympathizer? Did he re-use someone else's shoes who was a union member for the hind feet of the horse? What happened to him?

This story raises many more questions than it answers, but it offers many great history lessons. I highly recommend the archives of the New York Times, which are available online, or interested blog readers can email me or leave comments to continue this discussion.

In Boston also in 1920, the JHU struck against the Master Horseshoers Association; employee farriers (journeymen) walked out of the large city farrier shops owned by the powerful master farrier owners. The city stopped.

The year 1920 was also the height of the horse population in the USA: an estimation 25 million horses, perhaps even more, were hard at work in the cities and on farms, compared to less than 10 million today. (Estimates range from 6 to 9 million horses.)


To this day, the crime has never been solved, but the scars on Wall Street have never been repaired. They remain as a solemn reminder of the day a horse and wagon became the first suicide bombers in the neighborhood. But not the last.

Portions of this article originally appeared in Hoofcare and Lameness #75. Thanks to the New York Times archives and especially to Cornell University's Flower Sprecher Library at the College of Veterinary Medicine for help in preparing this article.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Laminitis Prevention: Is Current Body Condition Scoring Irrelevant for Ponies?

by Fran Jurga | 18 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

A 9.2 hand, 12-year-old spotted pony named Firefly suffered from overgrown feet and laminitis in England in April 2007. She couldn't walk properly, but her owner refused to have her cared for, nor would she sign the pony over to the World Horse Welfare. A court case ensued and the owner lost her right to own horses for two years.

Here's Firefly in September 2007, on her way to full recovery and adoption to a new home. The research project funded by WHW at the University of Liverpool suggests that it is difficult to assign an objective body condition score to ponies using the system designed for larger horses.

Researchers at the department of clinical science at Britain's University of Liverpool, with support from the World Horse Welfare charity, presented new research at the annual convention of the British Equine Veterinary Association(BEVA) last week.

The question: how accurate is conventional equine body condition scoring for weight loss management when the equine being evaluated is an overweight pony?

The study, entitled Managed Weight Loss in Obese Ponies: Evaluating Weight Change, Health and Welfare, involved five mature, overweight or obese ponies and aimed to restrict their feed intake (on a dry matter basis) to 1% of body weight of a chaff-based complete diet for 12 weeks.

During this time the ponies' weight change, health parameters and behavior were monitored. All ponies remained healthy throughout the whole trial and an appropriate and safe rate of weight loss was achieved.

Clare Barfoot BSc (Hons) RNutr, registered nutritionist and the research and development manager for SPILLERS® (British horse feed company) explained: “Body weight decreased at a steady rate. However, despite significant weight loss, the body condition scores of the ponies didn't change. This highlights the concern that body condition scoring may not be the most effective way to monitor early weight loss in ponies.”

Even in this well-managed study, the feeding activity of the dieting ponies was decreased by 74 percent compared to ad libitum intake, highlighting the need for a practical feeding system that is both effective at managing weight loss but is sensitive to behavioral needs.

The WALTHAM® Equine Studies group was closely involved with this study as it has been with other groundbreaking work on equine obesity, such as showing that an obese body condition score was associated with increased insulin resistance back in 2003, and developing the cresty neck scoring system.

In response to the study, the research group is in the process of developing a new condition scoring system designed specifically for ponies. “This will involve validating the relationship between actual measurements of body fatness and the external appearance of the pony,” said Alex Dugdale, lead researcher for the study at Liverpool University.

Note: information provided by Spillers was used in the preparation of this blog post.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Texas A&M Adds Full-Time Farrier to Hospital Staff

by Fran Jurga | 17 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Jason Wilson-Maki is the first resident farrier at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine's Large Animal Hospital.

The following article is provided by Angela Clendenin of Texas A&M University. I don't think I know Jason Wilson-Maki, but wish him the best of luck in his new position and congratulate A&M for taking the important step of hiring a full-time farrier. Photographs were also provided by A&M.

COLLEGE STATION, TX –A certain specialization that is often overlooked or unknown by many people today is that of a farrier. A farrier’s job is to provide shoes for horses, and to work on their hoof problems. The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences does a lot of work on lame horses, and a big part of treatment for horses’ hooves often requires therapeutic shoeing, and a specialist who knows what to do.

“For years, Texas A&M has had a farrier contract on an 'as needed' basis,” said Dr. Kent Carter, Professor of Equine Lameness and Chief of Medicine at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine Large Animal Hospital. “The problem with this type of contract is that we don’t always know when we are going to need a farrier and that makes us unable to provide full service to our clients.”

One year ago the faculty decided to do more towards pursuing a full time farrier to provide a better resource for our clients as well as a better teaching and learning environment for professional veterinary students.

“We set out on a national search for a full-time farrier and received a tremendous response,” said Carter. “There were 30 or 40 applicants who were narrowed down to 12, and finally we interviewed 5 of them. Jason Wilson-Maki had the most outstanding interview.”

A native of Ohio and a 1997 graduate of the Heartland Horseshoeing School, Jason was qualified for the job because of his previous experience and teaching. He also has a double certification in the American Farrier’s Association and the Farrier’s Guild (Guild of Professional Farriers). He showed great enthusiasm about horses and teaching during his interview and began work at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine during October of 2008.

Wilson-Maki feels that one of the greatest benefits of working as a farrier at a vet hospital, as opposed to being self-employed, is that working with so many veterinarians eliminates the guesswork, and is of greater benefit to the horses.

“Having a diagnosis and a prescription reduces the amount of trial and error required to improve an animal’s performance or soundness” said Wilson-Maki. “Moreover, the direct communication between the clinicians and myself benefits the animal by reducing the risk of a miscommunication. If I have any technical or application concerns, these issues can be discussed. This facilitates an individualized, comprehensive treatment for the animal which accomplishes the goals of the attending clinician and stays in step with the fundamental principles of sound farriery. This team approach is a great joy for me.”

Since such a huge part of an equine veterinarian’s career has to do with providing the physical skills needed to handle problematic hooves, Wilson-Maki’s expertise has taken the veterinary medical students’ education to the next level.

Jason Maki and Dr. Kent Carter (far right) with Texas A&M vet students.

“It has been such an enjoyable experience interacting with the vet students,” said Wilson-Maki. “It is great to be able to see the light go on in their heads when applying certain aspects that they have been taught, but have not been able to apply until now. The students are constantly challenging me with questions that I must sometimes pause to think about the answer! Working at the CVM has truly been the best experience of my life.”

From enhancing veterinary medical education to providing value added service for clients, the farrier service at the veterinary medical teaching hospital has given the clinicians at the CVM another tool for helping their patients.

“Having a full-time farrier on staff has been extremely beneficial” said Carter. “We are able to provide a more consistent and thorough job for clients, as well as a better learning experience for students pursuing their veterinary degrees.”

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

The World Would Be a Better Place If There Were More of These

Farrier Vane, originally uploaded by Dave Angood.

Weathervanes, that is. They are one of the best ways to make a statement. A silhouette against the sky can be seen from afar and a good blacksmith can create a work of art to go atop a barn's cupola, a vet clinic, or a mobile home. Or a car dealership, clam shack or tipi.

It takes the observer's eye up to the sky and there's something uplifting about that, it more ways than one.

I just wish it wasn't so hard to get a good photo of a weathervane! It seems like there are always power lines or something in the way, or I can't get a good angle from the ground.

This is my new favorite weathervane, captured on film by Dave Angood, who tells me he found it atop an old barn inside some fortress-like gates near Swaffham in Norfolk, England. He allowed me to share it with Hoof Blog readers. I kept staring at it for the longest time this morning.

It reminds me of the beautiful weathervanes made by a farrier and heavy horse expert named Richard Gowing in England. If Richard didn't make it, surely his past work helped inspire it. Our friend the late Edward Martin from Scotland made beautiful weathervanes too.

Weathervanes carry some responsibility, of course. They have to be aligned with the earth. In our little seaside village, my salty old neighbor died and left a provision in his will that money from his estate be used to get steeplejacks to come and re-orient the weathervane on top of the church which, over the years, have drifted out of alignment.

It really bothered him. He saw the vane as a tool to check the wind as he drove toward the harbor each morning rather than the beautiful ornament on the church that the rest of us saw.

It's fixed now.

What--and where--is your favorite weathervane?

Thanks to Dave Angood for his hard work in getting such a good shot of this beautiful weathervane. Dave's trying to find out more about it and I'll add more details if he reports back.

Been There, Done That? Farrier Shrine on a City Street in Florence, Italy

by Fran Jurga | 13 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

What are these shrines decorating the narrow street Sdrucciolo di San Michele in Florence, Italy?

British Columbia veterinarian Geoff Gaunt was strolling down the narrow streets of Florence, Italy on his summer vacation when he looked up...and smiled. He snapped a photo for the farriers back home, and I'm sharing it with you all, too.

Dr. Gaunt just happened to be standing in a magic place, in front of the church of Orsanmichele. This is no ordinary church; it dates back to the 8th century. But in the early 1300s, the church was damaged by fire. Who came to its rescue but the trade guilds in the city who were, strangely enough, also patrons of the artists. In exchange for their patronage, the guilds stipulated that shrines to their patron saints would be erected on the exterior of Orsanmichele.

Dr. Gaunt recognized a familiar scene when he looked up: anvils, hammers, and farriers at work. (Photo: Dr Geoff Gaunt)

Cue the moneychangers, the judges and notaries, the wool combers, the armorers, the flax merchants, the silk weavers, the shoemakers, the carpenters and masons, and the grocers. And, most definitely, cue the smiths!

