When Art and Craft Combined in One Tool: Steve Teichman's Hoof Nippers

by Fran Jurga | 23 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Back in the depths of winter, I was at the American Farrier's Association Convention in Tennessee. The annual fundraising auction there is a special treat because it is a collection of work by farriers, for the most part, or by artists who have painted or sculpted farriers or hooves or horses. From the tiniest, most delicate ring to a huge, rough-hewn coffee table or a towering wine rack, each treasure is one of a kind and somehow bears the indelible stamp of farrierism on it. Unmistakably. Undeniably. The prices that these items usually bring are as impressive as the workmanship.

This year, I was knocked out the most by this pair of GE nippers. Yes, this is a standard out-of-the-pouch pair of GE nippers. But they have been transformed by farrier Steve Teichman of Pennsylvania, who is also a master at artistic engraving. Steve's work is subtle and very fine, and the fact that he would choose to engrave a tool that has reins that are edged in different ways is testimony to his confidence in his art. Surely these are the nippers that would have manicured the hoof walls of the horses in some fantasy kingdom faraway. They looked enchanted.

What are nippers?

For those readers who are not in or around the farrier world, nippers are sort of long-handled toe-nail clippers for horses. The three main cutting tools used in trimming horses are the nippers for the wall, the sole knife, and the rasp for flattening the foot and dressing the wall. Nippers come first and there's no going back if you nip too much. They are used to clip the edge of the hoof wall and come in different lengths, and there are racetrack nippers and saddlehorse nippers. The cutting edges of the blades, where they meet, are very sharp, so that a farrier can nip accurately and get a clean cut on a hard, dry hoof wall as well as a soggy, soft one. Farriers take very good care of all their tools, but are especially careful of their nippers. The nippers in this photo are made from a high grade of steel by the GE Forge and Tool Company of Arroyo Grande, California. I've always wondered when riveted or hinged nippers first came into use and where. Does anyone know?

I admired Steve's nippers all week but when the auction started, they were one of the first items to go. The room was only half full and they sold for far less than their real value, many of us thought. I was crushed, and glad Steve wasn't there. The buyer got a real bargain. And he knew it, too.

As much time as Steve spent engraving the nippers, I think I have spent trying to get a good Photoshop image of them. My friends Liz and Garnet Oetjens took great photos, but they always look different on the computer screen and I've been afraid to post a photo because I want to do Steve's work justice. But enough time has passed: suffice to say, the dark areas are just shadows, not any artifact of the engraving or manufacturing the nippers.

The next AFA auction will be at their 2010 convention in Portland, Oregon February 24-27. I'm sure all the artists are busy working on their masterpieces now. Enchantments are underway in studios, forges, basements, garages and through camera lens across the USA. I'll be amazed, all over again.

© 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.

Father's Day Video Treat: Buster Keaton in "The Blacksmith"

"Under the scrawny palm tree,

 the village smithy stands..."

It may have been made in 1922, but it will still make you laugh. One of the world's all-time great film stars and comedians didn't need a voice. You don't need to hear his hammer strike or his fire hiss or the horse's hoof hit the smithy floor. He's so good, he makes you hear it.

Settle down for 20 minutes and watch a bit of film history. And if you're a father, happy father's day.

Old car buffs will like the vintage Rolls Royce in this film! I like the rolling ladder, not to mention all the wooden boxes of horseshoes. I liked the display of sample horseshoes too; it looked like he had a sample of a rope shoe or pad, used to prevent slipping on pavement.

Don't you wonder how they set this up for filming and where they found the props? Or did they just remove one wall of an existing shoeing shop somewhere outside Los Angeles?

Keaton was the director as well as the star of this film. I wish I knew more about how and why and where he made this little gem of a film. The video is hosted from archive.org, and we appreciate their help in making it possible to share it with you.

Update: In 2013, a new cut of this film was unearthed, so there are now two versions of this film, with different scenes. This one is the original, longstanding version but wouldn't you love to watch them both!

Thanks to Susanna Forrest, author of If Wishes Were Horses, for assistance with this article.

Here's one of my favorite-ever covers of Hoofcare & Lameness Journal, perfect for Fathers Day! If you double-click on the image, you should be able to see it in a larger size.

© 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.

Tim Flach's EQUUS: What Image Defines the Horse for You?

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. All images and text protected to full extent of law. Permissions for use in other media or elsewhere on the web can be easily arranged.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service.

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

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A Foal Meets His First Rasp

Foal_2009_0038, originally uploaded by Equest Images.

"Hey, Mom, what's that thing?"

Photographer Nadja Fischer captured this rite of passage at the Oswood Stallion Station in Weatherford, Texas recently. The shiny tool box on wheels is old hat to the mare, but the foal is curious, and will probably soon feel the cool cut of the rasp's teeth on the soft hoof wall.

Nadja Fischer is a bilingual German/English photographer just launching her career with a promising portfolio of images. We wish her luck as, just like this foal, she learns her way around the business and rises, hopefully, to the top through the proven combination of hard work and talent.

Weatherford, Texas is one of the cutting horse industry's central points for breeding and training farms, and also home to several major equine hospitals.

Thanks, Nadja, and good luck to foal #38!

