Worshipful Company of Farriers Announces Hoof Trimming Conference

"Trimming For Soundness" will be the title of a conference launched today by the Worshipful Company of Farriers in Great Britain. The conference will be held on April 26, 2007 at The Royal Showground, in Stoneleigh, near Coventry, Warwickshire and will presumably be open to all professionals involved in servicing the equine foot.

The preliminary program includes these speakers and topics:

"Introduction" Carl Bettison AWCF (Hons), Chairman, WCF Craft Committee

"Understanding Hoof Horn" John Reilly BSc(Hons) BVSc PhD MRCVS

"Anatomy & Function of the Hoof Relative to Trimming" Chris Colles BvetMed PhD HonFWCF MRCVS

"The Role of the Digital Cushion & Lateral Cartilages" Matthew Jackson Dip WCF UKNHCP AP FI

"Achieving Performance without Shoes" Sarah Braithwaite AANHCP CP FI UKNHCP FI

"Training the Thoroughbred Barefoot" Simon Earle Racehorse Trainer

"Trimming The Donkey Colin" Goldsworthy RSS The Donkey Sanctuary

"Paddock Paradise" Nicola Barker AANHCP FI UKNHCP CP FI

"Trimming For Performance" David Nichols AWCF SNBF

Please Register by Friday, April 20, 2007.

If you live in the UK, you can send a check for £60 (British pounds) (fee includes lunch) made out to The Worshipful Company of Farriers.

Mail to: Craft Secretary WCF, Sheridan House, Keinton Mandeville, Somerton, Somerset, TA11 6DX, United Kingdom.

If you have questions, please e-mail: registrar@wcf.org.uk.

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World Champion Cutting Horse Gets "Low Maintenance" Care to Stay Sound

A visit to cutting horse expert Sally Harrison's blog this morning revealed the winner of this weekend's National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) World Championship.

According to Sally, "Dual Rey Me, ridden by his owner Jeremy Barwick, held his ground as leading weekend money earner to claim the title of 2006 NCHA Open World Champion on Saturday, February 17, at the NCHA World Finals in Amarillo, TX."

“I never work him,” noted Barwick when commenting to Sally on the longevity of the eight-year-old gelding. “We lope him at home and when we have a couple of weeks off, he goes to the swimming pool to swim and then gets turned out. He stays pretty sound. We inject (his hocks) maybe twice a year as pretty much regular maintenance.”

It would be interesting to know how many times a year a high maintenance horse would be injected.

Farrier Classes Doubled in Wyoming

According to a news article in today's Billings Gazette, farrier instructor Rik Mettes at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming is teaching two farrier courses at once this semester to meet the demand of want-to-be farriers.

Rik is a long-time subscriber to Hoofcare & Lameness Journal and a veteran farrier instructor.

The school has published an appeal to local horse owners to bring their horses in for trimming (at $7 a head) or shoeing (at $20 a head), saying that they need twice as many horses now for the students to shoe.

Let's hope there are plenty of horses for the new farriers to shoe once they are out of school, too!

I'd love to know what the application/admission rates are at other farrier schools around the country.

Barbaro's Owners Endow Chair in Equine Medicine to Honor Dean Richardson; Foresee a "World Without Laminitis"

(excerpted from a press release from the University of Pennsylvania)

(Feb. 13, 2007--PHILADELPHIA) A $3-million gift from Roy and Gretchen Jackson, owners of Barbaro, will endow a chair in the name of Dean W. Richardson at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

In acknowledging the gift, Penn President Amy Gutmann said, “Gretchen and Roy Jackson have already done so much for veterinary medicine through their commitment to giving Barbaro every possible opportunity to recover from his catastrophic injuries. People throughout the world now understand that veterinary medicine –- and Penn veterinary medicine in particular –- shares in the advances that define today’s biomedical science. Now, with this generous gift, Gretchen and Roy Jackson not only promote continued progress, but they pay tribute to the doctor who, like them, gave his heart to a magnificent horse.”

Joan C. Hendricks, the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine, said “With a new faculty position dedicated to the study of equine disease, we will be better positioned to fight deadly conditions like laminitis.”

