Fran Jurga`s Hoofcare + Lameness: video

Showing posts with label video. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2012

Farrier Video: High-Definition Passion for the Profession in the Words and Work of Bob and Branton Phalen

Before you hit play: Stop and expand this video to full-screen by clicking on the arrows between the letters "HD" and the word "vimeo" on the tool bar. This is a video that deserves to be seen on a bigger screen than your phone's.

The voice. I know that voice. The words of California farrier icon Bob Phalen filled the office. "It's not how much you know, it's how much you learn after you know everything that counts."

How often have I heard farriers say that? And how did Bob Phalen get on my monitor screen in such brilliant high definition?

Sparks flew in slow motion as the shoe hit the anvil. Hot shoes hissed into water buckets with droplets dancing inches into the air. Delicate curls of scale peeled from the ground surface of the shoe as it hunched under the hammer and over the anvil horn. The tap of the driving hammer looked like a powerful punch.

The high-definition vignettes of a horseshoer at work were eye-popping.

The credits hadn't even stopped rolling before I was dialing Bob's phone number.

Bob and Branton hadn't even seen the video yet, and now we're able to post it for all of you here, only 24 hours later.

This video is unscripted and, according to Bob, was created through the editor's ears and eyes, without any input from the Phalens. The film crew simply showed up and spent a day with Bob and Branton, and the editor wove together the vignettes of their comments with the spectacular work shots through editing, since there was no shooting script.

The story just emerged in an organic way.

It's nice that this video is about Bob Phalen, but everyone viewing knows that it's not about him at all. He just is speaking the minds of hundreds--maybe thousands--of farriers across the world who are reaching a certain age and looking back at what they've done with their hands and their minds and their skills over decades of helping horses or "slaying dragons" as the video suggests.

Farriery may be changing forever but for the men and women who have lived the life and done the job because their hearts were in it, there are few regrets. Aches and pains maybe, but few regrets.

If you're concerned that Bob is retiring, I can tell you that I saw him recently and he reassured me again on the phone that he is in good health, although the editing on the video makes it sound like he is hanging up his apron.

That'll be the day.

Cinematographer Bradley Stonesifer

It's appropriate that the film ends with the simple gesture of twirling a shoe around the hammer on the face on the anvil. It sums things up: farriery is part hard work, part skill, and it always helps if you can add in a little bit of magic, right at the end, because that is what they will remember.

I hope the farrier world embraces, shares and promotes this video.

Forget the words that sound like an ending and focus on what Bob says about getting up every day and doing what he wanted to be doing. Perhaps it is romantic and unrealistic to approach a profession as a "passion", to use his words, but it worked for him.

••••••••••••••••

About the making of this film: Farrier was shot to illustrate the capabilities of a high-tech new camera, Vision Research's Phantom Miro M320S. This will be the first in a series of short films about craftspeople reflecting on their careers and how they found their purpose in life through their everyday work.

Thanks to Bradley Stonesifer for allowing the video to be posted for farriers and horsepeople around the world to see.

CREDITS

A Hollywood Special Ops & Island Creek Pictures Production

Bob & Brant Phalen of Phalen Horseshoeing and Supply
Rider: Racheal Johnson
Black Stallion: Constant
Brown Horses: Nikoo & Lilly

Director: Emily Bloom
Producer: Drew Lauer
Field Producer: Jerry McNutt
Cinematographer: Bradley Stonesifer
Camera Operators: Tim Obeck, Jimmy Hammond, Nick Piatnik
Editor: Patrick Chapman
Colorist: Aaron Peak of Hollywood DI
Audio Mixer: Michel Tyabji

Thanks to:
Bell Canyon Equestrian Center

To learn more:

Hollywood Special Ops LLC web site about this film

Phalen Horseshoeing and Supply Inc.

© 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.

