Transitions: Hoof research innovator Renate Weller makes career move to corporate veterinary education

Professor Renate Weller (center) of the Royal Veterinary College in the United Kingdom announced this week that she is leaving academia for a career in corporate veterinary education. Weller has been a magnet in the equine industry for her inclusive and inspiring dialogues with students, horse owners, farriers and the public. She is shown here during a demonstration for an equestrian group touring the RVC's Structure and Motion Laboratory where she conducts research. (RVC publicity photo)

Professor Renate Weller, Drvetmed, PhD, MScVetEd, ACVSMR, FHEA, NTF, ECVSMR, MRCVS, has announced her decision to leave her academic teaching role at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), University of London in the United Kingdom.

Two shakes of a dog's tail: Gyro locomotion of animal skin

What if scientists took the same tools they use to analyze how horses walk, trot, canter and gallop and turned it to how they use their bodies?

Forget the legs and hooves (or paws).

Most mammals have a quantity of loose skin that they can move. That looseness gives the skin a locomotion all its own and now scientists are measuring it and trying to understand how and why animals are able to shake as much as 70 percent of liquid off their bodies.

It's not a linear locomotion; it's a gyro, or rotational movement around the animal's axial skeleton.

It's a good thing they can do it. If they couldn't, chances are the water would freeze, and they might get hypothermia, according to David Hu, PhD at Georgia Tech University. Or maybe the weight of the water would slow them down in their hunting--or fleeing from being hunted.

It's a shame the study doesn't include an analysis of horses shaking. I think they do more of a whole-body shudder than a rotational loose-skin shake like a dog or other mammals. Maybe it has something to do with the way they can involuntarily twitch their skin to get rid of a fly. Their shake is powerful but unique, I think.

And horses shake off dust as well as water. Shaking is all part of rolling.

This weekend, media like CNN aired segments with commentator Jeannie Moos plugging humor into the research, including an interview with Dr. Hu at Georgia Tech via Skype, who was previously featured on ABC's Good Morning America:

Read the abstract of Dr. Hu's paper. Visit the web site for Dr. Hu's lab at Georgia Tech. Before he became fascinated with shaking dogs, he researched how mosquitoes fly in the rain.

Click to go to easy ordering page; this poster can soon be hanging on your wall!

© 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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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Hoof Blog Fun: Animated Anatomy Models of the Imagination

It's Sunday, so let's have some Hoof Blog fun.

As you can imagine, the walls here at Hoofcare Publishing are plastered with new and old anatomy posters and gait diagrams.

This one needs a stud girth and over-reach boots.

One day I started wondering about the horses who model for anatomy diagrams. Were they chosen for their ideal conformation--or did they even exist at all? Are there such ideal horses out there?

I like to think that when I turn out the lights in the office at night, the fun begins. Books open and close on their own. Trophy hammers hit on trophy shoes (but never leave a mark). Rasps rise up and sing a duet.

But until I saw this video, I hadn't considered what might happen with the anatomy posters and the gait charts. Maybe they have fun too and those horses that stand still so perfectly all day on the wall suddenly rear up and take off.

Michael Mansfield, who animated the anatomy models in this video, obviously has a great sense of humor, as well as a lot of patience to have animated all these still images.

What's wrong with this picture?

Obvious too is that Mike Mansfield's anatomy model horses never attended a Hilary Clayton lecture on equine locomotion.

I like to think that when I turn out the lights tonight, all those perfect standing models will give the gallop a try.

Thanks to Mike Mansfield, for inspiring me to think that anatomy diagrams might have a secret life!

Let's just hope they gallop more like this horse, used in an equine locomotion research project at the Royal Veterinary College in England:

Hoof and lower limb anatomy like you've never seen--and you control it! Click to orde

© 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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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Deformity in Motion: Neglected Hooves Respond in Ireland

Johnny and James are two otherwise anonymous donkeys in Ireland who have been lucky enough to be rescued and find some kind people at The Donkey Sanctuary there.

Horses and ponies and donkeys with overgrown hooves are not uncommon to find. We routinely see photos of them when they are rescued by agencies or brought to farriers and vets for care.

But Johnny and James are different because these are not still shots, these are videos. You can see not just how overgrown they are, but that these strong, adaptable donkeys can still get around. They've had to adapt their gait a bit, perhaps, but they're still on the move.

We are always taught that the hoof wall bears the horse's weight and that the weight is transferred down the bony column of the limb. But nature obviously has a plan B, so that the horse can transfer its weight to the heels.

Another thing we're taught is that the toe is the strongest part of the hoof and the heel is the weakest and most deformable. And yet in these donkeys and so many other neglected equines, the heels are standing up to the job. The foot doesn't collapse, the heels don't rupture.

The second video shows that Johnny began to recover once his feet were under him again. The sanctuary mentioned that the hooves were radiographed and that the trim would be fine-tuned over the weeks to come until his weightbearing and gait could be normalized.

The hoof has to be one of the most adaptive structures in nature, yet we always try to make it conform to our ideal--whatever that may be. Surely there is a sweet spot for every hoof, a place where that foot finds optimal function.

The trick is to find it, to find it before it is too late, and to keep the hoof shape and position under the limb within a range of that spot throughout the animal's life.

Visit The Donkey Sanctuary web site to learn more about the charity's work on behalf of donkeys in Ireland--and everywhere.

