Education Update with Michael Wildenstein at 10th Annual Equine Clinic at Oakencroft Farrier Conference October 22-23

Date: October 22-23, 2015 (Thursday and Friday)

Time: 8AM - 5PM
Clinician: Consulting/referral farrier Michael Wildenstein, FWCF (Hons)

Location: The Equine Clinic at Oakencroft, 880 Bridge St. Ravena, NY 12143

Price: Thursday & Friday $275; Thursday only $140; Friday only $130

Reserve your place: call 518-767-2906 or email equineclinic@oakencroft.org
Connect on Facebook or visit the clinic website
Driving directions to The Clinic at Oakencroft

Michael Wildenstein All-Day Lecture in Vermont on Saturday, March 28

The Vermont Farriers Association invites you to an all-day lecture with farrier educator Michael Wildenstein, CJF, FWCF (Hons) on Saturday, March 28 in the Old Chapel at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont.

Meader Supply's New Hampshire Farrier Appreciation Day with FPD's Michael Wildenstein

Shoes, shoes, shoes! One of North America's largest horseshoeing supply stores opened its doors last weekend to welcome farriers from far and wide to the annual "Farrier Appreciation Day". Meader Supply soon found out that the appreciation was mutual; the flavor of the day was more akin to a high school reunion than a business event.

Vet School Farriers: Change on the Hoof

An article caught my eye today on the web site of the University of California at Davis College of Veterinary Medicine. One of the largest and most horse-specialist vet schools in the country has two farriers on staff now, Marc Gleeson (in the UC Davis photo above) and Bill Merfy. And former farrier Kirk Adkins is still around, teaching a hoof science course for undergrads. The article started me thinking about how hooves are being served at vet schools.

Save the Date: Cornell Vet School Hosts 25th Annual Farrier Conference in November

(Double click on image to enlarge and/or print it.)

Conference announcements are being mailed this week for the 25th Annual Farriers Conference at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, to be held November 8-9, 2008 in Ithaca, New York. The mailing was sent to all Hoofcare and Lameness Journal subscribers in the Northeastern USA, among others! If you don't receive the mailing or would like to know more about the conference, the information will be posted on the vet school web site at this link: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/education/ConEd.htm.

Cornell's conference is annually one of the premier events on the farrier education calendar. Led by Michael Wildenstein FWCF (Hons), who is now adjunct professor of farrier science at Cornell, the conference attracts farriers from around the country and Mike continually brings fine speakers from all over the world to share their work with attendees.

This year includes two British farrier instructors, Mark Caldwell and Neil Madden, who are both deep into advanced studies of hoof shape, hoof balance, and hoof mechanics, as well as the ever-personable American draft horse specialist Bruce Matthews of Vermont, who has developed a program for teaching horses to stand (safely) while being trimmed or shod.

Among the Caldwell/Madden presentations will be a tech-based demonstration comparing high-speed video with pressure-mat results in evaluating hoof landing and weightbearing, and a session on hoofmapping by British parameters. Sunday's entire program will be given over to Caldwell and Madden to present their work on static vs dynamic hoof balance in a lecture/PowerPoint format.

After a fabulous full course dinner on Saturday, Dr. Lowe will reminisce about the first farrier conference at Cornell, and veteran farrier and horseman Steve Kraus will lecture on conformation faults and how they affect performance horses.
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I look forward to this event so much every year, both for the high quality of the speakers and the chance to snoop around the Cornell vet school library. It is also special because of the people who attend--many of them never miss a year. Over the past 25 years, the group has seen the finest vet and farrier speakers on the hoof stride onto that stage; I believe the repeat attendees must be among the best-educated farriers in the world. Anyone who is asked to speak at this conference should be honored...and had better show up prepared to answer excellent questions and talk late into the night. It's a great group of people...and this conference supplies wonderful food, as well!

Note: hotel rooms can be a problem, especially if Cornell has a football game that weekend. Book early! Most people stay at the Best Western University Inn, which is the closest to the vet school. Call 607 272 6100 and ask for the farrier conference rate.

Ithaca is served by major airlines like Northwest, US Air, and United. Check flyithaca.com for fares and details. Another (somewhat) nearby airport is Syracuse, New York. New York City would be a few hours' drive. Ithaca is right in the middle of the state.

For more information, or to inquire about sponsorship or space in the trade show, call Amanda Mott in the vet school's continuing education department at 607.253.3200 or email her: amm36@cornell.edu. Amanda has been on (much-deserved) vacation and I'm not sure exactly when she will be back.

If for some reason you need the brochure and cannot reach Amanda, email Hoofcare and we will forward the PDF file to you as an email attachment.

Hoofcare and Lameness is proud to be associated with this event.

Hoof Lectures at This Week’s North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando

Saturday, January 19 will be “hoof day” at The North American Veterinary Conference at the Gaylord Palms Resort Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. A full day’s program alternates between Scott Morrison DVM (above, left) of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, KY and Michael Wildenstein FWCF (Hons) (above, right) , Adjunct Professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Morrison’s topics are: Hoof Balance and Function, Difficult Foot Cases, Practical Approach to Heel Pain, Rehabilitation of the Foundered Foot, and Sterile Maggot Debridement.

Wildenstein’s topics are: Trimming and Evaluation of the Hoof, Advanced Therapeutic Horseshoes, Fungal Infections of the Foot, and Clinical Case Discussions.

Visit http://www.tnavc.org for registration information.

(Photo of Michael Wildenstein by Lexy Roberts)

A Grey Horse Makes Winter More Beautiful...

Mike Wildenstein sent this photo of what it looks like on his farm in upstate New York this week. That's Mike skidding a log with one of his Percherons. Thanks for a beautiful photo!

Hilary Cloos: Ivy League Farrier

It has been ten years since Hoofcare & Lameness subscriber Hilary Cloos graduated from Harvard University with a degree in physics. Just as many of her classmates went on to graduate studies in physics at places like New York's Cornell University, Hilary also headed to Cornell...but she chose to apply her physics to horses by studying with Michael Wildenstein to become a farrier.

The Harvard Crimson, daily campus newspaper for the sprawling city-of-ivy down the road, published a tribute article to Hilary today. She is one of their unique graduates, that's for sure!

Although...US Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island went to Montana State to study horseshoeing with Scott Simpson after he graduated from Brown University, also an ivy league school. Maybe there is a secret society of recovering ivy leaguers who are now servants of the hoof!

Here's the link to the Crimson's excellent article about Hilary Cloos, an upstanding citizen of the farrier nation:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516321

Here are five things you probably don't know about Harvard University: 

1) Harvard closed its vet school in 1901 and paid the remaining students to go to Penn; 

2) Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology contains one of the largest collection of fossil bones of pre-Equus horse species, including a dazzling array of coffin bones and one of New Mexico's famous examples of what is called the Hagerman Horse; 

3) the university has a thriving mammal and bird locomotion laboratory in nearby Bedford at the university's Concord Field Station, where studies on horses are sometimes done and all the force plates are ready to do more; 

4) Dr. Castle McLaughlin, a cultural anthropologist and professor at Harvard's Peabody Museum, is founder of the Nokota Horse Conservancy, and compiled a 300-page study of the unique herd of wild horses in North Dakota, who are believed to be descended from the ponies of Sitting Bull.

5) Harvard University Press published a book I use a lot in research, Horse Power: A History of the Horse and Donkey in Human Societies by Juliet Clutton-Brock and most recently, the beautiful book Horses : History, Myth, Art by Catherine Johns.


And something that matters to me: Harvard has been scanning some of its old and rare horseshoeing texts and adding them to the online archive of accessible references. Thank you!