You don't have to be a veterinarian to know that something isn't right about the left front leg of that horse; the legend of St Eligius (also called St Eloi) is known throughout Europe. (Photo: Dr Geoff Gaunt)

The smiths commissioned Nanni, the son of noted artist Antonio di Banco, to create their shrine to St Eligius, the patron saint of smiths and farriers everywhere. Not only did Nanni sculpt the figure, he created a bas relief at the foot depicting the saint's famed deed--removing the leg of a fractious horse, taking it to the anvil, shoeing the foot, and then returning it to the horse.

It's all right there on the city street of Florence, decorated with little panels of tongs. In fact, the guild shrines are undergoing restoration now. Some are being replaced by replicas, since the originals are so valuable.

This action by the guilds in Florence is similar to the financing of the stained glass windows in the cathedral at Chartres in France. If you go there, you will find a stained glass window of a farrier at work, possibly St Eligius again.

The museum guidebook tells us that the guilds decorated the statues on their feast days and on St Anne's day. St Eligius Day is the first week in December and is a shoeing holiday all over Europe in the Catholic countries. Farriers and smiths gather and have a day of feasting and parade through the streets with their banners. No work is done.

It's easy to imagine farriers for the last 600 years marching down this little street to this shrine. Some day I'd like to be there to greet them...if there are any left in Florence, the world's great capital of art. Now we know that the smiths and farriers helped make Florence that art capital...just another amazing fact in the worldwide history and tradition of the shoeing smith.

Thanks to Dr Geoff Gaunt for sharing his photos with Hoofcare and Lameness. Click here to visit the web site for his Elk Lake Veterinary Hospital in Victoria, BC.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Dubai Horse Hooves Are Being Molded, Not Shod, with Experimental Hoof Application Process

by Fran Jurga | 12 September 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Take a really close look at this "shoe". What looks at first glance like a Natural Balance shoe is actually a urethane hoof application created on the foot by injecting Vettec Adhere material into a mold. Vettec Superfast is sometimes also used, but Derek said that in this particular shoe, Adhere made the shoe more flexible.

Here's the ground surface of a six-degree short-heart bar, made for a horse with a fractured navicular bone.

A new shoeing technique developed in Dubai by South African farrier Derek Poupard is offered for your comments. In addition to the photos above, we have a short video showing how the mold is applied and the material is inserted, and the removal of the model to reveal a "shoe", if you want to call it that.

"This is so new, I only put my first one on 4 months ago, and after doing hundreds I now feel it is time to expose it," Derek wrote in an email. "I have only shown it to a handful of farriers here and right from the word go they embraced it and it is very rewarding to see their response as they peel of a mold seeing the perfect shoe. They all describe it as a revelation and every time they use it, it gives them the same feeling over and over again."

This has been a big year for plastic and composite horseshoes. First Curlin won the great classics of his four-year-old career last fall wearing square-toed Polyflex shoes of polyurethane. Then Steffen Peters and Ravel won the World Cup of dressage wearing plastic Eponashoes. This week, the venerable Horse and Hound news magazine from London carries a feature article touting the popularity of plastic shoes, especially those designed by our friend, the clever Andrew Poynton, who has expanded his moldable Imprint therapeutic plastic heartbars into sporty new models for competition horses.

And now we have the possibility of design-it-yourself hoof molds to make not shoes, exactly, but something else, a hybrid lighter and perhaps more cohesive with the foot than a separate shoe attached by nails would be. While steel and nails have their advantages too, this new technique may find a niche of its own, or become a platform for inventors or farriers and veterinarians faced with challenging hoof injuries or deformities.

This second video was made a while ago by a Dubai television station that visited the royal stables where Derek works. It's a nice view into the facility and shows Derek's previous traditional use of glue-on shoes on a Thoroughbred racehorse.



Eventually, Derek's molds will be available for sale, I'm sure, but in the meantime, the floor is open for comments. He's a world away from almost all of us and would like to hear from you, I'm sure.

Much more information is available at www.quixshoe.com.

Some American readers may remember Derek from his time spent living and shoeing in Virginia. He has been featured in Hoofcare and Lameness Journal in the past but when he left the USA several years ago, we lost track of him. A royal farrier shop in Dubai is an interesting place for him to be found.

New shoes continue to come on the market or be passed around as prototypes. This process is quite unique, though, and while it seems cumbersome and awkward at this stage, it is sure to improve and become more streamlined.

What could your imagination do with technology like this? What if...

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Rachel Alexandra: Preparing to Make History in Saturday's Woodward Stakes at Saratoga

Rachel Alexandra: Preparing to Make History in Tomorrow's Woodward Stakes, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

The go-go girl herself takes to the track at Saratoga on Saturday. Miracle filly Rachel Alexandra skipped the Travers Stakes for three-year-olds in order to challenge older males in the shorter mile-and-an-eighth Grade 1 Woodward Stakes.

Expect Saratoga to be the site of the biggest traffic jam in New York State since Woodstock. Really. Since the race is not televised, the only way to witness this historic event is to Be There.

My guess is that there's a pool somewhere on what the gate attendance will be. Perfect weather is forecast.

Will someone who has TVG or HRTV or OTB call me and hold the phone so I can hear Tom Durkin call the race? I'd like to hear history firsthand, even if I can't see it.

Ace photographer Sarah K. Andrew of Rock and Racehorses just uploaded this nice shot of Rachel leaning into her bath sponge so I thought I would share it with you all. Thanks, Sarah, for the perfect timing and the beautiful photo.

Win or lose, Rachel Alexandra has made this an exciting summer. Right about now, she's camped out in the detention barn so she knows something is up. What is up is that New York and the nation has fallen in love with this horse and what they think she can do, who they think she is, and the time is just exactly right.

I don't know if this will be her last race or not but with each and every race, work, and schooling session she went through at Saratoga, I marveled that she's been my good news story of the year. And I want her to stay that way.

Safe home, filly.

The Universal Farrier Apprentice

by Fran Jurga | 2 September 2009 | Fran Jurga Hoof Blog



I had an idea for this blog post: Everyone turn the sound off when you watch this video, and then you won't be influenced by the location. Because for nine minutes and thirty seconds, this video takes you into a universal setting. This shoeing forge could be in Colorado or Sweden or Turkey or Japan or New Zealand, with few changes. It's a pretty universal scene.

However, the sound is very nicely recorded and adds a lot; after a while, the apprentice's voice comes on and you'll hear what it's like to train as a second-year apprentice farrier in remote Donegal, on the northwestern edge of Ireland.

I play a lot of games when I watch farrier videos (and I watch a lot of them). I love to watch the background activity (and give bonus points for multiple dogs) and in this case, the shoe pile jumps out of the background and dominates the whole forge. Obviously they aren't worried about earthquakes in Donegal or else John and Heather will be buried in old shoes some day.

A game I like to play with non-US videos is to try to pick out the countries where tools and clothing and shop decor were made. In this video we see Kevin Keegan's ubiquitous Hoof Jack--is there a country on earth that the Hoof Jack hasn't conquered? I'm staring at one in my office right now as I write this.

Readers: send in photos of your Hoof Jacks in a native setting showing what it's like in your part of the world where you live and work. Just make sure the Hoof Jack is in the photo somewhere. I'll post them on the blog.

I wondered where the loop knife came from: Canada? Australia? Montana? Germany? and John's apron has a made-in-the-USA look to it. The "w" on the shoes is the forge is a giveaway that they are by Werkman and from Holland.

That's just a start, you can take it from there. Many thanks to the gentle director and editor who refrained from a voiceover narration, intro music and splashy graphics. They had the good sense to just let this scene speak for itself so those of us who know what to listen and look for, can. And I hope you will.

It's just ten minutes out there in the farrier universe.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Video: Watch Elastic, Athletic Dutch Dressage Stallion Set a New World Record

by Fran Jurga | 30 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Just the other day this blog was quoting the superlatives coming out of the European dressage championships at Windsor Castle in England. Things went from the greatest to the unbelievable last night when, for the first time ever, a score above 90% was awarded in the musical freestyle to Dutch rider Edward Gal and the nine-year-old black stallion Moorlands Totilas.

I don't know what sort of biomechanics study could be done on this horse to figure out how he does what he does. He doesn't seem large. Doesn't look massive in the hind end. He actually looks quite closely coupled, yet his strides in the extended trot and canter look to be ground-gobbling. I can only assume that all his parts are equally massive, equally developed in a harmonious unit and yet...how does he manage to be so light on his feet, so loose at the shoulder?

I know one problem with watching this horse is that the rider is a very tall man, so his frame gives the illusion that the horse is smaller than he probably is.

Maybe a scanning session would show that his tendons and ligaments are bionic, that he has the support system of a warmblood on the feather-light skeleton of a racehorse. Something's up with this horse--something wonderful.

Holland also finished in second and third place. I'm certainly not an expert or a dressage critic and nothing should be taken away from Parzival and Salinero, yet it is interesting to see how differently constructed they are, and how their frames appear larger and especially longer. These horses seem to be exquisitely (and successfully) focused in order to nail the exact movements, like a tennis player at Wimbledon taking exact aim, while the black seems to perform them in a more relaxed mode, a la Tiger Woods.

Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas performed to Celtic-type music, complete with echoing drums and ringing church bells, in the shadow of England's Windsor Castle. And it worked.(FEI photo by Kit Houghton)

With luck, Totilas will stay sound and remain in training for a trip to the USA next September for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. A lot can happen between now and then, including the return of the top Germans who were sidelined for this week's competition.

Share this video, savor this moment, and celebrate this horse. This is what a sound, healthy horse looks like at the peak of condition without a thought of resistance or tension on his mind.

Watching Totilas brings to mind the fleet-footed racing star of this year, filly Rachel Alexandra, who seems to win her races for the joy of running fast because she can. It seems 2009 is a year of at least two great horses at the pinnacle of their respective sports. Enjoy them while they are here with us; we all know that soundness can be fleeting and they are two of the legends we'll remember in the future.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

California Statistics Reveal Dangerous Trend in Hind Limb Breakdowns on Artificial Tracks

by Fran Jurga | 28 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Data on racing breakdowns compiled by the University of California at Davis tracks the incidence of injuries, the seasonality of injuries and which limb is affected, among many other data points recorded. A publication of recent statistics presented to the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) reveals a disturbing prevalence of hind limb injuries that led to the death of racehorses last year.