Another Country Heard From: 2009 Malaysian Farriers Competition

by Fran Jurga | 14 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

National Horse Show 2009, Penang, originally uploaded by zehom.

Last week's National Horse Show at Penang in Malaysia featured the nation's farrier competition. We don't have any details, but these photos are more than we've had in previous years...if there have been competitions in Malaysia in previous years. Thanks to Zehom for sharing these photos with The Hoof Blog. I know we have blog readers from Malaysia, so I hope that someone in this photo gets the news that these photos are making their way around the world!

Before the Sun Sets on the Triple Crown

by Fran Jurga | 10 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Mine That Bird, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

Before the 2009 Triple Crown series of races fades from our memories, I'd like to share this photo with you, which is my pick for the best of many, many great photos to come out of this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds. Sarah K. Andrew did it again, and I'd like to thank her for being in the right place at the right time and for sharing this photo.

What's special about this photo is that it was taken minutes after the finish of the Kentucky Derby. My guess is that Mine That Bird's camp had not done a dress rehearsal of where to go and what to do if the horse won and would be headed to the winner's circle.

Charlie Figueroa has been Mine That Bird's groom and exercise rider throughout the Triple Crown, as well as Chip Woolley's legs while the trainer has been on crutches. Charlie normally works at the farm back in New Mexico, where he breaks and trains the young horses.

I've seen a hundred pictures of this man in the past couple of months and he's been smiling in most of them. But the smile on his face in this photo, when he's just grabbed his muddy horse out of the winner's circle to bring him back to the barn, is very special. You can almost see the lift in his walk. He's a happy man.

After all that racing has been through lately, the Triple Crown seemed to have an angel looking over it, even though Friesan Fire and Dunkirk are now out with fractures, I Want Revenge has fetlock ligament damage, and we're still waiting for Florida Derby winner Quality Road to get back to the races after recovering from his matching front and hind quarter cracks.

They've gone to the four winds: Pioneerof The Nile with his hot fit flames is back to California. Belmont winner Summer Bird is headed to Louisiana. Mine That Bird's team seems to understandably like it at Churchill Downs, where rumor has it that the Kentucky Derby Museum has asked Chip Woolley for his crutches when he's ready to walk on his own again.

The Triple Crown may be over, but in six weeks, the sun will be glowing through the fog in Saratoga at dawn, the way it always does and the way it always has. With luck, these three-year-old horses we've come to know and maybe even Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra will give the racing tribe some thrills at America's oldest track.

Charlie, his big smile, and his fast little horse would fit right in.

See you there!

Hoofcare Publishing will host a series of informal educational events in Saratoga during the race meet on Tuesday evenings. Watch this blog for more details of speakers and sponsors, or email Saratoga@hoofcare.com for more details about attending or sponsoring. The blog will come alive! Most events are held either at the Parting Pub's back room or at the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.

Australian Anatomy Animation: Tendons and Ligaments of the Distal Limb

by Fran Jurga | 9 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

People make a lot of jokes about "boning" up on their equine anatomy knowledge, but Australian researcher Jonathan Merritt took it to heart and dedicated himself to creating a three-dimensional model of the lower limb of the horse, on which he has applied the ligaments that hold the entire apparatus together and the tendons that move its parts. He applied them layer by layer so that you can see the enormous complexity of the segmented structure of the equine limb.

The technical definition of a ligament is an attachment between two bones; generally a ligament is in a position that will make use of its fibruous strength in just the right place and angle to stabilize a joint. Ligaments allow flexion, but prevent malfunction. Tendons, of course, are extensions of the muscles in the upper limb that move the joints in the lower limb.

Jonathan Merritt's PhD thesis at the University of Melbourne was on the biomechanics of the forelimb of the horse. The focus of the research has been the relationship between the dynamics of locomotion and the strains induced in the third metacarpal bone. Dr. Merritt's work includes being lead researcher in the study Influence of Muscle-Tendon Wrapping on Calculations of Joint Reaction Forces in the Equine Distal Forelimb in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology (Click here to read online.)

Here's his description of how the little video was made: "The models of the bones were created from real equine limb bones using in-house photogrammetric software that I wrote. The bones were imported into Blender, and the ligaments and tendons were modeled by hand. Finally, a custom RenderMan exporter script was used to export the models and camera animations to the Aqsis renderer."

Dr. Merritt has been very generous to post this video and others he's made both on YouTube and vimeo.com.

I don't know that you can or should download it and hope that no one will abuse his generosity in both posting the videos and allowing them to be seen in places like this blog. The right thing to do would be to bookmark the video, send others to watch it and send an email to him letting him know you appreciated his hard work.

Encouraging talented people like Dr Merritt to pursue further studies in equine biomechanics and anatomy would benefit us all. Thanking generous people like him can't be done often enough.

Click here to go to Jonathan Merritt's home page on YouTube.com; you can send him an email from there and also see some of his other videos.

© 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.

More About Tex

by Fran Jurga | 7 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

A service was held today for Tex Cauthen, a farrier who died in Kentucky last week. At first, all the newspapers could say was that the father of a famous jockey had died, but after a few days, articles like this one ("Tex Taught People to Live") from the Cincinnati newspaper began to bring the true identity of this man to light.

