Conformation Conundrum at the Brookfield Zoo: But Can She Trot?

What do you get if you cross a giraffe and a zebra? And what if you throw in a little moose and, um, maybe some Oldenburg warmblood genes? Chances are, it would look a lot like Sauda, the new Okapi calf born this fall at the Brookfield Zoo in Wisconsin.

A shy native of the dark forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the okapi makes you want to sit back for a minute this Thanksgiving day, and thank Nature for not providing too-easy answers to all the questions we have about life on earth.

Read all about Sauda and see more photos at http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/0.asp?shttplink=../pgpages/pagegen.295.aspx&nsection=2

Three-Dimensional Race Plates for Glueing

Several people have asked if a particular type of shoe was used on the horses at the Breeders Cup. (see story further down on this blog) The answer is that there were as many shoes as there were horses..or as many different farriers working on them.

From what we hear, Round Pond (winner of the Breeders Cup Distaff, trained by Michael Matz) was wearing race plates with Sigafoos cuffs.

Thoro’Bred Racing Plate Company has a new “Sticky Shoe” that has generated a lot of interest, though I do not know if any horses were wearing it on that particular day. I heard about them from Fred Cleveland, a longtime farrier from Marshall, Virginia. (Fred, by the way, has subscribed to Hoofcare & Lameness since 1986!)

Most farriers start with a standard raceplate and add sometimes tabs over the bars, a la “onions”. Another technique is to add wings, or large clips of perforated aluminum, to increase the glue’s surface area. The Sigafoos cuff is another option.

In this photo, you see a large aluminum clip or “wing” welded to a raceplate. This photo was supplied by Raul Bras DVM of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.

Luwex 2006: The World’s Most Intense Farrier Event?

I used to think that farrier competitions were tense, but then I went to Germany and experienced the Luwex Hufsymposium. No competitions at this event (except for a shoeing rig contest that was terrific) but the pressure was on.

Lectures start at 7 a.m. and the last one begins at 10 p.m. I left Mike Savoldi from California still lecturing, however informally, to a dedicated group at midnight in one of the lecture halls.

The marathon shoeing sessions are the focus of the day, as the speakers are put to the test in front of more than 500 farriers from 21 nations. As the cases roll in (and keep rolling in) the speakers evaluate the hooves, shoe them in front of an audience with a camera crew with microphones dangling in their faces, and eager veterinarian translators hanging on their every word. Oh, and an American editor popping off a flash every few seconds. Three shoeing stations are going constantly, with a trade show in the same arena…and a pub, too.

The visiting speakers shoe the horses often without their own tools, in the case of the Americans, and with the use of borrowed, albeit high tech farrier rigs crafted from Mercedes vans. If James Bond needed a farrier rig, he'd probably model his fter Rob Renirie's or Bernard Duvernay's or maybe the super-tall Mercedes of Dieter Krohnert. It would be criminal to leave a scratch, or to have a horse rap one of these rigs with an impatient hoof.

The newly-shod horse is trotted out for all to see…and he’d better be more sound than he was a few hours before. That’s sometimes a tall order for a horse that has been sedated or even just standing around for the hours it can take to get through a demonstration.

Sigi, the Icelandic farrier who did a great demo, took "clinician macho" to a new level when he hopped on his demo horse and headed for the tolting track on the grounds to demonstrate (at high speed) what the horse could do now that his feet were straightened out.

In this photo you see Switzerland’s Bernard Duvernay (red vest, center) anxiously watching his demo horse trot after shoeing. Look at the faces of the farriers in the crowd. If you make a mistake, these guys will remember it. Bernie did just fine.

Bernard divides his time between running a high-tech multi-farrier practice in posh Geneva (where he cruises the lake on a beautifully restored 1920s tug boat) and serving as a farrier education consultant in Third World countries. He might pop up almost anywhere there are horses, but is most often in India. In Germany, he had a young Iranian apprentice visiting him, Ahmad Abad, who turned out to be half-American and a frequent guest here, so you may meet him at an event.

To learn more about Bernie’s important work around the world, visit http://www.farrier.ch

To learn more about the Luwex Symposium, visit
http://www.luwex.de

Hoof Lifting Device Tests Foot Ligaments, Navicular Pain

One of the most interesting products demonstrated at the Luwex Hufsympsium in Germany in October was what I called the “hoof lifter”, developed by Italian vet/farrier Hans Castilijns DVM, made in Italy, and demo’d by Swiss farrier Bernard Duvernay.