While the report is not available at present, the Los Angeles Times today reported that the study presented to the CHRB yesterday reveals that 19 horses died on California tracks from hind limb injuries in 2008, and that those injuries were split pretty evenly between left and right hinds. Only one horse died from a hind limb injury on a dirt track.

Breakdowns on the front limbs were somewhat more comparable between dirt and artificial tracks, but the artificial breakdowns still exceeded the dirt tracks: 74 horses broke down in front on artificial tracks while 59 broke down in front on dirt tracks.

Some people feel that this is an invalid comparison, and that trainers will often work a horse on a synthetic track that they would not work on a dirt track.

UC Davis examined 351 cadavers of breakdowns in its search for new insights into why racehorses are so susceptible to fatal injuries.

California has a 4 mm limit on toe grabs on front shoes and allows horses to run barefoot.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Behind the Scenes with the Farriers at the European Championships

by Fran Jurga | 28 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Say hello to the farriers backstage: Brendan Murray, official show farrier, is on the right and Dieter Kronert, German team farrier, on left are working at Windsor Castle in England this week. Photo by Haydn Price, British dressage team farrier.

As a post script to last night's blog post about the spectacular world record-breaking dressage rides at the Euro championships in England yesterday, here's a first-hand quote from British dressage team farrier Haydn Price after watching Britain win individual bronze behind two Dutch riders who both set new world records:

"We are still pinching ourselves and hoping not to wake up to find that the last 48 hours has all been a dream.

"Yesterday was such a special day and quite emotional. We have waited so long for this and so many individuals have contributed to such an amazing result.

"We also witnessed history in the making with record scores both as a nation and global.
What a privilege it is to be part of it!"

I'm sure that Haydn and all the nations' farriers had a big role in the elevation of these horses to scores that had the judges wondering that a 10 was simply not a good enough measure of the movement the horse had performed.

Please scroll down in this blog to read yesterday's story and see one of the horses frozen in a moment of strength and beauty.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Picture Power: Hock Lock in Dressage Drama at Euro Championships

by Fran Jurga | 27 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Whether you call it the plantar plant, the hock lock or the tarsal torque, this photograph is a keeper. Events send me lots of competition photos, all very nice, but this one shows a horse working very, very hard. Double-click on this photo for an enlarged view to see the detail of this movement. You can almost feel the horse holding himself in place on the footing. The FEI rule book stipulates that the right hind would stay in place throughout the movement, although video analysis has shown that horses don't or perhaps can't actually do that. (FEI Photo by Kit Houghton)

The horse is Mistral Hojris, a Danish-bred ridden by Britain's Laura Bechtolsheimer today in the Grand Prix Special individual competition at the Alltech FEI European Championships at Windsor Castle in England. Records fell there today as not one but two Dutch riders--Gold medalist Adelinde Cornilessen and silver medalist Edward Gal--broke records for high scores in that event. And Laura and Mistral won the bronze medal for Great Britain, as she finished ahead of Olympic gold medalist Anky Van Grunsven, also of The Netherlands.

The announcer reportedly said when Laura came down the centerline to halt, "You can breathe again." And he didn't just mean Laura, he meant the entire British audience. Chef d'equipe Will Connell even blogged that the farrier had tears in his eyes watching the ride.

If you are one of those who still thinks that dressage is boring, consider this statement from Ground Jury President Stephen Clarke who said "I've judged a few championships in my time but I've never seen sport like this. This was the greatest moment in dressage history - we've never seen riders performing at such a level before and now the sport is wide open - anyone can win. I want to applaud the courage of the riders who rode so brilliantly under pressure - this was an outstanding day," he added. "At times the hair was standing up on the back of my neck! At odd moments, we were saying to each other '10's are just not enough' to reward what we have seen."

Interviewed after the event, silver medalist Edward Gal commented, when asked if there is now a new Dutch school of dressage, "It’s about how we ride. It feels good and it looks good, but it’s not just about training. We just keep the horses happy. You need to adapt your riding to your horse and not the other way around."

The musical freestyle is the next event at the championships, and will be held on Saturday.

This photo in a way reminds me of the nice photo from California of champion Thoroughbred mare Zenyatta bursting from the starting gate on hind legs acting like power thrusters. It was on the blog a few weeks ago. I like photos that show athletic horses fully engaged, working hard; they are something magnificent to behold. Capturing it in a split second with a camera is very difficult.

If you enlarge the photo you will also see that the grooming regimen for Mistral Hojris didn't include close-shaving his muzzle, although it may have been tidied up a bit.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Rachel and Kensei: Footwear of the Fleet and Famous during Travers Week at Saratoga

by Fran Jurga | 24 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

With legs like these, you can understand why champion racehorse Rachel Alexandra was chosen to model for a portrait in the August issue of Vogue magazine. She posed for fashion photographer (and horse owner) Stephen Klein soon after winning the Preakness Stakes in May. Sarah K. Andrew snapped this shot in Saratoga a few weeks ago, when Rachel was awaiting a visit by horseshoer David Hinton.

Note: the double or bonded shoe on her left front is an optical illusion; it's a reflection in a puddle on the stall mat. Rachel wears flat made-in-the-USA raceplates in front, according to Hinton and is so well mannered that when he accidentally dropped her foot once, she delicately picked her foot back up and placed it right back in his hand.

What's the definition of pressure in horse racing? Hinton knew he might need to shoe Rachel Alexandra after she was purchased in early May. When the decision was made to run her in the Preakness, it meant that she needed to be shod that day. That's right: the morning of the race. Each nail driven into the hoof was a chance to draw blood; one jerk, one rear and a rasp might scrape her coronet. But nothing went wrong. Nothing has gone wrong, that we know of. She just keeps on running.

Comparing this photo to the Vogue shot, I'd say the combination of a Saratoga lifestyle, Asmussen training, Hinton's hoofcare and Jackson ownership are all agreeing with the filly; her hoof walls look much better after a couple of months at the Spa. Maybe Rachel should consider permanent residence!

NEWS FLASH! Trainer Steve Asmussen announced this morning that Rachel Alexandra will run against older horses in the Woodward at Saratoga on September 5th. The Grade 1 Woodward is a 1 1/8 miles and on dirt, of course. Now, if it could just be on television...


Rachel's stablemate Kensei is headed to Saturday's Traves Stakes for three-year-olds, where he will face Quality Road, Summer Bird and Mine That Bird, among others. Kensei made winning the Jim Dandy Stakes look easy; he did it wearing these Burns Polyflex glue-on shoes. They have the square-toe polyurethane design made for another Asmussen trainee, Curlin, when he was training at Saratoga last summer. Kensei is still carrying some of the racetrack around with him as a souvenir.

Athletic footwear is a big deal in other sports, why am I the only one who seems to care about what these horses are wearing? It does make a difference: just like a basketball player prefers a certain brand of shoe or height of shoe, these horses must have preferences. They just can't tell us. But they can tell a good horseshoer, and they do.

A good horseshoer can see in the way the shoe is worn, and where it is worn and not worn, whether the horse is using the shoe and landing in a functional way, and using the shoe to push off. You can read a horseshoe and you can read a foot, and if you're good at it, you can help keep a horse comfortable and safe on its feet. It's an important job. And it matters. Boy, does it matter.

Many, many thanks to Sarah K. Andrew for her patience and effort in getting these photos and allowing The Hoof Blog to post them here. Sarah became intrigued with her own horse's shoeing and started to notice the feet of horses at the track, much to my delight. Most photographers don't even think to aim the camera at a horse's feet and legs, but there's a lot of information there that a good photograph can convey, as well as the beauty of one of nature's most amazing structures.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Born-Again Walking Horse Celebration Begins This Week Under New Inspection, Attitude

by Fran Jurga | 23 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Trainer Chad Williams trains The Lineman for the upcoming Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee. (Photo from The Tennessean newspaper)

Here we go. Every year about this time I wonder if should go to Tennessee. I have never been to the Walking Horse Celebration. In fact, I have never been to a walking horse show. As a result, I don't mouth off about soring and training techniques because other than a few horses I have seen while traveling in the South, I've still not seen these wonderful horses compete in an exclusive walking horse show.

Around here, walking horses are one of the most popular trail horses and far removed from the show culture in the south that gets the breed so much bad press...and yet maintains such a stalwart following. I imagine the atmosphere at a walking horse show is sort of like the lobster boat races in Maine or the oxen pulls in Vermont. If you're from there, you get it.

Except for the presence of inspectors. And the state police. Just a few years ago, the Celebration was stopped and public safety was an issue. That's how mad people were when USDA inspectors actually inspected the horses for soring evidence. The trainers said that the inspectors didn't use valid criteria and wanted their own inspectors back.

When USDA inspectors pulled up at a show, the trainers loaded up and pulled out, even when it was--as often was the case--a charity show to benefit a hospital or community organization's fundraising efforts.

In the past year, there has been massive restructuring and reorganization that might make this year's Celebration peaceful and profitable and a showcase for sound, safe horses. Let's hope.

The Tennessean newspaper published a lengthy article today that gives the background leading up to this year's new-rules show. It doesn't pull any punches or sugar-coat the issue.

Among the facts: abuse allegations by federal inspectors have sky-rocketed this year, even leading to the first lifetime bans. But pair that with this fact: 150,000 tickets have already been sold for this year's Celebration. How many people buy tickets to attend other breed horse shows, do you think? Or a dressage show? Even the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event attracts only about 20,000 people on its final day.