Turfway Park President Bob Elliston said Cauthen was one of the best farriers in the thoroughbred business. In the article he said, "Tex was one of the classiest people I ever met. He was incredibly gifted in his craft and was equally gifted as a human being."

That is wonderful praise.

I've heard from members of Tex's family and friends and learned so much about him that I never knew. I hope you'll take a minute and read the article from the Cincinnati newspaper.

I also hope you all read Ada Gates Patton's memoir of running into Tex in Cinncinati last winter. It was very nice of her to write that all down and share it. Just scroll down to the first article about Tex from last week and click on the comments to read Ada's letter.

© 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.

D-Day in the Forge: Invading Troops Found a Farrier in Normandy

When allied forces landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 and fought their way inland from the beaches, a couple of soldiers on a detail with a photographer discovered that, in spite of the invasion, you could still get a horse shod down at the forge. This beautiful and peaceful photo was taken during one of the bloodiest, deadliest weeks of human history. I would have thought the town would have been evacuated. Perhaps it was--and the farrier defied orders and stayed behind in case anyone needed him. 

Note: This article was written in 2009. Since then, an account has emerged that British troops used a French horse to carry their mortar as they advanced. Could it be the same horse in my photos? Gray draft horses are common in Normandy, which is the home of the Percheron breed. But perhaps the British realized that the horse they commandeered had lost a shoe, or needed the attention of a farrier.

Today (June 6) is the anniversary of D-Day, the World War II invasion of France by an allied force of troops and air support from Great Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, and other nations. They came by sea and they dropped from the sky by parachute. You've seen the movies, and you probably know the story.

A new possible angle on the horseshoeing story emerged in 2019, when the BBC News posted this video about a gray work horse commandeered by British troops to carry their mortar. Did the horse lose a shoe? Click the arrow to start the video.

UPDATE: The BBC has changed access to this video. It can now only be viewed inside the United Kingdom. American, Canadian, and other readers will not be able to play the video. If you have a way to access it, the link is: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p07c9k5w/48520886


Imagine my surprise years ago when I found these photos in the archives of the invasion. In the midst of all the fighter planes, tanks and artillery, we find some unidentified soldiers who appear to have stumbled on a smithy in Creully, one the first towns inland from the beaches, and hence one of the first real places in France to be "liberated" by the invading allies. Or, was he shoeing their horse, I wondered.

Here's an enlargement of the men's faces. This could be a Norman Rockwell painting.

The elderly marechal ferrant (that's French for farrier) is not caught up in the revelry of liberation. I am sure that when this photo was taken you could hear the battle going on, yet inside this smithy, time has stopped. Perhaps the Canadian soldiers had banged on his door. He was probably hiding deep inside, as tanks rolled through his village from the beaches to the east, and convoys of German trucks and wagons evacuated.

It's easy to imagine a scenario here: Perhaps one of the soldiers is a farm boy from Saskatchewan or Manitoba who had never seen the European way of holding up the hind foot for the farrier. He'd be saying (with a helmet on, after just almost being killed during the amphibious landing on the beach), "Gee, that's dangerous! Watch out you don't get kicked, old man!"

Or perhaps he was an inner city boy from Montreal or Toronto who had never seen a horse shod in his life. After surviving the landing on the beach and marching inland, he sees life with new eyes. He and his detail may have been assigned to check that all the buildings of this village are empty and secure and instead they find this old man and a farmer's son shoeing a cart horse. Are they being ordered to leave? But first, they insist on finishing the horse: they're not going anywhere until the last nail on the last shoe is clinched.

Or did the Canadians need the horse to be shod so they could use him, as the BBC newsreel footage suggests?

I think these photos illustrate one of the most magical things about shoeing horses, anywhere and everywhere it happens, but especially in a purpose-built forge. Time does seem to stop. No one can go anywhere until it's done, nor do they want to. No matter how modern the materials, the ritual is as timeless now as it has always been.

Update: Canadian records tell us that the farrier's name was Monsieur M. Le Jolivet and the forge was on Rue de Bayeux in Creully, a village about four miles inland from the "Gold" zone of beaches where the Canadians landed.

I wondered if the farrier invited the soldiers to share a sip of his calvados, the fine brandy of his region, after the horse was done. That would be the French way, even with shells falling on the town and tanks rolling down the road.

Or maybe he had more horses to do. 

Another update: More research with the Canadian government sources has revealed that the photographer was with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals / Canadian Army Film & Photo Unit. The men shown are likely Sgt. Al Grayston and Private Lewis Luke “Lew” Currie.

Currie, the smiling man in the beret in the photo, was a driver assigned to the photographer. He was killed during fighting on July 4, 1944, just a few weeks after this photo was taken. He was trying to assist the film crew when a shell hit him.

Another amazing thing about this photo is the skill of the photographer. Taking photos of this quality in the available light of a forge was probably a welcome challenge to a photographer who had been dodging artillery shells and seeing soldiers fall the day before--or perhaps the hour before. Everyone in the film crew would have been mentally and physically spent. The photographer was probably dumbstruck when stumbling upon this timeless scene and the idea of creating such a beautiful image.

