Lost to laminitis: UC Davis says good-bye to its famed and beloved breeding jack

Action Jackson, the 29-year-old breeding jack at the University of California at Davis, suffered from laminitis. He was humanely euthanized last week. (UC Davis photo)

The Hoof Blog will often note the passing of a famous stallion, when laminitis claims a life. Those are sad stories to write.

Last week the world lost another famous breeding animal to laminitis, but he wasn't a horse. He didn't live behind white board fences in Kentucky. His offspring won't run in the Kentucky Derby. They (probably) won't compete in the Olympics, either (but you never know).

Jack Hanna at Ohio State's Equine Lameness Lab: Running Amok Through Gait Analysis

Watch a segment of Jack Hanna's "Into the Wild" television show filmed in a lameness lab

Television wildlife promoter Jack Hanna visited The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center's Galbreath Equine Center in Columbus, Ohio in February; he was filming a segment for his television show "Into the Wild."

Hanna and crew were hosted by our friend Alicia Bertone, DVM, PhD, DACVS professor of Equine Orthopedic Surgery and The Trueman Chair in Equine Clinical Medicine and Surgery at Ohio State.

Dr. Bertone tried to explain different diagnostic methods for osteoarthritis in horses as well as how a horse progresses through her new clinical trial for horses with osteoarthritis--when Jack wasn't mugging for the camera. It's nothing short of fun to watch Jack stumble through the familiar treadmills and force plates and surgery room hoists, all the while taking Dr Bertone not very seriously. Luckily, we know she has a great sense of humor and was well-chosen to host someone like Jack.

If you live in the United States and watch television, you know Jack Hanna. But since so many Hoof Blog readers are not US residents, it might be helpful to explain who this character is. Some might say that he is best known for taking his role as director of the down-at-the-heels and unknown Columbus Zoo back in the 1980s and turning "Jack Hanna"--and that zoo--into household names through his back-to-back appearances on every news and talk show on television. He actually does have a show of his own, however.

But most of us see him over breakfast on "Good Morning America" or late at night on David Letterman's show. He brings the creepiest or cutest animals he can find and turns them loose on Dave's desk.

Jack Hanna still lives in Ohio; that location meant that he became the de facto spokesman to the press during the terrible tragedy of a home zoo gone mad when wild animals escaped from a Zanesville, Ohio farm.

One reason he's so effective on-camera is because he plays dumb. Sure, it's dumb like a fox, but it works to get--and keep--the audience on his side. He's been able to become the most visible icon of American wildlife not in spite of but perhaps because of his lack of a DVM or a PhD. With the possible exception of the Zanesville aftermath, Jack Hanna doesn't usually lecture or talk down to his audiences. He falls over his own words often, makes more than his share of off-the-wall comments, and acts downright goofy sometimes, especially when David Letterman is around.

The AVMA and AAZPA may or may not approve of what Jack Hanna says or does, but they can't argue that he fuels the public's interest in wild animals, and has probably done more than any individual to increase the sales of family tickets to zoos and nature parks around the country.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

The horse world could use someone to do for us what Jack has done for zoos. Maybe this little video is a start. 

Click on the ad to learn more about this beautiful guide to the equine foot anatomy

 © 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.  

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

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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.

Statistically Speaking: What Was the #1 Keyword on the Hoof Blog in 2011?

The most-used terms on The Hoof Blog; you should be able to double-click on the image to see a larger size  and read the small type. You might recognize a few words and names!

All the statistics in the world won't show what 2011 meant to The Hoof Blog. It was another great year, and I hope you were either along for the ride, or that you'll take the time to look back at some of the year's 172 stories.

The economy may be down but blog
readership is at an all-time high.

October and Decemeber 2011 were two of the highest visitor months ever in the history of the blog.

The Hoof Blog has grown in scope a bit--somewhat unintentionally. While this blog has always been a way for Hoofcare + Lameness to stay in touch with subscribers and supporters, some stories in this year's arsenal just wouldn't stay in the hoofcare world.

They went far and wide, and brought in a lot of new people who were interested in glue-on shoes for US racehorses, 3-D Italian roller motion shoes for dressage horses, historical insights to some of the hoofish customs displayed in the British Royal Wedding, and news about research and technical developments, particularly in the area of hoof function and barefoot trimming.

Gift-horses like assisting The New York Times with an article on glue-on shoes during the Triple Crown should not be looked in the mouth. The traffic that links like that one brought just kept coming--whoever those people were.

