Showing posts with label Quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quality. Show all posts

Thursday, September 02, 2010

"Blame" It on These Four Fast Feet

My friend Wendy Uzelac must have been thinking of The Hoof Blog when she was walking around Keeneland Racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky yesterday. Her expert camera clicked just as the groom threw a bucket of suds at the lower legs of the horse that many believe is the top older male horse in the USA. Blame has been on a roll this year and beat Quality Road last month in the Whitney at Saratoga. The New Yorkers must be relieved that Blame is back in Kentucky. Quality Road and Mine That Bird have a pretty local field in this weekend's Woodward. Thanks to Wendy, who specializes in photographing Thoroughbred racing and golf, for aiming at Blame's leg's instead of his handsome head and congratulations! She's getting married to fellow photographer Matt Wooley this weekend and will move from northern Michigan to Lexington, where Matt is based. The Thoroughbred industry in Lexington is in for a treat. Image © Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos.

© 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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Sunday, November 08, 2009

Breeders Cup Lowlight Video: Quality Road-eo Gate Panic Delays the Classic

8 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoofblog at Hoofcare.com



All hail the supermare Zenyatta for her amazing, gutsy win of the Breeders Cup Classic yesterday. While her race will be replayed again and again for years to come, if you missed the race on television you didn't see the starting gate mishap that lead to Quality Road being scratched. Here's a YouTube.com clip of that portion of the race from the Partymanners racing archive. This footage would otherwise be lost to history, and includes an update from AAEP Veterinarian-on-Call Dr. Larry Blamlage of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.

I hate to see a horse in such distress anytime, let alone on national television. The gate crew are well-schooled in handling these situations but this horse--whom many of you will remember for his famous quarter cracks--narrowly avoided hurting himself, his rider and people on the ground. I know he is a very big horse and I was happy to hear that he is ok today.

© 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.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Quality Road Recovers from Quarter Cracks and Smashes Track Record at Saratoga!

A quick news flash from Saratoga: You may remember the name of Quality Road, a three-year-old who was a top contender for the Triple Crown this spring until he popped a quarter crack in a hind foot while setting a new track record at Gulfstream.

While recovering from that crack, he popped one in his front foot on the same side. The colt has been laid up since March, trained lightly, and switched trainers from Jimmie Jerkens to Todd Pletcher.

Quality Road had his first start today since Gulfstream and he won the Amsterdam Stakes on while setting a new track record for six and a half furlongs on the dirt at New York's Saratoga track.

And he set that record in spite of stumbling out of the gate.

It looks like Quality Road is back on all four feet again. That's the kind of hoofcare success story we like to report.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Quality Road: Another Quarter Crack in the Road to the Derby

Tell me it isn't true: just when you thought it was safe to make him the favorite without an asterisk, top Kentucky Derby contender Quality Road has popped another quarter crack, this time in his right front.

Ian McKinlay reported on April 23 that he will be patching the new crack, which he says is minor, probably on Saturday, after suturing it today. The foot has been soaked and poulticed. The poultice was pulled on Friday morning, Ian said, after being applied to draw out any infection before the patch is applied. He will lace it with sutures later today. The same procedure will be used on the front foot that was used on the hind, which includes suture-lacing and an embedded drain covered by a patch.

Quality Road has had a quarter crack in his right hind foot for the past 26 days; the first crack opened during or immediately after his record-setting win in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream on March 28. The crack was patched in Florida and then dried out and re-patched with a drain when the colt returned to Belmont Park in New York under the care of trainer Jimmie Jerkens. Recently he has been training well and looked solid; plans are to ship him to Kentucky to race in the Kentucky Derby on May 2.

As of this morning, no announcement had been made to scratch the horse from the Kentucky Derby. Ian said he thought the horse would be able to make the race, based on other cases he has worked on.

Ian remarked again on the immense size of the three-year-old colt. "I'm six-three, and I look just barely over this horse's butt," he said. "And he's wearing a size five. He's a very, very big horse with a small foot."

That comment brought to mind a section on Ian's new video, From the Ground Up, which includes interviews with many trainers and horseshoers about foot problems and quarter cracks. Bob Baffert talks about the curse of the size-five foot, but then says with satisfaction that War Emblem was an example of a small-footed horse that overcame it and won the Kentucky Derby.