So many years later, I was amazed to find these photos and couldn't wait until June 6 rolled around on the calendar to share them with you. I hope you will remember the importance of this day and all the people who died, and know that this day in history has many dimensions, and many stories that should be told again and again so we never forget.

--by Fran Jurga

Photo credit: Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie / National Archives USA. Many thanks for the loan of these photographs.



© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Questions about this blog? Send email to hoofblog@gmail.com.

Zenyatta's Revealing Close-up: Secrets of the Foot That Always Crosses the Finish Line First

Zenyatta, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

"Flats" are in for the front feet of racing Thoroughbreds these days and here we see evidence that champion supermare Zenyatta is playing by the rules with her flat-as-a-pancake front plates.

This revealing shot was taken back in May when The Zen of Horse Racing passed through Churchill Downs. New York area racing photographer Sarah K. Andrew (a.k.a. "Rock and Racehorses") stood in a puddle waiting for her to lift her foot so you all could see her frog and wall and plate and nails.

Zenyatta is shod by California farrier Tom Halpenny.

Thank you, Sarah and Zenyatta!

Click here to see her full-fit hind feet, also shot by a puddle-jumping Sarah.

Video: Laminitis in Standardbreds at Ohio State's Vet Hospital

by Fran Jurga | 2 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Part 1 features Ohio State clinician/researcher Dr. James Belknap

Part 2 features farrier Trey Green

The US Trotting Association's magazine Hoof Beats has a feature on laminitis this month and the magazine sent a video crew to the veterinary hospital at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Columbus, Ohio to film a supporting video to accompany the article.

I hope you will check out the article, and also watch these two short videos. The first features Ohio State's Dr. James Belknap, a respected leader in the study of the mechanism of the disease and of medications' effects. The article in Hoof Beats was written by Dr. Belknap. He obviously works in a hands-0n role at Ohio State, as well, and you'll see him giving some of his opinions about the clinical aspects of the disease.

On the second clip, you'll see Dr. Belknap work on the foot of the patient, and then Ohio State farrier Trey Green goes to work and finds the case ideal for the applicaion of a heart-bar shoe.

I wonder where and how the horse is now.

Many thanks to the USTA for posting the video.

© 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 Rest: Tex Cauthen

by Fran Jurga | 2 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The racing publications are reporting that Ronald "Tex" Cauthen of Walton, Kentucky has died. Tex was a well-known horseshoer in central Kentucky and was reportedly 77 years old. 

I remember "meeting" Tex Cauthen the first time I walked through the then brand-new Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs in the early 1980s. I held my breath going around each corner, thinking that surely there would be an exhibit about horseshoeing coming ahead. But there wasn't. Instead, I turned a corner by a stairway and there was a photo, set off by itself, of a farrier's hands, working. I stared at it for a long time because it was a beautiful photograph, and seemed to have been put there just so I wouldn't go home in a huff. I stared at the name: "Tex Cauthen". I made a mental note to look him up. 

I felt like I knew him, having met his hands. 

And the name sort of rang a bell. I must have heard his name before. I

 was probably the only person in the world more impressed with the fact that Tex Cauthen was a horseshoer than that he was the father of the world-famous teenage jockey who rode Affirmed to win the Triple Crown. It took me a while to put two and two together. 

All the racing magazine stories say that the famous jockey's father died and, oh yes, he was a blacksmith. 

Let this be one place where he's remembered for who he was, and for a pair of hands that could stop me in my tracks. Rest in peace, Tex.

  © 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.

Zenyatta: Champion Mare Shows Her Toes at Bath Time

Zenyatta, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

Photographer Sarah K. Andrew coaxed champion mare Zenyatta to show off one of her shiny shoes while she enjoyed her bath at Churchill Downs recently, before returning to California to win her first start of 2009. Thanks, Sarah, for sharing this photo!

Friends at Rest: Farrier Linda Best

Linda Best was very proud of the national champion miniature driving horses that she exhibited and drove herself. (Ribbons for Linda photo)

New Hampshire farrier Linda Best died Sunday morning. The entire New England farrier community and miniature horse world has been thinking of Linda and her farrier husband, Paul, and we all wanted to believe there was hope she'd recover. That wasn't to be and we've lost a friend.

Click here to read a story about a day that will be how we'll all try to remember Linda. A second annual benefit "Ribbons for Linda" horse show had been planned for next Sunday. More info is available at this link.

I hope there will be more details available when the world comes back from the long weekend.

Memorial Day and the Medal of Honor, Farrier Style

by Fran Jurga | 25 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The Medal of Honor of the United States

Everything was in place. The cemetery was a sea of green grass, gray granite markers, tiny flags, and red geraniums. All we needed was a marching band, the Little League, the Girl Scouts, and the Color Guard and we'd be all set.

And here they come, right on cue.

No one comes from a more scenic hometown than I do and there is no day of the year when Shirley Center, Massachusetts looks more idyllic than on Memorial Day.

This weekend, my eye lingered on all the mossy Civil War soldiers' graves (there are quite a few) and I thought about the marker in the center of the Common that honors the ones who didn't come back.

