Practice makes perfect: British team farrier Haydn Price at rehearsal earlier today for the Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. (photo via Debbie Lee)
The World Equestrian Games have now begun! The world championships of the FEI disciplines kicked off in Normandy, France tonight with an exciting opening ceremony, and highlights are shown on a YouTube video.
But early news from Normandy is that long-time British team farrier Haydn Price of Wales was selected for additional duties: tending the British flag in the arena during the ceremony.
This horse is headed down the shaft of a coal mine in France, date unknown. (Wikimedia image)
If you are anything like me, you've been riveted to the news this week, and your emotions have run the gamut as hopes have risen and fallen so many times in the race to reach the miners trapped in the West Virginia coal mine.
This video shows you some of the last employed pit ponies in Britain; the voice is poet John Stafford, who eulogizes a pony named Dot. Dot was one of the last pit ponies to work at Annesley Colliery in Nottinghamshire, England.
Thinking about coal mines made me remember about the use of ponies, horses and mules deep below the ground in mines in North America, Australia and Europe. Perhaps they were used in other parts of the world, as well.
Horses and ponies weren't used much, if at all, in mines in the British Isles until 1842, when an Act of Parliament outlawed women and children under the age of ten from working in coal mines. Up until then, it had been women and children who lugged or dragged the coal out of the mines.
"Pit ponies" are most famous for being used in the British mines, where as many as 70,000 were underground at the height of horse-powered coal mine production in 1913. Larger horses were popular for underground work in Germany and mules were preferred in the United States
The pit ponies wore leather shields over their faces, like a solid bridle shield. Bare wires could cause sparks if a pony bumped into one. One statistic said that the ponies were not blind, as most people thought they would be from living in the dark, but a large percentage had lost at least one eye from accidents. In photos, you will notice that the pit ponies had their tails shaved, and probably their manes as well.
These tandem-hitched heavy horses aren't pit ponies, but they are pulling a load of feed for the ponies stranded during a coal strike in England. Do you think they made it through that mud? Double-click to view full size. (Libray of Congress image)
Pit ponies in Britain were one of the first really big public animal welfare campaigns. The RSPCA was concerned about the ponies, and campaigned so that ponies couldn't work more than 48 hours a week. But most of the companies took very good care of them. Many people said they took better care of the ponies than they did the miners. Good pit ponies were valuable and important to the success of the operation. But the public campaigned until finally the last pony kept underground was brought up to the surface in the 1980s.
A1908 image from the Library of Congress shows us mules in a Pennsylvania coal mine. They wore ear hoods to prevent them from being shocked by low-hanging wires. No doubt, they learned to walk with their heads low. This was before there were any child labor laws in the United States. Notice that three of these young miners have whips around their necks.
In the United States, mules were preferred in the mines, and some quite big draft mules went down the shafts and stayed there, sometimes for a year at a time. Mules were especially popular in Pennsylvania. Before US child labor laws were passed, most of the miners are boys who could get into smaller spaces.
This horse was being shod by two young colliery farriers in Wales. Notice the horse is wearing a hood. His tail isn't shaved as is often seen in old photos, but his mane is roached.
The collieries in Great Britain employed farriers. They repaired equipment, made chains and spent a lot of time sharpening the pick axes of the miners. One reports states that each miner took pride in his ax and would take it to the forge to be sharpened in a particular way that suited his way of picking at the mine face. Farriers understood how to please each miner. The farriers also made shoes for the ponies.
When their work in the forge was done each day, the farriers went down the mine and shod the ponies as they finished a shift, or the ponies from another shift before they started. Ponies weren't allowed to work if they had a shoe off, so the farrier's visit was important. Every foot on every pony had to be lifted and looked at every day.
Sign courtesy of Mining Culture Educational and Research Network
This was a long, long day for a farrier. There was no light in the underground stables except for miner's lamps. The farrier would take the vessel out of his lamp and put it on his tool box, like a candle. He would have been trimming and shoeing almost by touch.
Yes, there were hoof boots long ago. This one is from a mine in the Lake District in Cumbria, England, near the Scottish border. The sole of the boot is studded with copper rivets. You can see it at the Keswick Mining Museum.
