UC Davis farrier Shane Westman awarded Royal Veterinary College graduate diploma; focuses research on glue-on solar hoof cast for Type III P3 fracture

Shane Westman at work in his forge at the University of California Davis Large Animal Clinic.

The movement to bring more data-driven science to the care of horses’ hooves is surging forward, and University of California Davis veterinary hospital farrier Shane Westman is helping lead the way. 

The Olympic Hoof Explained: Swedish farrier outlines barefoot management of gold medal team

Everyone has questions about the shoeless Swedish showjumpers that have been so successful at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Sweden won the Team Gold Medal Saturday, as a followup to rider Peder Fredricson's Individual Silver Medal for jumping earlier this week.

To explain it to you, we went straight to the source. Peter Glimberg is the farrier at Peder Fredricson's training farm and oversees the hoofcare of some of the world's most elite show jumpers, many of whom now train and compete without shoes on carefully-groomed arena surfaces.

The Olympic (Bare) Hoof: Sweden's All In delivers a shoeless silver medal for rider Peder Fredricson

Ears up: Sweden won the team gold medal! Watch for Fran's followup interview with Swedish team farrier Peter Glimberg on his hybrid professional hoofcare management program for Peder Fredricson's elite international showjumpers. There's more to "barefoot" than there looks when it comes to competing on modern arena surfaces...

Now, this is news: Swedish rider Peder Fredricson won his second consecutive silver Olympic individual show jumping medal in Tokyo this week. Once again, Fredricson flew over the fences at the Olympics and, once again, he was aboard his Rio 2016 Olympic silver medal partner, the Belgian Warmblood All In.

But this time, the world gasped before it cheered. 

All In was shoeless. 

The Olympic (Gold Medal) Hoof: Farrier Jim Blurton's Concave-Maybe Shoeing for British Team Eventer Ballaghmor Class

Farriers love to argue about the ideal shoe -- concave or flat?-- for a three-day event horse, but when it comes time to shoe a horse for the Olympics, what do they actually do? UK farrier Jim Blurton, AWCF, just watched a horse he shoes win the Olympic Team Gold Medal in Eventing. He kindly offered some thoughts about how he shoes Ballaghmor Class for client Oliver Townend and why he does it that way.

The Olympic Hoof: FEI salutes farriers as crucial to equine performance in Tokyo

Note: This story was provided to Hoofcare Publishing by the media relations service of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), the international governing body of equestrian sports, and was not written by Hoofcare Publishing. Some statements from the original article have been omitted.

The Olympic Games are all about the coming together of the best of the best. The human and equine athletes have been meticulously prepared for the occasion. An essential part of that preparation is shoeing. Just as with human athletes, a horse can only perform at its best if the shoes fit perfectly.

The Olympic Hoof: US Eventing Horses Try British Concave Shoes for Tokyo

Two distinct styles of horseshoes dominate the sport of eventing, one based in Britain and one in Europe. There is no middle ground, or wasn't, until the US eventing team prepared to embark for Tokyo.

Part 1 of an article series on international eventing shoes the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Hoofcare wisdom has always held that if you want to tell what country an eventing horse is from, you don't need go looking around the stable for a saddlecloth with a flag. Just pick up its feet. You can at least narrow down the possibilities. But after this Olympics, the world map of horseshoes may need to be redrawn.

The Olympic Hoof: Therapeutic plastic horseshoes helped two US dressage silver medal horses in Tokyo

Horseshoes, like Olympic medals, can be made from different metals. But this week in Tokyo, the world saw that they can also be made of plastic...and help bring home a medal.

For Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics this year, dreams are made of gold, silver, and bronze. But for two horses, those dreams had a plastic lining, although you might not know it unless you happened to see the bottom of their hooves.

The Olympic (Laminitic) Hoof: Dressage horse diagnosed with laminitis before competition begins

A dressage horse representing South Africa has been withdrawn from the Olympics after developing laminitis at the Olympic Equestrian Center outside Tokyo. (Hoofcare.com file photo; this is not the horse described in the article.)

It's been a long road to Tokyo for the world's Olympic equestrian competitors. They've faced Covid lockdowns worldwide, an Equine Herpes Virus outbreak in Europe, Brexit horse transport regulation changes in the United Kingdom, and floods just miles from the quarantine center in Aachen, Germany. 

But for one rider, the challenges are just beginning: Her horse, expected to compete in dressage on Saturday for South Africa, has been diagnosed with laminitis at the equestrian center outside Tokyo.

Renate Weller appointed vet school dean at University of Calgary

Renate Weller, an educator and leader in the equine veterinary field in Europe, will become the new Dean of the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Canada this September.

Well-known veterinary educator and researcher Renate Weller, Dr Med Vet, PhD, MScVetEd, FHEA, NTF, DipACVSMR, MRCVS will accept a new challenge in September when she adds Canada to the countries she has called home. Professor Weller will soon be known as Dean Weller as she assumes leadership of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary (UCFVM) in Alberta, Canada.

Message to Hoof Blog readers and email newsletter subscribers

Hoofcare Publishing will be back at work and publishing from the "real" office in town soon. In the meantime, some changes are coming to improve the delivery of your email newsletter and headline alerts.