One article about Molly the Pony 
brought over 100,000 people 
to the Hoof Blog in 2008

If you're interested in what gets read on the Hoof Blog, this post is for you. If you're not, a new post will come along soon.

Of particular interest, besides the overall growth of the blog's visitor stats, was the list of most-read articles published in 2011.

The all-time leader is still the announcement of Molly the Pony, a book about an amputee pony who survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The post was published in April 2008 and someone (I still don't know whom--was it you?) forwarded the post. The email went viral, and over 100,000 people clicked into the blog.

Chaos ensued. Molly's post still garners a huge number of visitors every month, but taking Molly out of the mix, here are the runners-up.

Maybe Totilas beat Fuego in the World
Equestrian Games, but the Spanish
horse ruled on The Hoof Blog, thanks to
Hans Castilijn's intriguing shoes.
(Erin Ryder photo)

Top Hoof Blog Stories of 2011

1. Dressage, Fuego-Style: It's What's Underneath That...
2. Totilas: Heart Bar Shoes for the Dressage Champion...
3. Foot Photos: Totilas Used His Shoes at German Dres...
4. Why Is That Guy Following Prince William and Kate ...
5. Laminitis in a Moose? Vermont's "Pete the Moose"
6. Shackleford's Preakness is First Triple Crown Win ...
7. Polydactyl People and Ponies: A Gallery of Extra D...
8. British Racehorse's Story Touches a Nerve

These statistics are totals of visits by people who came to the Hoof Blog by following a specific link to a specific story. They did not type in the web address of the Blog or visit from a browser bookmark.

Most of these people were visiting only to read that one story and had little interest in hoofcare, but more in dressage, racing, the Royal Wedding or, in the case of polydactyl people and ponies, kinky anatomy.

Top referring outside web sites

1. Chronicle of the Horse (and its forum)
2. Equisearch and the AIM Equine Network of horse magazines
3. Eurodressage.com
4. Horse and Hound (Great Britain)
5. Eventing Nation

These web sites linked to specific stories on the Hoof Blog and brought in a lot of the casual one-time visitors who inflated the statistics for specific stories. These horse-related site links were unsolicited and completely voluntary. Links from farrier, veterinary and natural hoofcare sites also resulted in plenty of incoming traffic, but in smaller numbers than the large equestrian-related sites generate with a single mention. Many also came from Google (overall, the biggest source of traffic), Bing, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, although those referrals are calculated separately.

Top search keywords

After every possible spelling of Fran Jurga's name and "Hoof Blog" and "Hoofcare and Lameness"--there were some very creative misspellings of all--came some surprises.

Totilas and Fuego, the two dressage horses whose choice of hoofwear dominated the drop-in visits, were nowhere to be found.

The #1 horse searched for: Zenyatta. Back in January 2011, The Hoof Blog chronicled how the great American champion racehorse Zenyatta had been reunited with the horseshoer of her youth, John Collins, when she returned to Kentucky's Lane's End Farm to begin her life as a broodmare. People searched for anything and everything about Zenyatta and her hooves, and found a big archive of articles here.

Top 10 countries

Where in the world are you reading this?

1 United States

2 United Kingdom

3 Canada

4 Australia

5 Germany

6 Slovenia

7 Netherlands

8 France

9 Russia

10 Spain

This is quite a big change this year. Russia was never on the list before. It worries me that Japan is no longer on the list at all. I can't explain Slovenia but I think a good will tour there is in order. Bring on the Lipizzaners...

Browsers and Operating Systems

Internet Explorer is still the #1 browser used, but then it gets interesting. Explorer's share has dropped precipitously. It is followed by Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Looking a little closer, iPads account for 4% of visits and 10% of visits to the Hoof Blog are on an iPhone, Android (catching up to iPhone!), Blackberry or Nokia mobile systems. Only 68% of visitors used Windows; 17% were on the Macintosh OS. There's also a loyal clan of Linux, iPod and Ubuntu users.

The Hoof Blog seems to be trending mobile...just like the rest of the world. I hope everyone knows that there is an iPhone app-type version of The Hoof Blog that works on all smart phones and displays the blog in a single narrow column. The icon shows up on your phone's desktop once you favorite it.

Top search people

Most searched for farrier: Rob Renirie

And two farriers' names were in the top ten: The leading search term was for Dutch farrier Rob Renirie, who has been featured many times on The Hoof Blog.

In 2011, however, the blog featured a little video of him shoeing the great dressage star Totilas, before the world champion was sold to Germany. People couldn't get enough of that video; it was part of the #2 most-read story of the year, about the switch to heart-bar shoes on the horse under his new flag--and, as a result, new farrier--in Germany.