In coal mines and around explosives factories, horses were shod with copper alloy or "brass" (copper and zinc alloy) shoes and special brass nails made by Capewell Horse Nails and perhaps other companies. Brass didn't cause sparks the way that steel did. Perhaps that is also why horse amulets, called "brasses" are always made of brass.
All the shoeing below ground was done cold, of course, in spite of all the available coal. Any spark could ignite a fire or, worse yet, an explosion, because of gasses and dust in the air.
You've probably heard about canaries being kept in mines, or even being sent in ahead of the men. A canary would die from the gas long before a man or a mule or a pony, and they served as a warning of the danger in the air.
Welsh miners lamps are especially interesting. Today, they're popular on wooden boats. They have a distinctive tall chimney and usually come with a hook at the top. Once British farrier Grant Moon, who competed under the Welsh flag, brought one of the USA as a special award, and told us about how the mine's name and mark were engraved into the chimney. They are special.
The miner's lamp did a lot more than light the way through the mine. The color and height of the flame in the lamp was a means of constant feedback to the miner about the gases present in the air below ground. They were known as "safety lamps". They are small and you might overlook them. But a miner wouldn't.
Many years ago I met a lovely gentleman from Yorkshire, England named Eric Plant, FWCF. He had worked as a farrier at a colliery and he was the first person who told me about pit ponies; I had no idea that as many as 70,000 ponies were working in Great Britain's mines in the early 1900s. Later in life he was the farrier for the magnificent Tetley Shires, the showcase team for Tetley Brewery in Leeds, England.
Mr. Plant painstakingly photocopied all his booklets about pit ponies and the welfare movement to protect them and sent them to me. I always wanted to tape his stories, but I didn't have the privilege of seeing him again before he died. Most of the little facts about ponies and mining in this blog post came from my very precious file of Mr. Plant's own memorabilia.
by Fran Jurga | 31 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com
This is the story that stopped me in my tracks and I wonder what it will mean to you. Please watch these videos but understand that they are only the beginning of this very special end-of-the-year story.
The television crews showed up when the deed was done, and the film footage showed only the wreckage of a burned-out horse barn. You heard only the testimony of onlookers. Yet something about this little story from a small town outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania piqued my curiosity. There had to be more to it.
And there is. The fireman who rushed into the burning barn at Greenmoor Commons Equestrian Center in Cecil Township, Pennsylvaniawas not just a local volunteer fireman. He was a farrier. And he was rushing in to save a horse he knew very well.
Paul Williams knew exactly where Pearl's stall was, and though he said that she didn't seem to recognize him, we can only wonder about that. Others had tried to get her out but failed. Water from the fire hoses was filling her stall. She was standing in a foot of water.
"It was her blanket that saved this mare's life," Paul told me. "She was completely soaked. The blanket was saturated." That saturated blanket and the deep pool in the stall meant that the sparks and embers falling from above were doused as they entered the stall. Pearl was safe, for the most part, though. "And the wind direction was in her favor, too, " Paul recalled. "But it was that thick blanket that saved her."
The story doesn't stop there. "I was at the station when the call came in, and I heard a horse was trapped," Paul told me. Paul has been through special large animal rescue training and he is dedicated to educating horse owners and firemen about fire safety and horse rescue, along with a fellow firefighter who is a horse owner, Ed Childers.
And Paul does it all as a volunteer fireman, in addition to his farrier work, and the training of his horses. His fire department has only expertise, not equipment; they use an old bedliner out of a pickup truck as a glide for an injured horse. They have no slings or straps or pulleys. They rely on just their common sense, and (most of all), their horse sense.
Just ten days before Pearl's heroic rescue, Paul had been personally touched by fire. He trains Standardbreds, and had been looking into buying back one of his former trainees, a mare named Dancing Cassidy. She was stabled in southern Ohio at Lebanon Raceway.
On the morning of December 5th, two men and 43 horses died in a barn fire at Lebanon Raceway. One of those who died was Paul's mare, Dancing Cassidy. "She won the night before," Paul said, still proud of her. "I wanted to get her out of there and bring her home but I never got the chance."