Walking horses remain the most publicized enigma of the American horse industry. The show horses and their culture are a lightning rod: Some shun them, some embrace them. Some say the trainers and owners are misunderstood, some say they are criminals.

And they've been saying that for more than 30 years now, since the Horse Protection Act was passed to prevent soring and abusive shoeing. And I'm still writing these articles. Still wondering how and why this continues to be a raw, open wound in horse showing's hide.

Read that article, but don't believe everything you hear. Like so many things these days, there's no easy solution to an old wound like this.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Friends at Work: Ray Amato Intrigues the Press at Saratoga

by Fran Jurga | 21 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

"It's gotta be the shoes."

Todd Pletcher has broken nearly all the records for Thoroughbred racehorse trainers in the United States and what will he tell you is one key factor in his success? His horseshoer.

Approach Pletcher's Oklahoma training stable at Saratoga and you see what might be a little shrine, if you know where to look. Thick stall mats form a makeshift shoeing floor and big lights on stands are tucked away at the end of the shedrow during the day, but they come out so that the stable's horseshoer can get to work before the sun comes up.

That horseshoer would be Ray Amato, the 77-year-old secret weapon of Team Pletcher, and this week's darling of the New York media.

As Quality Road preps for the Mid-Summer Derby, The Travers Stakes, at Saratoga next Saturday, Ray is sure to attract a lot of attention. Quality Road missed the Triple Crown races while he recovered from front and hind quarter cracks, but he's come roaring back with a track record-setting prep race and is the favorite of many for next week's big race, though he will face Mine That Bird, Summer Bird, Kensai and perhaps even Rachel Alexandra.

Everyone wants to know how Quality Road's feet are...and they'll get a good story from Ray Amato.

Click here to go to the Albany Channel 9 television station to see the first of two interviews with Ray conducted by sports reporter Joe Calderone. Actually, Joe just let the camera roll and Ray just was himself.

And that's something pretty special.

Poem for a Summer's Night: The Two-Headed Calf

I'm not sure that I've ever put a poem on this blog before but this little verse has been on my mind these recent hot summer nights. It's one of my favorites, a gift by chance when listening to the radio one day. It sounded much longer when read aloud.

The poet is Laura Gilpin, who is no longer with us. She was a nurse and an advocate for humanizing hospital care for the terminally ill and she wrote a lot about animals, people, life and death in a way that seems very authentic to me.

So here you have one of my favorite poems, an ode to a summer's night and all its infinite possibilities and tragedies, depending on how you look at things:

The Two-Headed Calf

Tomorrow when the farm boys find this
freak of nature, they will wrap his body
in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north
field with his mother. It is a perfect
summer evening: the moon rising over
the orchard, the wind in the grass.
And as he stares into the sky, there
are twice as many stars as usual.

--Laura Gilpin
from her anthology The Hocus Pocus of the Universe

When Upset Defeated Man o' War, A Future Governor's Family Didn't Look a Gift House in the Mouth

by Fran Jurga | 13 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The horseshoer's great-grandson in the clubhouse at Saratoga earlier this month. Did Mr. Gibbs ever even set foot in that building, I wonder? Click here to read the New York Daily News account of Mr. Paterson's day at the races and one of the current-day Whitney racehorses with a tongue-in-cheek link to the New York State House.

It happened 90 years ago today, the most monumental footnote in American horse racing history. On August 13, 1919, a horse with the apt name of Upset scored a win against Man o’ War in the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga Racecourse. The defeat was Big Red’s only loss in 21 starts.

But while the historians love to dissect the race, which has been called "the most talked-about race of all time", partly because of a botched start, and the golden age of millionaires' racing stables, there's more to this story.

From what we have learned in the past two years, it seems that Mr. Whitney, the owner of Upset, was so pleased with his horse's victory that he rewarded his racing stable employees with real estate in some of the new housing he was building in the boroughs of New York. The crew would need to be close to his main center of operations at Belmont Park on Long Island.

Among the beneficiaries was Mr. Gibbs, blacksmith to the Whitney racing empire. He was given a home in Brooklyn, which stayed in his family for generations. And I hoped he tacked a horseshoe over the door!

Someone who went in and out of that house was the great-grandson of Mr. Gibbs. Nowadays, the great-grandson goes in and out of another house, the State House of New York, where he serves as governor. David Paterson told the story of Upset, the horseshoe, and the gift house when he presented the trophy at the 2008 Belmont Stakes. He said that the gift house made a huge difference in his family's middle-class status and improved his chances for realizing education and career goals, in spite of his impaired vision.

And all because a horse named Upset needed horseshoes.

I tried to get through to Governor Paterson this week for a quote for this article about this auspicious anniversary but his aides said he was too busy. I hope he knew what day it was. He might be Upset to have missed it.

Click here to read more about Governor Paterson's link to Man o' War, and about the horseshoers who served both horses 90 years ago today. This is great history that we didn't even know about until recently.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Monmouth Park Loosens Track Shoeing Rules to Allow 4mm Toe Grab

by Fran Jurga | 14 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Monmouth Park in New Jersey is the latest track in the Mid Atlantic region to take advantage of the Jockey Club Thoroughbred Safety Committee’s memorandum to allow toe grabs up to four millimeters in height on front shoes on dirt racing surfaces only. The Safety Committee's loosening of the 2mm height restriction was recommended to allow racetracks the option if their trainers and horseshoers felt that their track surfaces might call for a taller grab.

Monmouth's new rule will go into effect for all dirt races at the track – including graded stakes – on Wednesday, August 19, 2009.

The previous rule allowed for toe grabs up to two millimeters, but the adjustment was made when it was reported that an unusually high number of horses were stumbling at the start of races, according to a press release issued today by Monmouth.

The rule applies to toe grabs on front shoes only, and in no cases is a height greater than four millimeters allowable. No traction devices of any kind are allowed on shoes worn in grass races.

Delaware Park made a similar change.

Click here to read the text of the Jockey Club's recent statement on toe grab regulation relaxation. The rule changes, if desired, must be done track by track and only allow the option of a higher grab on front shoes. State-wide rules may also be relaxed or may stay at 2 mm but that is a more involved process. It's not known how many trainers will take advantage of the option or what effect the change might have.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Mine That Bird's Hooves Experience One of Saratoga's Most Famous Traditions

Saratoga is a star-studded place this summer. While the grandstand seemed a little empty this afternoon, and Broadway clears out much earlier at night than in years gone by, it's clear to see that the celebs on the backside are getting all the press and are the center of all the gossip. When and where will Rachel run next? Is Kensai the real deal? What giant slayers is Jerkens hiding? Will Quality Road's feet hold up?

And everyone is curious about Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, who pulled into town last week and set up camp. Yes, trainer Chip Woolley is still on crutches.

Mine That Bird's hooves hadn't hit the shady Saratoga dirt for long before our friend and ace photographer Sarah K. Andrew hunkered down for a hoofcare-eye view while the champ enjoyed a bath. She knew you'd want to see his feet, which are pretty long by New York racetrack fashion but he just might like them that way.

With luck, Mine That Bird will start in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on August 29, where he would meet (potentially) Summer Bird, Quality Road, Kensai, and maybe even Rachel Alexandra, among others. Birdstone, sire of Mine That Bird and Summer Bird, won the Travers in 2004 for his owner and Saratoga resident, Mrs. Marylou Whitney.

Mine That Bird is usually shod by Mike Johnson in New Mexico.

Saratoga is famed for its naturally mineral-rich spring waters. There are springs downtown and even one in the "backyard" of the racetrack. Mineral springs helped make Saratoga one of the first resorts in America. For 150 years or more, the public has come to Saratoga to take a bath in the waters, which are believed to have therapeutic effects. Horse races were started in the town as entertainment for the bathers; they couldn't spend all their time in the water.

Mine That Bird certainly seemed to be enjoying his bathtime, in the Saratoga tradition. In a few weeks he'll put those hooves to work and do his partt to entertain and possibly enrich the modern-day bathers and betters.

Industry News: Arenus Acquires Sore No More Liniment and Equilite

by Fran Jurga | 10 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Last year Sore No More launched an herbal poultice

One of the sport and racehorse world's most popular products has a new parent company.

St. Louis-based Arenus announced today that it recently acquired the intellectual property, technology and product lines of Equilite, Inc., makers of Sore No More liniment and the Equilite family of supplements and botanical products.

In a press release, Arenus stated that it acquired Equilite’s three product lines: the Sore No-More® Liniment Product Line, Herbal Supplement line and Botanical Animal® Flower Essence line, totaling 39 individual products. Other Equilite products include bathing, fly control, general health, behavioral training, relaxation, liniment and legs, as well as natural pasture seed.

“Arenus’s philosophy is to provide unique health products that holistically address specific issues and Equilite™ products do just that,” said Celeste Mohatt, Arenus Marketing Manager. “The market trend is toward a more holistic, natural approach to horse care and Equilite fulfills this need.”

“Arenus brings to the table an unprecedented level of experience in animal health research and product development,” said Stacey Palmer Small, Founder and President of Equilite™. “The Arenus team is committed more than ever in bringing to market products that will continue to improve the lives of the equine and companion animals we all love and care for.”

The product Sore No-More® was originally designed to meet the needs of race horses that are faced with extremely stressful situations. Track veterinarians were looking for an alternative way to help support their traditional methods of treatment, so they asked Small to research herbs as a possible adjunctive route. She started with a two-year course in Chinese Medicine and continued her studies which lead to the creation of the first two products, Sore No-More® and the Garli+C™ Blend.

Sore No-More® was named Product of the Year by Horse Journal in 2000 and 2007.

Like Arenus, Equilite is a member of the National Animal Supplement Council, which enforces good animal health supplement manufacturing, labeling and marketing practice standards.

Other ARENUS® product lines include STEADFAST®, a joint health supplement and ASSURE®, a digestive aid family. For more information about Equilite products visit www.equilite.com or www.arenus.com.

