Live from Lubbock! It's the Brice Chapman Coloring Book...

Hoofcare & Lameness is happy to share news that farrier and rodeo trick roping performer Brice Chapman of Lubbock, Texas has published a coloring book for children. The 28-page fun-filled book is almost as entertaining as watching Brice perform. It teaches children about caring for their horses and especially about hoofcare and horseshoes.

Brice is the look-alike, talk-alike, make-them-smile-alike son of famous farrier and heartbar shoe pioneer Burney Chapman, who died in 1999.

Brice Chapman never runs out of ideas to make people laugh and feel good.

When Brice isn't performing, he visits elementary schools and works with children, many of whom have already endorsed the coloring book with a high-pitched "Yippee!". Brice travels with two sidekicks, a Border collie named Sooner with a very high IQ, and a trickster Paint horse named Crossfire. I expect they will have their own TV show soon.

You will be able to order the new coloring book through Hoofcare & Lameness Journal. The cost will be under $10...it's for the kids, after all!

I hope you will join me in helping children everywhere have some educational fun with horses, dogs, and friendly people. This coloring book is a big step in the right direction!

Silent Anvil: Memorial Service for Gary Wade

Gary Wade, right, with British farrier Roger Clark; both were speakers at the first heavy horse hoofcare symposium at Tufts University vet school. (Fran Jurga photo)

This just in...scroll down the blog to March 2005 for more about Gary's death. Gary was the farrier at Walt Disney World in Florida. I will paste from the original post.

A Memorial Service for Gary Allen Wade will be held
Saturday, June 18, 2005 at 12:00 Noon

Please join us on Sugar Hill at the 'Log Cabin' that Gary helped build as a young boy
on Centerville Road, East Wallingford, Vermont
Located just past the old White Rock Ranch where Gary grew up

Everyone Welcome
Come share your memories of Gary with family & friends where the wild flowers are in bloom
Photos of Gary are welcome for a memory book

Arrangements made by Gary's family
In lieu of flowers an education fund is set up for Gary's grand-children c/o Terry Wade

Peace be with you...
Cindy Wade (E. Wallingford, VT )
cwade@vermontel.net

A New Veterinary College for New England?

A University of Connecticut board of trustees committee is weighing options for establishing a veterinary college. They discussed a consultant's report yesterday indicating it would cost between 35 and 95 million dollars to build the school for 100 students. It could take up to 14 million dollars a year to run it.

Currently the only veterinary college in New England is Tufts, with campuses in North Grafton and Boston, Massachusetts.

Did you know that Harvard University once had a thriving vet college side-by-side with the medical college? There still are a lot of animals at Harvard, used for research purposes, and the college employs veterinarians concerned with their health and welfare..

Farrier Politics: SNEFA Officers Resign; SNEFA Officers Re-Group

Connecticut farrier Geoff Goodson has resigned as president of the Southern New England Farriers Association, along with vice-president Roy Amaral and certification chair Michael Windsor. Sean McClure is now president, John Blombach is vice-president.

The three officers resigned at the June 1 association meeting, and Geoff called the Hoofcare & Lameness office on 2 June to let us know.

Denoix, Dyson and those tricky ligaments

Collateral ligament injury (black arrow) on a case diagnosis by Dr. Sue Dyson at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England

One of the many popular topics covered by Hoofcare & Lameness is the importance of the collateral ligaments of the coffin (distal interphalangeal, DIP) joint. Sue Dyson, lameness veterinarian of the Animal Health Trust in England, has written a super article on injuries to the ligaments and how to identify them.

We pair this with a compelling discussion of the movement of the coffin (distal phalanx, P3) bone by Jean-Marie Denoix. He termed the word "collateralmotion" to describe how the coffin bone moves slightly to the inside or outside, in a gliding motion, which most people do not usually consider when they consider the foot and what might cause lameness.

The collateral ligaments stabilize the coffin joint and allow the limited amount of gliding that a sound horse requires. Excess gliding may injure the ligaments, causing lameness. Conversely, excess gliding (such as "lunge til dead" training techniques) can injure the ligaments.

It certainly is hard to illustrate, however!

Denoix has a superb article in the January 2005 edition of Equine Veterinary Journal about how the weightbearing foot's coffin bone moves under the short pastern bone when a horse is turning. The article was dedicated to the memory of Jean-Louis Brochet, Denoix's sidekick and farrier who died tragically in Paris a few years ago of an unknown disease he contracted while working in Florida.
We are very grateful to have Drs Denoix and Dyson on our editorial board. Both of them will be speaking at the 3rd International Laminitis and Equine Diseases of the Foot Conference in Palm Beach, Florida November 4-6.

Gait Analysis: Check out this frame...no this one...did you see that?

There is no question that British-based software from Equinalysis has opened people's eyes to looking at horse's loading patterns for clues to lameness or performance problems.

"Landing vs. loading" is the new "static vs dynamic" debate among farriers. And the new software is being used by both camps to pile up the evidence.

Now high speed video is entering the arena...literally, in some cases. Hunter stride kinetics, Thoroughbred stride length, and out of the gate collection can now be looked at under a (very expensive) microscope.

Watch Hoofcare & Lameness and hoofcare.com for new developments in this area, along with important new research from Europe on the inconsistency of stride characteristics in high level performance horses.