Fran Jurga`s Hoofcare + Lameness: Eventing

Showing posts with label Eventing. Show all posts

Friday, August 03, 2012

Olympic Horseshoes: Eventing at London 2012 Saved the Best for Last

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This is one of my favorite photos from the Olympics so far.

This was the final obstacle on the eventing cross-country course: the horse had to jump through an Olympic-sized horseshoe, with some brush across the base. Mark Todd's horse went through the brush--he was tired--and it slowed down the time.

The shoe is great except no one can explain the heel nails; a small detail, but perhaps studs in the heels would have been appropriate given the discipline.

The horseshoe was flanked on either side by bookend sculpthres of giant jumping horses made of shoes.

Presumably, the obstacle will enjoy a second life being recycled at another cross-country course somewhere in Britain. So maybe we'll see it again. Like so many of the cross country obstacles, it is unique!

Speaking of shoes, many were lost on the course that day, including by Great Britain's Zara Phillips, whose horse High Kingdom lost both front shoes somewhere along the way but still managed to get home.

We're still waiting for a comment from Zara's mother, Princess Anne, who is former master of the Worshipful Company of Farriers and a great friend to the farrier profession in Great Britain.

It was great to hear NBC Olympics commentator Melanie Smith Taylor in the USA give a shout-out to the important role that farriers play in the safety of horses and riders in the sport of eventing.

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© 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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Monday, July 30, 2012

London 2012 Farriers: Tending the Other Olympic Flame

Once there was a peaceful park on the edge of London...

The Opening Ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games were pretty spectacular. I’m sure that the highlight for many was when the Queen parachuted out of a helicopter and into the stadium with James Bond at her side and her handbag in place.

But for me, the highlight came before that.

Director Danny Boyle’s timeline portrayal began with a bucolic rural England, complete with (real) giant Shire horses. It got even better when smokestacks rose among the meadows and the Industrial Revolution reshaped the land into mills, waterwheels and massive gears. Smoke filled the air. The pastoral farmers turned into millworkers with soot on their faces.

And then it happened.

The smiths leaned on their hammers and watched the rings they'd forged rise in the sky over the stadium

The center of the stadium glowed with fire and a single giant Olympic ring formed in the earth. And it kept forming because 100 or so hammer-wielding smith-types pounded it into shape. Ok, so their sledges were undoubtedly made of foam. But it was pretty realistic, an Olympic-sized exercise of traditional iron wheel-making in a forge.

The ring rose in the night sky and four others joined it, forming the iconic Olympic rings.

The peaceful park was transformed into an equestrian village, with a smithy, of course.

Across the river in London’s Greenwich Park, the equestrian events were set to begin 12 hours later and the Olympic forge was open for business. The flame burning there is encased in a gas forge, but it is being tended by a group of British farriers who are also sharing it with team farriers from around the world.

If there is a place at the Olympic equestrian venue where the world meets, it will be here. The Olympic forge amidst the sprawling stable area should be a re-creation of the village smithy on a town green.

During the Games, the Hoof Blog will do its best to connect you with the people who are sharing the Olympic Forge’s Flame.

You won’t hear gossip about horses or riders, but you might learn something about how the FEI and individual nations approach farriery and veterinary care as essential parts of equine welfare, how the forge came to be, who the farriers are, and which nations sent a farrier along with the horses to keep things straight.

We’ll end the beginning by saying thank you to all the farriers who have already generously provided interviews and sent over photos of their time in Greenwich Park. Keep it coming...and keep the Olympic forge flame burning for us all.

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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Rock Star Riders: Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos on NBC's Rock Center

Maybe this has nothing to do with hoofcare or lameness, but it has everything to do with the business we're in, the people we work with or for, and the horses in our care.

International readers may not know who Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos are (yet) but I hope everyone in the hoof world will take a few minutes to watch this video and get to know them.

Not since Zenyatta was on 60 Minutes before the 2011 Breeders Cup have we had this depth of publicity about a single horse.

A few things are missing from this video: the other people in the background of this (hopefully) London-bound duo.

The local "vet hospital" where Neville Bardos was treated after the fire was none other than New Bolton Center's George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Boyd was very lucky to have a place like that so nearby.