The horse stands on the device, which is covered with a rubber mat. It looks like that puck-like thing that curlers push around on the ice, with a three-foot handle and a protractor on the end. The operator stands one foot on the device and then stands back and slow raises the angle so that the horse is putting more and more pressure on the back of the foot as the coffin joint flexes.

After observing the horse, the operator than simply swivels the handle, without having to move the horse, and then can raise the lateral side of the device, tipping the foot to the medial side.

Accordingly, without moving the foot, the operator moves to the other side of the horse to test the lateral side.

The Europeans have always been keen on the hoof-lifting coffin-joint flexion tests for navicular pain, and this device gives expanded pain-response capabilities. It is well made and simple to use, but seems to keep the handler safe, too.

Mustad Equilibrium Shoe Debut with Dieter Krohnert at Germany's Luwex Festival

Before: Dieter Krohnert's spider shoes had been on this horse for a year. The horse has developed an infection in the back of the heel bulbs and up the pastern (blue arrow) and was possibly neglected. (Fran Jurga photo)

In October, I was on hand at the Luwex Hufsymposium in Krueth, Germany to see the first horse shod in public with Equilibrium shoes, the new shoe design from Mustad that was developed using research techniques pioneered by Meike Van Heel during PhD studies at the University of Utrecht in Holland.

But first, the horse! One of the interesting things about the Luwex event is that they brought back the horses that the speakers had shod the previous year, and they discussed how the horses were doing. He was a mature Hanoverian stallion training at the Grand Prix level.

Dieter Krohnert,
German team farrier

They spoke in German, of course, but I think I understood. This horse had been shod with spider shoes by Dieter Krohnert, farrier to the German international teams, in 2005. He developed the shoe, which is similar to our aluminum spider plates that are riveted to shoes as an interface device.

Dieter said he thought the shoes had been successful the year before but that the horse had not been well cared for and perhaps had gone long periods without trimming. The heel bulbs contracted and thrush or some other bacterial infection had gone up the back of the pastern. The horse had medial quarter cracks in both front feet.

This is the same foot, re-shod with one of the brand new Equilibrium rolled toe shoes from Mustad for a demonstration. There was a big crowd around, photography was difficult. The shoe was "invented" via research protocols to test characteristics of horseshoes at Utrecht University in The Netherlands during the PhD research of Meike van Heel. Mustad is now manufacturing the shoe. (Fran Jurga photo)

Dieter re-shod the horse with the new Mustad Equilibrium shoes, which are designed for easy breakover across the entire toe surface of the shoe.

Meike van Heel, researcher

The horse strode out very freely after standing for three hours to be shod in the demonstration. Dieter asked his helper to really trot the horse out and show what he could do, which he did, and then took a flying, bucking leap into the crowd. About 50 farriers ducked and ran, missing the flying hooves by inches.

I think I saw Dieter's hair turn gray right before my eyes but, as always, he kept his cool, shrugged, and said with classic understatement, "See, he's sound now."

For more on the festival, visit http://www.luwex.de

For more about Dieter Krohnert, read "High-End Hoofcare for High-Flying Horses : Dieter Kronhert and Steve Teichman" by Fran Jurga in Hoofcare + Lameness: Journal of Equine Foot Science, Issue 76. (print only) Also search the blog for articles about Dieter.

All HoofBlog text and images ©Hoofcare Publishing 2006 unless otherwise noted.
To learn more about new research, products, and treatments for the horse's hooves and legs as reported to veterinarians and farriers in the award-winning "Hoofcare & Lameness Journal", go to http://www.hoofcare.com
Contact Hoofcare Publishing anytime: tel 978 281 3222 email fran@hoofcare.com

Farrier Truck Competition in Germany

At the education-oriented Luwex Hufsymposium in Krueth, Germany in October, the only competition was for the title of “best rig”. What a collection! One of my favorites was a full cab old-timey Land Rover. Perfect for the farrier who does safari horses. And a homey Mercedes station wagon with a forge in the back. And there were trailers and vans and trucks, oh my.

And then there was The Truck. Loic Entwistle’s new Mercedes custom truck is worth a second look, and a third. It even has a “store” full of horsecare supplies and supplements for customers to buy. It is hidden from view until he pushes a button and it glides out with all the products on display.

Loic is a German farrier and an old friend of Hoofcare & Lameness. He has been a subscriber since 1994. And I think he has been dreaming about this truck even longer!

Also in the photo: Italian veterinarian Lorenzo d`Arpe, who will be a speaker at the Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium in Louisville, KY in January 2007.