Book Announcement: Jean-Marie Denoix's Biomechanics and Physical Training of the Horse Published December 2013

Stop the world, Jean-Marie Denoix's new book is out. The first advance copies of Biomechanics and Physical Training of the Horse by Professor Jean-Marie Denoix are hitting US shores. The official publication date was December 30, 2013.

Biomechanics and Physical Training of the Horse is an expansion of Professor Denoix's landmark earlier and highly recommended earlier textbook, Physical Therapy and Massage for the Horse. The production has been upgraded to a full color format and the author's trademark illustrations are supplemented by copious photographs of leading French equestrians caught in sometimes less than graceful segments of strides, lateral movements, and jumps.

Equine Sport Science, ESPN-Style, Looks at Zenyatta

During today's Breeders Cup broadcast, ESPN took a stab at trying to explain Zenyatta's superior performance ability. They put together great graphics and computer images but understandably had to take some shortcuts to "dumb it down" for the casual national television audience.

I can just see Professor Hilary Clayton, the leading biomechanics expert in North America, pursing her lips and shaking her head, "Well, noooo, not exactly..." and Professor Jean-Marie Denoix over in France,  rolling his eyes, throwing up his hands and sighing, "Oh, mon dieu! The Americans just don't understand..."

How do you squash a PhD into three minutes? Well, you don't. But at least they tried.

Of course ESPN can't go into detail--John Brenkus only had three minutes to explain the whole thing! Anyone who knows about horses will know that it's not just about stride length and height at the withers--if it was, the big horses would dominate, and we'd have no way to explain Goldikova, Smarty Jones, Northern Dancer, Mine That Bird (he did win the Derby!) and all the smaller, more compact Thoroughbreds who are, after all, the more common horses running in our races. And the more commonly found horses in the winner's circle are not over 17 hands.

The same is true of jumpers; it might seem like bigger horses would be better jumpers but it's not a given. There are many factors to consider.

The great 18th century racehorse champion Eclipse is believed to have excelled because he was extraordinarily "normal". His body parts were in harmonious proportion to each other, which scientists believe facilitated speed.

Studies have been done that show that the most successful racehorses are not the largest or the smallest or the most anything but the most "average"--the ones whose proportions are average. Take Eclipse, for instance. That most successful of original racehorses left us his skeleton, which has been analyzed by Professor Alan Wilson and his researchers at the Structure and Motion Analysis Lab at the Royal Veterinary College in England.

Based on Eclipse and other racehorses, Wilson's data analysis determined that it was not size that mattered in  champion racehorses but proportion. The champion racehorses like Eclipse had all their body parts in proportion to each other--no one body part was out of a statistical range in proportion to others. Their skeletal systems demonstrated a balance of dimensions.

(By the way, the great Eclipse went down in history in the 1700s for winning 18 races--one less than Zenyatta. It is said his jockey never used a whip or spurs.)

The formula for speed is not just the distance covered in a stride, but the stride length x the stride frequency. There is also the x factor of efficiency--how straight are the limbs, how much excess motion is there, how efficient is the respiration, etc.?  How easy is it for the horse to reach his hind limbs underneath his body, and how far under his body do they reach? There are many ingredients to a racehorse's stride and speed formula.

So a horse with a shorter stride but a fleeter, more efficient turn of foot can potentially run faster than a long-striding large horse, although one wonders if the smaller horse may tire sooner if taking more breaths and more strides. But they may be more efficient strides.

This is where shoes come in. A horse that can't "get hold" of the track loses stride efficiency and, often, even stride frequency if the foot is delayed in breakover or the horse struggles to re-orient the foot to land in a certain pattern to avoid pain or limb interference or simple fatigue from sinking too deep into sandy footing.

It's probably harder and more time-consuming to train a huge huge with a huge stride like Zenyatta's, and the racing public should remember and respect that John Sherriffs opted to delay her start in the races until she was ready, probably because of her need to finish developing physically and no doubt "find her balance" when running at speed. Most big horses would not be given that luxury to develop first, race when ready.


Those are just some of the factors that enter into the equation of why Zenyatta excels. You can do formulas and analyze her all day but there are some intangibles. One them is called "heart". Not the heart in the chest, but the heart in the spirit. Zenyatta is loaded with that.

We saw that heart today.

A great racehorse will always be just out of the reach of science. If not, there'd be no reason to go to the races. Handicapping would be an exact science. But thankfully we still have that x factor.