The hyperbaeric oxygen chamber shown in the video would have been at Fair Hill Equine Therapy Center at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland.

Neville's vet is mentioned several times in the video. That would probably have been Kevin Keane DVM, who is an event rider himself, and/or Dr. Mary Griffin of Griffin Equine; both were mentioned by Boyd after the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event this year.

Lindsey Taylor is Boyd Martin's groom. She won the US Eventing Association's 2011 Christine E. Stafford Groom of the Year Award and was the first recipient of the Professional Riders Organization Liz Cochrane Memorial Groom’s Award. She was nominated by her employer, Boyd Martin, who had this to say about her:

“I believe the events that led up to, during and after the Memorial Day barn fire separate Lindsey from the rest of the list of candidates. This lady was able to deal with the tragedy of the loss of the horses that died, also rehabilitating the injured ones that survived, whilst working out of a number of barns, and was still able to fulfill her energy of the competition horses that were unaffected, all at the same time without complaint, negativity or fuss, which impressed me more than anything."

Last but far from least, Neville's farrier is sport-horse specialist Doug Neilson CJF of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Doug has been shoeing for Boyd (and Neville) for the past four or five years, he said today. He also gave a resounding endorsement to this NBC segment on his client. Doug's farrier business featured in the Philadelphia Enquirer a few years ago.

Boyd and Neville are off to New Jersey this week for the Jersey Fresh 3-star event.

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Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Olympic Test Event: London 2012 Will Bring a Country Sport to the City

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London's preparing! The host city for the 2012 Olympics is running an equestrian "test event" over the inner-city park that will be home to all the equestrian events next summer during the Games. Photo by Ollie O'Brien.

The Olympics began this week in London. Not really, it was just the test event to get the feel of the equestrian facilities in Greenwich Park, but there's no doubt that the 2012 Olympics is only a little more than a year away, and there's no better way to make people take it seriously than to have a walk around the new facility. Forty top riders took part in the test event, which was at the two-star level and ended on Wednesday with show jumping. Dozens more riders attended as observers to check the lay of the land, or the arena, depending on whether they are eventers, dressage riders, or show jumpers.

An above-ground arena and stabling area was designed to be built in London's Greenwich Park for this week's Olympic Test Event and next year's Olympics. The temporary dressage and jumping ring means that the Olympics will disturb the historic park as little as possible. Photo by Khedara.

Notice that the grass underneath the dressage and showjumping arena was not dug up; the 5000 square-meter arena merely perches atop the grand lawn on 2100 legs. Presumably they are sunk into the ground.

Great Britain's Piggy French, the eventual individual winner, lead from the dressage phase. Just as much as everyone cares who wins, people care what the arena surface is like, how the warmup rings work, where the start for cross-country is located, and dozens of other aspects of the event. Eventing is only one of the equestrian sports, including modern pentathalon, that will use the facility.

Nina Ligon of Thailand (and Virginia, USA) rode her dressage test in the bright sun on Monday. Nina's farrier, David Watson, accompanied Team Thailand to London.

Haydn Price, head farrier for the Olympic Test Event (© photo by Fran Jurga)

The man of the hour is Haydn Price, head farrier for London 2012's test event. Haydn is from Wales and is normally Great Britain's team farrier for dressage and show jumping.

Haydn was ecstatic about the facilities that have been built at Greenwich Park--which include pop-up stables and an equally pop-up 5000 square-meter arena standing on 2100 legs. He described that setting as "lovely" by email and went on to comment:

"It is going to be an amazing event next year, (one) where the event will be taken to the people rather than the people taken to the event.

"The atmosphere here today has been incredible: the local schools have been made an integral aspect of this event by being invited to attend. Children of all ages have today experienced something truly magnificent; many of then had never seen a horse other than the occasional mounted police officers that patrol London and the district.

"Yep, the countryside has well and truly arrived in the heart of the City of London!"

The wash stall; the "pop-up" Olympic stabling area is built above ground on platforms; horses come and go on ramps. (© FEI photo by Kit Houghton)

Equestrian Route in Greenwich Park for 2012 Olympics

I had to ask what a "Saxon Tumuli" is (or are). Apparently they are ancient burial mounds.

