Showing posts with label CHIO Aachen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CHIO Aachen. Show all posts

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Rolex Grand Slam Hoofcare: Hello Sanctos Made History on These Hooves!

This horse and rider attempted to do something no other horse and rider had even come close to doing: win the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping. And they did it. Was there a hoof angle to the story of the world's best show jumper, Hello Sanctos? The Hoof Blog wanted to know. (photo by Kit Houghton courtesy of Rolex Grand Slam)

The whole world was watching on Sunday, September 13, as an unpretentious rider from Scotland rode his high-jumping horse into history. World #1 ranked rider Scott Brash and World #1 show jumping horse Hello Sanctos have done it before: They won a gold medal at the Olympics in 2012, the European Championship in 2013 and almost everything else in bdetween.

In December 2014, they won the tight-cornered indoor grand prix in Geneva, Switzerland and in May the expansive grass-field grand prix at CHIO Aachen in Germany, two of the most difficult jumping events in the world. That made Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos the first horse and rider to win the two consecutive legs of the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping. Think of it as winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

And on Sunday, the test was to see if they could become the American Pharoah and Victor Espinoza of show jumping by winning the third leg at Spruce Meadows in Canada. The thrill of it all? Not only has no one ever done it, no one has even come close!


Hello Sanctos and Scott Brash have already made history by becoming the first to ever win two consecutive legs of the Rolex Grand Slam. They are blazing a new trail in equestrian sport. No one has ever even attempted to do what they did on Sunday, September 13 at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary, Alberta.

Rolex added an extra $1 million or so to the bonus, if they could win the CP International Grand Prix at the 2015 Spruce Meadows Masters CSIO 5*. The only problem was that many of the world's top show jumpers also showed up. But with two double clear rounds, Hello Sanctos was unbeatable.

“Winning one of the equestrian Majors was an incredible achievement, to win two was a dream come true, but to go on and complete the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping is beyond belief," Brash said after the event. "I have a very special horse in Hello Sanctos, and some amazingly supportive owners in Lord & Lady Harris, and Lord & Lady Kirkham. This close partnership has enabled Hello Sanctos and myself to achieve success that will never be forgotten, and I would like to thank all those who have played a part in making this happen.”
This horse is so impressive and is so much fun to watch, it seemed imperative that his hoof story be investigated. But tracking down a rider who is in a different country every week isn't easy.

These are the four hooves that cleared the rails at Spruce Meadows. Hinds are at the top, fronts beneath; all are Mustad Continentals. Note the difference between left and right front. (Look at the diameter of the sole of the foot, or at the inside web of the shoe.) Photos © Gary Hood.

When finally tracked to his lair, Scott Brash, MBE,  was happy to talk about his farrier. "I have had him shoe Sanctos since the day he came into my stables and I wouldn't use anyone else. He is a fantastic farrier and I'm privileged to have such a man shoe my horses.

"(Gary) is an enormous key in our success and I would be lost without him. I moved to England near London and I still fly Gary down (from Scotland) every time my horses need to be shoed."

Scott Brash, MBE
Gary Hood, FWCF, is originally from Ayrshire, Scotland but now lives in Fife. He moved there to do his farrier apprenticeship as a teenager and never left.

In a phone interview, Gary Hood said he has been shoeing for Scott Brash for about ten years. He received a call one day in 2005 to consult on one of Scott's jumpers, and has been doing his horses ever since. He only travels to the major championships; a trip to Kentucky for the World Equestrian Games in 2010 was the first big international trip for Gary.

Hello Sanctos joined Scott Brash's string in December 2011; Gary went south to London for the Olympia show at Christmastime to shoe him for the first time. "He's a true star and an absolute gentleman," Gary said of the 13-year-old Belgian-bred warmblood gelding, who is owned by Lord and Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham.

Farrier Gary Hood, FWCF,
of 
Fife, Scotland
The first thing you'll notice about  the shoeing scheme for Hello Sanctos is that it appears completely uncomplicated. The shoes could have leapt out of the box and onto the horse's hooves.

But as with most high level athletes, the horse is tuned as much as he is shod. Simple shoeing rarely is on horses at this level. It is something that the best farriers aspire to reach, shoeing by shoeing, to get things out from under the horse and simplify each and every phase of the stride until or unless support or relief changes are needed as injury or conformation dictate.

Side clips were about the only embellishments that Gary Hood could list for this horse's feet, and that they are "set under the foot with enhanced breakover". If you look closely, you will see some subtle variations between the feet, such as the fact that the left front only has four nails. The e-head nails are either Derby or Maddox slims.

Look a little closer and notice the difference in shape between the two front feet, which is somewhat camouflaged by the (at first glance) symmetric shoes.

 
Video highlights from Spruce Meadows on Grand Slam Day

An interesting part of Gary Hood's shoeing process is the use of slow motion video on every horse he shoes. "I like to know if there are any wee changes or changes in landing," he said. Gary keeps notes on each horse, recording if they are landing high on the inside or some other change that might indicate either an injury or strain to the lower limb or a compensation in landing from soreness or injury elsewhere. Farriers of high-level horses are also acutely aware that any changes in stride characteristics or even posture can relate to injury or strain impacting the limb where the change is seen, or that that limb is compensating for a condition in another limb.

Gary has been shoeing Hello Sanctos for almost five years now, but many jumpers change hands often, and they rarely come with hoofcare histories documented. These farriers, whether they are aware of it or not, become practitioners of what Sherlock Holmes calls "the science of deduction"; they are acute observers of small events and changes.
"In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards...Most people, if you describe a train of events to them, will tell you what the result would be. They can put those events together in their minds, and argue from them that something will come to pass. There are few people, however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean when I talk of reasoning backwards, or analytically."
--Sherlock Holmes, from A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
A farrier taking on a new horse has to try to read the mind of a previous shoer who is often half a world away, doesn't speak the same language or whose clients now have to compete against the horse they once owned. The demanding schedule and travel requirements adds more pressure.