© 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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Hoofcare@WEG Video: Inside the On-Site Veterinary Hospital

You can also view this video at this link, if it is not showing up here.

Note: Blog visitors may or may not see a video in this space. The video is provided by WKYT in Lexington, Kentucky and shows the temporary veterinary hospital built on the grounds of the Kentucky Horse Park for use during the World Equestrian Games.

Horses with serious injuries or illness have been transferred to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, which is only six miles away. Some eventing and endurance horses have been treated there but, as the video says, the injuries have been relatively minor and few in number so far. That's something to be thankful for!

The on-site hospital includes a veterinary podiatry unit provided by Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in the form of a Stonewell Forge equine podiatry rig. (I learned last week from Brent Chidsey at Stonewell that this truck is not the same as a farrier truck, no matter how much it may look like one.) Dr Raul Bras DVM of Rood and Riddle, who is also a certified journeyman farrier with the American Farrier's Association has been on site several times. He speaks Spanish and has been able to assist some of the South American teams, who also found their way downtown to the Breeders Supply farrier store.

A special guest at the hospital was Professor Jean-Marie Denoix of France, who provided diagnostic ultrasound expertise at the hospital and spoke at the veterinary conference that preceded WEG.

All my knowledge of the hospital is secondhand, since security there is very tight and they won't allow media (that's me) in, hence the posting of this video, which may be as close as I ever get!

© 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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Hoofcare@WEG: Educational Events for Hoof Blog Readers

Ok, horse world, it's time to plan how and when you're going to take in the opportunities waiting for you in Lexington, Kentucky over the next few weeks. And the opportunities abound, with more events being announced each day. Whether you come for a day or a week, and whether you stay in a penthouse or pitch a tent, you'll never forget this.

Think of it as Woodstock for the horse world.

The World Equestrian Games, along with downtown Lexington's International Equestrian Festival, have a great lineup of both hoofcare and lameness related events coming up over the next three weeks. Both events have trade shows with horse health exhibits; there is a third horse expo in Georgetown, Kentucky (on the north side of the Kentucky Horse Park) as well (featuring legendary trainer John Lyons), and the wonderful Secretariat Festival on Saturday, October 2 in Paris, Kentucky sounds like fun.

The education kicks off on Wednesday with the AAEP/Rood and Riddle/Alltech Veterinary Sport Horse Symposium . Familiar speakers from the Hoof Blog at the conference include Drs. Jean-Marie Denoix, Scott Morrison, Scott Pleasant, and Jeff Thomason among many others. Dr Simon Collins from Dr. Chris Pollitt's Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland was a late cancellation.

On Friday, the AAEP and Rood and Riddle will host A Winning Edge: Promoting Peak Performance in Equine Athletes with speakers like Dr. Hilary Clayton and farrier Rodney King on the roster of widely respected names.

The Games begin on Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park, with the opening ceremonies. The hoofcare education continues with daily lectures and demonstrations at Rood and Riddle's pavilion within the huge Alltech exhibition hall. Farrier Michael DeLeonardo will be working on thermography imaging demonstrations for Equine IR, the company that is providing free scans for the competition horses. USA team farrier Steve Teichman is speaking at the Draper Equine Therapy booth, and the Horse Park's farrier shop has just received a decor upgrade, thanks to Farrier Product Distribution.

In downtown Lexington at the International Equestrian Festival, hoofcare activities range from the Kentucky Horseshoeing School's live demonstrations to a six-lecture full seminar by Dr. Ric Redden and the heart-warming encore of Ada Gates Patton's Hoofcare@Saratoga presentation, "Debutante to Blacksmith".

The American Farrier's Association has assembled a rotating able-bodied crew of volunteer farriers who are covering various phases of the Games. Watch for farrier chairman Thom Gabel and his crews to be both providing services to teams as needed in the barn area and to be standing by ringside during events in their "official farrier" capacity. And if they need administrative support, they won't have far to go, since their national headquarters office is located right in the Horse Park.

Last but not least, Lexington opens its heart on Sunday night, October 3rd, for the premiere of the new Disney film, Secretariat, starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich. You can bet there will be plenty of Secretariat fans among the eventing spectators in Lexington that weekend. Ironically, the premiere will be the night before the anniversary of the day that Secretariat died, October 4th. Surely this will bring to mind why Secretariat died--he had laminitis--and stimulate discussion about how progress is coming on preventing and treating and understanding one of world's most elusive, painful and frustrating diseases.

