Do you soft-shoe?

Amazing. Someone beat me to a buzz word...and my hat is off to him or her. Soft-shoeing is the descriptive term for use of plastic shoes, artificial wall, and boots instead of steel and nails. Another descriptive term is "anvil-free horseshoeing" or 'anvil-less" but that is hard to say (and spell).

Alexander Wurthmann, who is opening the Acadamie for Hoof Technology in Lexington, KY this fall, is offering a complete advanced program in soft shoeing. Alexander is including shoeing with Natural Balance aluminum shoes, though, and I would think that that requires an anvil. (Or should I say, I HOPE it does!)

I know a lot of traditional farriers poo-poo plastic shoes and all, but maybe it is not so far off as we think.

I wouldn't want to be in the plastic shoe business right now, waiting for 20th century farriers to accept them.

Unless I knew I had a really good shoe, the one that is going to change their minds. As always, we live in interesting times!

Ric Redden returns to practice

A post card tumbled out of the pile of mail today. It's an announcement from Dr. Ric Redden that he is reopening his private equine podiatry practice in Versailles, Kentucky. You can call Doc for consults or referrals at 859 873 5294. His web site is www.nanric.com. Welcome back, Doc!

American Farriers Association Mid-Year Meeting Update

Hoofcare & Lameness Journal received the following report from Bryan Quinsey, executive director of the American Farrier's Association on Sunday, September 11. Thanks to Bryan for reporting in!

Begin quote Bryan Quinsey:


The AFA General Membership Open Forum Meeting was held on Friday, September 9, 2005 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Over seventy AFA members attended the meeting where attendees where afforded the opportunity to ask questions and make comments regarding farrier education, licensing, and registration.

On Saturday, September 10, 2005, the Mid-Year Board of Directors Meeting was held. The official minutes of that meeting will be available within the next thirty days.

Highlights of the meeting included:

1. The Board approved an Educational Marketing Alliance Agreement with the American Quarter Horse Association.

2. Rescinded a motion passed at the February 23, 2005 meeting of the Board of Directors relating to Farrier Education and Registration.

3. Agreed that all future statements, advertising, and media related material concerning farrier licensing be halted immediately pending review by the Board of Directors.

4. Accepted the recommendation of the Convention Coordinating Committee to hold the 2009 Annual AFA Convention in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

5. Accepted a plan from the Finance Committee to:
a. Create a series of AFA Regional Conferences throughout the country (to begin in 2006).
b. Create a "Horse Owners Desk Reference" that will be distributed by the AFA members.
c. Create a new category of sponsorship called "Certified Education Partner".
d. Enhance the sponsorship opportunities for the 2006 Annual Convention (to be held in Omaha, Nebraska)

6. Approved the offering of a Personal Accident Indemnity Plan and a Personal Cancer Indemnity Plan from AFLAC for AFA members.

7. Re-elected Don Gustafson, CJF as chairman of the AFA Nominations & Elections Committee.

8. Re-elected Jeff Ridley, CJF, TE as the Board of Directors Representative to the AFA Executive Committee.

Additional motions were approved and will be reported in their entirety in the official minutes of the meeting.

End quote Bryan Quinsey.

Note: more information about the AFA is available at their web site, www.americanfarriers.org.

Farrier Schools Meet in Oklahoma City; Educators’ Alliance Formed

Farrier Schools Meet in Oklahoma City; Educators’ Alliance Formed

A two-day meeting has just closed in Oklahoma City, OK; Can you say “American Farriers Education Council”?

Let’s just call it AFEC.

Many pundits on the sidelines of farrier politics thought that when Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School owner Reggie Kester called a meeting of school owners and instructors, the result would be a massive attack on the American Farrier’s Association, whose task force on education and registration in early 2005 was highly critical of the farrier education system in the U.S.

Instead, the reports from Oklahoma yesterday and today were optimistic and encouraging. “This is the best thing that could have happened,” beamed Doug Butler PhD FWCF, author of Principles of Horseshoeing III, the textbook used at most farrier schools around the world. “It brought these people together for the first time in years and they are working together for the benefit of education. I am very excited.”

