Who Has the Right to Put a Horse Down?

This is a strange story: one of the UK's leading race trainers is being prosecuted for putting a horse down. The horse was suffering from a severe leg infection following a breakdown in a race. Apparently, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals believes that that is the attending veterinarian's call, not the trainer's. This is not the first story of this type I've run across. A story from Australia comes to mind, in the reverse: a horse owner was struggling for the right to keep a horse alive, while veterinarians insisted the horse be put to sleep.

These stories bring up challenges to laws and traditions and many people's beliefs in what constitutes suffering and a horse's right to be free of pain.

Follow this link, read this article, especially if you are a veterinarian.

This story is in today's London TIMES: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,379-2183497,00.html

Text and photos © 2006 Hoofcare Publishing. Text and photos posted on “The HoofBlog”, a casual news source for subscribers and friends of Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science. Learn more (and subscribe online using our secure server) at http://www.hoofcare.com or write to Hoofcare Publishing, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA. Tel USA 978 281 3222; Fax 978 283 8775, or email hoofblog@hoofcare.com

Note: this blog is an interactive web page. By clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of an article, you can instantly email that article to a friend. By clicking on the word “comment” after a post, you can leave a message, which may be viewed by future blog readers who click on the same “comment”. Commenting may require registering with Blogger.com. You may also comment by emailing the author, Fran Jurga, at fran@hoofcare.com and your comment will be posted for you, technology willing.

Wet Your Feet, Dear

I saw this sign in a Thoroughbred farm's barns in Paris, Kentucky recently. Notice that this is a mass-produced sign. Are these seen in other parts of the world? Other places in the USA? I had only seen signs like this (and not "storebought" one, at that) in equine hospitals until this spring's trip to Kentucky. The funny thing was that the farm did not have a sprayer, it had a wet mat. I guess no one has manufactured a sign for wet mats yet.

Buster Conklin: Keep Him in Your Thoughts

One of America's "living legends" of horseshoeing is in an uncharacteristic position: horizontal! Marshall "Buster" Conklin of Horseheads, New York is a legend of the horseshoeing world, and one of the most vital, energetic senior farriers in the world.

Word has reached the Hoofcare & Lameness office from Michael Wildenstein, farrier instructor at Cornell vet school, and from Steve Kraus, farrier at the Cornell research farm, that Buster has been in the hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania for the past week or so, and that his liver is failing. Buster was set to have a routine gall bladder removal but his liver reacted.

I am not sure how old Buster is--I think he is 80. He was--make that is--a legendary farrier in New York state and is retired from the job of farrier instructor at Cornell, which is where I met him in the early 1980s. He is a strong, kind, skilled, and generous man who is a friend to all and a great horseman.

I honestly cannot imagine Buster in a hospital bed. He gave a demonstration just a few weeks ago at a fundraiser for the estate of his friend, New York farrier Vern Hornquist, who died last fall.

Please send a card or letter to: Marshall "Buster" Conklin, 989 Ridge Road, Horseheads, NY 14845; his phone number is 607-739-2992

Get well, Buster!

5/17 UPDATE FROM STEVE KRAUS:
I received this message from Steve last night (see below), I hope that many of you will be able to take a minute and call or write to Buster.

Steve wrote:
Buster has been gravely ill for the past two weeks, with complications from an obscure liver disease which he had a problem with about 30 years ago. He was hospitalized and had some work done to relieve the situation, but it is suspected that he is terminal.

He actually is doing better this week, but the situation is irreversable. He went home and will probably be under care of hospice. No one knows how long he has, but knowing Buster he will choose his own time.

You can call him; he likes visitors and phone calls. His number is 607-739-2992 and his address is 989 Ridge Rd; Horseheads, NY, 14845.

All we can do is pray and support him. Please forward this to anyone who would want to know about this or e-mail me any one who wants to be put on this distribution list.

(anvilsteve@aol.com is Steve Kraus's email address)


Text and photos © 2006 Hoofcare Publishing. Text and photos posted on “The HoofBlog”, a casual news source for subscribers and friends of Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science. Learn more (and subscribe online using our secure server) at http://www.hoofcare.com or write to Hoofcare Publishing, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA. Tel USA 978 281 3222; Fax 978 283 8775, or email hoofblog@hoofcare.com

Note: this blog is an interactive web page. By clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of an article, you can instantly email that article to a friend. By clicking on the word “comment” after a post, you can leave a message, which may be viewed by future blog readers who click on the same “comment”. Commenting may require registering with Blogger.com. You may also comment by emailing the author, Fran Jurga, at fran@hoofcare.com and your comment will be posted for you, technology willing.

Handmade Horseshoes’ Lucy Diamond Completes Badminton Horse Trials on Her First Try!

(story courtesy of our friends at the Badminton Horse Trials Press Office; photo courtesy of Mitsubishi Motors /Kit Houghton--Thanks!)

3 MAY 2006--LUCY DIAMOND is a busy lady. Not only is she one of 25 first-time riders at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials****, she is also one of just five British owner-riders, has a trade stand here with her husband, the farrier BILLY CROTHERS, and is also a working mother with a two-year-old child.

And she has achieved her life-long ambition of riding at Badminton with her first horse. “I hadn’t even been eventing when I bought him and eventing is still just a hobby,” said Lucy, from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire.