On Memorial Day, anyone who died fighting in any war should be in our thoughts, so I have some interesting names that I'd like to share. These men are listed with the US Congress as recipients of the Medal of Honor (sometimes called the Congressional Medal of Honor), given, usually, for gallantry in action. But they weren't gun-toting combat soldiers; they were hammer-hoisting horseshoers.

Not airmen or artillerymen or scouts or Marines. They were sent with the cavalry to shoe the horses and they somehow ended up performing acts of courage and distinction. They perhaps performed these acts unarmed, except for their tools. George Meach actually captured the flag for the Union forces at the battle at Winchester; I wonder if he still had his apron on.

For many years, the Medal of Honor was the only medal given. It began after the Civil War; up until then, the Americans didn't give medals.

Farrier Recipients of the Medal of Honor

Except for George, who was in the Civil War, these men were part of an army mounted on horseback that was sent to clear the western frontier and make it safe for the migration of thousands of settlers. The Native Americans stood in their way, and the conflict is as much a wound on the national conscience as the Civil War that preceded it.

The Army depended on horses and needed farriers. Lots of them. Many immigrant farriers used their skill to get through Ellis Island's immigration red tape and enlisted right there in the army as a way to gain citizenship with guaranteed pay; others were quickly trained. Four of the farriers who won the Medal of Honor were immigrants. Many, like Ernst Veuve, shod horses in the Army without ever learning to speak English.

I'm sure that, in later wars, there were farriers who were awarded many medals, while serving in combat.

Some other farriers to remember today: Vincent Charley, John Bringes, James Moore, Benjamin Brandon, Benjamin Wells, and William Heath. Those six farriers set out for what was supposed to be a simple week-long maneuver under their general, one George Armstrong Custer. It ended in the valley of Montana's Little Big Horn river on June 25, 1876. I think you know the rest of that story.

Memorial Day began in 1868, when it was called simply "remembrance day". Take a minute today and remember what and who this holiday is really about.

© 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. 

"What Price the Horse?" A World War I Farrier Wondered

by Fran Jurga | 23 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

A friend shared with me this photo of a farrier sergeant mounted on what looks like a mighty English hunter who must have been drafted to fight in France in World War I.

Army Farriers Help Retiring Military Horses Hang Up Their Horseshoes in Colorado

by Fran Jurga | 22 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Fort Carson, Colorado hosted a ceremony this week that you don't often hear about. Sgt. 1st Class Possum and Master Sgt. Houdini officially retired from service in the US Army. And they went out in style. Horses are not considered just inventory in the Army, they even have rank and can be promoted (or demoted). But they needed the help of Sgt. Jon Husby and Cpl. John Slatton before they could head out to greener pastures.

The official retirement ceremony for two long-serving and hard-working ceremonial color guard horses meant that a single shoe was tacked onto the foot of each horse and it was saddled up for (according to these photos) what looks like an expedition to go after Pancho Villa.

The horses were then led into the arena and ceremoniously unsaddled. The two farriers then pulled the nails and removed the ceremonial shoes. (Note the shoe pullers in Sgt. Husby's hind pocket.)

Tracking down this story meant interviewing sources at Fort Carson who obviously had never been interrogated about their horseshoeing services before, and there is probably a red terrorism alert in the area this weekend because of unprecedented questions asked about military horse hoofcare. You can blame this blog.

Suffice to say, the military press service was very generous to allow the use of these photos but did not want the farriers to be interviewed. They did say that the farriers get to wear blue jeans instead of government-issue uniform pants, and that Sgt. Husby attended farrier school last year in Oklahoma so he could take care of the fort's color guard's horses' hooves.

Sgts. Possum and Houdini, meanwhile, are headed to Florida, where they will live out their days at Mill Creek Farm in Alachua, which is home to many retired military and police horses.

Both horses have been champions or placed over the years in the National Cavalry Competition on behalf of Fort Carson's honor and glory. Fort Carson is named for the legendary frontier scout, Kit Carson.

The farriers will still have six horses at Fort Carson to shoe, and I hope that keeps them busy.


Along the same lines, here's a brief video supplied by the US Army about the hoof preparation of the horses from the Fort Riley, Kansas color guard who participated in the Inaugural Parade in Washington, DC back in January of this year.

Fort Riley was the longtime western capital of horseshoeing in America, as it was the home of the US Army's cavalry school of horseshoeing. I have often wondered if the reason there are so many horseshoeing schools in Oklahoma is because of the psychic presence of that huge and powerful school in the Midwest for so many years. I hope there is a big plaque somewhere on that military base to remember all those farriers, and I hope to get there one of these days to find out!

Photos for this article provided by the United States Army.

© 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.

New DVD Announcement: "From the Ground Up" Hosted by Ian McKinlay, with Trainers from All Sports, Is Big Brown's Legacy

by Fran Jurga | 20 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

This brief trailer is a promotion for the two-disc 3.5 hour "From the Ground Up" video library compiled by hoof repair specialist Ian McKinlay and many leading horsemen (see list below). The set is sold for $50 plus $6 post in the USA; $12 elsewhere (USA format DVD only). To order call 01 978 281 3222. fax 01978 283 8775 or email GroundUpDVD@hoofcare.com.