$176 + $11 P+H US only; ready to ship: Tel 978 281 3222, fax 978 283 8775, email: books@hoofcare.com

© 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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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Dr Hilary Clayton's 2010 Equinology Biomechanics and Gait Analysis Class: April 5 Deadline!

3 April 2010 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

The McPhail Center at Michigan State is one of the world's few research centers dedicated to researching the science of equine performance--from the ground up. Any number of research projects on aspects of equine movement, conformation or sport performance may be simultaneously underway under the direction of Dr. Hilary Clayton.

It's 30 days and counting until it is time to join us at Michigan State University for the special four-day course in equine biomechanics and lameness at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center, presented by Dr. Hilary Clayton. The course is offered through the Equinology study program.

But the deadline to let Equinology know you want to attend is NOW.

“This is a rare opportunity to see the McPhail Center from the inside,” Dr. Clayton told me last week. “One of the things people might not expect is that we’ll be working on neck and back dissections, and looking at some pathologies.

For 3-D motion analysis, horses' joints must be palpated and markers applied to the centers of joint rotation. A marker out of place can ruin a lengthy evaluation session.

“For the most part," she continued, "the students will have the chance to perfect their palpation skills, and to learn how to place markers in the centers of joint rotation. Using our equipment, a student will be able to see the effects of placing the marker in the wrong place, versus the right place, and the effect it can have on evaluating a horse.”

In addition to covering biomechanics, conformation, and gait analysis in a classroom format, students will be privy to summaries of current research from around the world, as well as from the McPhail lab.

Built-in force plates in the McPhail Center's arena can be used to determine loading and landing patterns and the location of the center of pressure on horses standing in place (or piaffing in place) or worked on a circle.

Of special interest is the Center’s new coordinated system of six force plates. They are positioned for working horses within an arena, under the footing, in a circle or for standing the horse, so that one foot is on each force plate. “We use this system in research; a recent study tested posture and balance in foals,” Dr Clayton remarked.

Another research project in progress at the McPhail Center is evaluating the use of side reins on horses: how do they affect the horse’s center of mass, particularly in different sizes and types of horses?

Students will also learn about a special saddle developed and tested through the McPhail Center for use in therapeutic riding.

Many hoof blog readers will be interested in Dr Clayton’s research on what is called simply “barefoot trimming” at Michigan State. Dr. Clayton’s recent study tracked the changes in feet maintained using a simply set of parameters; her documentation found that as the heels were consistently lowered, they did migrate caudally and that the palmar (or plantar) angle of the coffin bone increased proportionately.

One of Equinology's superb "illustrated horses", courtesy of Debranne Pattillo

Dr. Clayton's research center equipment includes a motion analysis system, AMTI force plate, Noraxon EMG system, Pliance saddle pressure pad and other custom equipment for making measurements of horses and riders. This course will help sharpen your eye for irregularities, asymmetries and gait abnormalities through a variety of formats utilized in today’s industry. Your own visual appreciation of horse movement and your acumen for sensing abnormalities will be supported--and tested--by equipment used in the lab.

For more information on research projects at the McPhail Center, please click here.

Class Outline: Gait analysis and evaluation guideline, utilizing the data from the research equipment in the real world, conformation evaluation, locating palpation points for segment and angle measurements, analysis of conformation, anatomy and terminology, history of biomechanics, biomechanical techniques, equipometry discussion.

About Dr Clayton: Hilary Clayton BVMS, PhD, MRCVS has been the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine since July, 1997. As a veterinarian and researcher, Dr. Clayton's studies on the biomechanics of equine gait have focused on sport horses, including dressage and jumping horses. Some recent work has included videographic studies of Olympic dressage and jumping events and kinematic and kinetic research with some of the world's top dressage riders and horses in the Netherlands. She is also the author of The Dynamic Horse and Conditioning Sport Horses and co-author of Activate Your Horse’s Core, Equine Locomotion and Clinical Anatomy of the Horse. Dr. Clayton needs no introduction when “biomechanics” is mentioned; she is one of the leading international specialists in the subject, particularly in the anatomy and function of the equine hoof and limb.

Fees: The cost of the course is $995 (about $250 per day) and that fee includes course handouts and supplies. A $200 deposit is required to enroll.

An additional weekend course in equine lameness with Dr Barb Crabbe is being offered for the days immediately preceding the four-day course.

For full course details, please visit the Equinology website and click onto EQ300 or cut and paste this address: http://www.equinology.com/info/course.asp?courseid=12 (Dr. Clayton) and the EQ600 details can be found at: http://www.equinology.com/info/course.asp?courseid=78 (Dr. Crabbe).

Join your Hoofcare & Lameness/Hoof Blog editor in this very special class. It could be the most important thing you do to jump-start your career in the direction of the future of equine lameness and hoof science. Get a head start: find out where this world of ours is going. See you there!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, 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.

New Video: High-Speed/Slo-Mo Treadmill Gallop Strides

Motion Imaging Corporation (MIC) is headquartered in Minnesota, and the company must be thrilled that the University of Minnesota has built a state-of-the-art equine sports medicine center right in the neighborhood. This week, MIC gave us a peek at their motion capture analysis system in use at the center. What you see here are a few strides of a horse on a treadmill. MIC also makes a system called Equine Gait Trax that captures motion to aid in the evaluation and assessment of gait in horses. The high speed ratio of the camera allows great detail to be seen when the speed is slowed down. Next month, the University of Minnesota will host the 5th International Symposium on Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy in Veterinary Medicine in Minneapolis. Speakers include Dr. Hilary Clayton.