Sunday, April 17, 2011

Laminitis-Survivor Overdose Wins in Germany, Sets New Course Record

Overdose, the Hungrian wonder horse who survived a long layoff for what was described as laminitis, broke a track record in Germany yesterday. (Photo via Flickr.com's Gabor Dvornik)
Some quick good news for a Sunday afternoon: Hungarian wonder-horse Overdose is back to his winning ways. Once undefeated, the horse went into an extended layup when he was suffering from some form of laminitis, as reported on this blog last May. Last year he suffered his first defeat but yesterday, after another seven-month layup, he not only won, he set a new course record!

Much of Overdose's successful return to racing had been credited to his American glue-on shoes, made by Sound Horse Technologies, and his British farrier, Stuart Packham who is apparently something of a national hero in Hungary.  I don't know if Stuart is still with Overdose, but something is working.

In a race last year, Overdose lost one of his glue-ons during the race but still won. I think that lost shoe was the most famous shoe story in many years!

Stuart Packham's shoeing of Overdose was featured in a step-by-step story in one of the many Hungarian blogs about Overdose. (This is not meant to be an advertisement for the shoes; it is a great photo story for anyone who'd like to see one of these shoes applied.)

The Racing Post, as usual, has more details about yesterday's win. It sounds like he may be headed for Royal Ascot if all goes well. Wouldn't you love to see him against Black Caviar?


 © Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. 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.
 
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