Click here to read several previous articles from earlier this month about Quality Road's quarter cracks.

Click here for the April 6th account of Ian McKinlay's work on the hind foot quarter crack.

Note: From the Ground Up is premiering for sale during Derby week and can be ordered through the Hoof Blog. This 3.5 hour, 2-DVD set includes interviews with top trainers and riders from most disciplines including (to mention a few) Thoroughbred trainers Baffert, D. Wayne Lukas, and Richard Mandella, Standardbred driver John Campbell, Dressage rider Betsy Steiner, Reiner Bryant Pace, Hunter Rider Havens Schott, Jumpers Ian Millar and Anne Kursinski, Quarter Horse Halter Exhibitior Ted Turner, Veterinarians John Steele and Alan Donnell, and Farriers Dwight Sanders, Jim Bayes, Hank Joseph, Tom Curl, and Doyle Blagg.

The DVD covers the problems trainers have with hooves and the possible ways for trainers and farriers and veterinarians to each use expertise to aid in improving the horse's chances for soundness. Advanced cases of wall separations, white line diseases, quarter cracks, sheared heels and conformational problems are shown and some cases are reviewed with advanced treatment, and prevention is discussed.

The DVD set is $50 plus $5 post in USA, $12 post elsewhere; Visa and MasterCard accepted. To order call 978 281 3222 or email HoofcareDVD@hoofcare.com.

© 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.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Video: Ian McKinlay's Quarter Crack Patch Drainage System

by Fran Jurga | 9 April 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



As promised, here's "film at eleven", just like on the evening news. Ian McKinlay videotaped the steps in the process he used to make a sub-p,atch drainage system for a quarter crack on Kentucky Derby contender Quality Road, who is now training at Belmont Park with trainer Jimmy Jerkens and will hopefully get a good work by this weekend.

PLEASE NOTE: The horse in this video clip is not Quality Road. It's his stunt double. Ian did do this procedure yesterday on Quality Road (scroll down for more on this horse's crack and patch over the past five days) but did it again on another horse in order to make this video so the Hoofcare and Lameness community could see both what he did and how he did it.

The drain is a precautionary step so that if the horse does have a flareup of inflammation, it can be treated. Please read the previous post about the technique, which Ian is not claiming to have invented.

I know that everyone will ask about the glue, it is the same PMMA-adhesive Ian has been selling, but in a new packaging system that will allow the user to cool it in summer to slow down the setup time so it can be shaped. Ian's Tenderhoof company sells sutures, drains and adhesive on his website. Click here to learn more.

Thanks to Ian for doing this; it's not easy filming a procedure in a racetrack shedrow with a moving horse, and that's just the beginning: editing and narrating can be even more work than the filming. I'm sure that this makes it much easier for everyone to understand.

© 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.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Ian McKinlay: Quality Road's Hoof Is Patched and Ready to Go

by Fran Jurga | 8 April 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Hoof repair specialist Ian McKinlay checked in this morning to let Hoof Blog readers know that the heat is gone from Quality Road's foot and that he was able to patch the colt's quarter crack today at trainer Jimmy Jerkens's barn at New York's Belmont Park. (Scroll down to read Monday's post about the crack.)

There is so much riding on this horse's ability to stay in training over the next few weeks as the Kentucky Derby approaches that Ian modified his usual patching technique: he installed a drain under the patch in the event that any fluid needs to escape. "It's probably overkill," Ian said, "but why take any chances?"

He said that the foot was "cold" (meaning not overly warm to the touch, indicating inflammation).

Other professionals, such as Rob Sigafoos and Dr. Scott Morrison, have used drains under acrylic repair and hoof casting material routinely but Ian has been cautious about this, perhaps because so many of the cases he works on are drive-bys, and he may not be able to return to make adjustments. Thoroughbred racehorses, especially lame ones, circulate from the track to layup farms to other tracks to sales to vet clinics to training centers and back again.

A galloping young Thoroughbred, especially one as large as Quality Road, would also put a lot of stress on a tiny length of plastic tubing.

We should have media on his new technique later this week.

© 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.