Most immortal farier: Jack Miller

There was another farrier searched for in the top 10; perhaps our search box goes to another level in the spiritual realm. The Hoof Blog has published many obituaries but none come close--or show up in the search box--like the one for the late American farrier Jack Miller, who is still being searched for more than a year after his death. Jack Miller will live forever on the Hoof Blog.

Statistics are just statistics, in the end. What matters is that you keep reading and sharing and forwarding and emailing and tweeting and Facebooking the information that you find here.

The hoof world is changing around us, and you'll read about it through Hoofcare Publishing. Maybe The Hoof Blog can't always explain it, but we'll make sure you'll know about it, and you can decide what it means to you and what to do with or about a new development.

And as the statistics show, there's a good chance The Hoof Blog will report on that, too!

Click on the ad to order your copy of this award-winning educational reference poster!

© 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.  

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines in your Facebook news feed when you "like" the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

 

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.

What Might a Horseshoer's Front Page Funeral and Your New Year's Resolution Have in Common?

If you've never been to a horseshoer's funeral, now you can say you have been.

On this last day of the year, it's time to reflect on the events that shaped this year. We'll get to that; the year's not over yet.

While it's easy to point out the things and the people new to the world of the hoof in the past year, it's a little more painful to recognize that we are moving on without some key figures.

Hence, this video. I think this is the first video ever made of a horseshoer's funeral. I never thought I'd be posting a video of a funeral here. It is, of course, voices from people who attended the funeral of Joe Kriz Sr. on September 4, 2010, but if you listen to the voices, they can speak volumes about others who are also gone.

In 2010, we lost Bob Skradzio and Jack Miller as well; these two men were great pillars of support and friendship for me from the day I met them. More than that, just like Joe, they were two people who loved what they did, and did what they loved.

I hope that you can say that about what you do; I know I can.

If you can't, why don't you make a new year's resolution to find--or re-kindle--the passion in your life? May it be half as strong as the passion that Joe and Bob and Jack felt for what they did, and the lives they lived. If enough people dedicated or re-dedicated themselves to their work with and for horses, our world will be a better place and slowly but surely the hole left by the loss of these men will be filled.

I know they'd all three add a PS to that: "And be sure to pass it on." Just like they did.

By the way, toward the end of Joe's funeral video, when they arrive at the cemetery, Joe's casket, emblazoned as it was with Scotch-bottom draft horse shoes, was buried next to his brother and lifetime horseshoeing partner, Johnny, just as you'd expect. It's a beautiful place.

I notice that on Johnny's headstone are written the immortal closing words from Will Ogilvie's famous poem, The Hooves of the Horses:

When you lay me to slumber no spot can you choose
But will ring to the rhythm of galloping shoes,
And under the daisies no grave be so deep
But the hooves of the horses shall sound in my sleep.

{ A note about the video }

The video is posted here with the kind permission of Joe Kriz Jr., producer Peter Hvizdak and the New Haven Register newspaper, where you can also still re-live U.J.'s funeral whenever you feel like it. I don't think we'll make a habit of showing videos of funerals, since they are very private events, but this video was produced more as a tribute to Joe, and I hope it's seen that way.

© 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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Silent Anvil: Jack Miller Has Died

Jack Miller gave me a wink. We were in Malibu, California, it was 1985, and Jack was in his prime. He's wearing the Texas flag as a bandanna around his neck. 

The hunter/jumper world will never be quite the same. Where will a trainer take a horse as a last resort, that horse who's just not going quite right under his feet?

Legendary horseshoer Jack Miller died after sunrise this morning in the Montgomery County, Maryland hospital where he had been a patient for several weeks undergoing treatment for multiple life-threatening problems. Jack had been in ill health for many years, but just kept on going.

A loyal legion of world-class farriers and horse show friends from all over America had traveled to Maryland this week to be with Jack.

Jack Miller created, defined and perfected a lifestyle of "vagabond horseshoeing" on the hunter/jumper horse show circuit where he made a living proving to people that his trademark mystique for being able to put difficult horses "right" through subtle hoof balance techniques was real. Unfortunately for the farrier world, he was never quite able to explain what he knew instinctively about how to help horses get over fences. He just did it. And shrugged.

Jack was from Texas and lived wherever he was that night. He was especially proud of his long role as the official farrier for the Washington (D.C.) International Horse Show. His clients over the years included many Olympic and champion riders, trainers, and their horses.

No one was more rightfully in the Hall of Fame than Jack Miller, nor more in a class of his own.

