Clinic at Oakencroft 6th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium with Rood and Riddle's Scott Morrison DVM Announced for October 14-15, 2011 in New York

Who: Farriers and veterinarians

What: 6th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium

When: October 14-15, 2011 (Friday and Saturday)

Where: South Bethlehem/Selkirk, New York (near Albany)

Presented by The Clinic at Oakencroft / Greene County Horseshoe Supply

A Hoofcare + Lameness Annually Recommended Event

 The Conference:                                                                                                                                    

The Clinic at Oakencroft’s Farrier/Podiatry Symposium is a casual and friendly event in a beautiful location in rural New York near the Massachusetts and Connecticut borders. The Clinic hosts regular meetings with local farriers and they feel right at home there—you will, too.

The format of the conference is presentations, discussions, and occasional interruptions for great food. There are hotels nearby. Good directions are a must if you don't know your way around the area. If you are coming from far away, plan to arrive early or stay late. The clinic is in a beautiful area, and the fall foliage should be in full color around the time of the conference.

Full conference, hotel and registration information can be downloaded at this link:

http://www.oakencroft.org/Articles/6th_Annual_Podiatry.Farrier_announcement.pdf
Here's a rough schedule of what goes on and when:

Note: You may register by regular mail, by email to equineclinic@oakencroft.org, on line at www.oakencroft.org or by calling The Equine Clinic at OakenCroft at 518 767 2906. The Clinic is requesting that everyone register by October 1 in order to make sufficient plans for the right number of people.

 The Speaker:                                                                                                                                        

Scott Morrison is a familiar name in the world of equine podiatry. His full biography can be read on the conference link. In a nutshell, Scott Morrison is a partner in the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, where he launched the hospital's podiatry center in 1999. The center has now morphed into an internationally-recognized referral facility for all breeds and types of horses with every imaginable foot disorder, and of every age, from foals to aged horses with Cushings disease.

Dr. Morrison works with a staff of hoof-specialist veterinarians, farriers, and technicians, and he travels all over the world to consult on cases and speak at conferences. He personally consults to the racing and training program of Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien. He recently has been experimenting with the use of umbilical stem cells in severe laminitis cases, and has developed several horseshoe designs that are used all over the world.

While Dr. Morrison might be working on a world-class racehorse or stallion in the morning, his afternoon case might be a foundered pony or a draft horse with canker, so he's an ideal speaker for a conference with an audience that comes from different backgrounds and works on different types of horses. He grew up in New York, as well.

In addition to lectures and PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Morrison will be available to discuss the cases that attendees arrange in advance to make part of the conference (see conference details for "panel and case discussion" submissions, which should be done in advance). The relaxed atmosphere at OakenCroft will be ideal to give Dr. Morrison a chance to talk about hoof problems with the attendees.

There aren't too many sure things in life, but I think you can be quite sure that you'll enjoy this event, this  clinic, and the people you'll meet. See you there, I hope!

Contact information:
The Equine Clinic at OakenCroft
880 Bridge Street
Ravena, NY 12143
(518) 767-2906 - office
(518) 767-3503 - fax
Web address: www.oakencroft.org
Email: equineclinic@oakencroft.org

Amazing microscopic view of the landscape of the hoof wall from coffin bone to periople from Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Hoof Laboratory, courtesy of Drs. Bowker and Lancaster. Order yours today!

 TO LEARN MORE

© 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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Silent Anvil: Buster Conklin, Retired Cornell Vet School Farrier, Has Died

Say good-bye to Marshall "Buster" Conklin of Horseheads, New York, one of the great faces and spirits of late-20th century horseshoeing in America.

Buster was the longtime farrier instructor and resident farrier at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine but he will be remembered much more for his character and his passion for his profession than for any job he held. After all, no job could quite hold a man like Buster Conklin.

I'm sure more information will come in and I'll think of something to say but not quite yet. Just "good-bye, Buster" for now.

And definitely, "What a guy".

Please check back for more information. Photo © Fran Jurga, Hoofcare Publishing.

Favorite Sunday Video: "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" on Saratoga Migration Day

by Fran Jurga | July 26, 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Out for a leisurely Sunday drive? Drivers in New York State are probably a little jittery today. It's Sunday, and there shouldn't be many trucks on the road. Yet the highways are jammed, and these big rigs aren't just any trucks. They're big air-ride trailers and horse vans of every size and shape, some carrying six or more horses each. It's Brook Ledge and Sallee Day on the Northway. The windows are down and you can see bay heads inside, nodding sleepily.

And not just any horses: these are some of the best Thoroughbreds in the country. Hundreds of them are landing at airports and moving from training centers and tracks all over the US and Canada.