Here's a map of Greenwich Park with the route of the cross-country overlaid, although I am not sure if this is the four-star cross-country route proposed for the Olympics or the five-minute 2-star used for the test event. What the Google Earth view doesn't show you is the undulating terrain, which made for a course with lots of tight turns and ups and downs.

This brief video, courtesy of www.greenwich.co.uk shows some action from the cross-country on Tuesday. The opening shots are from a jump where a group of vocal and local schoolchildren dominated the spectators. They added a very different dimension to the traditional course observation etiquette.

How's this for great community public relations? The schoolchildren of Greenwich are working to “design a Greenwich jump” which will feature in the cross-country course for London 2012.

The right stud for Olympic terrain

Riders chose to stud up today. From a report by John Thier on Eventingnation.com earlier today: "People were using some huge studs today. The ground was maybe a bit firm and not the least bit muddy, but it was still slick.

"I don't know how to describe the ground at Greenwich--it isn't sand but it isn't clay and it doesn't have the feel of plain dirt. It does not have much hold and after the first few rides word quickly filtered back to the barns to really stud up. With the big studs the ground rode fine."

A photo slide show from Tuesday's cross-country, courtesy of www.greenwich.co.uk.

Wednesday's program consisted of two consecutive show jumping competitions to determine both the team result (winner: Great Britain) and the individual high-scorer (Piggy French of Great Britain). A showjumping demonstration by specialist jumpers and riders also gave the arena a workout.

Showjumping in an outdoor urban setting was the grand finale of the test event on Wednesday. (© Kit Houghton/FEI image)

Leader of Greenwich Council Mr. Chris Roberts was quoted on the greenwich.co.uk web site as saying that being a host borough continued “to be a source of tremendous pride” for his district.

"(One thousand) of our residents are working on the Olympic sites, our businesses have secured something like £70million worth of contracts and we have the most iconic venues of the Games, which will continue to support our tourism in the years following the Games," Roberts is quoted as saying.

Just out of site in this shot is the Greenwich Maritime Museum, one of the greatest historical museums in the world, and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the 0 hour by which all clocks in the world are set and time zones and meridiens of longitude are determined.

In case you ever wondered: there is no daylight savings time in GMT.

If you're looking for Greenwich on your GPS, the longitude coordinate is 0° 0' 0". Latitude, however, is 51° 28' 38"N.

At night, a green laser cuts through the night sky in Greenwich to mark the meridien.

Test event individual winner Piggy French of Great Britain (© FEI photo by Kit Houghton)

So what happens on Wednesday night? Does someone pull a plug? Does the arena have a fold-up command, will the stables deflate, do the crowds just disappear?

The main part of the park has already been re-opened to the public, after being closed off during the cross-country.

You get the feeling that Greenwich Park--which is 568 years old--might just go back to being a place for picnics and dog walkers. There's probably a plan to fill in all the hoofprints, and leave no trace of the horses behind.

But they'll be back, and they're bringing their friends. Word is spreading around the world that Greenwich has passed The Test, with flying colors.

Let's hope that Olympic mascots Wenlock (left) and Mandeville (right) aren't allowed anywhere near the horses. (Photo by Matt Northam)

The Olympic Rings hang in a London train station; I wonder if they are pointing the way to Platform 9 3/4? There's no question that for many people, a trip to London for the Olympics next year will be full of Harry Potter symbolism. I wonder if the cross-country or show jumping designers will theme an obstacle or jump that will be recognizable as such only to the wizards in the crowd.

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Monday, April 25, 2011

Badminton Best Shod Horse Prize 2011: Jim Hayter Wins Second Award for Event Horse Farriery

While the big news from the 2011 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in England may be that veteran Olympic gold medalist Mark Todd of New Zealand has put a 31-year spread on his victories there, Hoof Blog readers want to know who won the prestigious Best Shod Horse Award.

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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Video: Virginia Tech Vet School Farrier Volunteered at World Equestrian Games

It wasn't long ago that this blog was announcing that Travis Burns had been chosen as the first resident farrier to work at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

It only took about six months for Travis to be settled in enough at the job to answer the call of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. He signed on with the American Farrier's Association (AFA) to volunteer his services during the eventing portion of the Games.

All of the 70 or so volunteer farriers did a great job, but I think that Travis is probably the only one with a public relations department waiting to work on his behalf. So let's say that this video is a blanket salute to all the men and women who pitched in to help.

