Friends at Work: Holland's Rob Renirie Shoes for Anky Between World Cup Matches

Between World Cup matches, Dutch farrier Rob Renirie found his way to dressage star Anky van Grunsven's training center in Erp this week to shoe some of her horses in training; here you see him working on Nelson. Anky was impressed that he used a fan to keep away the flies. I was impressed that even Anky van Grunsven has flies. While Anky will not be competing for a place on the Dutch dressage team at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this September, she scored a personal-best 70.5 on her most recent reining test.  I believe two 68s are the requirement to qualify for WEG. Unfortunately Anky's low score didn't count since she rewarded her horse too soon and her score dropped to zero! Rob Renirie, on the other hand, should be a shoe-in to be the Dutch team farrier at WEG in Kentucky and we'll hope to see him there! Maybe the Brazilians will have recovered by then. Photo mirrored from www.anky.nl.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com
© 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.

"Relax Dressage Medication Rules!" Anky Speaks Out in Support of Isabell, Defends Meds for Therapeutic Use

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

They are the Affirmed and Alydar of the sport horse world. Venus and Serena on horseback. One wins one day for technical perfection. The other wins the next day for taking risks on a horse that seems barely under control...and yet delivers in artistic superlatives. A single hoofprint out of line often is all that separates the two.

When Germany's top dressage star Isabell Werth was suspended last week for a positive medication test on her lower level horse, her arch-rival Anky Van Grunsven of Holland did not shout with glee that her rival would not be at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen this weekend to oppose her.

In a poignant moment of sport solidarity, Anky stepped up to microphone and voiced her criticism for the zero tolerance medication rules that make it impossible to sedate a nervous horse for a routine stable procedure like shoeing or clipping. In Isabell's case, it was a medication for the condition known as "shivers". (Click here to read post about Isabell and shivers medication.)

Here's Anky's statement, taken from a video published in Dutch last week:

"I am not a supporter of doping at all but I want to do what is best for the horse.

"An example: when I want to clip my horse before a show, I would like to give him a light sedation to relax because my horse is a bit afraid of the clipping machine. The stuff we use to relax the horse is doping positive. Imagine, I asked the vet how many days before the show I can clip my horse and he says three days. But what if it is found in my horse’s blood at the show five days after I used it? That means my horse is doping positive! But I think it’s for the horse benefit to clip him.

"I think the rules have to be changed. The research regarding doping is very expensive but it will be a good idea to work with a logbook and write down what had been given and why.

"If the medication is not to improve the performance, I think there is no reason to maintain the zero tolerance for these cases."

Click here to watch the video. It's in Dutch but has some nice footage.

Note: in another poignant twist of fate, Anky did not win at Aachen this weekend. That honor went to the American, Steffen Peters, on Ravel. One can only wonder what might have happened if Isabell had been allowed to compete.

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© 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.

Golden Horseshoes: Holland's Farrier in Hong Kong

He's going for the gold. Lift up one of Salinero's shoes and the entire country of The Netherlands would believe that they are made of gold.

In the next few hours, Anky Van Grunsven of Holland and Isabell Werth of Germany go for the gold medal for individual dressage at the Hong Kong Equestrian Games of the Beijing Olympics. The two women are separated by a few one-hundredths of a point...and years of tooth-and-nail competition and micro-point finishes. Or will a dark horse come up from the ranks to take first place?

Each of the top two horses is shod by one of the world's leading sport horse farriers, Rob Renirie for Holland and Dieter Krohnert for Germany.

Anky takes her own farrier to the Olympics with her, and he is also the official farrier for his country. Rob Renirie is a cool study in composure and has an analytical eye for the horse he loves, Salinero.

In Sydney in 2000, Rob ran out into the arena to grab the bridle of Bonfire, Anky's first gold-medal winner, when he exploded from all the controlled energy after his test. Rob studies the horse and knows the rider well.

Holland had to settle for second to Germany in the team medals, and missed the use of a top horse, Sunrise, who went lame. It is all coming down to this one ride, since Anky has announced that she may retire.

If you have a chance to go to a seminar with Rob Renirie about shoeing, go. The former jumper rider turned farrier has also studied equine biomechanics at the University of Utrecht and he has created a place for himself at the pinnacle of sport horse farriery by combining the expertise of a rider, a trainer, a scientist and a skilled farrier into one person.

If you missed his four-hour master class on sport horse shoeing at the Palm Beach laminitis conference last November, you really missed something.

Someone showed me a picture of Rob taken in Hong Kong last week. It was late at night. Pouring rain. Rob with his white head was unmistakably, crouched under an umbrella with Anky's groom, Willeke. They were watching Anky school in the middle of the night, when it might be a little bit cooler. The rain didn't matter. Rob's eyes were locked on the horse's hooves. He was willing them to turn gold.

Post script: Anky Van Grunsven of Holland won her third consecutive individual Olympic gold medal in dressage in Hong Kong.