The endowed chair is the cornerstone of a major new Penn Vet initiative to fight laminitis, which afflicted Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. Laminitis is a severe, painful condition in horses that can be fatal. The laminitis initiative will foster training programs and studies for new treatments of equine diseases.

“We are very pleased to make this commitment in support of the School of Veterinary Medicine’s research of equine diseases,” Gretchen Jackson said. “Our close relationship with Dr. Richardson over the last eight months persuaded us to name the chair in his honor. We are indeed grateful to him, and we especially look forward to a future without laminitis.”

“I am deeply honored by this generous and important gift,” said Richardson, chief of surgery at Penn’s George D. Widener Hospital and leader of the team that treated Barbaro. “The Jacksons’ remarkable philanthropy will translate into better outcomes for injured and ill horses in the future.”

The Empty Sky: Hoofcare's Loss

My heart is heavier than an anvil tonight.

John Lancaster, a.k.a. Ransom Sloan, has been a key behind-the-scenes person here at Hoofcare & Lameness for the past five years or so. No, you don't know him, you've never met him. And you never will. But if you read our journal, you've seen his photos, appreciated his Photoshop artistry, and been the beneficiary of his generosity, as have I.

John was killed, we think, in a helicopter crash this morning south of Vermilion, Louisiana. He was a helicopter pilot and instructor (when he wasn't helping out Hoofcare & Lameness) and had a gig this winter servicing oil rigs in the Gulf out of Lake Charles, LA. Apparently they were trying to land on the rig when the chopper exploded.

I have known John since I was fresh out of college. We both lived in the Woodstock, Vermont area and were in the horse scene. John was the product of a unique alternative school project started by his family and his mother was the president of the horse show facility where I worked.

John came back into my life about ten years ago when I found out he was a ski instructor in Vail, Colorado and that he had married another Woodstock-area horsewoman, Lisa Simons, who went on to become a farrier and then a veterinarian and hoof researcher. Lisa Lancaster is, of course, a key person here and our star author, as well as a close friend. Her upcoming article in the new issue on the histology of the white line at the crena will dazzle you with its insights and its imagery...many of which are the handiwork of John Lancaster.

John was also instrumental in handling the editing and assembly of the material for the book The Sound Hoof, written by Lisa, and he created her info-packed web site, http://www.lancasterequine.com.

The last time I saw John was when he hosted a graduation party for Lisa in May at Michigan State. He was so proud of Lisa's survival of vet school, and I think so happy that they could move back to Colorado and see what next would happen in their lives. With two people that talented, the future looked very bright that day in May.

The Coast Guard is still looking for our friend John out there in the Gulf tonight. Pray for a miracle before you turn off your lights. Maybe leave one on for our friend John.

Balled-Up Feet Cause Concern, Racing Cancelled on Polytrack in Kentucky

The Daily Racing Form reported on Friday that Turfway Park in Kentucky had cancelled racing on Thursday after horses were found to be finishing races with balls of the artificial racing surface stuck to their feet.

In the article, one jockey complained that it felt like his horse was walking on stilts. Trainers were spraying "Pam" cooking oil or WD-40 on the soles of their horses' feet to try to prevent sticking.

Turfway is in the second year of racing on the much-lauded Polytrack surface, recently installed at Keeneland in Lexington and several California tracks.

Turfway augmented the surface for last week's freezing winter racing conditions with a special blend of Polytrack topping surface. Polytrack is marketed as a racing surface that is not affected by weather conditions and that it is safe for horses. However, the weather has been unseasonably cold in Kentucky for the past week or so.

It sounds like they need some bubble rim pads, but I doubt the ones used on pleasure horses would work with race plates. However, if they can bond plastic rim pads to shoes, couldn't they bond a bubble rim?

This looks like an opportunity for glue shoe expertise to shine. If anyone hears of a solution, or has a suggestion, let me know!

The story is posted on the Daily Racing Form web site, but you must register to view it. Presumably, Polytrack will have an additive to counter the sticky stuff...or it will warm up soon. Think spring!