"I've learned over the years that my eyes can deceive me," Gary admitted. "At the walk you can just about see (the landing) but at the trot, it's impossible." Gary lectured on slow motion video analysis at the 6th Scottish Farrier / Veterinary Conference at the University of Glasgow veterinary college last year.



This short video from Longines is a biography of Hello Sanctos, as told by Scott Brash, and fits well with the excitement surrounding today's Spruce Meadows Masters.

Gary recalled removing the shoes from Hello Sanctos after he won the Olympic gold medal. "I had each of them framed...both owners, Scott and myself have one each."

The story ends here, for now. Gary and his wife are in Calgary with Hello Sanctos and Scott today. Gary said he wasn't planning to do anything to Hello Sanctos but wanted to be there. He had a front row seat, while the rest of us watched around the world.

Congratulations to Gary, Scott, Hello Sanctos, and the entire horsecare and ownership system that supports this horse. Thanks for the thrill and for the care taken to insure this extraordinary horse does his job so well.



© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is the news service for Hoofcare and Lameness Publishing. 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 headlines-link email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  
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Disclosure of Material Connection: The Hoof Blog (Hoofcare Publishing) has not received any direct compensation for writing this post. Hoofcare Publishing has no material connection to the brands, products, or services mentioned, other than products and services of Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Whose Horseshoes Did CHIO Aachen Add to the Walk of Fame?



If you were a horseshoe, where would you like to spend eternity?

If you'd been on a sport horse, the answer is the hallowed Walk of Fame, a plaza at the showgrounds of CHIO Aachen, the national horse sport championships of Germany and international showcase of the competition horse.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Shoes of the Stars: CHIO Aachen Creates a Walk Paved with History and Hoofwear

CHIO Aachen Show Director Frank Kemperman stands in the show's new starwalk
CHIO Aachen now has its own “Walk of Fame”. And just as the stars put their hand prints in the concrete on Hollywood Boulevard, it would have to be the horses who leave an imprint at CHIO Aachen, site of the World Equestrian Festival and what is widely regarded as the largest--and grandest--horse event in the world.

The squares contain the names of legendary horses who have shone underneath the stars of July nights in Aachen. And you can walk over it right now, because the show has just opened for 2011.

But not a hoofprint adorns the star. Instead, an actual horseshoe belonging to the respective four-legged superstar is embedded in the center of the star. There are names you might know: “Gigolo”, “E.T.”, “Ratina Z”, “Totilas” and “Hickstead”, to name just a few. There are 17 shoes, 17 stars, and 17 names of jumping and dressage horses, all of whom have either won the Deutsche Bank Prize, the Dressage Grand Prix of Aachen or the Rolex Grand Prix, the Grand Prix of Aachen.

And is there a correlation between champions and special shoes? There seem to be bar shoes of every type. It looks like a stroll down Aachen's Walk of Fame will be an education in orthopedic horseshoes. A little autograph by the farrier would be a nice touch--perhaps I will have to write a guidebook.


Embedding horseshoes in a plaque and then embedding the plaque in a walkway is much easier than trying to get real horses to cast their hoofprints in wet cement, as illustrated here by Dale Evans and Roy Rogers as they try to get Trigger to step lightly but not too lightly on his paver for Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame in 1949. The tourist guides tell us that three horses are immortalized on the famous stretch of sidewalk outside Grauman's Chinese Theater: Tom Mix's Tony (1927), Gene Autry's Champion (1949) and Trigger. Wait, what about Mr. Ed? There's no star for Mr. Ed? 

The Show Director of the CHIO Aachen, Frank Kemperman, came up with the idea of this special “Walk of Fame”. It took a year to make it happen: “We tried out a lot of things before finding a way of embedding the horseshoes into the plaques,” commented Kemperman.
The plaques were being set into place just before the show was set to open. The “Walk of Fame” can be found right next to the entrance of the CHIO Aachen offices.

Whenever I feel like everything in the world has been done: every creative idea, every perfect photo, every stunning magazine cover, every clever title or slogan has been used up by other people and there's nothing original left, I never panic for very long.

I know I need look no further than the website or magazine of CHIO Aachen. They're always up to something. More than a horse show, horse event, or horse festival, it is more like a state-of-mind...if you happen to have horses on your mind

If you're a rider, driver or vaulter, Aachen is where you want to compete someday. For the rest of us, Aachen is a giddy celebration of not just the horse, but the best that horses bring out in us.

Aachen's message is to love not just the horse, but the way horses can and should make us feel. We're pulled to Aachen because we know it is a world stage where great things will happen to horses and to ourselves. We can be innocent and awed, all over again, by what goes on there--no matter how hardened and grizzled we've become by our years in the saddle or in the barn aisle.


For some reason, Aachen always seems to send me a subliminal message or two each year. There will be photos in the magazine or news items or events that use images or concepts of the hoof that leave me smiling and saying, "Why didn't I think of that?" and I know that I can and will think of something for my seemingly impossible challenge at hand. Like the one that has me stumped right now.

I need to just let myself remember that Aachen is out there, constantly re-inventing itself with an ongoing stream of creative interpretations of everything Horse (and sometimes Hoof). And remember that so am I, and so are you. There's no end to what we haven't imagined yet.

Walk on, Aachen!


 © 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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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.