The Olympic Hoof: Therapeutic plastic horseshoes helped two US dressage silver medal horses in Tokyo

Horseshoes, like Olympic medals, can be made from different metals. But this week in Tokyo, the world saw that they can also be made of plastic...and help bring home a medal.

For Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics this year, dreams are made of gold, silver, and bronze. But for two horses, those dreams had a plastic lining, although you might not know it unless you happened to see the bottom of their hooves.

UC Davis Heumphreus equine foot lecture will be a free online event with focus on farriery, surfaces, foot imaging

Shoeing under the microscope: Much ado about Justify's shoe as the Preakness looms

It should be part of the winner's circle ceremony. If you win the Kentucky Derby, they award you three things: First, a blanket of red roses to drape over your withers. Next, a gorgeous trophy for your owners to hoist in the air. And last but not least, there's a microscope, which you will live under for the next five weeks of your life.

Thinking Outside the Flip Flop Box: Florida Farriers Find Flex-Step Free-Heel Hoof Pad Aids Problems in Sport, Racehorse Feet

Far from the racetrack, a warmblood show horse sports the new high-tech Flex Step free-heel pad. The shoe is cut to the widest part of the foot, and rabbit ear drainage holes have been opened to allow sand, footing and water to drain out. Attentive show grooms maintain the pads by inserting the hose nozzle between the pad and the heel bulbs to make sure the sole isn't packed. Two small holes in the heels accommodate studs for traction, if needed, on some models. Copper rivets on the inside of the shoe's web attach the pad to the unheeled shoe. Made by Polyflex, a company known for its glue-on shoes, the pad is designed to be partially attached to the foot with nails and requires no adhesive or hoof packing.

Sometimes you wonder where things came from. Who was that first Standardbred farrier in Europe who cut the heels off a horse’s shoe, put a plastic pad against the foot, and nailed it on? You can hear it now: the horse walking down the barn aisle with a clumsy sounding “flap flap flap flap” sound from the loose pad against the heels. The farrier probably never counted on the noise. The trainer took some teasing, without a doubt. But that horse must have won, because they’re still around.

And no one laughs at you when your horse is winning.

Polyflex Horseshoes Hosts Informational Farrier Session with VEPG Chair Mark Silverman at Palm Beach Farrier Supply

On Saturday, January 31, Polyflex Horseshoes hosted an informational session for farriers with Mark Silverman, MS, DVM, owner of Sport Horse Veterinary Services in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He is also a partner in Southern California Equine Podiatry with farrier Ernest Woodward.

Mark Silverman is chair of the new Veterinary Equine Podiatry Group (VEPG), Inc., an initiative by a group of veterinarians who would like to see a veterinary specialization established for equine podiatry. The group is just beginning on this effort and is probably years from establishing a recognized and credentialed program.

3D Printing in the Forge and Clinic: Hoof Anatomy Models, Veterinary Applications, and Horseshoes

3D printing in the horseshoe world probably was done first in some high-tech factory in Asia, but let's give some credit to Curtis Burns in the United States, who has been using 3D printing in the design of Polyflex glue-on shoes. Watch for Mucho Macho Man to run in the Breeders Cup Classic wearing shoes derived from this 3D printing technology on Saturday. (photo courtesy of Curtis Burns/Polyflex Horseshoes)

Behind the Scenes at the FEI World Cup Finals with Swedish Farrier Bjorn Berg

You're a long way from home when you go to the Gothenburg Horse Show in Sweden. The huge Swedish spring horse show hosted both the dressage and jumping finals of the 2013 FEI World Cup indoor winter competitions. The best in both sports converged on the annual show and turned it into a world stage.

Sweden's Bjorn Berg has been the show farrier at Gothenburg for 12 years but you can bet that it had never been like this before.  Still, Bjorn managed to find time to snap some photos and email them to the USA.

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. 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).

Work and Play for Noted Veterinarian During Saratoga Visit

Linda and Dr. Frank Gravlee say hello to Rags to Riches at Todd Pletcher's barn. Note the strategically placed hay that prevents me from documenting her feet for you.

It was Alabama Stakes week at Saratoga, so Hoofcare and Lameness Journal made sure that someone from Alabama was on hand. Veterinarian and nutritionist Frank Gravlee, founder of Life Data Labs and inventor of Farriers Formula, enjoyed a hero's welcome, as did his wife, Linda, who is CEO of Life Data.

The Gravlees were featured in an article in Thoroughbred Times this summer for their innovative research on Thoroughbred nutrition at their research farm in Alabama. The Gravlees well-bred mares have foals by stallions like Distorted Humor, Royal Academy, and Posse at their sides. One of the foals' first lessons is how to stand still on a horse scale; they are monitored carefully and the mares' feed is scientifically formulated, measured, and administered. The farm's yearlings are headed to Keeneland next month to be sold.

Part of the Gravlees' whirlwind tour of Saratoga was a speaking engagement for Dr. Frank at our Hoofcare@ Saratoga event. After the lecture, Dr. Frank signed copies of his new book, co-authored with Dr Doug Butler, Laminitis and Founder: Prevention and Treatment.

Everyone in Saratoga was very welcoming to the Gravlees. Of course it didn't hurt that the Farriers Formula tractor-trailer rig had been stuck in traffic on Union Avenue outside the racetrack a few days before they arrived. It was just setting the stage!

However, the visit to Saratoga was related to Dr. Gravlee's research into laminitis and equine nutrition, and the publication of the book, rather than to a promotional push for the company.

Dr. Frank Gravlee stopped in the midst of his autograph party to chat with Diane and Curtis Burns. They market the Burns Polyflex shoe (http://www.noanvil.com/), which Curtis designed, worn recently by winning stakes horses like River's Prayer, Octave, Teuflesberg, and Zanjero. Curtis is a flying farrier who pops up everywhere.

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Shoes for Thought: Burns Polyflex Synthetic Glue-on Prototypes Put to the Test at Major Racetracks

The new Burns Polyflex shoe is made of polyurethane with a wire core (Fran Jurga © photo)

Have you seen one of these before? Probably not. You're looking at the prototype of a new glue-on shoe made entirely of polyurethane. What makes it different from most plastic shoes is that these are made with a steel core, so the shoe is somewhere shapeable, and it has a steel toe grab. The shoes are made in molds.

This shoe is the brainchild of Florida-to-New-York farrier Curtis Burns. I ran into him at Keeneland back in April, and then again at Saratoga. The shoes are underneath some very good horses--this is the foot of a top stakes-winning filly.

People talk about the eternal quest for a better mousetrap...for me, the quest is for a better horseshoe. And as long as there are farriers out there, they will never stop trying to come up with a better design and a safer way to keep a horse's feet in perpetual motion.

Curtis deserves a big pat on the back, as does his wife Diane, who does a lot of the molding. I think you'll all be hearing a lot more from them, but for now it is one horse at a time.

Will there be a special shoe design needed for the new Polytrack surfaces being installed at the California tracks and Woodbine in Ontario, among others? I'm sure there is one on a drawing board somewhere right now!