Remembering Britain's Prince Philip and the Quick-Thinking Farrier

Prince Philip's brush with danger at the 2013 Royal Windsor Horse Show has almost been forgotten but it could have ended quite differently. A quick-thinking farrier was the hero that day.

The sound of the bagpipes and boatswain's whistles is fading, but the funeral of Great Britain's Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will remained etched in our minds as a tasteful, dignified farewell to an international icon of both monarchy and the horse world.

Prince Philip was, of course, an avid and exuberant competitive carriage driver, as well as polo player and long-time president of Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), the global governing body of equestrian sport.

What I'll remember, however, is a horse show mishap that could have ended quite differently.

UC Davis Heumphreus equine foot lecture will be a free online event with focus on farriery, surfaces, foot imaging

All Creatures Great and Small: James Herriot Begins Career with a Hoof to the Head

The return of James Herriot's heart-warming "All Creatures Great and Small" stories to American television for the next six Sundays might be just what we need to get through the winter. 

For Auld Lang Syne: New York's forgotten landmarks of hoof history

I have always wanted to organize a tour of New York City for horse and hoof history, but this might be as close as I can come until life gets back to normal.  Consider this a warmup, inspired by the New Year's Eve traditional celebration in Times Square. 

This article will cover midtown landmarks -- or "hoofmarks", as I call them -- around Times Square and Central Park.

Barefoot by the Numbers: Swedish Standardbred trotters are faster without shoes, but risk breaking gait

Researchers at Sweden's University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) at Uppsala have analyzed the performance records of trotting Standardbreds based on varied configurations of fully shod,  front or hind shoes only, or without shoes entirely. 

First US farriers graduate from Royal Veterinary College's Graduate Diploma in Equine Locomotor Research

American farrier Grad Dip ELR 2020 graduates and faculty (from left to right): David Werkiser, David Gilliam, Veronica Brewster (RVC Lecturer), Timothy Shannon, Tracy Cooley, David Hallock, Jim Laclaire, Dr Thilo Pfau (RVC Course Director), Craig Bark, Darren Owen, Jude Florio, Pat Reilly and Doug Anderson. (Not pictured: Stephen Teichman)

The Royal Veterinary College has announced the graduation of the first group of American farrier students to compete the Graduate Diploma in Equine Locomotor Research (Grad Dip ELR). Launched in 2017, it is the first course of its kind, and offers professional farriers in both the US and the UK the chance to gain the necessary skill-set to produce original research and increase the evidence base behind farriery.

HoofSearch Publishes Online Donkey Hoof Research Guides Published with Free Access for All

HoofSearch, the index of equine foot research, has released an updated resource guide to peer-reviewed articles and theses on donkey hoof science and lameness studies. The index is free and accessible online to anyone interested in monitoring advances in donkey hoof health or improving the soundness-related welfare of working donkeys.

First peer-reviewed journal article from the Royal Veterinary College's Graduate Diploma in Equine Locomotor Research explores impact of farriery on horse symmetry

A horse equipped with sensors on the points of its hips and withers was one of several tested by farrier research investigators at the UK's Royal Veterinary College. In this study, data was collected on weight-bearing and propulsion when tungsten-tipped "road" nails were added or removed in different feet. One researcher tested the effects on the front feet while the other tested the hind feet. (Photo courtesy of Peter Day)

A peer-reviewed study conducted at Great Britain's Royal Veterinary College (RVC) examines the effect of farriery interventions--in this case, studded tungsten-tipped "road" nails--and demonstrates their impact on horses’ movement symmetry, including weightbearing and propulsion. 

The article, which will be published in the July 2020 edition of the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science and has been posted online, is the first farrier-authored peer-reviewed article based on a study conducted during the RVC's Graduate Diploma in Equine Locomotor Research (Grad Dip ELR) program. All students in the first UK cohort of the RVC program were professional farriers.

How can horse owners restrict weight gain, prevent laminitis during time of inactivity and extended turnout?

New research from Great Britain shows that a pasture management system known as strip grazing can help prevent weight gain in horses this spring. Horse owners are advised to heed warnings about weight gain and laminitis risk if quarantine conditions are reducing exercise and increasing turnout time for inactive horses.

Supporting limb laminitis: Dr. Scott Morrison's case review of Kentucky Derby winner Country House

Red roses show up twice a year: on Valentine's Day, and on the first Saturday in May, Kentucky Derby Day.

But this year, those two rose-filled days collided. On February 14, the world learned that 2019 Kentucky Derby winner Country House will not be returning to the races as a four year old, after all. As it turns out, the Derby was his last race.

The Valentine night announcement had a punchline: His owners revealed that the big chestnut son of Lookin at Lucky has been under treatment for supporting limb laminitis by Scott Morrison, DVM, of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, since mid-summer. 

Dr. Morrison kindly agreed to share his insight into the management of this horse's six-month facedown with supporting limb laminitis, a medical complication which, according to laminitis overviews of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, ends in euthanasia for 50 percent or more of horses afflicted. 

So that is where this story begins.