I'm sure Travis would agree.

Working at the eventing part of the Games was a natural for Travis. Before moving to Blacksburg for his position at the vet school, Travis worked at Forging Ahead in Round Hill, Virginia, outside Middleburg and, after college and farrier school, went through the group practice's formal farrier career-track internship program . Forging Ahead specializes in sport horses and lameness therapy, and the client list reads like a who's who of the sport of eventing.

All the farriers--young and old--who staffed the events at the World Equestrian Games were a great group who traveled to Lexington from all over the United States. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I'm sure none of them knew exactly what to expect. It could have been pouring rain or a tornado might have passed through, but the weather was friendly and their service was, too. They took a chance, gave up their earnings at home for a few days, and traveled at their own expense, but I doubt any of them regrets the time spent volunteering or being part of that event. There will probably never be a "next time".

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Thursday, September 09, 2010

Leg Boots for Sport Horses: Protection? Support? Do They Work?

How much do you know about protective and supportive leg boots for sport and performance horses? I don't mean just the difference between polo wraps and jumping boots, but how much do you really think they help prevent injuries to structures like the always-vulnerable suspensory ligament. Do you know the difference between protection and support?

British equine science consultant David Marlin PhD is about to teach you a lot more in this lecture kindly videotaped and provided for us by the US Eventing Association.

David's campaign to test horse gear the same way we test human gear makes a lot of sense and this video is a first step to understanding more about what some of the superficial leg injuries in eventing are like, where in the lower limb the horses tend to hit, how hard they tend to hit and whether a boot or wrap can make a difference.

Sit down, relax, and take this in, or make some time later to come back and watch this. Please Tweet or email this page to others so that this information can spread. It may sound basic, but we find over and over again that it is the most basic things that people often do not understand because they seem so...well... basic, that they don't bother to ask questions. This is written by someone who has put boots on upside down plenty of times and been publicly embarrassed for it!

I will certainly suggest to David that if there are to be rules about boots that marking "top" and "inside" should be mandatory.

Thanks again to US Eventing and to Dr. Marlin for providing this excellent lecture.

© 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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Friday, August 27, 2010

FEI NSAID Background: Alex Atock Explains When and Why Bute Was Banned

Many people I meet in the horse world are shocked and even a bit put off sometimes when they first learn that the FEI does not allow horses to compete on even the smallest amount of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, pronounced "en-saids"). If it's ok for horses in the United States to race and show on Bute and other NSAIDS, why are the other countries so backward?

Or is it the other way around?

Whether it is horse racing or horse sports like eventing, driving, showjumping and dressage, the world's perception of horses competing on even the lowest dose of therapeutic medication are polarized.

Last week's congress on NSAIDs, organized by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was designed to fully educate all interested parties before the FEI's General Assembly vote in November which will ask the world's equestrian bodies if it would like to liberalize the FEI's NSAID policy by going with a "progressive list" of allowed medications for competition horses.

Much of the NSAID Congress was scientific presentations by leading experts like the USA's Dr. Wayne McIlwraith but there were some ethical considerations as well. So far, the FEI has posted 12 videos of lectures from the Congress on YouTube for us to watch. That's a lot of pharmacology research.

But perhaps most important of all the lectures was a bit of a history lesson from horse welfare specialist veterinarian Alex Atock of Ireland, who was in the middle of the FEI's upheaval over NSAID reform in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he served as head of the FEI's veterinary department. Bute was banned under Alex Atock's watch; who better to take us back in time to find out when and why the ban was initiated?

Listening to this video, I felt like I was thumbing through old issues of Hoofcare & Lameness. As the FEI strugged with the issue of banning Bute, I was writing about it, and about all the horror stories that were happening in the horse industry at the same time. Were they related to Bute? No, but they were related to horse welfare and the perception that people in horse sports had little regard for the well-being and even the lives of their horses. Somehow, this all spilled over to the drug debate, though.

As Atock says, we had German pole rapping scandals, American insurance-collecting horse killers, and the 1990 Breeders Cup had been called the blackest day in horse racing history, as three horses were euthanized as a result of breakdowns in one day's races, including the magnificent three-year-old filly Go For Wand. It's amazing horse sports of any kind survived that era.

