Martin Deacon Wins 2007 Farriers Prize at Badminton Horse Trials

At the prestigious (and grueling) Badminton Horse Trials in the Cotswold district of England this weekend, one of the world's best farrier competitions was held, and there were no anvils or forges in sight.

Each year, Badminton presents The Farriers Prize, which is a "Plaque to Owner and Farrier of the Best Shod Horse." As I recall, the horses put forward for the prize are inspected and evaluated by a representative of the Worshipful Company of Farriers.

In the past two years, the winners were Welsh farrier teammates and world champion competitive farriers, James Blurton and Billy Crothers. Another year, I remember the prize going to Sam Head, son of Mac Head FWCF, for his shoeing job on one of William Fox-Pitt's horses.

This year's winner was Top 12 finisher Sarah Cohen's Hide and Seek II, and the winning farrier was Martin Deacon FWCF of Leicestershire, England. Sarah was also the highest-placed British rider this year.

Martin is a very well-known farrier in Britain, and a stalwart of the Worshipful Company of Farriers. He is also the author of one of the most popular books sold in the Hoofcare and Lameness library; No Foot No Horse (Foot Balance: The Key to Soundness and Performance) is Martin's treatise on using conventional balance paradigms to shoe both correct and crooked-legged horses. Portions of the book have been reprinted as articles in Hoofcare and Lameness over the years.

Photo of Clayton Fredericks presenting W P in Limbo at the initial vet inspection in front of Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England courtesy of Kit Houghton and Mitsubishi Motors. Yes, the game of badminton takes its name from this estate, although the game was brought back to England by British officers who had been stationed in India. When it was played at an 1873 party on the lawn on Badminton House, the home of the Duke of Beaufort, the nameless game became ever linked to the foxhunting estate.

Accelerometry for Track-to-Hoof Evaluation Funded in Canada

"Comparing track surfaces using accelerometry and strain measurements on the hoof as biomechanical indicators of the hoof track interaction" is the title of a study that has received second-year funding at the university of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Principle researchers are Drs. J. Thomason and A. Cruz.

The Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario recently joined both the Ontario Thoroughbred and Standardbred Racing Industry and private donors to fund Equine Guelph’s Research Program athe University of Guelph. This generous support has enabled the program to celebrate an important milestone with funds surpassing $500,000 for 2007-2008 for equine research.

Stem Cell Therapy for Suspensory Injury Shown on Vet Hospital Video

Here's a link to a video of a surgical procedure at the New England Equine Practice in Patterson, New York. This is one type of procedure for stem cell therapy. The surgeon extracts bone marrow from the horse's sternum to harvest stem cells, which are then injected into the tendon or ligament that is damaged.

The video is posted at this link:
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070505/VIDEO/305050015&SearchID=73280174051805

More information on this type of therapy, which was developed by surgeon Roger Smith at the Royal Veterinary College in England, is at the web site of the Vetcell company, marketers of the procedure.

You can also read an article about New England Equine Practice's new surgical facilities and hospital.

All-women Jockeys in American Storyboard Classic at Suffolk Downs

Women will take over Suffolk Downs racetrack in Boston, Massachusetts on June 16. That will be the day of the premiere of the new documentary "Women in American Horse Racing," produced by American Storyboard, right here in Gloucester, Massachusetts, home of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal.

To highlight the film's premiere, Suffolk will run the inaugural American Storyboard Classic, a race in which all jockeys must be female.

The film is sponsored in part by Autotote and The Daily Racing Form.

More details at the American Storyboard website.

State Racing Commissioners Urged to Ban Toe Grabs

Bill Casner, owner of WinStar Farms in Kentucky and head of the committee on shoeing and hoof care that was formed out of the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit in January, addressed the Association of Racing Commissioners International last week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

His message? Toe grabs should be outlawed from US Thorougbred racetracks. California was the first state to officially ban shoes with grabs higher than 4 millimeters.

I'm still wondering who's going to pick up the feet of horses in the paddock to check...You can see turndowns and bends. A farrier can see a bar shoe. But unless the horse is standing on a firm, flat surface, will the horseshoe inspector really be able to tell how high or low the grab is?

Read the complete article on the Thoroughbred Times web site.

Mr. Casner subscribes to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Do you?

Photo of Steve Norman's hands and flat hind shoe at Churchill Downs by Dan Burke.

All HoofBlog text and images © Hoofcare Publishing 2007 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

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The Horse God Built: The Untold Story of Secretariat

As if the ghost of Barbaro wasn't strong enough, I'll have the ghost of Secretariat lingering in my mind on Saturday, when the 133rd Kentucky Derby is run at Churchill Downs.

Secretariat's ghost will be larger than life thanks to the recent publication of a new book on the great horse. The Horse God Built by Lawrence Scanlan is the latest to go on an almost-full bookshelf on the big red horse.

I recommend this book with some reservations. The book claims to be the story of the relationship between Secretariat and his longtime groom, Eddie Sweat. Scanlan makes a noble attempt to recreate Eddie, who is now dead, but because of the time that has passed, Eddie cannot be separated from the bigger story of African Americans in racing. The author makes a few nods to the fact that racism and class discrimination existed on the racetrack in the 1970s, but he doesn't go there with conviction. Racist statements by trainers just hang in the air. Scanlan seems distracted, evidenced by musings throughout the book about his own horse and imagining what things were like for Eddie Sweat.

Most African Americans are gone from the backstretches of American tracks. Most are also gone from the horse farms where the horses are bred and raised. If that is so, why is it so? And who is Eddie's counterpart today? To me, that's the bigger story of this book, and Scanlan doesn't go there.

You might want to buy this book for the final chapter, called "Eulogy for a Horse." It describes the death and funeral of Secretariat, and has anecdotes about his autopsy, his gravesite, etc. I thought I had read everything about Secretariat, but I did not know how he died or where. I assumed that he had been euthanized in his stall when he suffered a relapse of laminitis. If Scanlan's report is correct--which he attributes to the farm manager and owner Penny Chenery--then I had been missing a big part of the story. In this case, ignorance was bliss.

The final chapter also tells the story of how Man 'o War died and his body laid in state in an open casket...thanks to the fact that he was embalmed. A human apparently requires two pints of embalming fluid; Man 'o War required 23. His funeral and all the speeches were broadcast live, by radio, across the country.

When Will Harbut, Man 'o War's longtime groom, died, the Blood-Horse obituary listed his survivors as "a wife, six sons, three daughters--and Man 'o War." The horse died a month after his groom.

From Will Harbut to Eddie Sweat to whoever snaps the leadline onto the bridle of Saturday's winner...what did these grooms have in common? If Circular Quay or Scat Daddy wins the Derby on Saturday, it may well be Todd Pletcher's groom Isabel who is there with the leadline. The media will love her but more importantly, they will see her, because she is a woman in a man's world, unlike Will and Eddie, who were nameless and faceless in their roles with superstar horses.

I'd like to thank Lawrence Scanlan for trying to piece together Eddie Sweat's story. It's a tall order. Most of all, I'd like to thank Eddie Sweat for having nurtured Secretariat into the horse we all will remember.

The Horse God Built is sold in bookstores everywhere but please try to purchase it from an independently-owned bookstore. You can also order it from Robin Bledsoe's horse bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts: 617 576 3634 or robin.bledsoe@verizon.net

Photo: Secretariat in full stride, winning the Gotham Stakes for three-year-olds in New York. Bob Congianese photo from the cover of The Horse God Built.