ARENUS® is owned by Novus Nutrition Brands, LLC (a Novus International company) and is specifically dedicated to improving the health, performance, and longevity of all horses and dogs.

photo © Fran Jurga. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Curlin's Horseshoe Beat Him to the Hall of Fame

by Fran Jurga | 10 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The square-toe glue-on Polyflex horseshoe design dictated by Curlin's 2008 campaign needs

A highlight of last week's Hoofcare and Lameness/Hoofcare@Saratoga reception for the Ride On! exhibit at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was a little piece of plastic with a big story to tell.

Oklahoma horseshoer David Hinton had been scheduled to be with us but had to change his plans; he will be with us this week at the Parting Glass at 7 pm (August 11) instead.

David shoes for the Asmussen Racing Stable and flies all over the country. Last year, he was working on Curlin when the champion colt was stabled at Saratoga and training for the Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup as part of his campaign toward the 2008 Breeders Cup and becoming North America's richest-ever racehorse.

Trainer Steve Asmussen had success with the Polyflex shoe developed by Saratoga horseshoer Curtis Burns on other horses but he only wanted a square-toed "Silver Queen" type glue on for Curlin. The problem: the Polyflex shoe had a round toe.

Changing the mold for one horse in the middle of the busiest time of the year was a tall order for the Polyflex team but somehow, but mid-summer, a prototype was made and put in Hinton's hands to try on Curlin. Not only did it work, the company soon added the design as an alternate model and it is selling well.

Curlin went on to wear the shoes for the rest of his career. Asmussen starter Kensai wore Polyflex glue shoes a week ago when he won the Jim Dandy, although I don't know if they were square toes or round toes.

One of the square-toe shoes that Curlin wore in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, when he passed the $10 million earning mark, was presented with documentation to the National Museum of Racing last Tuesday, on behalf of Stonestreet Farms, owner of Curlin. Burns and Hinton worked behind the scenes with Hoofcare and Lameness to make this happen for the night of the reception, which was sponsored by Life Data Labs.

The shoe was presented to curator Beth Sheffer, who was thrilled to receive it. She said it was the first glue-on shoe the museum would have in its permanent collection, although they currently have on display Big Brown's Kentucky Derby Yasha shoe on loan from Ian McKinlay.

Sheffer revealed that the museum had received the extensive shoe collection of Calumet Farm in Kentucky and its late trainer Jimmie Jones. The collection is in storage.

The Ride On exhibit contains examples of horseshoes, hoof boots, and pads used to overcome different lameness problems, especially laminitis, in horses. Included in the exhibit are two handmade shoes by Michael Wildenstein FWCF (Hons), adjunct professor of farrier science at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, and a selection of rail and roller motion shoes by Dr. Scott Morrison of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital's Podiatry Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky. Also included is the Soft-Ride hoof boot, which Dr Morrison helped to develop for laminitic horses.

Dr. Morrison will speak on Tuesday, August 11 in the Hoofcare@Saratoga series at the Parting Glass, 40 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, at 7 p.m.; Michael Wildenstein will speak on August 18 at 7 p.m., with a farrier-only session in the afternoon. Admission to both lectures is free; seating is limited.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Zenyatta in Hind Hoof Drive

Embrace the Power of Zenyatta, originally uploaded by alydar_1978.

For people who just can't seem to understand why horses need different shoes on their hind feet than on their front feet, here's your answer.

Charles Pravata shot this most amazing anatomical study of the hind quarters and limbs of the great race mare Zenyatta springing from the starting gate at Del Mar last month in the Vanity. She was carrying a whopping 129 pounds. (Needless to say, she still won.)

The track surface at Del Mar is Polytrack; Zenyatta is a real California girl and prefers Designer Dirt over Real Dirt.

Thanks to Charles Pravata for probably risking his life to take this photo and to Raceday360 for bringing it to my attention and to Zenyatta for being Zenyatta. She has nice feet, too.

Video: Thoro'Bred Racing Plates Are Born and Bred in California. See How They're Made!

by Fran Jurga | 6 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



On Tuesday night, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York celebrated the addition of a new case of shoes to its "Ride On!" exhibit on advances in racehorse health and safety. As part of the Hoofcare@Saratoga series for 2009, Hoofcare & Lameness hosted a little reception, sponsored by Life Data Labs, and I pointed out some of the innovative shoes and boots and hoofcare products that the museum had selected to display.

My point was that horseshoes are much like mousetraps: people keep trying to invent a better one, a more ideal one. Of better materials: stronger, lighter, more supportive, longer laster, more colorful, more healing, or sometimes just more complicated.

There were two companies I didn't mention but you will certaily see their shoes in that museum and all over the backside at Saratoga. They are the Victory Race Plate Company of Baltimore, Maryland and the Thoro'Bred Racing Plate Company of Anaheim, California.

Their shoes may not be in the exhibit of therapeutic shoes and braces and boots, but you will find them all over the museum in the cases of the trophy shoes of the champion racehorses like Secretariat.

The Orange County Register in California made a trip to Anaheim recently to see how raceplates are made and say hello to Thoro'Bred's Ed Kinney on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of his company. I hope you will enjoy this video.

Ed and Thoro'Bred were supporters of Hoofcare@Saratoga last year and we appreciate their support. We have it from an inside source that Thoro'Bred shoes are the equivalent of the Jimmie Chooz faves of the top three-year-old filly in the USA; she wore them when she modeled for her fashion portrait, shot by Steven Klein, in this month's issue of Vogue Magazine. Check it out the next time you're near a newsstand!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Google Ocean and the Animated MRI of a Horse's Foot

by Fran Jurga | 4 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

This blog post is comprised of three "aha!" moments.

It began back in February when I was intrigued by the launch of Google Oceans, an enhancement of Google Earth that allows us to look at the ocean floor, go inside the hull of a sunken ship, or explore the base of an iceberg in Antarctica. I imagine one day soon that the lobstermen around here won't have to go out and check their traps anymore; they will simply get on Google Ocean, type in the GPS coordinates of each trap, and see what they've caught. Then they would have to haul only those traps.

The image (above) that Google Ocean served up to promote its new program made me think of the horse's hoof, of course. The hoof has a lot in common with an iceberg. Everything is going on where we can't see it. Things are larger than they appear on the surface. And there's more to it than meets the eye. And as the history of the Titanic will tell you, a problem with an iceberg can ruin your day, or even end it. The same goes for a hoof.

Fast forward a couple of months and I'm lying inside an MRI unit in Massachusetts General Hospital. I'm determined to understand and appreciate this uncomfortable and deafening experience and use whatever I can get out of it to enhance my comprehension of magnetic imaging of the horse's foot.

Except no one on the staff wants to talk to me and the noise is too loud for conversation anyway.
I appreciate MRI images of the horse's foot because it is a new way to see inside the foot but I'm never sure what I'm looking at because I am trying to keep in mind that that is just a slice, unlike a radiograph. The MRI is like a strip of film negatives of a sequence of images in an old-fashioned filmstrip (albeit in 3D). When the radiologist looks at the MRI, he or she views the series mounted together on a sheet, not a single isolated image. Together, they make up the whole, but the isolated view reveals the injury.

MRI should be a collective noun, not a singular. That's what I brought out of that clanging tube that day at the hospital.

Fast forward again. Now it's the end of July and I'm in Columbus, Ohio, sitting in the back row at the AAEP's Focus on the Foot summer meeting. I'm really enjoying the speakers, taking notes like mad, and regretting missing the first day.

A change in the schedule brings North Carolina State University's Dr Rich Redding to the stage; he had been the victim of media glitches the day before, so his lecture was rescheduled. What a bonus for me! His lecture offers a hybrid approach to examining the foot and selecting the imaging modality for an injury diagnosis. All his images of the foot are lovely and explained very clearly but it all comes together for me when he compares four cases of foot injuries--puncture wound, two collateral ligament strains, and navicular zone pain by showing their MRIs.

The first thing that caught my attention was the should-be standard technique of showing a dissected foot cut at a specific point, and positioning an MRI "slice" at the same point next to it. That helped visualize the level in the foot where the injury was, and all the structures seen in the MRI, since the navicular bone can be viewed on so many different slices through the coffin joint.

Then, instead of showing an isolated MRI slice that showed the lesion site, he animated the slices into a fly-through of the entire MRI series.

Dr. Redding writes: "This was a horse that had a puncture to the navicular bone that damaged the Deep Digital Flexor (DDF) Tendon with a flap of tendinous tissue on the dorsal tendon proximal to the navicular bone. There is hemosiderin in the digital cushion where the nail penetrated the frog into the DDF and navicular bone." (Rough translation: the nail was in the back part of the foot so it grazed the upper surface of the navicular bone, which is at the level of the short pastern bone in the coffin joint. Watch the video and when the black square of P2 appears, you will see the injured area very briefly.)

It was Google Ocean all over again. You're beneath the surface, flying through; stop where you like and have a look around.

When they decide to do Google Hoof, I'm ready. Or maybe we're already doing it.

Thanks to Dr. Redding for the loan of this animation.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Quality Road Recovers from Quarter Cracks and Smashes Track Record at Saratoga!

A quick news flash from Saratoga: You may remember the name of Quality Road, a three-year-old who was a top contender for the Triple Crown this spring until he popped a quarter crack in a hind foot while setting a new track record at Gulfstream.

While recovering from that crack, he popped one in his front foot on the same side. The colt has been laid up since March, trained lightly, and switched trainers from Jimmie Jerkens to Todd Pletcher.

Quality Road had his first start today since Gulfstream and he won the Amsterdam Stakes on while setting a new track record for six and a half furlongs on the dirt at New York's Saratoga track.

And he set that record in spite of stumbling out of the gate.