The FEI's decision to completely ban Bute from competition horses was painful. It has been painful all along the way since then, but never more painful than the past year, when the old dichotomy opened up again.

Which way will the FEI vote in November--with the liberalized science-is-God view or with the welfare-ethics old guard of Europe who staunchly maintain that Bute and NSAIDs were banned for a reason and horse sport needs to distance itself from the perception that equine athletes are drugged in order to perform?

Does a horse on Bute deserve a Gold Medal if the Silver goes to a horse that is "clean"? On the other hand, should a horse be forced to withdraw from a world-championship competition because of a minor episode of colic a week beforehand that has nothing to do with a performance-enhancing effect of a drug that could be given to treat the colic? Should a vet have to hesitate to medicate a horse because of the performance-drug testing repercussions of a therapeutic substance?

These questions go around and around and around.

By way of education, here's a clip from a lecture by USEF veterinarian Kent Allen, explaining to event riders how to fill out forms to report the NSAID(s) their horses are on, since the USEF rules were changed this year. This clip is one of a 24-part YouTube series with Dr. Allen presented by US Eventing and sponsored by SmartPak to help riders through the process of understanding what is permissable for their horses and how to manage their horses within USEF rules while competing at USEF (as opposed to FEI) events. That's right: 24 videos to explain how to manage your horse's medications within the rules, and to help riders understand the issues and regulations surrounding the approved and unapproved medications themselves.

Dr. Allen is chairman of the USEF Drug and Medication Committee and vice-chair of the FEI Medication Advisory Group. He is also official Veterinary Coordinator of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. It is of critical importance to him that riders and trainers understand the medication process and that the American horse public understands the reasoning behind the USEF policies, which are different from the major European nations, but in line with some other countries around the world.

The one-med-or-two forms explanation is vaguely reminiscent of some of my phone calls with Blue Cross Blue Shield about my HMO care.

I highly recommend that ANYONE who even thinks of commenting one way or the other on the medication debate in the FEI watch all the FEI NSAID Congress videos AND Dr. Allen's USEF rules videos.

Educate yourself before you speak. The FEI and US Eventing have laid out a great menu of education for you, for free. You don't have to buy airplane tickets, stay in hotels, or sit all day in uncomfortable chairs. Just watch and listen and learn about medication rules, here, there and everywhere.

What do you want the future of the horse world to be like? How do you think international horse sports will be perceived if medications are allowed?

Most importantly, now that Alex Atock has reminded us where we have been, and opened up the closet where the skeletons have been hiding, where on earth is all this going?

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Badminton Horse Trials Farriers Prize 2009: Photos of New Zealand's Winning Best Shod Horse

We've been halfway around the world and back again this week to catch up with New Zealand team farrier Andrew Nickalls, who in turn has been celebrating his victory in one of the world's most understated and underrated competitions for farriers, the "best shod horse" trophy at the 60th running of the four-star Badminton Horse Trials on May 7-10 in Gloucestershire, England. Andrew (photo at left) is the sort of fellow you'd want in your life boat when the ocean liner is sinking.

He simply shot pictures of the horse's feet with his cellphone and emailed them. Mission accomplished. Of course, you can't see much, but he got the job done.

The shoe, first: Vortex is a 15-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred that is at the four-star ("Olympic") level. He finished 20th at Badminton, and the only things on his feet are shoes, nails and studs. That's quite something in itself. The shoes are handmade 3/4 x 3/8" concave, with side clips.

I asked about the double stud holes, sure that it was some Kiwi trick but Andrew said: "I put two studs in the outside branch due to the fact that it's such a major competition where they are being taken in and out so often and therefore the extra is a spare one in case the thread goes!"

Side view shows the fit and the positioning and relative size and height of the clips.

While the shoe is set back under the toe a bit, it's fit with some fullness at the heel and quarter, perhaps more than you'd expect for a horse that is going to be scrambling through a cross-country course. Andrew obviously knows this horse and knew what he could and couldn't do there. Some horses are more careful jumpers than others.