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

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.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Jackie McConnell Sentence: Probation and Fine for Tennessee Walking Horse Soring Abuse Captured on Undercover Video

Jackie McConnell was not allowed on the grounds of the 2012 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration earlier this month. This horse, Walk Time Charlie from North Carolina, was the judge's pick for World Champion. If some lawmakers have their way, he may be the last world champion to be shod this way. (Randall R. Saxton photo)

By now, everyone knows who Jackie McConnell is.

McConnell was videotaped beating a Tennessee Walking horse on an undercover video. The video portrayed McConnell as a vicious horse trainer who demonstrated many of the heinous crimes against horses that had been at the center of rumors about the treatment of Walking horses for decades.

The American public saw it for themselves when the video was shown by ABC News last spring.

A federal court in Tennessee found McConnell guilty of violating the Horse Protection Act and the trainer appeared in court today for sentencing.

While the judge could have sentenced the former trainer to five years in prison, he instead sentenced McConnell to three years' probation and a fine of $75,000. According to the Chattanoogan newspaper, the court gave McConnell nine months to raise the money to pay the fine and his horse trailer, seized during the investigation, will not be returned.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that McConnell cried as he read a statement saying that he takes responsibility for what he did. His two associates--including horseshoer Joe Abernathy--received probation terms of one year each.

Abernathy claimed that he was not involved in soring horses but was transporting horses for McConnell. He told the Chattanoogan, "I do feel remorse and this will make me a better person in the end."

The three pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act. According to the Walking Horse Report, McConnell pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Horse Protection Act. All other charges in the original 52-count indictment were dropped under the plea agreement.

Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The Humane Society of the United States, issued the following statement after the sentencing:

“Like many others in the Tennessee walking horse industry, Jackie McConnell has a long history of abusing horses for the sake of a blue ribbon and the profits that go along with it. He and his associates were caught on tape using painful chemicals on horses’ legs, and whipping, kicking and shocking them in the face—all to force them to perform the unnatural 'Big Lick' gait in competitions.

"The Humane Society of the United States is grateful that the U.S. Attorney took on this important case and sent a message that soring will not be tolerated. It was our hope that McConnell would do prison time for these terrible crimes, but there are gaps in the federal law that need to be strengthened.”

According to HSUS, McConnell and two others are also scheduled to appear in court later this month to face 31 counts of violating Tennessee’s state animal cruelty statute.

Public outrage over the McConnell video has led to renewed activism by lawmakers to strengthen the federal Horse Protection Act; the state of Tennessee has also expanded its animal welfare laws to include soring as a criminal act.

On the federal level, H.R. 6388, the Horse Protection Act Amendments of 2012, co-sponsored by Reps. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Jim Moran, D-Va., has been introduced to Congress with the aim of ending the failed system of industry self-policing, ban the use of certain devices associated with soring, strengthen penalties, and hold accountable all those involved in this cruel practice.

Thanks for great reporting to the Humane Society of the United States, The Walking Horse Report, The Tennessean, The Chattanoogan, and the Chattanooga Times Free Press from Tennessee today.

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Walking Horses, Soring and HSUS: Convicted Horse Abuser Says Horses "Have To Be Sored"

Footage courtesy of The Humane Society of the United States

Warning: this video contains descriptive details that may upset you. Is he telling the truth? What was edited out? What does his body language suggest? The man being interviewed is former trainer Barney Davis. He uses a lot of lingo; "walk" refers to the unique Walking horse show gait; "band" refers to the hose-clamp style band around the hoof. "DQP" is a "designated qualified person", or non-USDA inspector performing inspections under USDA regulations.

The following text is from press material received from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) today:

The Humane Society of the United States conducted an on-camera interview with Barney Davis, a former Tennessee horse trainer who pleaded guilty to various violations of the Horse Protection Act last November.

Davis served most of his one-year sentence in prison and was also ordered by the court to cooperate in the production of an educational video describing pervasiveness of the abusive practice of horse “soring.”

The practice causes intentional pain to the feet or legs of horses through the application of caustic chemicals to burn their skin, or by inserting foreign objects to the sensitive areas of their hooves. In reaction to the pain, horses lift their front legs high off the ground, producing the exaggerated “Big Lick” gait rewarded in the show ring.

