Laminitis Information Takes Center Stage at HOOFCARE@SARATOGA Kickoff Event July 31

WHAT IT IS: "Hoofcare@Saratoga" educational evening on laminitis treatment, prevention, and research; this is the first of four consecutive Tuesday events for 2007

WHERE IT IS: The Dart Room at the Parting, 40 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, New York. We will be in the private room in the back. There is a big parking lot.

WHEN IT IS: Tuesday evening, July 31, 2007 7-9 p.m.

WHO IS SPEAKING: Don Walsh DVM of Homestead Equine Hospital in Pacific, Missouri, and director of the Animal Health Foundation (AHF), a funding organization dedicated to laminitis research and education.

WHO IS INVITED: Vets, farriers, horse owners, trainers, grooms, vet technicians--Anyone interested in helping horses that are affected or anyone interested in helping prevent this disease.

WHAT IT COSTS: There is no charge to attend; donations to the AHF would surely be welcome and go directly to research.

WHAT TO EXPECT: This is an informal event. The Parting Glass's restaurant will be open if you are hungry or thirsty.

HOSTED BY: Fran Jurga, editor/publisher of Hoofcare and Lameness, The Journal of Equine Foot Science

SPECIAL NOTE: We hope to have information for local owners about the recent Potomac Horse Fever-like symptoms in the area and especially the laminitis that sometimes comes with it. With luck, Michael Wildenstein, the farrier at Cornell vet school, will make the trip and give some insight into the many cases of PHF-aftermath laminitis that are being treated there and how you can handle a medical emergency situation with your farrier's and vet's help.

Note to Our Friends in the Saratoga Region: Many of you attended Dr. Walsh's laminitis info session last year in Saratoga, and he is looking forward to seeing you again...and asks that you please bring your friends! A lot has happened in the past year, particularly in the area of insulin resistance, obesity, and grass laminitis, as well as the use of cold therapy to prevent laminitis. Dr. Walsh has some new studies and some broader views on predictive factors in high-risk horses. He also has news from research funded by his organization by Dr Pollitt in Australia. This is sure to be a fascinating presentation and we thank Dr. Walsh for making the trip.

Note: Neither Dr Walsh nor Hoofcare & Lameness has any ties to commercial products. This is strictly an educational and social evening, no commercials!

Some Internet links for you:

Animal Health Foundation's Laminitis Web Site
http://www.ahf-laminitis.org

Dr. Pollitt's laminitis research web site in Australia:
http://www.laminitisresearch.org

Updates (cancellation, natural disaster, or changes) will be posted here.

HEARTFELT THANK YOUS: These events could not take place without the support of groups like the Animal Health Foundation and the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and help from the Saratoga Special newspaper. Life Data Labs, who helped the past two years as well, will sponsor weeks 3 and 4. Special personal thanks to key advisers Frieda Garrison and Jim Santore and Hoofcare's growing list of friends and subscribers in Saratoga! If you enjoy these events, credit goes to those organizations and individuals.

See you on Tuesday...and the next Tuesday...and the next...and the next for those readers lucky enough to find themselves passing through Saratoga this summer!

Photo courtesy of Dr. Chris Pollitt and the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit, which is funded in part by the Animal Health Foundation.

Foundered Horses Sought for Univresity Study

Researchers at the University of Tennessee are asking horse owners to donate a horse to research if it is overweight or has a cresty neck and suffers from founder (laminitis). This group is studying new ways of managing insulin resistance and preventing laminitis in horses, including assessment of SmartControl IR, a dietary supplement manufactured by SmartPak, LLC.

Donation of your horse will result in a permanent transfer of ownership of the animal. Interested owners should note that the value of the donated horse can be listed as a charitable contribution for tax purposes up to $5,000.

Procedures used in the research studies will be minimally invasive and all work will be approved and monitored by the University of Tennessee Institutional Care and Use Committee.

Studies will be conducted by Dr. Nicholas Frank, a veterinarian and associate professor at the University of Tennessee. Please contact Dr. Frank via e-mail at nfrank@utk.edu or Sarah Elliott (research technician) at (865) 974-5701 if you are interesting in donating your horse.

However, please take note of the following conditions before contacting us:

1. Horses must meet the following requirements:
a. Must be a gelding (preferred) or mare. Stallions cannot be accepted.
b. Must be between 3 and 25 years of age
c. Must be overweight and/or have a thick cresty neck or fat pads
d. Horses with a history of laminitis (founder) are preferred
e. Horses with high blood insulin levels are preferred

2. Morgan horses, Paso Finos, and Arabians are preferred. Ponies, draft horses, miniature horses, mules, and donkeys cannot be accepted.