This is part 2 of this article; for more about Badminton's Farrier Prize, Andrew Nickalls, please read part 1 of this article, showing the horse's front end conformation and the rider's action. Click here to go there. The competition was judged by James Blurton, who has himself won the award three times with three different horses for three different riders. Jim evaluated the horses both before the competition and on the final day, to see how the shoes and feet had held up...and which horses were still sound.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Kiwis Trot Off with Badminton's Farriers Prize for 2009

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

Tim Price trots up Vortex, winner of the Farriers Prize at Badminton Horse Trials

New Zealand rider Tim Price with Vortex, shod by Andrew Nickalls, was judged Best Shod at the 60th Badminton Horse Trials in England last weekend. (Nico Morgan Photography)

By now, Hoof Blog readers know how it works. A shoeing judge observes all the horses entered in the venerable four-star Badminton Horse Trials on Wednesday of the event, as they "trot up" for the first presentation to the ground jury, where they are judged on soundness. The hoof judge is also looking at soundness and can look at their shoes.

The foot judge can have a second look on Sunday morning, when the field has narrowed down to the survivors of Saturday's cross-country, and those survivors are presented to the ground jury again, to be judged fit to continue in the show jumping. So the foot judge sees what the feet look like after dressage and cross-country, sees which shoes stayed on, and sees which horses are still in the competition and, most importantly, which are still sound.

In 2009, the judge awarded the prize to a New Zealand Thoroughbred, Vortex, ridden to Tim Price and shod by Andrew Nickalls, the team farrier for New Zealand's eventing team.

More about Vortex: A 15-year-old Thoroughbred, Vortex had a lot working against him in the competition. By that age, an eventer has a lot of wear and tear on his legs and hooves. This horse is a veteran. Andrew said, "Vortex has good feet, and is lovely to shoe. Janelle (Richards), his co-owner and groom, simply put some oil on his hooves, nothing special."

Other horses had their hooves highly polished and buffed with coatings so that the nail heads and clips, if they were there, were barely visible. Nickalls and Price chose the opposite tack for Vortex and let his true hooves show.

horse hooves at Badminton Horse Trials horse inspection

Compare Vortex's hooves with these highly polished hoof capsules.

It is interesting to note that Tim Price owned this horse in New Zealand, sold him to Sweden, then bought him back after he moved to England. Reunited, they finished 20th at Badminton, where it is a great accomplishment just to finish at all.

More about Andrew Nickalls: Andrew has been in the UK for ten years. He apprenticed at home in New Zealand, and is originally from Tutaruru on the North Island; he took his Diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (DipWCF) exam after some additional training in England.

Andrew has traveled with the New Zealand team to two Olympics now, and has competed himself at the international level of farriery at the Calgary Stampede World Championships four times since 2004, and was in the Top Ten there three years in a row. He married last year and bought a house in Dorset, on the west coast of England.

More about the shoes: We are waiting for more photos so you can see at least one of the shoes, and these will be posted as soon as they get here. Vortex wears handmade shoes made from 3/4 x 3/8" concave, with side clips, and with quarter clips behind, and is done every five weeks.

About the judge: Judge for the competition was Welsh farrier James Blurton, who himself has won the best-shod award three times.

Thanks to the Badminton event office for looking up all the previous winners. If you have trouble reading the list, double-click on the image and you should be able to see it at a much larger view size. James Blurton and Bernie Tidmarsh are tied for the most wins, with three each. Notice that all three of Bernie's wins were with New Zealand horses! I think it is interesting that no horse and only one rider (Andrew Bennie of New Zealand) has ever won twice.

Andrew said he made the trip to Badminton on Saturday to be on hand for cross-country, but Vortex had no problems after the long test. "So we just hung out and had a beer and I drove home," he said in his matter-of-fact Kiwi way. Tim called him on Sunday when the announcement of the trophy was made.

Congratulations, all the way around the world.

(Note: cover at left features Bernie Tidmarsh, resident farrier at Badminton; if you ever have a chance to meet him, don't miss it!)

© 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.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Badminton 60th Anniversary Horse Trials: The View from Below

by Fran Jurga | 9 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

In England this weekend, the 60th galloping of the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials is well underway in Gloucestershire. The photos are a little slower than the news is getting to me, but when they get here, they're wonderful.

Badminton is the world's most prestigious three-day event, rate four-stars, and this year is even having decent weather, except for high winds during the dressage that ruined some people's well-laid plans.