It looks like Quality Road is back on all four feet again. That's the kind of hoofcare success story we like to report.

Seamus Brady: US Equestrian Team Tribute to a Farrier

Gladstone, NJ - August 3, 2009 - The USET Foundation remembers today Seamus Brady of Whitehouse Station, NJ. Brady passed away on Monday, July 27, at the age of 77. Brady, who was born in County Cavin, Ireland, and trained at the Irish Army Equitation School in Dublin. He immigrated to the United States more than 50 years ago and became one of the most respected farriers in the world. Brady was the official farrier for the U.S. Equestrian Team for many years and was inducted into the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame in 2002.

Seamus came to the United States and worked for USET Director Arthur McCashin at his Four Furlongs Farm in Pluckemin, NJ. Seamus was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he was a chauffeur to a general. His time in the Army gave Seamus the chance to learn more about welding and metalworking. Arthur’s son, Dr. Fred McCashin VMD, remembers, “When he came out (of the Army), he came back to see dad, who gave him some tools to start shoeing on his own. The rest is history.”

Seamus made a name for himself by working for some of the largest show barns in the country, by pioneering techniques, by teaching a number of up-and-coming farriers, and by being a consummate horseman.

Farrier Tom Ciannello apprenticed with Seamus in 1975, and they were close friends for the next three decades. “Shoeing was his life; it was the center of his life,” he stated. “If something ‘couldn’t be done,’ he would strive even harder to accomplish it. Seamus really put his heart and soul into every shoeing job. Our favorite saying was that you gotta love it, and he really did. He just really cared. That was one thing that he instilled in everybody that worked with him. Don’t worry about how long it takes, but just be proud of what you did. Everybody is going to miss him.”

In addition to his work with the USET, where Seamus was the team farrier for all three disciplines and was the team farrier at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, he was the farrier at a number of show barns, from Ronnie Mutch’s Nimrod Farm to the Leone family’s Ri-Arm Farm. He was also the farrier for George Morris’ Hunterdon Farm for 34 years. “He was a great asset to the USET and really part of the USET in a way. He was one of the pillars of Hunterdon,” said Morris, who is now the U.S. Show Jumping Chef d’Equipe. “He was famous as a great guy and a great friend. He was a very good friend of mine.”

Carol Hoffman Thompson rode for the USET from 1963 to 1973 and remembers Seamus as a “master of shoeing.” She noted, “He was the very best. He had a great sense of humor, and I had a lot of respect for him.”

Morris agreed, “He was a real old-fashioned Irish horseman. He was a horseman first. He was innovative, very imaginative. As he went along, he kept being innovative. I would often listen to him and after conferring with him and the vets, sometimes use his advice and opinion over the vets’. He was the guru teacher, and subsequent generations will owe him. He brought people in as working students, he shared with other blacksmiths, and in a sense, he is a father of American blacksmith technology. That goes across North America and to Europe too. He was one of the greats that I ever had anything to do with. I can’t say enough about him.”

Ciannello felt the same about Seamus as Morris. “People know him from all over. He was quite an ambassador for the USET and the horse business. Everybody wanted to talk to him, and he was just a really nice guy. If you knew Seamus and he knew you, and there was a mutual respect there, he was the best friend you could have.”

Surviving are his beloved children, son, Douglas Brady and wife, Loriann of Flemington, NJ; his daughters, Linda Colleen Deutsch and husband, Adam of Whitehouse Station, NJ, and Laura Jean Brady of Summerfield, NC; Ruth Moyer Brady, the cherished mother of his children; his beloved grandchildren, Casey Ann and Douglas Brian; eight brothers and sisters in Ireland; along with many other loving relatives and friends who will miss Seamus dearly.

Prayer Service for Seamus was held on Saturday, August 1, at the Branchburg Funeral Home, in Branchburg, NJ. For more information or to send condolences, please visit, BranchburgFuneralHome.com.

Photo Credit: Former USET official farrier Seamus Brady, 1932-2009. Photo courtesy of Maureen Pethick.

AQHA Laminitis Download Link for Steward Clog Information

by Fran Jurga | 3 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Dr. Mike Steward of Shawnee, Oklahoma developed a simple, inexpensive and effective shoeing treatment for laminitis by making a "Steward Clog" out of plywood. Photo by Andrew Knittle, The Shawnee News-Star.

Tomorrow night the town of Saratoga Springs, New York is going to hear all about clog shoes for laminitis. And have a good time doing it. The Hoofcare@Saratoga series will welcome Dr Michael Steward to be the first speaker of 2009, as we kickoff the year at the National Museum of Racing.

Whether you are planning to come or not, here's a chance to download a great article. "Going Dutch" by Holly Clanahan won second place in the American Horse Publications Awards last month for articles published in 2008. The article is about Dr. Michael Steward of Shawnee, Oklahoma and his clog shoe for laminitis.

AQHA graciously timed the first-ever release of a free download of the article to coincide with Dr. Steward's trip to speak in Saratoga. But this article can and will benefit plenty of horses, owners, veterinarians, and farriers who have never heard of Saratoga or Shawnee.

Click here to initiate the download process on the AQHA web site. Thanks to the AQHA for their help with this, and for the exposure they have given to Dr. Steward and his simple, cost-effective treatment. Yes, many of his cases are Quarter horses but this treatment has now been adopted and adapted (for better or worse) by many levels of farriers and veterinarians and is being used on all sorts of cases.

Tomorrow night we will be celebrating the shoes and boots that are on display in the National Museum of Racing lobby exhibit this summer. Among them is what looks like a stray piece of plywood that the exhibit fabricator left behind. That's the Steward Clog. It will be a pleasure to show Dr Steward his shoe in the Museum's collection.

The right foot of this horse is wearing a Steward Clog held in place with deck screws. Casting tape will stabilize the hoof wall and the appliance.

I think it is important to remember that this shoe was originally a simple design that Dr. Steward's clients could afford. Necessity was the mother of invention. For many people, laminitis was not a case of could their horse be helped but could they afford the help? The Steward Clog was an alternative. Now it seems to be in danger of becoming another high-priced boutique shoeing treatment.

The original way--the simple clog--still works and would be a great, cost-effective technique for equine rescue farms to master. I hope they'll be in the audience Tuesday night, along with everyone who cares about real-world laminitis.

I hope we can work toward a day when "lack of funds" will no longer have to be written as the cause of death on a foundered horse's medical record. And I thank Dr Steward and everyone else who is trying to help work toward that day.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Jersey Girl! Rachel Alexandra Doesn't Mind Getting Her Feet Wet As She Scorches the Colts in the Haskell

Jersey Girl! Rachel Alexandra and Calvin Borel win the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

In Kentucky, they play "My Old Kentucky Home" before the Derby. Before the Preakness in Baltimore, it's "Maryland, My Maryland." The Belmont swings to the tune of "New York, New York."

And when Rachel Alexandra stepped out on the Monmouth Park racetrack on the Jersey Shore today, what song did they play to introduce the field of the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational?

Think about it.

Sure enough. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". If that song couldn't get a filly in the mood to fly, what song could? And off she went, toying two or three wide until midway around the turn for home and then whooosssh.

If you enlarge this photo, or go to YouTube and watch the race, you will see that this filly is so particular about her feet that jockey Calvin Borel finished the race with pretty much a clean set of silks. The same cannot be said of the other jockeys.

It was a miserable day with driving rain, lightning, flooding, and (unfortunately), horses down in the early races. I wondered if they wouldn't just load Rachel up and take her home to Saratoga but the weather improved and Rachel gave everyone something to talk about about.

She'll always have a soft spot for Springsteen now. And he'll be in Saratoga to play a concert the week of her (probably, hopefully) next start, the Travers Stakes on August 29.

Thanks to Sarah K. Andrew for this stunning capture of the finish line, where no one but Rachel was in sight.

Applied Anatomy: The Painted Horses as Teachers

by Fran Jurga | 30 July 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

How did we teach (and learn) anatomy before we had super-markers to paint directly on horses' bodies? I believe that this clever technique was popularized by American clinician Susan Harris in the 1990s, or at least she was the first to make an educational project out of horse-painting.

We've seen an expansion lately, in the art of painting on horses. Dr. Gerd Heuschmann uses the horse as a canvas in his terrific video, If Horses Could Speak, and there's a beautiful new book on the Hoofcare & Lameness list (ordering info below) called How Your Horse Moves that documents painted horses going through gaits and stretches.

The problem, of course, is that you can only suggest the surface structures, and so much lies beneath. And should you choose the skeleton or the muscles?

Nicole Rossa solved that problem by painting the muscles on one side and the bones and joints on the other. Nicole is an equine therapist in England who has written some interesting papers, most notably one on asymmetry of the pelvis in racehorses and the effect on performance. Now she has teamed up with horse insurance company PetPlan and is consultant to the most ambitious web site project in the horse health world, Yourstables.co.uk.

On second thought, don't click on that link. Yourstables.com is a distraction demon. It's an absolute vortex where hours can pass while you wander around inspecting the minute textures of the stable mats and what it says on the plaques of the walls in the office. You'll emerge hours later, blinking.

Yourstables is a setup for teaching horsecare through consulting professionals, with the guidance of eventing legend Lucinda Green as an avatar. A 3-D horse barn (British style) is equipped with the newest and best of everything. You mouse over items and navigate through videos and printable articles explaining everything from grooming to diseases. It's quite good and Nicole Rossa is the consulting therapist. This list video is an out-take from a video made for the web site.

Back to the painted ponies: I just have one question. Why stop with horses? Do dog health educators paint anatomy markers on greyhounds? Who wants to volunteer their Jack Russell or maybe a Pug to be anatomically decorated? Nicole Rossa might find some work on humans when Halloween comes around.

