Recent Publications: New Research on Hoofcare and Lameness

Did your New Year's Resolutions include a pledge to keep up with new research and developments in the research side of things? That could be a full time job. It could also be pretty costly, unless you have access to a library with the right journal subscriptions.

Horseshoes + Racing Injuries + Video = Eclipse Award for the Louisville Courier Journal

The friendly smile of Churchill Downs horseshoer Sonny Broaddus brightened the Louisville Courier-Journal's otherwise sobering media-rich mini-site on injuries in Thoroughbred racing. The video-enhanced feature hit the web in mid-August and this week was announced as the winner of the prestigious Eclipse Award for multimedia.

Roll out the red carpet, here come the horseshoers.

When the Eclipse Awards for journalism and media coverage were announced this week, the Louisvillle Courier-Journal was in luck. Lots of luck, as it turned out: the winning feature section "Tragedy at the Track" on racing injuries was heavily laced with text, photography and especially video of horseshoes and the people who nail and glue them on the Thoroughbreds in Kentucky.

Graphic from the newspaper articles shows the effects of a toe grab when a racehorse stands on a hard surface, such as a concrete wash rack slab, or a paved road.

Written and compiled by Jenny Rees, Andrew Wolfson, and Gregory A. Hall, the series looks at racing injuries as a combination of the medical, mechanical and surface strains put on Thoroughbreds. It's an exciting combination of short and longer clips, including a short feature of Churchill Downs horseshoer Steve Norman and his entourage of helpers and apprentices on a hot August day.

Two special videos make a real impact on the newspaper's web site with the original stories. These are farrier Mitch Taylor's high-speed clips of horses running over different surfaces, wearing different shoes, with a simple measuring interface to show the difference in slippage and "snowplow effect" of changes in the foot's equipment and surface. I believe the high speed videos were shot by Scott Lampert and interpreted with his OnTrack analysis system.

Click here for high speed (slo-mo) video of a horse running on different surfaces, fetlock action in Polytrack, laminitis, Barbaro and other video clips associated with this series.

© 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.

Ink and Anvil Claims to Sever Publishing Ties with American Farrier's Association

Ink and Anvil publisher Scott Davidson announced on Monday that his company will no longer publish Professional Farrier, the association magazine of the Lexington, Kentucky-based American Farrier's Association.

"I terminated the contract, effective today," Davidson said this afternoon. "I will have a big announcement in a few days."

The American Farrier's Association may have found a new publisher for the magazine, from hints left on the AFA's bulletin board by acting executive director Michael Nolan.

Hoofcare & Lameness has no official statement from the AFA in this matter. Nolan did confirm on Tuesday that Professional Farrier will continue to be published, although by whom is not clear. He did not have a comment on relations between the AFA and Davidson's company. The AFA signed a multi-year renewal of their contract with Ink and Anvil this spring, soon after Nolan was hired and after David Ferguson was elected president.

Craig Trnka started the AFA in the publishing game during his presidency, when he initiated a split from the American Farriers Journal, which had formerly been sent to members as a benefit. Before Ink and Anvil, Professional Farrier was published for the AFA by Dockery House Publishers of Dallas, Texas.