Cornell Laminitis Research Beneficiary of Arabian Horse Foundation Grant to Study Genetic Markers in Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Cushings Disease

Good news for hoof research: this week the Arabian Horse Foundation (AHF) of the Arabian Horse Association (AHA) announced that it awarded $5,000 to fund equine research; the Foundation directed $2,500 to Cornell University. 

The $2,500 to Cornell University will go toward research into Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) and Equine Cushing’s Disease (ECD) in the Arabian horse. The grant will fund the work of Dr. Samantha Brooks and Cassy Streeter.

A frequent complication of both EMS (also known as Insulin Resistance) and ECD is laminitis and laminitis, in turn, is one of the most common causes of lameness and death in the horse.  
 

Beth Minnich, chair of the Foundation’s Equine Research Advisory Panel, stated, “Arabians are a breed affected by EMS and ECD, so to be able to define genetic markers associated with a predisposition to these diseases would help tremendously in being able to identify at risk horses, properly manage affected horses and potentially assist in developing therapies for treatment. Additionally, the influence of the Arabian breed in the development of many modern breeds will assist in the identification of these genetic markers among a variety of horse populations.”

The metal sculpture "Scotty's Arabian Horse" shown in this article was constructed by hammer on galvanized steel for the Swell Sculpture Festival on Currumbin Beach on Australia's Gold Coast by Andy Scott; photos top and left are by Jeannie Fletcher. I wonder if this magnificent horse and his huge hoof are still there. He was designed to bask in the sun...although he might look great in the snow, too.  The photo below is from Andy's astonishing portfolio of public art.

© 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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Favorite Video: Horse Owners Beware of Seasonal Weight Gain Over Winter Months

by Fran Jurga | 2 December 2008 | www.hoofcare.blogspot.com

Most horses and ponies are not as overtly obese as this pony. The videos posted for you today explain the subtleties of weight gain in horses and their not-so-subtle effects on a horse's health. Chris Pollitt photo. (thanks!)

The red line on the thermometer is dropping. The blankets are out. The feed bucket gets an extra half a scoop. Soon it will be an extra whole scoop. Or two. In the deluxe barns, the heat comes on. "Can you bring the horses in early tonight? It's awfully cold...and make sure Bilbo has both his blankets on, ok?"

As countless horse owners continue to struggle with low-grade chronic laminitis and its more serious counterparts, we still seem to have as many overweight horses standing guard in winter paddocks as we did last winter. In spite of all the diet grain mixes, horse owners still love to feed their horses, just as they love to dress them in blankets. It's a visible sign that the owner cares, and is providing the best possible conditions for the horse. (Isn't it?) When the weather gets cold, adding more grain to the feed tub seems like a sensible, caring thing to do. (Isn't it?)

And when laminitis strikes, horse owners run through a gamut of emotions, from grief to guilt to an outpouring of excessive care and nursing. When, in most cases, it could have been avoided.

In this post you will find a three-part video from World Horse Welfare (formerly the International League for the Protection of Horses), a British-based charity that puts laminitis very high on its list of educational priorities.

World Horse Welfare horse care team leader Samantha Lewis shares good practical information with a horse owner in this video. She talks about the risks of laminitis, winter grazing, blanketing, weight taping, and a lot of other key concepts for horse owners.

She had my attention from the very first sentence: 80 percent of horses in Great Britain are overweight. How can that be? When she examines horses of different sizes and conformations, I start to understand that weight is a very deceptive variable in horses. And I may have been guilty of misjudging some horses in the past, according to Samanta's system.

I hope the regular readers of this blog will refer horse owners to this post to learn about the relationship of weight to laminitis and other health problems. If you're a vet or farrier, please recommend these video clips to your clients.

NOTE: In the shaded portion at the end of this blog article, you will see a small icon that looks like an envelope. If you click on it, you can forward this article (or any article in the entire archive of the Hoof Blog) to anyone you'd like to have this information. I think that the email icon shows up in some browsers and not others; sorry for this inconsistency.