"Quarter Crack" might be Ian McKinlay's middle name. A year ago, you couldn't turn on the television or open a newspaper without seeing his face, as all eyes turned to the hoof repair specialist for insight into Big Brown's chances to win the Triple Crown: would the colt be sound? Could he win with two healing wall separations and a quarter crack?

A year later, McKinlay is still working quietly on the backside of Belmont Park in the morning but he's just finished a bigger idea, and we're rolling it out this month for you.

"From the Ground Up" is a 3.5 hour 2-disc DVD library that explores what can and does go wrong on the track and in the show ring, and how it affects the people in charge. Ian spent months interviewing his clients and his colleagues--top trainers, farriers and veterinarians--and asking them what their experiences with hoof problems at the highest level could teach to all horsemen.

Ian interspersed their words of wisdom and recollections with cases of nasty hoof imbalance, white line disease, wall separations and quarter cracks. His famous Dremel tool is busy in this series and there is some promotion for his glue-on Yasha shoe toward the end, but for the most part this is an educational production at a very low price.

The six segments of the two discs are: 1. Foundation; 2. Pre-Purchase; 3. Diagnosis; 4. Causes and Solutions; 5. Balancing the Hoof; 6. Prevention.

There are a lot of extremes in this DVD. Some of the trainers speak in vague generalities, and the feet that Ian shows and works on are wrecks from the racetrack that are collapsed beyond what most viewers might ever see; these horses obviously started with a weak foot and nothing was done to help the horse until it was deemed a crisis.

This is not an instructional DVD, per se; I would hope that no one would watch it and then pick up a Dremel drill and start removing parts of a horse's foot. But from nicely-dressed Olympic and Triple Crown trainers sitting in the sun to horses with big chunks of hoof missing, this DVD at least starts to connect some of the dots.

When some of our most valuable horses have some of the most miserable lameness problems, the irony has to be that Ian McKinlay never says the obvious: the best trainers should have the best horses and the best horses should be sound and not need a hoof repair specialist on speed-dial. But it never seems to work this way.

This DVD is a little bit of Entertainment Tonight meets Food Network, or maybe This Old House. Ian is an excellent host. Celebrity talking heads "tell all" about their hoof problems; notable vets and farriers lean on hammers philosophically and sharp knives trim off dead tissue while sheared heels and collapsed frogs make you wonder if gravity will ever show mercy.

Starring from Thoroughbred racing: Bob Baffert, Richard Mandella, D. Wayne Lukas.

Trainers featured: John Campbell (harness racing), Bruce Davidson (eventing), Anne Kursinski (jumpers), Ian Millar (jumpers), Bryant Pace (reining), Havens Schott (hunters), Betsy Steiner (dressage), Ted Turner (Quarter horses)

Farriers featured: Jim Bayes, Doyle Blagg, Tom Curl, Hank Joseph, and Dwight Sanders

Veterinarians featured: Drs John Steele and Alan Donnell.

Note: The DVD would be really long if viewed at once but it is divided into chapters to make it easier to both find points for reference and to view it in parts.

This is a very ambitious project and should stimulate interest in making more DVDs that step back and take a wider look at the "why" of hoof problems rather than just the "problem:solution" approach. Is it a horseowner DVD? Is it a farrier/vet DVD? You can make up your own mind but I know you'll enjoy watching it while you decide.

© 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.

Badminton Horse Trials Farriers Prize 2009: Photos of New Zealand's Winning Best Shod Horse

We've been halfway around the world and back again this week to catch up with New Zealand team farrier Andrew Nickalls, who in turn has been celebrating his victory in one of the world's most understated and underrated competitions for farriers, the "best shod horse" trophy at the 60th running of the four-star Badminton Horse Trials on May 7-10 in Gloucestershire, England. Andrew (photo at left) is the sort of fellow you'd want in your life boat when the ocean liner is sinking. 

He simply shot pictures of the horse's feet with his cellphone and emailed them. Mission accomplished. Of course, you can't see much, but he got the job done.

 

The shoe, first: Vortex is a 15-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred that is at the four-star ("Olympic") level. He finished 20th at Badminton, and the only things on his feet are shoes, nails and studs. That's quite something in itself. The shoes are handmade 3/4 x 3/8" concave, with side clips. 

I asked about the double stud holes, sure that it was some Kiwi trick but Andrew said: "I put two studs in the outside branch due to the fact that it's such a major competition where they are being taken in and out so often and therefore the extra is a spare one in case the thread goes!"

Side view shows the fit and the positioning and relative size and height of the clips. 

While the shoe is set back under the toe a bit, it's fit with some fullness at the heel and quarter, perhaps more than you'd expect for a horse that is going to be scrambling through a cross-country course. Andrew obviously knows this horse and knew what he could and couldn't do there. Some horses are more careful jumpers than others.

 
This is part 2 of this article; for more about Badminton's Farrier Prize, Andrew Nickalls, please read part 1 of this article, showing the horse's front end conformation and the rider's action. Click here to go there. The competition was judged by James Blurton, who has himself won the award three times with three different horses for three different riders. Jim evaluated the horses both before the competition and on the final day, to see how the shoes and feet had held up...and which horses were still sound. 

© 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). 