3. Horses must be donated to the University of Tennessee with complete release of ownership.

4. Horses cannot be purchased, but shipping expenses will be paid if necessary.

5. Donated horses will be accepted until December 31st, 2007

Further information can be found at www.vet.utk.edu/cemr/donations.

Contact: Nicholas Frank, DVM, PhD, DACVIM; 865-755-8238, nfrank@utk.edu

Best Shod Suffolk Horse in UK Has an All-Star Vet and Farrier Pedigree

NEWS FROM ENGLAND: The Suffolk "Punch" breed is unique in having competitive classes at shows for the horse with the best feet, with cups being presented to the winners of these classes. These classes were introduced at the beginning of the last century when the breed had been criticized for having poor feet which were not able to withstand work on city streets and these competitions rapidly improved foot quality so that today Suffolks have very good feet.

At this year’s Suffolk Show the Supreme Champion in the "Best Feet" classes and the winner of the G Philip Woodward Perpetual Memorial Trophy was the five-year-old gelding Novello, the property of veterinary surgeon Phillip Ryder-Davies, Chairman of the Examination Board of the Worshipful Company of Farriers and shown by veterinary surgeon Ben Ryder-Davies. The judge was farrier Dennis Hayter.

The horse also won the best shod Suffolk Horse competition, judged by Yorkshire heavy horse farrier Danny Mallender AWCF.

The gelding was shod by Roger Clark FWCF (Hons), a member of the Company’s Examination Executive Group, and received a special plaque presented by the company to celebrate its 650th anniversary.

(That is not a typo: the Company has been around for 650 years.)

Translation: the horse was judged to have the best feet and best shoeing of all horses in the show in the eyes of two different judges in two different competitions, with slightly different criteria (best feet vs best shod).

I don't think that Roger has ever heard of Equilox. You are looking at the horse's real feet.

If the names of Ryder-Davies and Clark sound familiar to the Hoofcare and Lameness community, it is because they journeyed to America to speak at our conference on heavy horse hoofcare held at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2003. They were (and obviously still are) superb experts on the foot of the heavy horse. I would recommend them most highly to anyone interested in continuing education on the foot of the heavy horse.

Have things changed? This is the Suffolk breed's photo image of the ideal feet, circa 1930, which accompanies an article by Roger Clark soon to be published in Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. It looks like Roger is sticking to tradition.

The Suffolk Punch is officially a "rare" breed and considered "category 1" on the endangered list; there are only 300 Suffolks in all of Britain. In 2005 the Suffolk Horse Society registered 37 pure bred Suffolk foals. Luckily, the breed is considered a regional treasure of the East Anglian county of Suffolk, northeast of London and some breeders and farmers tirelessly promote the breed and keep foals coming each year. Below is the scene at a Suffolk show; I think if you own a Suffolk in England, you are obliged to show!

If you're in the mood to hunt down a wonderful book that is out of print, look for "Pulling Punches" by Paul Heiney. It is the story of a year on Roger Clark's farm and in his forge; or, order the new video/dvd about him called "A Man for All Seasons"; get an idea of what being a horseman is all about.
Thanks to the Worshipful Company of Farriers' terrific new web site and Suffolk Horse Society's wonderfully educational site for their help with this post.

HORSE RACING ART AUCTION CATALOG ONLINE

Harness Tracks of America’s 30th anniversary art catalog, featuring works of horse racing and sporting art from the estate of the sport’s legendary Stanley Dancer, is now online. It can be viewed at http://www.elegantequineart.com.

The sale will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Saturday morning, October 6 (Kentucky Futurity Day) in the Tattersalls Sales Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

On sale will be 158 works by American, Canadian, European and Asian artists. The online catalog permits enlargement of each work simply by clicking on the art's picture.

Most of the art is Standardbred or Thoroughbred racing, but there are some lovely pieces by George Ford Morris, the famous illustrator, including a portrait by him of a draft stallion, which I had never seen before.

There are also some books, Saturday Evening Post magazine covers, gold-plated shoes from champion Donerail, and a vintage Capewell calendar.

Farrier Competition Shoes: Torturous Tech Specs for Stoneleigh International

I've just had a peek at the specimen shoes for the International Team Competition at Stoneleigh in England, to be held August 23-26. The sheer number of them and the technical specs make a chilling homework list for invited farrier teams.

What you are looking at (above) is a setdown bar shoe, which would be difficult enough but this one is also graduated from toe to heel. So the branches have to match. But with the bar set down, even the 3-d is 3-d.