You may have noticed in the video that Paul has an accent. "People ask me if I'm from Boston," he laughed. He moved to the USA 15 years ago from Brecon in South Wales, but the musical Welsh accent has stuck.
Paul rode National Hunt races back home in the winter; when he came to America, he set up his farrier business and started training Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds; he lives three miles from The Meadows racetrack. He estimates there are close to 3500 active riding and race horses in his county, and that he's picked a good place to shoe and live the life that suits him.
The horse rescue work is unfunded but Paul said that the day after the fire, an anonymous check for $500 arrived at the firehouse, and he was delighted. If you'd like to help Paul help more horses, I'd recommend that you learn what you can about fire prevention and emergency care of horses. And if you have a few dollars left at the end of year (or anytime), I know a donation would be put to good use if it was sent to the North Strabane Fire Department Large Animal Rescue Unit, 2550 Washington Rd., Canonsburg, PA15317-5224 USA. I'm sure Paul would also travel to give talks on rescue and safety.
The fundraising t-shirt for the North Strabane Large Animal Rescue team.
His hair may be gray now, but British farrier Grant Moon has returned to world-class farrier competition and stepped up the victor's pedestal with amazing ease after a long absence. Moon won the individual competition this weekend at what is considered the world's toughest contest, the "Stoneleigh International" in England, a.k.a. the 29th International Team Horseshoeing Championship, hosted by the National Association of Farriers, Blacksmiths and Agricultural Engineers of Great Britain at the Royal Agricultural Showgrounds in Warwickshire.
Grant also won the international individual title back in 1985, soon after leaving farrier school. It's interesting to note that Grant has competed at Stoneleigh under two flags in his lifetime. While he began his career representing Wales, he moved to the USA and later competed at Stoneleigh for American honors in 1989. David Duckett, now of the USA, and Bob Marshall, now of Canada, are two other farriers who have represented various countries. Duckett won the individual at Stoneleigh for the USA in 1987.
Not only did Grant Moon win the individual title; his home country team of Wales won the team competition on the following day. Meanwhile, half a world away, two Welsh farriers were hard at work at the Olympics in Hong Kong: Ian Hughes is official farrier for the entire Olympics and Paralympics and Haydn Price was team farrier for Great Britain.
Runners up were Scotland and England. No word yet on where the US team placed. Results were provided by the Forge Magazine, official publication of the NAFBAE, and they only reported the top three placings.
In a complete break with tradition, the 2009 "Stoneleigh" competition, which will be the 30th annual, will be held August 27-30 at the Aintree International Equestrian Centre in Liverpool, which is presumably somewhere near the Aintree Racecourse where the thrilling Grand National Steeplechase is held each spring.
This year, the Stoneleigh International's Gold Sponsor was Life Data Labs of the USA; Silver Sponsor was Mustad of Switzerland.
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Welsh farrier Ian Hughes DipWCF will be head of services in the farrier clinic at the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic equestrian events, to be held in Hong Kong in August.
It's a long way from Mold, Wales to Hong Kong, but Ian Hughes DipWCF already knows the way. After heading up farrier services at the Olympic test event there in 2007, Ian has been named head of farrier services for both the 2008 Olympics and the Paralympics.
In an interview yesterday with Hoofcare and Lameness Journal, Ian shared some of the details of his upcoming assignment, which may be of interest to readers who are connected to horses that will be traveling to Hong Kong without a dedicated Team farrier, or who may aspire to this type of work.
Ian will be assisted by Greg Murray, head farrier for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and fellow British farrier Kelvin Lymer DipWCF of Worcestershire.
Ian spent 3 1/2 weeks in Hong Kong last year for the test event, trying out the new purpose-built forge area in the new veterinary center at Sha Tin racecourse. Only about 36 horses competed then, but the event put the footing, stables, humid climate, and facilities to a good test.
An estimated 240 horses are expected to arrive in Hong Kong; many will arrive in advance so that the horses can adjust to the climate and fulfill quarantine requirements. Only a few countries will send their own farriers, but many horses will arrive with spare sets of shoes all made up, and, hopefully, will have been shod before leaving home.