LAMINITIS: Proceedings Book and Disk Full of Valuable Research, Therapy, and Medicine for Reference

A montage of thermography images graces the cover of the laminitis proceedings book. The images represent 48 hours of the onset of laminitis; the colors register the relative heat of the foot. If you double-click on this image, you should be able to see it at a much larger size. Image © Dr. Chris Pollitt and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission.

Hoofcare and Lameness is happy to announce that a few more extra copies of the proceedings book and cd-rom from the 4th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot, held in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2007, have been added to our listings of books and new media for your library. These are probably the last copies that will ever be sold.

The Proceedings were published by Hoofcare and Lameness summarized in a 7 x 10", 122-page full-color illustrated book describing presentations and lectures with special essays written for the book by Drs James Orsini, Rustin Moore, and Chris Pollitt.

The book is sold alone, or as part of a two part book and cd-rom package.

The cd-rom contains 76 papers, plus many images and a few PowerPoint excerpts, as provided by the faculty and edited and formated by Hoofcare and Lameness. The accompanying book contains a summary of each speaker's presentation, and color photographs.

Included are the special treats of Dr. Pollitt's "48 Hours in Acute Laminitis", as shown on the cover, as well as his previously unpublished sequential CT scans of the blood supply to the foot.

Dr. Moore's essay addresses the significance of laminitis research and education in the aftermath of the Barbaro tragedy and publicity earlier in 2007.

A few other presenters and authors included Steve Adair, James Belknap, Robert Boswell, Thomas Divers, Berndt Driessen, Lisa Fortier, Bryan Fraley, Ray Geor, Aaron Gygax, Amanda House, John Hubbell, Philip Johnson, Fran Jurga, Bruce Lyle, Joseph Mankowski, Catherine McGowan, Scott Morrison, John Peroni, Patrick Reilly, Ron Renirie, Rob Sigafoos, Mark Silverman, Nathan Slovis, Ashley Stokes, Mitch Taylor, Andrew Van Eps, Don Walsh, Kathryn Watts, Mary Beth Whitcomb, Michael Wildenstein and Laura Zarucco.

The cd-rom represents the single largest collection of papers on laminitis and diseases of the foot ever published in one place.

A table of contents for the cd-rom is available on request. Please send an email to Fran Jurga if you would like the contents to be sent to you as an email attachment.

Ordering information: Order book only or book+cd-rom package. Summary book is 7x10, 122 pages, full color. CD-ROM is Mac or Windows compatible and contains all papers in PDF or PowerPoint formats. Papers vary in length and format. All orders must be pre-paid in US dollars, Visa or MasterCard accepted. Book only is $59; Book + cd-rom package is $125 per set. Add $8 postage per book or per set for USA orders; add US$15 per book or per set to other countries.

Click here for faxable order form. Fax to 978 283 8775 or mail with check drawn on USA bank to Hoofcare, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930. Email orders to Conferencebooks@hoofcare.com. Prices subject to change without notice; supplies are limited.

Conference books and cd-roms were sent to all attendees of the 2007 conference. These extra copies are being offered to libraries and interested individuals who did not attend.

The Proceedings book and cd-rom were sponsored by Intervet and created by Dr. Chris Pollitt and Fran Jurga.

The 5th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot is being planned for November 2009 and will again be held in West Palm Beach, Florida.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found. This post originally appeared on September 17, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

Here's Your Silly but Spectacular Preakness Winner!

Like My Silly Face? (Rachel Alexandra), originally uploaded by wendyu.

Two storybook endings. Take your pick. The New Mexico longshot Kentucky Derby winner was chasing the should-she-be-there champion filly to the finish line in this afternoon's second leg of the Triple Crown for three-year-old US Thoroughbreds. Would he catch her? Should he catch her?

There was no catching Rachel Alexandra today, even though her jockey, Calvin Borel, said she had trouble "getting hold of the racetrack" because it was dry and loose and that she preferred a hard, fast track.

If she runs in the Belmont, what will that mean for her feet? She seemed to have a different gait style today, much flatter than when she ran in the Kentucky Oaks. In the Oaks, where she won by 20 lengths, she seemed to run uphill, with her withers high, like a deer, with her front end passing hardly beneath here; today she ran with her back flat. Like every other racehorse.

She wasn't planning to run again in two weeks, let alone against the colts (and one game late-running gelding from New Mexico) but her new owner had a new plan in mind. This is an amazing filly.

Thanks to Wendy Uzelac for this great shot of Rachel mugging while she enjoyed her bath this morning. Let's see what happens next.

What Do Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird and Actor Walter Matthau Have in Common? A Grumpy Old Man Would Be Gambling Today

by Fran Jurga | 16 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

They have Leonard Blach in common. The New Mexico veterinarian plays the role of owner in the real life of Mine That Bird; he acted in the role of the veterinarian in the film Casey's Shadow with Matthau. The rest of the time, he actually is a veterinarian.

When you look him up, he checks out. He's a Colorado State graduate, from a ranching family, owns a New Mexico clinic.

But the softspoken co-owner of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is actually a veterinarian and race horse owner with Hollywood ties and a movie set past that make the Mine That Bird's story one level more surreal and storybook than they may already appear. This veterinarian has his union card and is ready for his close-up.