Stoneleigh is probably the world's most coveted farrier competition. It is contested with chilling determination and fortitude by invited nations.

Have a look for yourself, the shoes are posted on the NAFBAE website.

I couldn't even draw these shoes to spec, let alone attempt to forge one. They are an intimidating lineup of asymmetric and 3-D conundrums.

The shoe below is a (very) square toe egg bar with interesting placement of the clips.

One of the shoes listed is a lateral resistance shoe. Can someone please click on the comments button and tell me what a lateral resistance shoe does? It's an intriguing name; there's also a lateral extension; I know what that is...no doubt one of these years there will be a combo resistance/extension shoe...

Amy Tryon Found Guilty of Abuse in Le Samurai Case But...

Note: the transcript below is from the Federation Equestrian Internatioanl (FEI), the ruling body of worldwide Olympic-discipline horse sports. The case invovled a US rider at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event whose horse broke down at the finish of the cross-country course and was subsequently euthanized. At question was whether or not the rider abused the horse by continuing on course after the injury happened. This has been a hotly debated issue in the horse world.

The FEI Tribunal has taken its decision in the case of alleged horse abuse committed by US rider Amy Tryon on her horse Le Samurai while participating in the cross-country phase of the 2007 Rolex Lexington Kentucky 4-Star Event on 28 April 2007.

The case involved the riding of an apparently lame horse in the final moments of the course, and the state of the horse when the last fence was jumped. A hearing was held in this matter on 25 June 2007, at which the parties presented a substantial volume of evidence including testimony from a number of very experienced members of the international eventing community.

The dilemma which the Tribunal had to resolve was a very difficult one. The main issues to be decided were (a) whether the competitor committed an “abuse” as this term is defined under the applicable rules (see note to the editor) and, if an abuse was committed, (b) whether it was an intentional act or an unfortunate omission to take action and stop the horse, as signals of discomfort were not correctly perceived by the competitor.

The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the competitor's behaviour at the end of the cross-country phase of the event objectively constitutes abuse according to the requirements of the applicable FEI regulation. The competitor acted, by continuing to ride after the horse was objectively lame and injured. Conversely the competitor omitted to act, by failing to pull up the horse when she could have. This caused or was likely to cause pain or discomfort to the horse.

The Tribunal expresses its opinion that “abuse of horses constitutes an offence that violates the most fundamental rules of the equestrian sport and is, as such, highly reprehensible from a moral point of view”. The Tribunal determined that, had “the competitor intended to ride a lame or injured horse, a suspension for life would not have been an inappropriate or a too severe penalty”.

The Tribunal’s decision indicates, however, that it determined in this case that there was a “significant disconnect between what Amy Tryon felt and what was actually occurring.” While Amy Tryon was negligent in not stopping the horse, the Tribunal determined that she did not understand that the horse had been injured until just as she pulled him up. The decision states that “[t]he Tribunal believes that in the state the competitor was in – tired, focused on completing the course and without the benefit of video and ability to observe matters or analyze them logically - she did not realize that the injury had occurred, and thus never intended to continue on course with a lame or injured horse. The Tribunal believes that the competitor clearly realized that the Horse took quite a number of uneven strides, but could not determine their cause or likely severity. The Tribunal believes that the competitor should have nevertheless stopped earlier to understand the severity of the lameness.”
The determination that there was no premeditation and no actual awareness by the competitor that she was riding a lame or injured horse is taken into account in imposing sanctions on the competitor.

After careful examination of the parties’ submissions and evidence, the Tribunal confirms the disqualification of horse and the competitor from the above-mentioned event and imposes the following sanctions on the competitor:
- suspension from competition for a period of two months (to commence immediately and without further notice at the end of the 30-day appeal deadline, or sooner if the right of appeal is waived);
- a fine of (Swiss francs) CHF 1,000;
- a cost contribution of CHF 1,500 towards the legal costs of the judicial procedure.

The Tribunal decision states that Mr. David O’Connor, President of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), Member of the FEI Eventing Committee and Chairman of the FEI Eventing Safety Committee, phrased the dilemma and the conclusion well in remarking: “Premeditated abuse is an action that should, and needs to be dealt with in the most severe actions that we as a sport can take by our judiciary side. Similar cases to this [the present case] are much harder to judge and I feel should be dealt with on a whole different level. Should this be taken seriously – yes; career changing – no.”

The full text of the decision (30 pages) is available on the FEI website under LEGAL/DECISIONS.