At his sentencing hearing in February, Davis admitted to routinely soring horses during their training, and explained that this illegal activity is so rampant as to be commonplace throughout the Tennessee walking horse industry.

In The HSUS’ exclusive interview, Davis described common horse soring methods and their effects. He flatly stated that trainers must make their horses suffer to be competitive at “Big Lick” events, including the biggest of them all, the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration currently underway in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

And he demonstrated how inspectors can better detect sored horses.

“The only way to win at the Celebration is to sore,” Davis said. “I’ve shown at the Celebration three, maybe four, times. I trained them myself and they were sore. I’m not going to lie.”

“Barney Davis’ testimonial underscores that soring is now a regrettable, and illegal, norm throughout the Tennessee walking horse industry. And industry self-policing is failing the horses miserably,” said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The HSUS. “The Humane Society of the United States urges the leaders in this industry to abandon their denial and finally institute real, meaningful reforms that will rid the Celebration and other performance horse shows in the industry of this despicable horse abuse.”

Earlier this year, The HSUS paid a $10,000 reward for information that led to the arrest and conviction of Davis, who has competed for the title of World Grand Champion, the industry’s highest prize.

As awareness spreads about the abusive treatment of Tennessee walking horses in the top levels of show competition, The HSUS is continuing its commitment to help bring violators to justice through the offering of this reward to crack down on abuse of these animals.

Anyone with information on this cruel practice should call 855-NO-SORING or email equineprotection@humanesociety.org. The HSUS will protect the identity of all callers.

--end of text provide by The HSUS

The Walking Horse National Celebration is currently going on in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Please don't think that this is a single-breed issue or that it does not involve you or affect your work with horses. How the humane organizations, law enforcement and the government perceive and act on allegations of abuse are important to all of us. Your breed or discipline or livelihood could be affected somewhere down the line even if you have never seen a Walking horse and wouldn't dream of abusing any animal.

Chances are, what happens in Shelbyville this week won't stay in Shelbyville.

Click this link for full information on ordering Professor Denoix's Equine Distal Limb.

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Monday, August 20, 2012

Tennessee walking horse shoeing videos: Ending soring begins with education

The end of August has arrived and that means just one thing: it's time for the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

It's one of the largest and possibly most successful horse shows in the United States. As many as 170,000 people from 40 states have attended the 11-day show in recent years. As many as 2,660 horses may compete in the show's171 classes; more than $650,000 in prizes will be awarded.

And if there is a "hot spot" in the horse world for the next two weeks, this show is it. The reason? In spite of more than 30 years on the books, a federal law designed to stamp out the cruel practice of "soring" Tennessee walking horses has failed.

These videos from trainer Winky Groover are posted for educational purposes. Most people have never seen a Tennessee walking horse perform in the show ring, much less on the cross-ties being shod. But everyone does have an opinion.

You should know the process of shoeing a Walking horse and what the different items used are called: packing materials, double-nail pad, hose clamp, chains, etc.

The actual shoeing you see in the video below is not "soring", which would use chemical irritants, short-trimming, and/or sharp objects between the hoof dressing pad and sole of the foot to manipulate the horse's action. Everything you see here is completely "legal" and accepted practice.

The shoeing video simply shows how a stack of pads is attached to the foot and how the foot is prepared for it. In the first video, Winky gives a very general description of the difference between a flat stack and a wedge stack and how trainers adjust or increase the weight and shape of the stack to manipulate lift or reach.

In June of this year the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) called for the stacked pads, pastern chains and hose clamps you see in these videos to be banned since they form the basis of the system and can be manipulated to the detriment of the horse. (see link below)

Today we learned that the "DQP" (non-USDA) inspectors at the Celebration plan to swab all the horses' pasterns to detect chemicals. This the latest in a confusing series of events in the past few months, including a lawsuit against the USDA, a de-certification of the Celebration's inspection organization, and the impression that the elimination of soring could simply be postponed indefinitely while lawsuits and countersuits sort themselves out.