According to Dr. Butler, 16 farrier schools were represented; a total of about 25 people were in attendance.

AFEC certainly did vent its frustration over recent negative publicity, but most instructors are long-time members and supporters of the American Farrier’s Association and are hoping for improvement in relations following the AFA’s mid-year Board of Directors meeting in Omaha in early September, which will include an open forum on farrier education and licensing. AFEC’s frustration is outlined in a list of 16 resolutions related to AFA politics and makes clear the AFEC stand that blanket criticism of farrier education will not go unanswered.

According to Chris Gregory FWCF of Heartland Horseshoeing School in Missouri, there are 47 farrier schools in the US. Hoofcare & Lameness has identified 24 private schools and 11 college/university-affiliated schools that offer courses aimed at complete beginners. Our criteria was that a school be “brick and mortar” and teach a residential horseshoeing course. There are a few schools that we just don't know much about. Other schools teach only advanced courses or short seminars as enrichment for working farriers; still others teach night courses for horse owners who wish to learn to care for their own horses. We also found two schools that teach horseshoeing by distance learning (aka “correspondence course”). In the fall of 2005, two new farrier schools will open in the USA that will teach new ideas in farrier science, such as barefoot hoofcare, hoof boots, and plastic horseshoes.

Officers of the new association are Reggie Kester (Oklahoma State Horseshoeing School) President; Bob Smith (Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School) Vice President and Spokesperson; and Susie Goode (Tucson School of Horseshoeing) Secretary-Treasurer.

Among the accomplishments of the group, in addition to the formation of the association and the hashing out of a list of resolutions related to AFA politics, were the resolution that member schools would adopt the use of a standardized curriculum based on the new edition of Butler’s textbook. He will work with AFEC to create testing modules to monitor students’ progress through the lessons in the book.

Another key development is the addition of continuing education events to attract graduates back to their alma mater farrier schools for upgrading of skills or certification levels on an annual basis.

For more information, please contact Bob Smith: 916 366 6064. I was not there so I can’t answer your questions.

I am posting an image file of a press release and resolutions from AFEC and hope it is readable. if you click on the image, you will go to a photo page and in turn can scroll through both pages of the news release and view the resolutions.


--Fran Jurga

British Owner Sues Veterinarians Over Laminitis and Wins $600K Damages

July 26, 2005—According to a report just received via the BBC, a British horse owner has been awarded more than $600,000 in damages because of a veterinarian’s failure to warn her that steroid injections could cause laminitis.

The case involves the high-profile dressage mare Annastasia, who was the national dressage champion of France in 2000 but was British-owned. The owner insisted that her own British vet be involved in care decisions, while the horse was under the care of the French team veterinarian.

Ultimately, both British and French veterinarians were named in the suit.

In 1999 and again in August 2001, the horse received corticosteroid injections and, on the second instance, developed laminitis and was destroyed due to the severity of the laminitis. The assumption is that the steroids directly led to the sudden and severe laminitis attack.

The judge agreed that the owner might have refused the treatment if she had been told of the risks. He placed 85 percent of the liability on the French veterinarian, with 15% on the British veterinarian.

(Please note that the value of the judgement was 350,000 GBP, which has an equivalent value of about $600,000USD.)

Australian Seminar on Shoeing the Thoroughbred Racehorse

Farrier John Godwin was key note speaker on shoeing the thoroughbred racehorse at a farriers’ workshop held at the University of Melbourne's Equine Centre at Weribee, Victoria in June. There were 47 attendees at the workshop sponsored by Racing Victoria, Virbac and Decron. The farrier’s seminars are a joint initiative with the Farrier’s & Blacksmith’s Association of Victoria, the Victorian Master Farrier’s Association and the Equine Centre.

John is a Hoofcare & Lameness subscriber who lives near Perth in Western Australia, where he specializes in racehorses.

The University of Melbourne's Equine Centre is a division of the Veterinary Clinic and Hospital which is a department of the Faculty of Veterinary Science. It is one of only four University teaching hospitals in Australia that also operates as a specialist equine referral clinic. The Equine Centre provides veterinary care for over 3000 horses 24 hours a day 365 days a year; and provides training for over 80 veterinary students each year.