And he is fully versed in the world of storybook endings, so bring on the Preakness.

Before I interviewed Dr. Blach, I thought I should do my homework, so I sat down to watch the 1978 horse-racing family classic, Casey's Shadow. And as I watched, I wondered about the fairy tale story that was unfolding before me.

If you can believe this: Walter Matthau plays a washed up Cajun running horse trainer and grumpy (of course) single dad who ruins every chance he has to prove to his sons how much he loves them. For some reason, they stick together. Salvation comes along in the form of a lightning-fast colt, so the family heads to Ruidoso, New Mexico to run against the best in the country for the big bucks and maybe a pickup truck that starts.

Except the colt is iffy in the soundness department. And there's drama. Drama that reaches its zenith late one night when the vet's truck pulls up to the barn and Leonard Blach--yes! Mine That Bird's Dr. Leonard Blach!--gets out and feels the heat in the colt's foreleg.

Blach's warning to Matthau not to risk the colt's life in the American International falls on deaf ears. Matthau has waited all his life for a colt that fast. And he's doing it for his kids. They need the money. It's a gamble. Get out the ice. He's gonna run.

It's interesting to note that this movie must have been written right after the Ruffian tragedy and I wonder how much that influenced the storyline. You know what's going to happen, and yet this is a family movie so there's a twist at the end, even if there isn't a new pickup.

The original title of the movie was Coon-Ass Colt, and there's even a song in the movie by that name, by Dr. John. The soundtrack has some great music. The film was made by Norman Ritt, famed more for social-issues films like Norma Rae.

The Cajun parts of the movie reminded me of the Calvin Borel interview on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno the other night; Leno showed a photo of Borel's childhood home and asked if they had electricity. That may be a good parallel for how much many people in mainstream racing understand about what goes on outside the spotlight of national-broadcast racing.

Blach was happy to reminisce with me about the fun days of filming Casey's Shadow, when Hollywood came to Ruidoso and Santa Fe. Apparently, there's work for veterinarians on movie sets, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. We were both surprised that the press hasn't drawn more parallels between the film and the real life story that unfolded right before us on May 2, 2009.

Horse racing is Dr. Blach's world, and racing in New Mexico is unique. The purses seem huge for a sprint, the atmosphere seems casual and the technology amassed to reproduce and refine the Quarter horse running machine in utero would amaze anyone who has been parked in the Thoroughbred world's breeding sheds for a while.

Case in point: Consider the recent application of technology to extend Storm Cat's career by retiring him from Thoroughbreds to reinventing him for artificial breeding for Quarter horses; a droplet of Storm Cat's sperm can be bioengineered or "extended" to insure his fertility in the Quarter horse world for a long time to come.

And if you live in that world where talk is not so much of foals but of embryos, you would know the name of Dr. Leonard Blach and his Buena Suerte Clinic. The equine hospital in Roswell has stood some of the leading money-winners in Quarter horse racing, including the greats Go Man Go and Easy Jet.

Dr. Blach thought that if there was something that could come of his group's colorful trek to Louisville and Mine That Bird's inspired romp under Calvin Borel's guidance, it would be to introduce America to The Other Racing. There is another way to race horses. There is another way to breed and raise horses. There is another way to dress and talk and look at the world.

If you rent Casey's Shadow, it looks dated and hokey but there is still something authentic about it, no matter how bad Matthau's attempt at a Cajun accent. It's a good horse racing movie, filmed on location. They didn't try to make Santa Anita look like Ruidoso Downs: they went there, instead, and actors and cameramen alike ate the dust of those horses.

Right now, Dr. Blach and his group from New Mexico have our attention and have put New Mexico on the racing map for many people. But guess what? It was there all along. And thriving.

This afternoon, Americans will gather in front of television sets to watch the Preakness. My guess is more than a few will be wearing cowboy hats in support of the boys from New Mexico and their little horse.

I'll be hoping for another Hollywood ending.

This post originally appeared in a slightly different version on www.equisearch.com. Thanks to repro specialist Gregg Veneklasen DVM of Timber Creek Veterinary Hospital in Canyon, Texas for linking Dr. Blach to the film.

© 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.

It was his first (Derby) rodeo...Chuck Woolley's waistline decor

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the belt buckle, originally uploaded by wendyu.

The classic Kentucky horseman's belt is a tasteful strip of saddle leather adorned with a halter name plate bearing the person's name.

But not this year. Wendy caught up with Mine That Bird's trainer Chuck Woolley on the backside at Pimlico this morning, where the Kentucky Derby winner will run in the second leg of the Triple Crown this afternoon.

Woolley, like all of Mine That Bird's connections, is from New Mexico, and won the Kentucky Derby the first time he entered...with a horse he drove there in a trailer pulled by his own pickup. A big belt buckle is how you celebrate, back home in New Mexico. Looks good to me!

Drop whatever you are doing at 5 p.m. eastern time today and find a television that receives the NBC network. Mine That Bird lost his hot jockey, Calvin Borel, to an even hotter filly, Rachel Alexandra, and plenty of good Derby horses like Friesan Fire, Musket Man, Papa Clem and Pioneerof The Nile are back for the tight turns and shorter distance that will test them all.