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. 

© 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). 

Clog on Clog: Removable System for Laminitis

The Steward Clog is less of a product than a concept. Dr Michael Steward in Oklahoma has created a unique, affordable and simple system for helping foundered horses. We hear about good results with the system from vets and farriers all over the world.

The idea of a pivot point rather than a supportive platform is a leap of faith that is difficult for many to make. And we usually don't make those types of leaps until we've tried everything else. If there is one thing that the last ten years of experimental farriery has proven it is that removing resistance can have as therapeutic an effect as adding stability, which was the old-school 1990s way approach to laminitis (and still works for a lot of professionals).

People call here and ask "Where can we buy those Steward clogs?" The answer is the whole point: you can't. Dr Steward has nothing to sell. The Steward clog is an idea, a system that you can probably make yourself out of scrap materials found in any barn or garage.

The "system" is actually just a block of wood. Period. You use screws or glue to attach it to the foot. Period. Dr Steward says that the bottom of the clog needs to mirror the shape of the coffin bone (P-3) and be correctly positioned beneath the bone. Period.

It's been five years now since Dr Steward presented the concept at the 2003 AAEP Convention in New Orleans and in that time, a lot of clever people have put their minds to ingenious ways to use or attach the clog. As long as you keep it simple, it seems to be a viable option for lots of horses, and sometimes the only option for people without the budgets for designer heartbars and rainbow "packages" of impression material.

EDSS, makers of the Natural Balance shoe, originally introduced me to the Steward Clog, and then they went one step further and started "manufacturing" a plastic clog.

Now our British friend David Nicholls AWCF has gone a step further. Perhaps some owners would balk at allowing a farrier to twist screws into a horse's foot, or perhaps the sole needs to be cleansed or medicated. In that case, David's clog:clog solution was to screw the plastic EDSS version of the Steward Clog to a Dallmer clog, which is sort of an exterior-strap plastic hoof boot. No doubt, the clog could probably be attached to any hoof boot, if you remember that the placement of the clog is critical. Normally, the clog is a 24/7 sort of a regimen, not something that is put on or taken off, but Dr Steward would have great advice there, I'm sure. Strapping on a laminitis support device gives you a test phase that allows you to go to Plan B if the horse doesn't like it.

David writes, "This equine patient did not respond well to wearing glue on heart bar shoes and the veterinarian cut a hole in the sole of this foot. He wanted a removable system so he could continue to treat this foot.The pink EDSS Impression Material is placed into the least painful areas of the rear of the foot. The other foot had a clog nailed on. Once the sole issues had been dealt with, I removed the Dr Steward EDSS clog from the Dallmer clog (too many clogs here!) and nailed it back onto the now-healed foot. The equine patient never looked back and has returned to its previous job as a riding horse. This case was a referral so once it was sound and shod I did not see it again."

Thanks to David and TFP for these photos and for having such an innovative shoeing practice, thanks to Cody at EDSS for introducing me to the clogs at the Equine Affaire in Ohio a few years ago, and especially thanks to Dr Steward for spending a lot of time on the phone with me...and for having a great idea, one which he is happy to share. And that great idea is one that anyone with the most basic home-maintenance tools, even in the most remote part of the world, can use to help a horse, once he or she grasps the concept. (And until or unless you do, don't try it!)

TO LEARN MORE, read "How to Construct and Apply Atraumatic Therapeutic Shoes to Treat Acute or Chronic Laminitis in the Horse" by M. L. Steward in Proceedings of the 49th Annual Convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, 2003 or read the "Going Dutch" article by Holly Clanahan about clogs used by Dr Steward on foundered Quarter horses in the January 2008 edition of America's Horse, published by the AQHA.