Heads up: How Your Horse Moves by Gillian Higgins can be ordered now. Super reference on anatomy, gaits, biomechanics, jumping, tendon function, back function, etc. All full color photography; most of the horses are anatomically enhanced and very nicely photographed. The cover does not do this book justice. Hardcover, 153 pages, indexed, 350 color photos. Intro by Chris Bartle and Bettina Hoy. I expect I will be seeing a lot of the photos in this book in other people's PowerPoints soon! The good news: $30 per book plus $6 per book post in USA, $13 per book elsewhere. To order call 978 281 3222 or email books@hoofcare.com.

NOTE: Gillian Higgins will be on the program at a conference with Dr Hilary Clayton February 13-14, 2010 in Grantham in Great Britain.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Seamus Brady Will Live On in Legend

by Fran Jurga | 28 July 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

A service for farrier Seamus Brady will be held on Saturday, August 1 at 10:30 a.m. at the Branchburg Funeral Home, 910 U.S.Highway 202 in South Branchburg, New Jersey. Calling hours will be Friday evening. Click here for details, or where to send flowers or leave a remembrance message.

Seamus Brady, center, at a celebration in his honor held in Wellington, Florida in March 2006. That's Canada's Larry Rumsby on the left and the USA's Joe Johnson on the right, both of whom have shod the international team horses for their countries, following in Seamus's footsteps. Twenty-six horseshoers from the show world assembled to toast Seamus that night. (Sandy Johnson photo)

Seamus Brady, right, received a plaque from his longtime trainee/helper Phil Breault (standing) at the Wellington event. Phil organized the evening. That's Connecticut/Florida show circuit specialist George Fitzgerald on the left.

I was in Dublin once, at the Irish Army Equitation School, touring with an American horseshoeing team. The young officer who was showing us around threw open the doors to the forge and as the sunlight flooded the space, he stood back and told me proudly, "This is where Seamus Brady learned the trade with John Boylan."

"That was before he went to America," he added as an afterthought.

He showed the same pride as would an Italian opening the door to the studio where Michaelangelo learned to paint. The fact that Doug Butler and Dave Duckett were standing next to me didn't seem to impress this rider at all.

"Do you see much of Seamus in America, then?" he asked, as if Americans were all on just one show circuit neighborhood.

New Jersey/Florida-based Seamus Brady, the dean of US show-jumper shoers and possibly the most well-known farrier in his native land of Ireland as well, died yesterday. He was just a few months shy of 78 years old.

The man needs no introduction in the farrier world. His name was a brand in itself, yet as far as I know, he never really had anything to sell except his services. His ideas traveled far and wide. But there is no Seamus Brady shoe, no Brady nail, no Brady pad, no Brady trademark or copyright or website. There are few articles or photographs, no books or dvds. I'm not sure that he ever joined any association except the informal show farriers group that gathered in Wellington, Florida on occasion. His only certification: his good name.

There's quite a legacy. I can think of no farrier who influenced shoeing of real-world English-type show and sport horses more. He defined "the circuit". For farriers, he practically invented the circuit. He may have influenced farriers on a professional level more than he influenced shoeing itself.

There have always been legends passed around the horse world about Seamus, great humorous tall tales about the Irish trickster who could weave great tales and present clients with the biggest invoices they'd ever seen. The legends preceded him around the world as he traveled with the US Equestrian Team to far-flung places like Seoul, Korea for the 1988 Olympics, where he kindly shared his experiences with Hoofcare & Lameness Journal, to out-of-context places like the Quarter Horse Congress, where we'd see him because he'd go to look at the new custom trucks.

I expect that Seamus will become the Paul Bunyan of American horseshoeing. He's earned it: If half the people had been his apprentices who claim to have been, he would have had to have traveled in a bus, not a truck, all these years, just to carry all his apprentices.

Every jumper show should fly its flag at half-mast this week. They couldn't have shown without his clever work on their horses and without the farriers he trained, inspired and called his friends.

Exit an icon. Cue the storytellers. Complete these sentences: "I remember the time..."

"I've always heard that Seamus Brady used to..."

See what I mean? Seamus lives. Pass it on. And on and on.

Click here to read just such a "pass it on" tribute to Seamus's memory from one of his many clients over the years, six-time dressage Olympian Robert Dover. (http://doversworld.com/)

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Don't stand too close! Hot Competition for Farriers in England

by Fran Jurga | 26 July 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Don't stand too close!, originally uploaded by Lid Licker!

The wrath of Hephaestus Himself seems to be spewing from this Damascus forge put to its test at yesterday's Handmade Horseshoes farrier competition in Leighton Buzzard, England. Photographer Gary Huston has mounted a wonderful photo recording of the day on his Flickr photo gallery.

Gary is a terrific farrier/photographer who knows where to point the camera and experiments with color saturation for unusual and remarkable effects. I'm a big fan of his and I bet you will be, too!

I just hope his Canon didn't melt...

For any non-farrier readers: this contraption is a propane forge used by farriers to heat steel for shoemaking or reshaping/altering of existing shoes. It works much like your gas grill but heats the steel quickly and efficiently to a very high heat so the steel is malleable.

Working with one of these all day may be why farriers are such good hands at summer barbecues...and many of them are also great chefs, possibly because they have an innate understanding of the effects of heat on matter. Think about it.

At this competition, farriers working in teams or alone would have been competing for perfection in craftmanship of a prescribed shoe design in a particular dimension from a supplied length, width and thickness of raw steel material. Think: Iron Chef with hammer and tongs. Realize: Hephestus lives, and he lives well.

Favorite Sunday Video: "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" on Saratoga Migration Day

by Fran Jurga | July 26, 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Out for a leisurely Sunday drive? Drivers in New York State are probably a little jittery today. It's Sunday, and there shouldn't be many trucks on the road. Yet the highways are jammed, and these big rigs aren't just any trucks. They're big air-ride trailers and horse vans of every size and shape, some carrying six or more horses each. It's Brook Ledge and Sallee Day on the Northway. The windows are down and you can see bay heads inside, nodding sleepily.

And not just any horses: these are some of the best Thoroughbreds in the country. Hundreds of them are landing at airports and moving from training centers and tracks all over the US and Canada.

It's an equine migration. A reverse diaspora. A gathering of the Thoroughbred clan. For these van drivers, all roads lead to Saratoga Springs, New York, where today is "open house" day for the locals, featuring some always-exciting jump racing. The betting windows open on Wednesday. And the stall doors are wide open to welcome the new arrivals.

The vans will unload horses and just turn around and go get more. Today is the last day of racing at New York's Belmont Park so vets and farriers and exercise riders might have a few days off before things get going "up north", although some are already there working.

The horses will skitter down the ramps and blink as they look around and see all the old shade trees, the painted-a-hundred-times wooden stables and the remains of the original racetrack from 1863. They'll notice immediately that this place doesn't look and smell like Long Island...and it's awfully quiet compared to the New York City tracks that crouch beneath expressways and airport landing patterns.

That was a van ride back in time.

This is a place where a colt can get some sleep. Where a filly can stretch her legs. Where a veteran campaigner's hives might clear up and a career might turn around. Where legends begin.

So let's go back in time with the blog today, too. One of my favorite scenes from any horse-racing movie is the road scene from MGM's 1937 hit Thoroughbreds Don't Cry, which was the film that brought Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland together. You'll see a little bit of the road scene in this clip. Judy sings "Got a Pair of New Shoes" and, of course, I always like to think that the horse is singing along.

This was probably also the first horsey-road-trip scene from a major motion picture, as well as one of the most musical. Horse vans and trailers were a relatively new thing.

Timing is everything: This film was made in 1937, the year that War Admiral won the Kentucky Derby and Seabiscuit was rising to ever higher highs and lower lows out west. They would meet in their famous match race the following year.

Also in 1937, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable made the horse-racing classic film Saratoga about New York's horseracing summer capital but Harlow became ill and died during the filming, though she was only 26 years old.

The makers of Thoroughbreds Don't Cry couldn't have known what else would be going on that year or how famous their young stars would become.

You can watch the whole film on YouTube or stream/order it through Netflix; I've given you the trailer here as motivation.

If you have the time, click here to listen to the taping of Judy Garland singing the song in the film. You'll be humming it before you know it.

One of the best parts of these old horse movies is the chance to see the old vehicles used to transport the horses, including the fake open-window trailer in this clip. I always watch what's going on in the background more than what's going on in the foreground.

The New York Thruway and the Northway would be a much more interesting ride today if those neat old styles were still in use. This drawing from Popular Mechanics in 1924 shows a state-of-the-art over-the-road racehorse van...complete with a flagpole. The article with it said that it could reach and maintain a speed of 50 miles per hour, which was something for the day.

Of course, after Labor Day there will be a reverse migration as the horses abandon Saratoga and scatter to the corners of the globe. But there's something about today, of all days of the summer,
that makes you feel like a giant magnet has caught on all the horseshoes of all the best racehorses in the world and is pulling them up the Northway to Exit 14.

And not a single horse is resisting the pull of that magnet. A trip to Saratoga in August is good for us all.

I'm willing to bet on that.

Join Hoofcare & Lameness on Tuesdays in August in Saratoga Springs at the Parting Glass Pub and Restaurant back room, 40 Lake Avenue, for educational lectures and information about hoof-related care of horses. "Saratoga Safe + Sound" will bring together farriers, veterinarians, trainers, and interesting people from all corners of the horse world (literally) in a casual setting. CLICK HERE for more information or call 978 281 3222; email saratoga@hoofcare.com.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

You're Invited! You'll Be Welcome at Hoofcare@Saratoga's 2009 "Safe and Sound" Tuesday Night Series

by Fran Jurga | 22 July 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Double-click on the image to view or print it full-size. That's Kentucky equine therapist Dianne Volz working on the hooves of a well-known stakes horse at Saratoga's Oklahoma training track.