But the show must go on, and the Celebration says it is going to swab pasterns and that this is a great move forward.

When used at the 2011 Celebration, swabbing revealed that 50 of 52 samples were positive for foreign substances. Most positives were for numbing agents.

According to a press release from the Celebration, swabbing results will be made public during the event for the first time. Violations will be punished severely, the Celebration says, by suspending trainers’ licenses, disqualifying horses, removing ribbons, trophies and prize money.

Will there be more news from Shelbyville about Walking horses and soring between now and Labor Day? Probably. But at least by watching those two videos you'll know the basics of the horseshoeing part of the equation. The human and legal parts of the equation are much more complicated.

Thanks to the Tennessean newspaper for making these videos available.

Hoofcare Publishing and Fran Jurga do not endorse or recommend the practice of soring. Tennessee walking horses are wonderful animals and deserve the best possible care as well as a speedy solution to this controversy. Techniques shown in these videos are for increased understanding only and are not meant for instruction or to pass judgment.

To learn more:

HSUS anti-soring billboard rises near Celebration showgrounds

AVMA and AAEP call for ban on stacked pads, chains, and clamps

Background article on controversy surround the Celebration's inspections: "Change eyed in walking horse industry" (Times Free Press)

Click to support laminitis research in the United States and Australia

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Sunday, August 19, 2012

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

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Laminitis: Video Lecture on Metabolic Pathway for Hoof Blog Readers

Please allow sufficient time for this video to load.

Settle down...You needed to get out of the heat anyway. Take an hour to catch up on the latest information about laminitis, with a special emphasis on insulin resistance and Equine Metabolic Syndrome.

What this is: a one-hour video Powerpoint lecture by Dr. Don Walsh on the latest research and horse management information related to laminitis, primarily via the metabolic pathway common in pleasure horses. A preliminary explanation of the septis-related form of laminitis is provided to differentiate between the two main forms of the disease.

Thanks to EquiSearch.com and EQUUS magazine for hosting "Laminitis Lessons: A Webinar for Every Horse Owner" with The Animal Health Foundation's Don Walsh, DVM, and for making this video archive available to readers of The Hoof Blog.

Dr. Walsh

The Foundation is a leading funder of laminitis research and education around the world; it relies solely on donations from individual horse owners and horsecare professionals like you and me to fund research at Dr. Chris Pollitt's Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit as well as at leading veterinary colleges like Cornell University's equine genetics lab and the labs of private professional researchers like Katy Watts of safergrass.org.

It's not enough just to soak up the information shared in this webinar. It's not enough even to share this video and the information in it with horse owners or horsecare professionals. Please help by sharing information about the Animal Health Foundation, too and by supporting it with your donation--no matter how small--and encouraging others to do the same.

Without a doubt, horses who have laminitis--and horses who might be risk for laminitis--have benefited from the work of the Animal Health Foundation. Directly or indirectly, you have too. Please give back; the Animal Health Foundation will put your donation to work immediately.

Click on the "Donate Online Now" button to go to the Animal Health Foundation PayPal donation page and click on the "donate" button for PayPal. Donations are fully tax-deductible in the United States and may be submitted from any country, in any currency, via a number of credit cards, any time of the day or night. Thank you.

Donation checks may be sent to:

Animal Health Foundation 3615 Bassett Rd. Pacific, MO 63069

Photo of Dr. Walsh by Julie Plaster. Thanks!

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Friday, May 18, 2012

ABC News / HSUS Tennessee Walking Horse Expose Brings Soring Case to National Attention

ABC News broadcast a hidden-camera video this week, exposing the at-home training techniques of well-known Tennessee Walking horse trainer Jackie McConnell of Collierville, Tennessee.

According to the ABC web site, the video was part of a recent Grand Jury indictment of McConnell and was shot by someone working on the trainer's barn crew while collaborating with the Humane Society of the United States.

As a result of this video, Pepsi has withdrawn its sponsorship of the breed's largest show, the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee each September.

