Lo! And Behold! Re-energized American Farrier’s Association Offers News, Launches Convention Web Site

It’s not easy being a journalist in the hoof business. What should be the #1 source of information, the office of the national farriers’ association, is usually busy trying to keep its internal affairs out of the news. When the American Farrier’s Association (AFA) offers news on a hand-forged platter, it's a red letter day.

The remarkable news is that the AFA is being pro-active in announcing that the latest of the AFA's executive directors, Jon Bonci, has made his exit. Vice President Dick Fanguy explains that Bonci has returned to a job in the media business in his native New York. Dick stressed that the resignation was bad timing with the AFA’s convention coming up in February, but that the move was not based on politics or interpersonal relations.

Bonci took over following the exit of acting director Michael Nolan a year ago. Nolan, in turn, was brought in to manage a fractured association following the resignation of Bryan Quinsey only a few weeks after a hard-fought election in the wake of a damaging scandal over a top-secret task force with an agenda to push for licensing of farriers in the United States.

The good news is that former employee Rachael Highton has returned to the AFA and will serve as office manager in the Lexington national headquarters. Rachael has worked on administration of previous conventions for the AFA.

In February, the AFA re-invents itself with a smaller region-based national board, replacing a congress of large and small local association representatives, and a new slate of officers. Andrew Elsbree of New York is the incoming president.

The AFA has also launched a standalone website promoting the upcoming convention, to be held the last week of February at the Kentucky Horse Park and Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington.

News from the site is that the roster of sponsoring companies for the AFA’s big competition has evolved, with Vector horse nails taking over sponsorship of the “live” shoeing class and Delta taking over the specialty forging class. (Will they still have the big "Capewell Cup" trophy, I wonder?) Also, the AFA voted to offer free convention registrations to Australian farriers impacted by the equine influenza outbreak there.

Overall, farriers and industry types from all corners are optimistic about a return to Lexington, Kentucky for a national convention. See you there!

Friends at Work: George Crighton in England

Farrier, originally uploaded by Peter Meade.

Here's another of Peter Meade's lovely images of early morning farrier work in England. This is the companion image to yesterday's, which showed the horse's steamy breath; here's George's to add to the atmosphere. Thanks so much to Peter for sharing these images, which include some beautifully lit close-ups of George's hands and tools.

British News: Worshipful Company of Farriers Hosts Veterinary Students for Seminar

(received via press release from the Worshipful Company of Farriers)

The Worshipful Company of Farriers is to hold an important one-day Symposium on Saturday 1st March at The Forge, National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England. This is aimed at Veterinary Students, and focuses on Farriery: the art and its use in the treatment of lameness.

Please note that farriers - particularly farriery apprentices - are welcome to attend and attendance will be added to their 2008 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) record.

Three experts, and well known speakers, Roger Clark FWCF, Simon Curtis FWCF HonAssoc RCVS and Ben Ryder-Davies BSc BVM&S MRCVS will cover topics ranging from the essentials of foot trimming and of shoe-making and the use of farriery in treatment of lameness in horses.

Program:10.40am: Introduction to the Farriery profession.
11.00am: The essentials of foot trimming. (Simon Curtis)
12.00pm: The essentials of shoe-making. (Roger Clark)
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm: The use of farriery in the treatment of lameness in horses. (Roger Clark, Simon Curtis and Ben Ryder-Davies)
4.00pm: Close

The event lasts from 10.40 am to 4pm and aims to give a close insight into this key area. There will be plenty of time for discussion with the speakers, and those interested in attending should sent their name, and details, along with a cheque for £30 (which includes lunch) and payable to The Worshipful Company of Farriers, to: Smith Ryder-Davies & Partners, 18 Grundisburgh Road, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4HG England. Tel: 01394 380083.

"Horse" of the Year is a Pony! Teddy Wins 2007 Farnam® / Platform® USEF Horse of the Year

Karen O’Connor’s popular pony “Theodore O’Connor” was selected from among horses representing all USEF breeds and disciplines as the nation's most exceptional horse for 2007.

Owned by The Theodore O’Connor Syndicate, LLC, the pony is one of the most successful horses in the history of U. S. Eventing. "If size truly does matter, Teddy has proven he is a giant and a huge champion in the hearts of all his fans," said Karen O'Connor, Theodore O'Connor's rider. "It is truly a privilege to be a part of his life."

At 12 years of age, Theodore O’Connor was the first pony in history to compete at the Pan American games. Known as “Teddy”, the 14.1-hand Thoroughbred/Arabian/Shetland cross led the U.S. Eventing team to a Gold medal and brought home an Individual Gold, as well. When the medals were presented, Theodore O‚Connor certainly wowed the crowd as he galloped around the arena, inches shorter than his Gold-medal teammates.

The chestnut gelding captured the heart of the eventing world last spring at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, where he placed third in the four-star eventing competition. Teddy's farrier is Hoofcare and Lameness Journal's contributing editor Paul Goodness. Paul, who founded the successful group practice Forging Ahead, is also farrier at Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia, has been farrier to the Team O'Connor horses for many, many years.

Other 2007 accomplishments for Theodore O‚Connor include: Reserve Champion of the USEF National CCI**** Championship, the first pony ever to compete at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day-Event, Winner of The Fork CIC*** and United States Eventing Association Horse of the Year.

USEF Members, media and the USEF Board of Directors voted to select Theodore O'Connor for the prestigious honor , which was presented at the Horse of the Year gala at the Louisville (Kentucky) Marriott Downtown Hotel last night.

Other finalists for the award were: Aequus+//, an Arabian owned by Hazelbank Investments; Esteban, a Friesian owned by Deb Goldmann; Free Willy, a Hackney owned by Blevins Farms; and Sapphire, a Jumper owned by McLain Ward and Blue Chip Bloodstock.