What: “Saratoga: Safe & Sound”; 5th Annual Hoofcare@Saratoga Events hosted by Hoofcare & Lameness Journal, The Hoof Blog, and Fran Jurga.
When: August 4, 11, 18, 25 (four Tuesdays during the 2009 race meet)
Where: Saratoga Springs, NY 7 pm Parting Glass Pub, 50 Lake Ave with exceptions noted
What: Informal lectures, discussion, interviews
Who: Horsecare professionals, horse owners, blog readers, racing community, press; all are welcome.
Made possible by generous help in many forms from: Life Data Labs, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Vibram Hoof Pads, Skidmore College, Cindy Ford and the Van Lennep Riding Center, Frieda and Cliff Garrison, Jim Santore, The Parting Glass Pub, CCE Equine and all our friends in and around Saratoga, and all over the Northeast and beyond. (More sponsorships are available.)

Note: Our primary speakers are booked but we will be adding more as people confirm what days they will be in Saratoga to work on horses or conduct other business. Watch for updates.

Week 1: AUGUST 4: "BUILD A BETTER...HORSESHOE" National Museum of Racing, 191 Union Avene, 6-8 pm. "Ride On!" Special Exhibit on farrier/veterinary advances to help horses reception sponsored by LIFE DATA LABS. You'll meet special guests whose shoes and boots and photographs are featured in the exhibit; with the help of Stonestreet Stables, we hope to donate one of Curlin's shoes to the museum. Main speaker: Dr Michael Steward from Oklahoma on his unique Steward Clog system for laminitis (which is featured by the museum); his lecture will commence at the Parting Glass after 8 pm. He is a down-to-earth speaker who makes sense of a difficult subject and will inspire you to keep trying to help horses.

Week 2: AUGUST 11: "BUILD A BETTER...HORSE!" Dr Scott Morrison of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Lexington KY will anchor an all-star evening on foal/yearling problems and no doubt a lot more. Plus: David Hinton, rescheduled for his observations on shoeing for top stakes horses like Curlin and Rachel Alexandra. This is a busy night in Saratoga as the yearling sales will be going on.

Week 3: AUGUST 18: "BUILD A BETTER...HOOF!"--2 events. Mike Wildenstein FWCF (Hons) Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine afternoon for farriers at Skidmore Equestrian Center, 145 Daniels Road. Sponsored by VIBRAM hoof pads. The exact time in the afternoon will be announced soon. Evening program of talks and PowerPoint will be at the Parting Glass. Special guest: Virginia’s Travis Burns from Forging Ahead farrier practice on hoof support alternatives in addition to Mike.

Week 4: August 25: (plans in progress) Origins of the Modern Horseshoe Tour of Burden Iron Works Museum horseshoe factory in Troy, NY at 2 p.m. This is a very special event! Evening program at the Parting Glass is tentative because of Bruce Springsteen's concert on the south side of town, but if traffic is routed to not clog up downtown Saratoga, we should be able to proceed. I am currently seeking advice about this, as it is Travers Week and should be the grand finale of the series. Stay tuned for finalized plans for that night;the daytime plans will not be affected by the concert.

All sessions are free of charge but come early to get a good seat.

Parting Glass sessions start at 7 pm except August 4th, which follows the Museum program.

The Parting Glass will serve dinner before or after the session in the function room or main dining room. You can order from the menu and the food is great!

Some parking is available behind the restaurant but otherwise parking should be available on side streets without too far a hike.

HOTEL INFORMATION: Hotels in Saratoga are very expensive. Hoofcare has a block of rooms at the Comfort Inn & Suites Saratoga Springs on the NY Thruway at Exit 15 (3rd Saratoga Springs exit going north) at a special discount rate of $159 plus tax (breakfast included) and pets are allowed for $10 each. This rate is for Tuesday only and for seminar attendees only. This hotel is a three mile drive from the Parting Glass and close to the racetrack.

To book a room: You need to request the Hoofcare rate when booking your room, call a week in advance for all events except August 4th (reservations will be taken up to August 3rd) and you must call the hotel directly at 518 587 6244 and press "0" for the operator to reach the front desk and book with the person on duty. Do not book through "reservations" as they do not have the special rate information. This rate is only for Tuesday and only for Hoofcare@Saratoga attendees.

More details will always be posted at www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

Email questions to fran@hoofcare.com or call 978 281 3222. But don't call on a Tuesday.

Please forward this information to anyone you think may be interested.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Rethinking Toe Grabs? Model Rule Adjustment Recommended to Allow 4mm Grabs on Dirt Racetracks

(Statement from The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Safety Committee issued 22 July 2009)

"After discussions with industry participants and a review of all scientific research available on the use of toe grabs on the front shoes of Thoroughbreds, The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Safety Committee recommends adjusting the current RCI Model Rule on horse shoes to allow toe grabs up to 4 mm in height on front shoes on dirt racing surfaces only.

"The Thoroughbred Safety Committee believes the current elimination of traction devices on front shoes should be maintained and only the height of the toe grab should be adjusted in the Model Rule.

"In no case does the Thoroughbred Safety Committee recommend the use of toe grabs of greater than 4 mm on front shoes of Thoroughbreds.

"The Thoroughbred Safety Committee continues to believe that the recommendation limiting traction devices on front shoes of Thoroughbreds to toe grabs no greater than 2 mm is in the best interests of the welfare and safety of the horse.

"However, the Thoroughbred Safety Committee is sensitive to the concerns of the horsemen and recognizes that local circumstances such as dirt track composition and/or weather conditions might justify the racing commission and/or the racetrack to allow horsemen the discretion to utilize short toe grabs no greater than 4 mm on the front shoes of Thoroughbreds on dirt racing surfaces only."

The Hoof Blog will continue to keep readers updated on shoeing rule recommendations and changes as well as research that may affect decision-making about horse equipment.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Invitation: Join Molly the Pony at The Ohio State Vet School on August 6th

Hurricane Katrina survivor Molly the Pony with her owner/rescuer Kaye Harris and surgeon/hero Dr. Rustin Moore in 2006 after Molly's amputation surgery in Louisiana. Molly will travel to Ohio in August for a reunion with Dr. Moore...and you're invited!

You and your family and friends are invited to a presentation and a meet-and-greet with "Molly the Pony" (one of the world’s only prosthesis-wearing ponies, and a well-known survivor of hurricane Katrina) at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine Thursday, August 6th from 4:30-8 p.m. at the Veterinary Medicine Academic Building (VMAB), 1900 Coffey Road, Columbus, Ohio

At the event you will meet Dr. Rustin Moore. He is the Bud and Marilyn Jenne Professor and Chair of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Moore was the surgeon who performed the amputation on Molly's right front leg while he was director of the Equine Health Studies Program at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine during and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Dr. Moore will give a brief presentation, “It’s All About Molly,” at 5 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. in the Wexner Auditorium located in the VMAB; light refreshments will be available near the auditorium in the Hummel Grand Lounge.

Molly will be available on the lawn outside of the building for visitors to have the opportunity to meet her and her owner, Kaye Harris, before and after Dr. Moore’s presentation.

ABOUT MOLLY - Molly the Pony was rescued by Kaye and Glenn Harris after Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, several months later she was injured by a dog that was also a Katrina rescue. Although her other numerous wounds healed, her lower right front leg was too severely damaged. Her rescuer and now owner, Kaye Harris, advocated for Molly, inquiring about amputation and a prosthesis.

This procedure is rare, with many obstacles, and now Molly visits anyone who could benefit from her quiet wisdom and inspiration. She has inspired people of all ages and abilities. A children’s picture book was written about her and she has traveled widely to share her story. “Molly the Pony” books will be available for purchase in the Hummel Grand Lounge with proceeds benefiting Molly’s Foundation. (Cash or checks only please.)

Please forward this to anyone you think would enjoy this unique opportunity!

Please RSVP to Katie Kostyo (kostyo.1@osu.edu) or 614-688-8433, by August 3rd and indicate the number of people who will attend.

Directions to the College of Veterinary Medicine:

From SR315, exit at Lane Avenue and head east. Turn right (south) on Fyffe Road. At the next light, turn left on Woody Hayes Drive and then take a right on Coffey Road; follow Coffey to the Veterinary Medicine Academic Building. Free parking is available during the event in the lot just north of the building (east of the Veterinary Hospital). Guests DO NOT need a pass during the event hours.

Please visit the College of Veterinary Medicine’s web site for more information on the college at: www.vet.osu.edu/

More information:

Click here for Molly's MySpace Page

Click here to see Molly's segment on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

Click here to read about Molly in the New York Times.

Click here to read the original Hoof Blog article about Molly and her book.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Guild of Professional Farriers Special Election Brings in All-New Officers

The Hoof Blog has received an announcement from the Guild of Professional Farriers that an unusual special election was held on July 13 and an entire new slate of officers is now in place at the head of that organization.

The new officers are Ronald E. Kramedjian, President; Jeff Holder, Vice President; Russ Vanderlei, Secretary; and Rick Burten, Treasurer.

Tom Bloomer, who was serving as president until July 13, becomes Past President.

The Guild was formed in 1996 in an effort to provide an organization for full-time professional farriers. The organization runs a certification testing program and has been pro-active in the media as a voice on farrier-related issues. The Guild has a code of ethics for farriers to follow when working with veterinarians.

In 2002, the Guild made national news by warning horse owners to question the Strasser method of barefoot trimming, suggesting that it involved radical trimming methods and might cause lameness for their horses.

In 1997, Henry Heymering was elected the first president of the Guild. North Carolina's David Millwater was the first secretary and served from 1996 to 2000.

When contacted today about the mid-year changes in Guild leadership, Heymering had no comment.

In the announcement, the new officers thanked the officers leaving service for their commitment and past service. "Their dedication and commitment to the Guild has helped us to get to where we are," the new officers said.

Information about the Guild is available at www.guildfarriers.org.