Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, horseracing was as full of beauty and tradition and artistry as it was at the finest racetracks of Europe. Racing truly is the sport of kings...and sheikhs and shahs and sultans.
It's War Horse week on The Hoof Blog. We'll start off with a short and not very sweet video of the British Army farrier encampment somewhere in India.You can see the forges and the horses lined up, and you can also notice the division of labor between the Indians and the British.
Who's pumping the bellows?
The second part of the clip demonstrates what they are calling the Lightwark Tackle System. I haven't found any other reference to this. It is similar to other systems used to desensitize a green horse and get shoes on it.
They didn't have much time, and this is how they got it done. I don't know how many horses broke their legs or necks or how many young Indians were seriously injured in the making of this film, but I know that the American Humane Association--the organization that watched over the making of War Horse and gave the film its highest rating for the welfare of the horses on the set--wouldn't have been pleased that the British even made this film, much less actually used that system.
It's just the way things were.
I hope you will enjoy the posts planned for this week and that you will go see War Horse, if you live in the United States or Australia. Go see it on a big screen and watch what's going on in the background as well as where the camera is pointed.
This film is from the archives of the War Horse: Fact or Fiction exhibit at the National Army Museum in London.
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Merial has announced that nominations may be submitted for the 2011 Merial Applied Equine Research Award. The award recognizes outstanding research conducted in a specific field of applied equine science over the past five years. The 2011 award will honor advances in pain management of horses.
The winner will be recognized during the 12th WEVA Congress in Hyderabad, India, to be held November 2 –5, 2011. The recipient will be awarded a plaque and a $6,000 (U.S.) award, plus a $1000 contribution to travel costs. He or she will be invited to present an oral and written summary of their work to the Congress.
Award Guidelines
National equine veterinary practitioner associations and individual members of those organizations can submit a nomination. Nominees do not have to be members of the nominating association, nor do they have to be of the same nationality or live in the country from which the nomination stems.
Nominations should be comprised of the following contents:
A brief (not more than one page) cover letter from the nominator. This should include the candidate’s name, address, telephone, e-mail address, fax number (if required), and a listing/summary of his/her current and past positions of employment.
One-page listing the candidate’s major scientific publications from 2006 to 2010 (inclusive).
One-page narrative of the scientific basis for this nomination. For example: for what advances in the management and treatment of pain in horses has this candidate been responsible within the last five years, and why are they noteworthy?
An international panel will select the award recipient.
Nominations should be submitted electronically to:
David R. Hodgson, Professor and Head of Department
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
VA-MD Regional College of Veterinary Medicine
Virginia Tech
Duck Pond Drive (0442)
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
(540) 231-7666 hodgson@vt.edu
Nonchalent carriage horse on Marine Drive in Mumbai, with the Taj Mahal in the background; photo by Bernard Duvernay.
For the past few weeks I have been following the course of a strain of Equine Influenza in India. It has been traveling from the high mountains of Kashmir down through the western side of the country. Recently, the racetracks in Mumbai were closed.
The disease was hitting working horses and racing horses and polo ponies. It has shut down racing in the country just as it did in Australia last year. But because it is India, we are not hearing so much about it.
When I heard that it had hit the carriage horses that are lined up outside the Taj Mahal in Mumbai, I thought of this photo, one of my favorite images by the great globetrotting farrier Bernard Duvernay of Geneva, Switzerland, aka "The Flying Anvil". He is also a superb photographer whose photos show that he cares as much for people as he does for horses' feet.
His fascination and affection for India are contagious.
Click here to read an interview with Bernard Duvernay about the state of farriery in India for the burgeoning Thoroughbred breeding and racing industry. (Remember that English is not Bernard's native language.)
I hunted down this image from my files and had it ready to go. Then I heard the news on Wednesday that the area around the Taj Mahal and other sites in the great teeming city had been attacked. I wondered if I should publish this photo or not.
The lastest count is 125 people dead and more than 300 wounded.
I can't imagine how the police have handled this situation. Mumbai is probably the largest single city on earth. More people life in that one city than on the entire continent of Australia. The streets aren't just crowded, they are full.
I know a lot of veterinarians and farriers who have gone to Mumbai and the outlying stud farms or to Pune to work on valuable horses with quarter cracks or laminitis. Bernard is the one who goes there to teach the local farriers and to help upgrade their skills. He convinces the stud owners that their future lies in the farriers they have, not in the farriers who come through the airport.
Non-equine footprint in a farrier shop in India, where farriers work in bare feet. (Bernard Duvernay photo)
How ironic that Danny Coyle's great (I hear) new film "Slumdog Millionaire" has just opened. It is about Mumbai. The old Mumbai. The one before this happened. I was going to see it this weekend. Mumbai in technicolor. Mumbai in action. People told me that the city was the star of the movie.
Until a week ago I couldn't have found Mumbai on a map. I didn't know if it was on the coast (or which coast) and I probably wasn't sure how to spell it. Now I can't get it off my mind.
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