Farnam's line of Platform® horse feeds and equine health supplements sponsors the Horse of the Year program.

(Information from a supplied press release was used in this post. Thanks to Carrie Foote at Farnam for the photo of Teddy and Karen at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day-Event in April 2007.)

Good Morning!

Morning, originally uploaded by Peter Meade

This photo is a good post card to the world of what life is like around here in January. But photos of horses with steamy breath and furry coats just hint at all that goes into taking care of horses when the ground is frozen (or knee deep in snow) and fencelines are mere suggestions on the landscape. This image is by Peter Meade, a polo photographer in the UK who embarked on a farrier photo adventure recently. I will post some more of his images. They are very nice!

Monty Roberts Joins Up with Farriers, Hosts Clinic at California Ranch

Join-Up® With Your Farrier! Is the title of an interesting new clinic to be hosted later this month (January 19-20) by natural horsemanship maestro Monty Roberts at his Flag Is Up Farm in Solvang, California, near Santa Barbara.

In fact, Monty has “re-joined” up with his former farrier, Ada Gates Patton of Pasadena, and the two will offer expertise to both farriers and horse owners.

Both Ada and Monty are concerned about farriers being injured by frightened or untrained horses; they are also concerned about the safety of nervous horses who are often on cross-ties.

Here's what Monty has to say about people whose horses won't behave for the farrier:

"In every country I have visited, I have found that some people believe that the farrier can educate the horse himself when it comes to standing and behaving while the footwork is done. This is an unacceptable mind-set. A farrier is a professional and should be treated as such. His expertise is to care for your horse’s feet, not to train him.

"While it is true that some farriers are also good horsemen and quite capable of doing the training, most horse owners do not plan to pay the farrier for training services. The farrier often feels that he is being taken advantage of and should not be required to take the time necessary to train. This can result in short tempers, and horses dealt with in an inappropriate way. While farriers are generally physically fit, muscular and capable of administering harsh treatment, should something like this occur, the blame should rest with the people securing their services, and not the farrier."

In his book, Monty describes a mophead-like tool that he uses to get a horse accustomed to activity around its feet from a safe distance; he describes it on his web site, too.

Monty and Ada will work with farriers and horse owners to demonstrate simple training and handling techniques, with the aim of conquering the specific fears that some horses have of farriers and/or having their feet handled.

Ada will also demonstrate simple methods of hoof measuring that she uses to evaluate hoof balance and achieve a more level, balanced trim.

The fee is $150 per day, and the clinics will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

Please call Flag Is Up Farm at (805) 688-3483 for more information and to reserve space.

Flag Is Up is located at 901 East Highway 246 in Solvang.

Freinds at Work: Farrier to Racing Legend Desert Orchid Becomes a Trainer

The last time we checked in with British farrier Paul Henderson, he was micro-managing corns (inflamed heels) on the precious hooves of the great National Hunt ("steeplechase" in American lingo) champion Desert Orchid. Fast forward ten years or so and Paul is now dabbling quite seriously as a trainer and had a winner on Boxing Day; the horse won again last week. Such success for a new trainer meant that he would be featured in a British newspaper today.

And, no, he hasn't given up his day job!

Friends at Work: Victor Harbor, South Australia

Here's Budd Glazbrook shoeing one of the tram Clydesdales out in the courtyard in the seaside town of Victor Harbor, South Australia. His work day is also a public demonstration of farrier skills. The Clydes pull tram cars over a wooden causeway to a nearby island and have been doing it every day in the old whaling port since the 1890s. The tram runs year round and is one of the last in the world. Budd has 14 Clydesdales to shoe. Photo from the Victor Harbor Times.

Night Owls and Tivo-ers: Catch Vet-Stem on ABC's Nightline Tonight

Southern California's Vet Stem corporation will be the star of the show tonight on ABC News' Nightline news program, which will air a special segment on stem cell treatments for joint disease and arthritis in dogs.

While the show focuses on dogs, Vet Stem claims to have been involved in the treatment of more than 2000 cases of lameness in horses. Suspensory ligament injuries are the highest success rate for Vet Stem treatment, according to the equine portion of their web site.

The web site, by the way, has case studies of 20 or so different horses. You can download the documents as PDF files from this page. Scroll down to almost the bottom to read a case study on stem cell repair of coffin joint lameness in a four-year-old Quarter horse.

On the news page, there is also a video about the sprinter Greg's Gold at California's Del Mar racetrack who was treated with Vet Stem technology, which consists of extracting stem cells from fat deposits near the horse's tail head, culturing them so they multiply, and injecting them at the injury site. (That is a massive over-simplification!)

On the east coast, Nightline airs at 11:30 p.m.

Santa Anita: Los Angeles All-Weather Race Surface Prefers Nice Weather

Rainy weather has closed down lovely Santa Anita Racecourse outside Los Angeles, California since Saturday; the track will re-open today, Thursday. Santa Anita received approximately seven and a half inches of rain in 72 hours over the weekend. In spite of sealing the track before the rain and not allowing training on the main track, the new artificial racing surface is not draining properly. The surface has been plagued with drainage problems.

Jockey Mike Smith, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, said an inconsistent track can result in injuries to a horse. "A horse's hoof is sinking about one inch into the surface at one point, then suddenly the hoof is sinking in four inches," he said.

Rumors abound that the rest of the meet will be moved or that the track itself may be excavated. A major announcement is expected on Thursday.

The California tracks received a statewide mandate to switch to artificial surfaces for Thoroughbred racing. The same surface, Cushion Track, was installed at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, but the Santa Anita surface has problems with the drainage pipes beneath the surface. The entire surface was dug up over Christmas in an attempt to fix the problem. Several major stakes races are scheduled for this weekend at Santa Anita.