Eyeball to Hoof: Down Under, Checking the Fit

Checking the Fit, originally uploaded by CowCopTim.

Something about this photo just grabs me. It's another of those, "Huh!" sorts of photos. A photographer frames something we see often in a way that makes it interesting and visually compelling. And makes it look pretty dangerous!

Photographer Tim Dawson had a wonderful time at the New Zealand Farriers Association's North Island Dairy Flat Forging and Heavy Horse Competition in Auckland on July 23-24. While I try to figure out which farrier this is, I will let you enjoy the shot.

For the uninitiated who may have stumbled upon this image, you are looking at the age-old act of a hot horseshoe being pressed against the trimmed bottom of a Clydesdale's hoof. The farrier will hold it there firmly for a few seconds (no, it doesn't hurt the horse) while it gives off some acrid sulphurous smoke. Then he will pull it away and observe the hoof to see if the burn mark is uniform around the wall of the hoof. This will tell him if the shoe is level; without a level shoe, the nails won't be tight and if the nails aren't tight...well, you remember the old "All for want of a horseshoe nail" ditty.

This process is called "hot fitting" and it is done for all types of horses. It is even done for Thoroughbred racehorses, though they wear thin aluminum shoes that can't be heated and pressed. I don't think it has been scientifically proven, but it is widely believed that feet that have been hot fit hold together better because the horn tubules are somehow "sealed" by the heat and they keep out bacteria or there is some other beneficial effect that protects the hoof wall.

But nothing is quite as dramatic as hot fitting a Clydesdale.

The Clydesdale competition was won by Grant Nyhan, Marcel Veart-Smith and Deane Gebert.

Thanks to Tim Dawson for allowing this photo to be shown on the Hoof Blog today.

Reuniting Racing Legend Phar Lap, Piece by Piece, Is Melbourne Cup's Goal

5 April 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

April 5th is a black day in the history of horse racing. It's the day always remembered, and certainly not celebrated, as the day that the Australian racing legend Phar Lap died mysteriously while resting between races at a horse farm near San Francisco in 1932.

You've probably seen the movie (a few favorite scenes are in the clip below); many people feel that it is the best horse-racing film ever made, and I'd agree. If you haven't seen it, you're really missing something!



The circumstances surrounding Phar Lap's death will always be shrouded in mystery, no matter how many forensic tests are made and new theories are put forth. This horse's life and death were the stuff of fiction...and yet they really happened.

Likewise, Phar Lap's world-famous quarter crack and his equally-famous bar shoes are the stuff of hoofcare legend.

What many Americans don't know is what happened to Phar Lap after he died. He was sent to a taxidermist in New York, where his skeleton was assembled, his heart removed, and his hide preserved.

The famous Jonas Brothers taxidermists of the American Museum of Natural History in New York worked on Phar Lap's model for four and a half months.

The finished model of Phar Lap--that's his actual hide--is on display at the National Museum of Victoria. Click here to read more about the model.

Phar Lap's heart is on display at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. His enormous heart weighed 6.2 kg, or about 13.5 pounds! It is displayed in comparison to a normal-sized equine heart, which weighs about nine pounds. Read about Phar Lap's heart at the Museum's web site.

Phar Lap's actual skeleton went home to New Zealand, where he'd been born.

Phar Lap has been dead for 78 years, but he's still making news, according to Radio New Zealand. This year will be the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne Cup, and the Victorian Racing Minister has asked New Zealand to consider loaning the skeleton to Australia, in the hopes of reuniting all the known pieces of the magnificent horse.

Click here to watch a television news report showing all the pieces of Phar Lap following today's request.

This story still doesn't end. Phar Lap will always be in the news, in one way or another. My colleague, journalist Robin Marshall of New Zealand, has made a serious study of Phar Lap's skeleton and has been seriously campaigning for support that the skeleton was incorrectly assembled and does not do him justice. Phar Lap was 17.1 hands and Robin's analysis charges that the skeleton on display is not worthy of such a large horse. She says, "It might as well be a 15hh brumby!"

Click here to read more about Robin's heartfelt campaign to restore Phar Lap's skeleton to his proper stature.  And stay tuned for more news about Phar Lap...the horse whose legend is very much alive. Everyone still wants a piece of him: now, that's a hero!

© 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.

Friends at Work: Meet Brian Cameron, Award-Winning National Senior Apprentice Farrier in New Zealand

by Fran Jurga | 4 December 2008 | www.hoofcare.blogspot.com

When New Zealand apprentice farrier Brian Cameron puts down the last horse's hoof at the end of a day of shoeing, he puts his own foot in the stirrup and starts schooling his show jumpers.

Brian was recently awarded the title of National Senior Apprentice for his achievements with his mentor, senior farrier Jock Good.

This article is not just a good view of a hardworking young farrier who wants to excel; it offers insight into the New Zealand system of farrier training, which I have always thought was very good. THey not only have a system for apprentices with college training, but also offer continuing education courses with credits for working farriers--or at least they did when I was there.

You might see Brian Cameron in the farrier competition tents soon--or in the show jumping ring. He seems set to succeed in both arenas!

Click here to read about Brian and the farrier training system in New Zealand, as published today in the Taranaki Daily News in New Zealand..

Brian seems to be following in the hoofprints of show jumper Bernard Denton, who didn't make the Kiwi show jumping team for Hong Kong on his high-flying jumper Suzuki, but as a consolation prize was chosen as the team's farrier!



© 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.

Friends at Work: New Zealand Heat Wave Takes Its Toll on Farriers

The temperature in New Zealand hit 30.7 Centigrade this week; that's roughly 87 Fahrenheit and considered a heat wave in the sub-tropical country.

The local paper in Bay of Plenty chose the job of a farrier as one of the worst to be doing during the hot spell. (It's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, remember.)

Read more about the New Zealand heat wave and a little bit about Peter Huxtable here.