These photos are from Wednesday, at the first vet inspection. In this photo, you see a horse's hooves being oiled to insure that the vet will not pick them up. But they'll look nice. Other horses looked to have a hard, high-sheen coating applied, rather than the classic oil. Whoever is at work here is a confident woman who doesn't fear getting hoof oil on her expensive bracelet. So it's true what they say about event riders being fearless.

The hooves of experience shown here are those of the famous Toytown, who has had such bad luck lately. The cowboy boots belong to Zara Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth. The former World and European champion event horse under Phillips, Toytown's 16-year-old hooves look like they have been around the block, and he's had more than his share of lameness problems, including being knocked out of the Olympics last year. Sadly, he was retired on cross-country today after bobbling some fences and getting hung up. Zara did the right thing. Her second horse, Ardfield Magic Star, went lame on cross-country and was also retired. Zara's father, US eventing coach Captain Mark Phillips, won Badminton four times.

Here's Emily Llewellyn with Society Spice, who made it through cross-country. I went through all the preliminary horse inspection photos and it looks like a much smaller percentage of horses is shod with toe clips this year, although it seemed that most of the horses in the top 20 after cross-country were predominantly shod with toe clips, which is interesting in itself. There looked like some glue-ons, too and lots of very highly manicured hooves for the inspection--I wonder what they look like now. Last year's best-shod horse, Valdemar, did not pass the first inspection.

The fashions that some of the riders don for the horse inspection are pretty wild (but fun). Both of these riders chose clothing that, when you look closely at their horses' legs, which is what the ground jury will do, their clothing does not distract from the horses' action or coloring. Smart move.

Check back on Sunday (or maybe Monday, depending on when they supply the news) for announcements about the Best Shod Award and the ultimate winner.

Note: These three photos are provided by ©Kit Houghton/Mitsubishi Motors. Thanks to Kit for not cropping the feet out of the photos.

© 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).

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Mid-Week Hoof Humor: Going Heavy on the Forehand

posted by Fran Jurga | 12 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Is this what the trainers are talking about when they say a horse is "too heavy on the forehand"? Here's another Photoshop masterpiece from worth1000.com and equinest.com's "Photoshopped Horses" gallery. I thought the jumping boots on the hinds were an especially nice touch. Thanks!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

"Horse" of the Year is a Pony! Teddy Wins 2007 Farnam® / Platform® USEF Horse of the Year

Karen O’Connor’s popular pony “Theodore O’Connor” was selected from among horses representing all USEF breeds and disciplines as the nation's most exceptional horse for 2007.

Owned by The Theodore O’Connor Syndicate, LLC, the pony is one of the most successful horses in the history of U. S. Eventing. "If size truly does matter, Teddy has proven he is a giant and a huge champion in the hearts of all his fans," said Karen O'Connor, Theodore O'Connor's rider. "It is truly a privilege to be a part of his life."

At 12 years of age, Theodore O’Connor was the first pony in history to compete at the Pan American games. Known as “Teddy”, the 14.1-hand Thoroughbred/Arabian/Shetland cross led the U.S. Eventing team to a Gold medal and brought home an Individual Gold, as well. When the medals were presented, Theodore O‚Connor certainly wowed the crowd as he galloped around the arena, inches shorter than his Gold-medal teammates.

The chestnut gelding captured the heart of the eventing world last spring at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, where he placed third in the four-star eventing competition. Teddy's farrier is Hoofcare and Lameness Journal's contributing editor Paul Goodness. Paul, who founded the successful group practice Forging Ahead, is also farrier at Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia, has been farrier to the Team O'Connor horses for many, many years.

Other 2007 accomplishments for Theodore O‚Connor include: Reserve Champion of the USEF National CCI**** Championship, the first pony ever to compete at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day-Event, Winner of The Fork CIC*** and United States Eventing Association Horse of the Year.

USEF Members, media and the USEF Board of Directors voted to select Theodore O'Connor for the prestigious honor , which was presented at the Horse of the Year gala at the Louisville (Kentucky) Marriott Downtown Hotel last night.

Other finalists for the award were: Aequus+//, an Arabian owned by Hazelbank Investments; Esteban, a Friesian owned by Deb Goldmann; Free Willy, a Hackney owned by Blevins Farms; and Sapphire, a Jumper owned by McLain Ward and Blue Chip Bloodstock.