The Walking Horse Trainers Association (WHTA) has revoked McConnell's training license. WHTA did not have prior knowledge that the video existed or that ABC News planned to air it. Following the broadcast, the WHTA director quickly called a meeting to voice their reaction.

The WHTA was quick to take HSUS and ABC News to task for comments made on the broadcast about the Walking horse's natural gait.

WHTA President Jamie Hankins: “The gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse is a natural one and our horse does not have to be sored to achieve the high-stepping gait we are so well-known for.”

As further proof of the WHTA’s commitment to the welfare of the horse, Hankins stated that “[i]n February of this year, the USDA released data related to foreign substance testing and our organization acted immediately to introduce a new industry swabbing and drug testing initiative which will be implemented within the next month. This initiative goes above and beyond what is required by the Horse Protection Act, however, our board felt strongly that this program was necessary to protect the interests of our horses and our profession in light of the latest information received from the USDA.”

McConnell, who was previously banned from training horses for five years by the USDA, has been charged with 52 counts by a Grand Jury but he entered into a plea agreement last week with prosecutors. In exchange for pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Horse Protection Act, the other counts will be dropped.

The charges dropped relate to horse soring, transporting and entering sored horses in show competitions and falsifying documents. The penalty for the one count could be a $5000 fine, up to three years in prison, or both.

Horseshoer Joseph Abernathy was charged along with McConnell. The court agreed to allow him to continue to operate his farrier business, provided he report weekly on whose horses he has shod. Abernathy did not have any previous USDA violations on his record.

One of the training methods shown on the video is called "stewarding". It teaches the horse to stand still and not flinch when its sore feet and pasterns are handled by inspectors (stewards).

To learn more: Watch a video of a stake championship class for Walking horses at the Mississippi Charity Horse Show in Jackson last year. These horses all passed the anti-soring inspection before the competition.

Click on the image for more information and online ordering.

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read more hoofcare headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Monday, March 19, 2012

NTRA's New-Look Thoroughbred Horseshoes: Fantasy Footwear Video

This video makes you wonder who created that prototype for the NTRA! No additional information is available...so far although it looks sort of like a plastic-coated Easy. It looks like these commercials may be destined to air on national television.

They come in Zenyatta's silks colors!

Call 978 281 3222 to place your order; ships immediately and you'll use it often!

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Guinness TV Commercials for St Patrick's Day

If you can't be at a St Patrick's Day parade today, you can feel the spirit of the day with a few great Guinness commercials. It might be safer, too.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Whatever you do today, there's a chance you might run into some of the products or culture spawned by the Guinness Brewery of Dublin, Ireland.

Click this link to read the rest of this article

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Friends at Work: John Deans Is a Farrier in Maine

What makes a farrier tick? And what makes a farrier tick after 30 years on the job? Maybe it's those horses who hug you back. Maybe it's a walk on the beach with your truck dog in between barn calls. Maybe it's living in a beautiful place like Maine.

Or maybe it's just being comfortable in yourself and loving what you do every day.

I think that's what we have here.

I've known John Deans probably for as long as I've been around the hoof world. We've sat through some of the best and some of the worst lectures and clinics that the farrier associations and vet clinics in New England could organize.

Watching this video made me realize just how long that's been, and how we all get a little sentimental about our jobs when we settle in and realize we've been doing it for a very long time--because it's what we want to do and because we live where we want to live.

I have a feeling that many people could fit the template of this video, but with different landscapes behind them and different truck dogs. It's a fitting template for someone who fits right in in their environment, and is as comfortable with themselves as they are with the animals who share their days.

Technical note: If you're looking closely at what John's doing in this video, you might be confused if you're not from a snowy part of North America. He's applying what we call "snow shoes". They are standard-issue around here. It's hard to see the shoe, but the pad has a big bubble in the center that pops the snow out so that no snowballs form in the foot. The shoe might have borium (hardsurfacing) on it or tiny studs, both for traction, or John might have driven in a couple of tungsten-tipped nails that add traction.