Watch the Hoof Blog for lots of news and a full schedule about all these activities and many more as they approach. No matter what your interest in horses or hooves, the new few weeks in Lexington will be a feast for your senses and your mind. I hope to meet you while we're there! Send an email if you'd like to get together: blog (at) hoofcare.com. Follow the Blog's hoof-related Tweets from WEG on Twitter.com under @HoofcareJournal and general WEG Tweets under @FranJurga.

© 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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Next Stop on the Pub (Art) Crawl: Au Petit Fer a Cheval in Paris

2 April 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

"The Little Horseshoe" Sidewalk Cafe in Paris, France, originally uploaded by Flemming Søgaard.

Here's the third stop on our tour of the great pubs and pub signs of the world that honor the horse's hoof and its culture and craft.

This time, we're leaving behind the heavy horses and forges depicted so beautifully inside and outside the British pubs. We've hopped across the English Channel to the sidewalks of Paris, widely believed to be the world's most beautiful city and home to the world's most sophisticated people.

The "art" in this sense for this story is that the Parisians seem to have perfected the "art" of living well, and nowhere is this more evident than when you sit and watch Paris go by from a for-real Parisian sidewalk cafe.

This one has signs lettered in florid art nouveau calligraphy.You won't need a menu; just look up and be reminded that you can have a cafe au lait, a beer, or an aperitif.

Yet the cafe's name is in bold letters. No nonsense, so you won't forget where you are.

And the name? I believe that Au petit fer a cheval translates, literally, to "of the small iron of a horse" or "The Little Horseshoe". Would you expect to see a cafe called that in big-city Paris? No, but that is all part of the charm of the city that never sleeps!

From here you could hop on your bike and pedal over the National Veterinary College at Alfort, where Professor Jean-Marie Denoix shares his vast knowledge with students, and home to the museum of veterinary anatomy.

When the Republican Guard horses parade through Paris, the farrier goes along. Photographer friend Jim Freeman became intrigued by his frenetic activity as the horses approached. He said he acted like the stage manager for a rock concert. Notice the leather bag of shoes and tools over his shoulder...and he came to the parade dressed to work. I wish I knew his name. (Thanks, Jim, for the loan of this picture.)

You might also check out the historic forge at the stables of the Garde Republicaine (Republican Guard), a sort of national mounted police corps that parades through the streets of Paris with its own mounted marching band. Think of them as a cross between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Spanish Riding School...with all the savoir faire and mystery of the French Foreign Legion.

And then there was the day one of the horses dumped his rider and took off through the city streets...click here to watch a video of a loose horse galloping through the sights of Paris. Perhaps our farrier friend was at the wheel of the pursuit vehicle.

AVMA Considers Specialty in Sports Medicine for Veterinarians

by Fran Jurga | 16 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog


The American Board of Veterinary Specialties (ABVS) of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is the authority charged with recognizing the sub-categories of veterinary medicine which a practitioner can pursue. Often recognized by the term "diplomate" or "board-certified", veterinarians can and do pursue advanced credentials in surgery, internal medicine, and reproduction, for example; there are currently 20 specialties within veterinary medicine.

For years, many in the hoofcare camp have grumbled that there was no specialty in podiatry, or even lameness, for that matter.

Recognizing the void in specialities for equine practitioners and those interested in lameness--and sensing the dedication of those who are hard at work in this field--French professor Jean-Marie Denoix has been offering a specialized and quite advanced course in imaging and diagnosis of lameness under his ISELP--International Society for Equine Equine Locomotor Pathology--which offers eight modules of advanced education in lameness problems; completion of all eight conferences then qualifies candidates to undergo a competency examination for Society certification.

While Denoix's program carries with it the tremendous respect attached to anything bearing his name and the top American veterinarians who are working with him in the program, ISELP is not part of the larger AVMA system of "colleges" or specialties in veterinary medicine. It is however, very specific to equine medicine and biomechanics.

This week the AVMA announced that it is considering a recognition of sports medicine and rehabilitation as a new "recognized veterinary specialty organization." This speciality would not be specific to horses, and would cover other species. Things don't happen overnight in the AVMA; the organizing committee of the proposed American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation submitted a letter of intent to the ABVS in 2003 and a formal petition for recognition of the specialty organization to the ABVS Committee on the Development of New Specialties in November 2008.

The ABVS will be collecting comments from the veterinary community and the public regarding the proposed new specialty organization. The comment period closes on November 1, 2009.

Photo/radiograph by Tim Flach, from the book Equus, available from 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.