It's an equine migration. A reverse diaspora. A gathering of the Thoroughbred clan. For these van drivers, all roads lead to Saratoga Springs, New York, where today is "open house" day for the locals, featuring some always-exciting jump racing. The betting windows open on Wednesday. And the stall doors are wide open to welcome the new arrivals.

The vans will unload horses and just turn around and go get more. Today is the last day of racing at New York's Belmont Park so vets and farriers and exercise riders might have a few days off before things get going "up north", although some are already there working.

The horses will skitter down the ramps and blink as they look around and see all the old shade trees, the painted-a-hundred-times wooden stables and the remains of the original racetrack from 1863. They'll notice immediately that this place doesn't look and smell like Long Island...and it's awfully quiet compared to the New York City tracks that crouch beneath expressways and airport landing patterns.

That was a van ride back in time.

This is a place where a colt can get some sleep. Where a filly can stretch her legs. Where a veteran campaigner's hives might clear up and a career might turn around. Where legends begin.

So let's go back in time with the blog today, too. One of my favorite scenes from any horse-racing movie is the road scene from MGM's 1937 hit Thoroughbreds Don't Cry, which was the film that brought Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland together. You'll see a little bit of the road scene in this clip. Judy sings "Got a Pair of New Shoes" and, of course, I always like to think that the horse is singing along.

This was probably also the first horsey-road-trip scene from a major motion picture, as well as one of the most musical. Horse vans and trailers were a relatively new thing.

Timing is everything: This film was made in 1937, the year that War Admiral won the Kentucky Derby and Seabiscuit was rising to ever higher highs and lower lows out west. They would meet in their famous match race the following year.

Also in 1937, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable made the horse-racing classic film Saratoga about New York's horseracing summer capital but Harlow became ill and died during the filming, though she was only 26 years old.

The makers of Thoroughbreds Don't Cry couldn't have known what else would be going on that year or how famous their young stars would become.

You can watch the whole film on YouTube or stream/order it through Netflix; I've given you the trailer here as motivation.

If you have the time, click here to listen to the taping of Judy Garland singing the song in the film. You'll be humming it before you know it.

One of the best parts of these old horse movies is the chance to see the old vehicles used to transport the horses, including the fake open-window trailer in this clip. I always watch what's going on in the background more than what's going on in the foreground.

The New York Thruway and the Northway would be a much more interesting ride today if those neat old styles were still in use. This drawing from Popular Mechanics in 1924 shows a state-of-the-art over-the-road racehorse van...complete with a flagpole. The article with it said that it could reach and maintain a speed of 50 miles per hour, which was something for the day.

Of course, after Labor Day there will be a reverse migration as the horses abandon Saratoga and scatter to the corners of the globe. But there's something about today, of all days of the summer,
that makes you feel like a giant magnet has caught on all the horseshoes of all the best racehorses in the world and is pulling them up the Northway to Exit 14.

And not a single horse is resisting the pull of that magnet. A trip to Saratoga in August is good for us all.

I'm willing to bet on that.

Join Hoofcare & Lameness on Tuesdays in August in Saratoga Springs at the Parting Glass Pub and Restaurant back room, 40 Lake Avenue, for educational lectures and information about hoof-related care of horses. "Saratoga Safe + Sound" will bring together farriers, veterinarians, trainers, and interesting people from all corners of the horse world (literally) in a casual setting. CLICK HERE for more information or call 978 281 3222; email saratoga@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.

What Would Mr. Gibbs Say About Big Brown's Feet? Horseshoes Mean Something to New York's New Governor

What would the New York governor's great grandfather think of glueable Yasha shoes?

New York Governor David Paterson has a lot of firsts to his credit. He took over the leadership of the state on March 17, after the resignation of then-governor Spitzer. Paterson is New York's first African-American governor and the state's first blind governor.

What we didn't know until today is that he has piles of horseshoes in his past. While presenting the Belmont Stakes trophy to trainer Nick Zito, Paterson shared his family's horseshoeing connection.

Paterson's great grandfather was horseshoer to the powerhouse breeder/owner H.P. Whitney, owner of Greentree Stud, in the years after World War I in New York. In particular, Mr. Gibbs shod a horse with the apt name of Upset. Upset would hand the great Man 'o War his only defeat, in August 1919 in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga, with Mr. Gibbs' shoes on his hooves.

Mr. Whitney, who just happened to be one of the wealthiest people in America, rewarded his blacksmith by buying him a house in the Fort Green section of Brooklyn. He also bought homes for some other members of his stable staff.

As Paterson describes it, the new house helped lift his family to a new level of possibility in pursuit of the American dream. Without Whitney's generosity, the house wouldn't have happened. It was the house where Paterson spent his childhood. And it was a house that some very lucky horseshoes built.

Thanks to the Left at the Gate blog and other sources for help in piecing together this story from Governor Paterson's remarks.