Lucy has aspired to compete at Badminton since she first came to the event as a child. “It’s been a ‘pie in the sky’ dream and it’s fantastic to be here – I have to keep pinching myself.” Her partner the big, brown, good-looking gelding Carousel was acquired as a five-year-old through Owen Moore and was originally bought out of Ireland from Goresbridge Sales by eventer and dealer Vere Phillipps. The 15-year-old Carousel known as Sooty, is believed to be by the great Irish sire Cavalier. “He is an amazing horse and really honest. How many people get to Badminton with their first horse?” says Lucy.

Lucy is married to the four-times world champion farrier Billy Crothers, winner of the prize here last year for the ‘best shod horse’. Billy and Lucy run their own company ‘HANDMADE SHOES’ selling English concave steel horse shoes.

For this weekend however Lucy will allow herself the luxury of concentrating on the job in hand. “The course lets you in nicely but there are plenty of big questions out there. I would love to produce a clear round, that would be incredible”.

HOOFCARE & LAMENESS POST SCRIPT: Lucy finished Badminton on her first try! Amazing! She ended up in 47th place; only 53 horses out of the original 97 were able to finish. Badminton is widely regarded as the world’s toughest three-day event. Just qualifying for Badminton is a great achievement but to finish is divine! Well done, Lucy!

By the way, 2005 World Champion James Blurton won the Best Shod Horse Award this year with Regulus, ridden by Polly Stockton.

To learn more about Badminton Horse Trials, visit http://www.badminton-horse.co.uk


Text and photos © 2006 Hoofcare Publishing. Text and photos posted on “The HoofBlog”, a casual news source for subscribers and friends of Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science. Learn more (and subscribe online using our secure server) at http://www.hoofcare.com or write to Hoofcare Publishing, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA. Tel USA 978 281 3222; Fax 978 283 8775, or email hoofblog@hoofcare.com

Note: this blog is an interactive web page. By clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of an article, you can instantly email that article to a friend. By clicking on the word “comment” after a post, you can leave a message, which may be viewed by future blog readers who click on the same “comment”. Commenting may require registering with Blogger.com. You may also comment by emailing the author, Fran Jurga, at fran@hoofcare.com and your comment will be posted for you, technology willing.

Lisa Simons Lancaster Survives Vet School!

Lisa Simons Lancaster PhD DVM poses minutes after receiving her DVM degree on 6 May at Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Lisa is a frequent contributor to Hoofcare & Lameness Journal and recently agreed to join our board of consulting editors. She plans to return to her former practice specializing in hoof rehabilitation.

Lisa is the author of the popular new book, The Sound Hoof, and has been conducting research in histological studies of the laminar junction of the hoof in the Equine Foot Laboratory at Michigan State with Dr. Robert Bowker. It was a pleasure to be present at the ceremony. Congratulations, Lisa!

You can download a pdf file of Lisa's Hoofcare & Lameness article about the conflicts between Strasser and traditional hoofcare theories on the homepage at hoofcare.com/.

Read about Lisa's book, The Sound Hoof, here: http://www.hoofcare.com/books.html

Visit Lisa's web site, http://www.lancasterequine.com
(photo by Fran Jurga, apron by Gibbins)


Text and photos © 2006 Hoofcare Publishing. Text and photos posted on “The HoofBlog”, a casual news source for subscribers and friends of Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science. Learn more (and subscribe online using our secure server) at http://www.hoofcare.com or write to Hoofcare Publishing, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA. Tel USA 978 281 3222; Fax 978 283 8775, or email hoofblog@hoofcare.com

Note: this blog is an interactive web page. By clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of an article, you can instantly email that article to a friend. By clicking on the word “comment” after a post, you can leave a message, which may be viewed by future blog readers who click on the same “comment”. Commenting may require registering with Blogger.com. You may also comment by emailing the author, Fran Jurga, at fran@hoofcare.com and your comment will be posted for you, technology willing.

Man 'o War: A Legend Like Lightning in Stores Now

Congratulations to our friend Dorothy Ours on the publication of her major project, the new book Man 'o War: A Legend Like Lightning. The book was published this week, and Dorothy has been in Louisville doing publicity in conjunction with the Derby. (She's in love with Barbaro!)

Here are the specs on MAN 'O WAR: published by St. Martin's Press; 352 pages hardcover, Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
plus one 16-page b&w photo insert; price is $24.95 plus $5 post.

You can order it from Hoofcare & Lameness, of course. But what matters is that you order it and READ it. To understand where the horse world is today--and particularly racing--it is so important to understand the past. Man O War has been heavily recommended by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand.

Dorothy once lived here in the Boston area; she then moved to Saratoga, where she worked at the National Museum of Racing, and helped me with an article about Battleship's bar shoes, which are on display in the museum. He ran (and won) wearing a sort of half-heart bar shoe.

Good luck, Dorothy!


Text and photos © 2006 Hoofcare Publishing. Text and photos posted on “The HoofBlog”, a casual news source for subscribers and friends of Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science. Learn more (and subscribe online using our secure server) at http://www.hoofcare.com or write to Hoofcare Publishing, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA. Tel USA 978 281 3222; Fax 978 283 8775, or email hoofblog@hoofcare.com

Note: this blog is an interactive web page. By clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of an article, you can instantly email that article to a friend. By clicking on the word “comment” after a post, you can leave a message, which may be viewed by future blog readers who click on the same “comment”. Commenting may require registering with Blogger.com. You may also comment by emailing the author, Fran Jurga, at fran@hoofcare.com and your comment will be posted for you, technology willing.