Ian said that he did not have much input on the design and layout of the forge and shoeing floor, and was glad to have had the test event to try it out in advance. The forge area was served by lots of fans but not air-conditioned, he said, "But it will be when we are there!" he remarked. He said that the workings of two double-burner gas forges cancel out the effects of an air-conditioner, so the shoeing floor would be separated from the forge area, so the horses (and the farriers) will be cool except when forges needs to be fired up.
Ian said that he would have to arrive before the horses to set up the service area, and that he would stay until September and serve the same role for the Para-Games. He'll need to be gone from his home in Wales for a total of eight weeks; he'll leave his busy practice in the hands of his two apprentices and his "qualified man" (a graduate farrier working as his employee).
Ian runs a general practice in Wales, and also serves as farrier consultant at Ashbrook Equine Hospital in Cheshire, England, one of Britain's leading clinics. He lectures on lameness one day a week at the veterinary college at the University of Liverpool.
One country whose horses Ian probably won't be shoeing will be those of his own Team GBR. Ian said that the British horses would probably be served by fellow Welshman Haydn Price and eventing specialist Brendan Murray. (You may remember my story about Brendan, who was one of the four escorts in the horse-drawn funeral procession of Princess Diana. According to tradition, the farrier must be present, in the event of a shoeing mishap on one of the horses pulling the gun carriage and casket.)
One note about "Olympic farriers" (and their tools, supplies, and equipment): Ian said that all gear will be shipped out several weeks in advance. Olympic protocol does not allow companies to make advertising claims that their products were used in the forge at Hong Kong. However, the policy is to allow nonreturnable donations of certain supplies, tools, and equipment that do not have strings attached.
Ian's announcement is great news, but I realize it should come as no surprise. Wales is a tiny country that has a penchant for producing farriers who excel on the international level. Calgary Stampede World Champion farriers Grant Moon, Billy Crothers, Richard Ellis, and James Blurton all are from Wales and come to mind, along with Haydn and Ian, and I remember from an earlier generation Glyn David and the late Tommy Williams excelling in the profession, too. I'm sure there are many, many more. John McEwen, chair of the FEI's veterinary committee and head vet for Team Great Britain, also lives in Wales.
Best of luck to Ian and all the farriers who head to Hong Kong this summer. It's great to see the role of farriers be recognized for the important part it plays in the safety and ultimate performance of the horses. The same is true if the farrier is working at a local horse show or the Olympics.
Initial results from the International Farrier Competitions at the Royal Showgrounds in Stoneleigh, England:
Team results
1st place ENGLAND(Beane, Bazin, Devereux and Darlow); 2nd place Wales (Blurton, Martin, Crothers, and Ellis); 3rd place France (Mathieu, Delcroit, Policard, and Baijot). On an individual basis in this class, Travis Koons' score placed him in fourth place....ahead of Crothers and Blurton! Todd Walker was 16th. Not to be forgotten is Aaron Gygax of the Swiss team, who finished 18th on his individual score. Aaron lives in the US and is employed as a farrier in the podiatry clinic at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, KY. Stoneleigh was Aaron's first and only competition of the year!
Individual competition
1. Gary Darlow (England); 2. Darren Bazin (England); 3. Allan Ferrie (Scotland); highest place USA competitor was Travis Koons in 16th place. Other US competitor placings were Trey Green 25th, Billy Reed 26th, Bill Poor 27th, and Todd Walker 28th. Bruce Hauge of Canada was 30th and Aaron Gygax was 35th.
Team gas forging
1 England (Beane, Bazin, Devereux and Darlow), 2 France (Mathieu, Delcroit, Policard, and Baijot), 3 Wales (Blurton, Martin, Crothers, and Ellis), followed by Scotland, Holland, USA, Canada, Norway. Todd Walker was 5th on his individual score, and Colain Duret of Canada was 14th.
Thanks to Carl Bettison, manager of the English team, for sharing these results...and congratulations to anyone who survives that grueling competition!