Thanks to Emma Deans (left) for making this video. Emma is John's daughter; she recently graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington and is pursuing what will surely be an exciting career in multimedia journalism.
You can learn more about Emma and her adventures at http://emmadeans.com/. Something tells me we'll be hearing more from her!

The ultimate reference book for hoof anatomy and imaging!
Call 978 281 3222 to order or email books (at) hoofcare.com

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Nothing Says "Happy Holidays" Like a Horse in the Snow

What, you're not in the holiday spirit? The Hoof Blog has a cure for that. Just sit down and watch my collection of favorite Christmas television commercials. All have horses featured in them.

If you don't have the ho-ho-ho's by the time you're finished watching these, try some egg nog and watch again.

1. First, a montage of Irish Christmas commercials, past and present, including scenes from ads for Guinness, Land Rover, Kerrygold and some other companies I don't recognize (sorry):

2. More from Ireland: I love the Guinness ad, so let's look at that one in its entirety:

3. Here's the classic Christmas commercial, American-style: the 1987 Budweiser Vermont Christmas ad, shot in my old hometown of South Woodstock:

4. I don't remember when the Budweiser Clydesdales took credit for turning on the Christmas lights, but I'm happy they did it in this commercial:

5. Just for the record, Miller High Life beat Budweiser to Vermont; this one is from 1981 and still stands the test of time. What a classic:

6. No snowman is safe when there are horses around. This Wells Fargo commercial makes that point very clearly!

Go ahead, use the little envelope symbol at the bottom of this post to email a link to this video collection and make it your Christmas greeting, too! Or use the symbols to share this on Facebook and Twitter. Spread the joy to the world!

Happy holidays to all!

Thanks for your support and friendship

and all you do to help horses!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof 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). Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to info@hoofcare.com.

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @Hoofblog

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

Monday, September 26, 2011

Friends at Work: Will Hellyer Shoes a Real Shire for Virtual Farmers

Shoeing a Shire horse isn't easy. Neither is describing the process in a little more than a minute but The Farm's "Head Girl" Emma Warner did it.

Yesterday The Hoof Blog commiserated with a researcher who had to explain insulin resistance and its role in equine laminitis in less than three minutes. Who knew an academic could avoid all the big words and cut to the chase?

Today I was thinking that it's equally hard to explain what a farrier is doing as s/he shoes a horse. And I found someone who did it in a minute and a half. "Head Girl" (that's British for horse manager) Emma Warner had some very good video editing behind her voiceover to make it possible. And in doing it, she manages to avoid many of the cliches and misused terms that many journalists and broadcasters inevitably--and understandably--garble.

Virtual farmers make the decision at a web-managed farm

Farrier Will Hellyer is hard at work on one of the Shire horses at the National Trust’s "MyFarm" project at the 2500-acre Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, England, where over 250,000 visitors a year get up close and personal with farm animals, including many from rare species, on a "real" working farm. They also have the option of joining the farm and can become virtual decision-makers on how the farm is run. It's a very interesting way to use the Internet, and would be a great model for a show or racehorse stable, too.

I became aware of the farm in July when they set up a web cam in the stall of a Shire mare who was about to foal. I thought it would be exciting for people to follow the birth and encouraged people via Twitter to tune in.

The Shire is one of two native heavy horse breeds in England; the Suffolk is the other. Shires are traditionally shod with toe clips. Photo by Lars Lundqvist.

It turned out to be something quite different than what any of us imagined. The foal never took a breath after it emerged from the womb and the experience of watching the process turned out not to be the idyllic, joyful one people expected, but rather the hard, cold realism of life (and death) on a real farm, after all.

The farm said that 800 people were watching at the time.

Watching how the farm handled the publicity over the foal's death was interesting, as the public expressed a wide variety of opinions and reactions, thanks to the open book of social media. The farm seemed to post any and all comments, and take the critical ones in stride.

TO LEARN MORE

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines in your Facebook news feed when you "like" the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page