This video set might make a great Christmas present instead of a bag of horse cookies.

Thanks to WHW for making these clips available. There's lots more information about obesity in horses on their website. For information about laminitis, please visit Dr. Chris Pollitt's laminitis research web site.

Here's Part 1:

 

 Here's Part 2:

 

 Here's Part 3: 

 

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. All images and text protected to full extent of law. Permissions for use in other media or elsewhere on the web can be easily arranged. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service. To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our 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. Comments to individual posts are welcome; please click on the comment icon at the bottom of the post.

Champion Australian Jockey Takes Off His Shoeing Apron to Don Silks

There's something about fillies: Australian jockey (and farrier) Glen Boss has been one of the world's leading money-winning jockeys in recent years. He rode to victory in three consecutive Melbourne Cups aboard superstar mare Makybe Diva. This weekend he rides favorite Samantha Miss in the $3 million Cox Plate.

As America gears up for the Breeders Cup championship races this week, all eyes in Australia will be on the $3 Million Cox Plate to be run at Mooney Valley. In the jockeys' room, however, one pair of eyes will be solemnly focused on the scales.

Remember those gut-wrenching passages in Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit as the jockey tried to come back from injuries and keep his weight down, all at the same time? I remember a joke told by one of the Thoroughbred trainers about flying cross-country with a jockey. The trainer felt guilty eating the airline's peanuts. The jockey took one, and cut it into quarters...and rationed it to last the flight.

Now it's my turn to remember. I was at a farrier convention. The awards banquet followed a buffet dinner. I wasn't in a hurry to eat so I lingered by the bar. Then I heard loud grumbling. The line was halfway through...and the food was gone. All of it.

There couldn't be two people with different eating agendas than a jockey and a horseshoer.

Today, meet a man who is both.

Australian champion jockey Glen Boss has been trying to make the weight so he can ride the favorite--a young filly running against colts--in this weekend's Cox Plate. He'll be riding for his friend, the trainer, but under Australian riding terms, he needed to get his weight down to just (gulp) 47 kilos (103.4 pounds). He would need to lose more than 10 pounds from a body that already was so lean you can't pinch him.

Glen's effort has been poignantly documented in photos by an Australian newspaper. What attracted my attention was seeing a closeup of a jockey's head with the words "Fighting Farrier" stitched into a watch cap.

Yes, Glen Boss used boxing as one of his main exercise routines to drop the pounds. His trainer and advisor was fellow farrier and former Australian welterweight champion Julian Holland. According to the story, they met when shoeing in the Gold Coast region of Australia 20 years ago. Boss was able to put his race winnings to use and sponsor Holland. This year, Holland is returning the favor and training Boss to ride in one of the world's richest races.

The campaign for Holland's title would dub him "The Fighting Farrier" forevermore in Australian boxing history and that moniker certainly fits Boss now, as he emphasis shifts from fighting in the ring to fighting the scale.

Read the full story by clicking here. And stay tuned tomorrow to find out how Samantha Miss did in the Cox Plate.

Looking ahead a few weeks: Glen Boss will try to equal the record of consecutive Melbourne Cup wins when he rides Profound Beauty in that race for Euro trainer Dermot Weld. The race, run at Flemington Racecourse outside Melbourne in Victoria, is worth $5.5 million.

Or at least Glen Boss hopes to: ironically, the star filly who is willing to take on the colts in Australia's richest race is questionably sound with a bruised foot. Maybe Boss can take a look.

Glen Boss, left, spars in the ring with fellow farrier Julian Holland, former welterweight champion boxer of Australia, whose quest for that title was sponsored by Boss's race winnings.

Be sure to visit the photo gallery documenting what he's going through to make the weight. Click here to see 28 photos of a determined man.

Photos credit for this blog post: www.couriermail.com.au

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. This post was originally published on 23 October 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.