What on Earth Is This?

These photos illustrate the same condition, although these two horses had different ways of displaying it.

Do you know what this is? I didn't, until I read the new book Hoof Problems by Rob Van Nassau. The European answer to Chris Pollitt's Color Atlas of the Horse's Foot has finally been translated into English.

And would you trim it off with your nippers? Obviously some farriers didn't want to touch these growths.

How appropriate that this book should arrive at "back to school" time. It certainly jump-started my curiosity for the odd and unusual problems that affect hooves. All I can think of is that the author haunts the slaughterhouses looking for worst-case scenario hoof problems. And he found them.

This first US copy of Hoof Problems arrived today and I went right to the page where these photos can be found. I had been puzzling over them in the Dutch version and I could finally read the captions so I know what Rob Van Nassau says caused this. Do you?

Hoofcare and Lameness Journal will give a copy of the book to the person who writes the best, most plausible explanation of these photos that is closest to Rob Van Nassau's account...or that makes an argument for another cause. Send your description to fran@hoofcare.com by September 15. (Be sure to put your name on it so I can contact you.)

If you are stumped, as I was, and just want a copy of the book, send $45 plus $6 post by email (Visa/MasterCard) or by check to Hoofcare, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930. Fax orders to 978 283 8775. Postage outside the USA is $12 to most countries. The books are due here in the next month or so.

Book specs: 225 pages, 1000 photos, all color, indexed, hardcover, 8x11" approx; foreword by Simon Curtis.

"Show me your lamellae"

Australian laminitis researcher Dr. Chris Pollitt was in Brazil last week on a lecture tour when news of the Equine Influenza (EI) outbreak back home hit the news. He was soon on his way back to the University of Queensland to help at the vet school.

The EI outbreak had a double meaning for Dr. Pollitt. It was a professional emergency for the university and the nation but his daughter, Jane, was at an Olympic qualifier 3-day event in Warwick, Queensland. She and her horse were under lockdown orders because horses on the grounds started to show symptoms of the disease. As far as I know, she is still there. Dr. Pollitt donned a sterile suit and went to work at the event.

The red-faced monkey stayed in Brazil. The proper id for this obliging model in Portuguese is Macaco de Cara Vermelha (Red Face Monkey in English).

USDA and Walking Horse Trainers Bury the Hoof Testers at Celebration

What a difference a year makes. One year ago I was posting about a near-riot at the Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee when horses failed federally-mandated "soring" inspections. It sounds like this year there was a love-in between USDA officials and the trainers and 97 percent of horses passed inspections.

I highly recommend a summary article about the show, posted on the web site of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, to which the above photo of one of the amateur classes is linked. (There's also a slide show of images there.) The paper notes that 24,000 people were at the show.

Farrier and Vet Charged with Violating Australian Quarantine; Linked to Police Horse Outbreak Affecting APEC Meeting

There is no good news out of Australia today, either. Read this chilling account of how a farrier and vet are being made scapegoats for the inability of police horses to be used for crowd control at the global APEC meeting in Sydney. Once one police horse became sick, the entire stable was locked down.

What's out the window?

Ok, everyone out there with too much time on your hands: did you know we have a web cam? Here's the view out the window today; the office is surrounded by schooners who have come to race this weekend in the Gloucester Schooner Festival.

The word "schooner" was born here in Gloucester, Massachusetts and the rig was the preferred design for the local fishing fleet. The 21 schooners here this weekend are either survivors or replicas of the old fishing fleet or elegant Alden schooner yachts or even more exotic designs. Sunday's race is for schooners over 100 feet long.

We were expecting the fabulous Canadian schooner Bluenose II from Nova Scotia but they are having engine trouble somewhere on the coast of Maine. We also have the U.S. Navy vessel Nizve in port. This little harbor is the place to be this weekend!

You can check our office web cam any time, day or night by clicking here. You won't see much at night!

There's a web cam with a wider view of the entire harbor here.

By the way, it is an old tradition to nail a horseshoe to the mast of schooner when it is launched. Some say it is for good luck; others say it is because the galley cook often served horse meat and the sign of a horseshoe on deck was a dead giveaway what the mystery meat in the stew was. There's even an old sea chanty, an ode to the horses on board.

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American Farriers Team Posts Highest Finish Ever at UK's "Stoneleigh" International

If there's a World Cup of farrier competitions, it's the international team competition held each August at the Royal Showgrounds at Stoneleigh, England.

Hosted each year by the National Association of Farriers, Blacksmiths and Agricultural Engineers in England, the team competition has traditionally been an all -out battle between England and Wales...with the other countries showing up and doing their very best to beat the Brits (and Welsh) at their own game.

Wales, for instance, fielded a team on which were three former Calgary world champions--Billy Crothers, Richard Ellis and James Blurton, plus veteran Andy Martin. That could be a little intimidating!

This year the US team, sent abroad by the American Farrier's Association, finished a very credible fourth overall, behind England, Wales and Ireland. I believe this is the highest finish ever for the USA and a round of applause is definitely in order. (Please correct me if I am mistaken.)

Team members were slated to have been Billy Reed, Conrad Trow, Travis Koons, and reigning Calgary world champion Bill Poor.

Details are sketchy at this point and more will be posted soon!

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