Farnam's line of Platform® horse feeds and equine health supplements sponsors the Horse of the Year program.

(Information from a supplied press release was used in this post. Thanks to Carrie Foote at Farnam for the photo of Teddy and Karen at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day-Event in April 2007.)

Friday, July 20, 2007

Amy Tryon Found Guilty of Abuse in Le Samurai Case But...

Note: the transcript below is from the Federation Equestrian Internatioanl (FEI), the ruling body of worldwide Olympic-discipline horse sports. The case invovled a US rider at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event whose horse broke down at the finish of the cross-country course and was subsequently euthanized. At question was whether or not the rider abused the horse by continuing on course after the injury happened. This has been a hotly debated issue in the horse world.

The FEI Tribunal has taken its decision in the case of alleged horse abuse committed by US rider Amy Tryon on her horse Le Samurai while participating in the cross-country phase of the 2007 Rolex Lexington Kentucky 4-Star Event on 28 April 2007.

The case involved the riding of an apparently lame horse in the final moments of the course, and the state of the horse when the last fence was jumped. A hearing was held in this matter on 25 June 2007, at which the parties presented a substantial volume of evidence including testimony from a number of very experienced members of the international eventing community.

The dilemma which the Tribunal had to resolve was a very difficult one. The main issues to be decided were (a) whether the competitor committed an “abuse” as this term is defined under the applicable rules (see note to the editor) and, if an abuse was committed, (b) whether it was an intentional act or an unfortunate omission to take action and stop the horse, as signals of discomfort were not correctly perceived by the competitor.

The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the competitor's behaviour at the end of the cross-country phase of the event objectively constitutes abuse according to the requirements of the applicable FEI regulation. The competitor acted, by continuing to ride after the horse was objectively lame and injured. Conversely the competitor omitted to act, by failing to pull up the horse when she could have. This caused or was likely to cause pain or discomfort to the horse.

The Tribunal expresses its opinion that “abuse of horses constitutes an offence that violates the most fundamental rules of the equestrian sport and is, as such, highly reprehensible from a moral point of view”. The Tribunal determined that, had “the competitor intended to ride a lame or injured horse, a suspension for life would not have been an inappropriate or a too severe penalty”.

The Tribunal’s decision indicates, however, that it determined in this case that there was a “significant disconnect between what Amy Tryon felt and what was actually occurring.” While Amy Tryon was negligent in not stopping the horse, the Tribunal determined that she did not understand that the horse had been injured until just as she pulled him up. The decision states that “[t]he Tribunal believes that in the state the competitor was in – tired, focused on completing the course and without the benefit of video and ability to observe matters or analyze them logically - she did not realize that the injury had occurred, and thus never intended to continue on course with a lame or injured horse. The Tribunal believes that the competitor clearly realized that the Horse took quite a number of uneven strides, but could not determine their cause or likely severity. The Tribunal believes that the competitor should have nevertheless stopped earlier to understand the severity of the lameness.”
The determination that there was no premeditation and no actual awareness by the competitor that she was riding a lame or injured horse is taken into account in imposing sanctions on the competitor.

After careful examination of the parties’ submissions and evidence, the Tribunal confirms the disqualification of horse and the competitor from the above-mentioned event and imposes the following sanctions on the competitor:
- suspension from competition for a period of two months (to commence immediately and without further notice at the end of the 30-day appeal deadline, or sooner if the right of appeal is waived);
- a fine of (Swiss francs) CHF 1,000;
- a cost contribution of CHF 1,500 towards the legal costs of the judicial procedure.

The Tribunal decision states that Mr. David O’Connor, President of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), Member of the FEI Eventing Committee and Chairman of the FEI Eventing Safety Committee, phrased the dilemma and the conclusion well in remarking: “Premeditated abuse is an action that should, and needs to be dealt with in the most severe actions that we as a sport can take by our judiciary side. Similar cases to this [the present case] are much harder to judge and I feel should be dealt with on a whole different level. Should this be taken seriously – yes; career changing – no.”

The full text of the decision (30 pages) is available on the FEI website under LEGAL/DECISIONS.