Note: Jack's friends can right-click on the photo above and save it for personal use. It's large format, low resolution. In the days since Jack's death I have learned how many friends Jack had. It has been amazing to hear from so many of them! I have posted an album of more old photos of Jack on the Hoofcare and Lameness Facebook page.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com 
© 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.

The Universal Farrier Apprentice

by Fran Jurga | 2 September 2009 | Fran Jurga Hoof Blog



I had an idea for this blog post: Everyone turn the sound off when you watch this video, and then you won't be influenced by the location. Because for nine minutes and thirty seconds, this video takes you into a universal setting. This shoeing forge could be in Colorado or Sweden or Turkey or Japan or New Zealand, with few changes. It's a pretty universal scene.

However, the sound is very nicely recorded and adds a lot; after a while, the apprentice's voice comes on and you'll hear what it's like to train as a second-year apprentice farrier in remote Donegal, on the northwestern edge of Ireland.

I play a lot of games when I watch farrier videos (and I watch a lot of them). I love to watch the background activity (and give bonus points for multiple dogs) and in this case, the shoe pile jumps out of the background and dominates the whole forge. Obviously they aren't worried about earthquakes in Donegal or else John and Heather will be buried in old shoes some day.

A game I like to play with non-US videos is to try to pick out the countries where tools and clothing and shop decor were made. In this video we see Kevin Keegan's ubiquitous Hoof Jack--is there a country on earth that the Hoof Jack hasn't conquered? I'm staring at one in my office right now as I write this.

Readers: send in photos of your Hoof Jacks in a native setting showing what it's like in your part of the world where you live and work. Just make sure the Hoof Jack is in the photo somewhere. I'll post them on the blog.

I wondered where the loop knife came from: Canada? Australia? Montana? Germany? and John's apron has a made-in-the-USA look to it. The "w" on the shoes is the forge is a giveaway that they are by Werkman and from Holland.

That's just a start, you can take it from there. Many thanks to the gentle director and editor who refrained from a voiceover narration, intro music and splashy graphics. They had the good sense to just let this scene speak for itself so those of us who know what to listen and look for, can. And I hope you will.

It's just ten minutes out there in the farrier universe.

© 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.

Palm Beach Footing Post Script

Palm Beach International Equestrian Center's International Arena during a recent night class

After posting on Friday about the footing at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, I have a few more comments to add.

I think this is the year of the surface: whether its show arenas, home schooling rings, or racetracks, everyone is talking about (and obsessing over) footing! No matter whom I'm with, the subject invariably comes around to it. And no, I don't know about much new research!

One vet said that he thought he had seen more bruised feet this season at Wellington but seemed genuinely pleased overall with the footing.

Show circuit farrier Jack Miller, who happened to cross my path at the airport this afternoon, concurred with the veterinarians' comments. We sat down to chat for a few minutes. He said that the new footing was much more consistent and enabled the show to go on, even after a downpour of six inches of rain. "The new footing was great," he said, "but a little sluggish. The horses were maybe jumping an extra two inches, because they were sinking in. It stopped them. And it cupped a lot out of the bottom of the feet. But it was a lot better than it has been, and they didn't have to use as many studs. We didn't see too many 'Spruce Meadows Specials' (supersized studs) this time."

Also at the airport today, I ran into another vet, Dr. Liz Maloney from here in Massachusetts, who has been flying back and forth to Palm Beach all winter to compete her horses in the amateur owner division at the WEF. She said that her horses, who are shod by "banana shoes" expert Danny Dunson from Tennessee, handled life on the showgrounds very well, although she didn't always compete in the newly renovated "Hong Kong footing" arenas. She said it was great to not to have to use studs, since she worries so much about the injuries they can cause. "It feels hard when you land, but it's not, really," she said of her impression from the saddle.

Other comments I heard were about the hunter ponies that compete barefoot and wore booties to get from the stable area to the arena and schooling rings, since the pathways were crushed stone. Show hunters want as little knee action on the flat as possible so no shoe or the very lightest aluminum shoe is usually the answer for them.

Everyone seemed pleased that the winter season in Wellington was unaffected by disease (EHV closed the showgrounds last year in the weeks before the show started) or disaster (hurricanes have been a threat the past few years) and that the upper echelons of the hunter/jumper/dressage showing scenes seem (so far) unaffected by financial woes troubling other sectors of the US economy.

Thanks to the Winter Equestrian Festival and Kenneth Braddick of Horse Sport USA for the excellent photos and reports shared with this blog all season. Now it's time to pack up and move on. See you next year!