Australia's Horse Industry Shut Down by Disease: One Farrier's Story

Sydney farrier Stephen Head, as seen in the Herald Sun, is forced into unemployment until the horse flu quarantine is lifted.

Stephen Head is one of the best and the brightest of Sydney-area farriers. With the shutdown of Sydney's Randwick Racecourse and all horse events in the state of New South Wales, he has resigned himself to the fact he will have no income this month. And perhaps not next month, either. Or the month after.

The quarantine extends 30 days after the last horse shows symptoms of the flu, or is diagnosed.

While the farriers in the quarantine states of Queensland and New South Wales could travel to Melbourne Adelaide or Western Australia, where races, breeding, and horse shows can go on (although no one knows for how long), it would mean leaving behind their families.

While hooves will continue to grow during the quarantine, the farriers aren't being allowed into farms and tracks and showgrounds except for emergency care. That means that when the ban is lifted, all the horses will need to be trimmed and shod t the same time. In fact, they will all be overdue. How do you spell s-t-r-e-s-s?

In Australia, farriers are registered with their state governments. They are eligible for some government assistance in this time of crisis.

Here's part of an interview with Stephen Head in yesterday's Herald Sun:

"If things go to plan, maybe next month I'll get about 40 per cent of what I'd normally earn, and the month after that I'm assuming my income will be back to normal.

"The cruel thing is that this period is normally our best three months of the year. We can't get that back now."

In the meantime, Mr Head has had plenty of time to look at his finances. He has had his mortgage payments suspended, his children's school fees suspended, and he has been in contact with the finance company about getting the car lease payments suspended.

"The bank and the school were both sympathetic. I think that if you contact them first and tell them of your difficulties they will be very tolerant.

"The next thing I have to do is contact the Taxation Department to suspend payments to them because I don't know what the cash flow is going to be like."

He also doesn't know what is going to happen with his two young apprentices. "For the past week they've been in the blacksmith shop honing their skills in shoemaking," he said. "Now they're on two weeks' holiday."

After that he's uncertain. He's had someone come by from the Department of Education and Training to talk about options, one of which is letting them go, but that's something he'd rather not do.

Meanwhile, he has been wondering how he could have done things differently.

"The big thing for people is to have loss of profit insurance, which I don't have," he said. "The other thing is to have savings to help you ride this thing out."

In another report, farrier Bob Sim says the impact of the virus has been devastating for his family.

“I basically lost probably 90 per cent of my income, to the extent that we actually had to go to the bank yesterday and ask them to put a freeze on my mortgage because I can’t pay it,” he said.

By the way, Bob is one of 18 members of the American Farrier's Association who live in the two affected states, according to the most recent AFA member directory.

Following this post are two news clips from Australia; one is from two weeks ago, the other is one week or

Equine flu spreads to NSW breeding studs

Horse flu halts Sydney racing

Walking Horse Breeders Seek Funding for Breed-Specific Gait Studies at University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association^SM (TWHBEA) have announced that they are working together to develop and secure funding for a balance and mobility study to analyze the natural gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

"The Tennessee Walking Horse industry provides a very significant economic impact and much recognition for our state,” said Dr. Alan Mathew, head of the Department of Animal Science at the University of Tennessee. “As Tennessee’s Land Grant University, we are delighted to have this opportunity to collaborate with TWHBEA to provide expertise and science-based information for the benefit of Walking Horse owners, trainers, pleasure riders, and others involved with this unique breed."

Using high performance 3-D cameras and analysis from judges and veterinarians coupled with genetic markers, study implementers would be able to record the gait of today’s Tennessee Walking Horses in different disciplines. Historical films will be used to analyze the natural movements of the breed at its inception. Study implementers will then compare the motion of the breed’s foundation horses to the motion and mobility of today’s Tennessee Walking Horses.

“We are very excited about the information this study could provide us and its potential use to help preserve the historic gait of our breed,” said Chuck Cadle, executive director of the TWHBEA.

The study would also analyze potential differences in horses’ weight distribution based on the way they are shod.

“Certainly there’s a natural evolution in the performance of show horses through breeding and improved training methods, but this study will finally help us determine if today’s horses are still in synch with the natural gait of this breed,” said Dr. Mathew.

Cadle continued, “We base breeding decisions on performance in the show ring, and that may not be the best way to preserve the natural gait of this breed. This study will help us make the best breeding decisions so we don’t dilute our population and compromise the gait that makes our horse famous.

“We hope that with this scientific information, we can all agree on what’s in the best interest of the breed and how to move forward together. If today’s show horses are not functioning the way the breed’s founding sires and mares did, then we as an industry may need to change our expectations for this breed.”

If the study could be initiated within the year, it could be completed by 2011. TWHBEA and UT intend to seek funds for the project and are willing to discuss it with interested parties.

Jackie Thompson, Iconic Thoroughbred Horseshoer, Has Died in Lexington

If anyone is counting, Jackie shod five Derby winners--Dark Star, Proud Clarion, Dust Commander, Gato del Sol and Swale.

More importantly, he taught people to be farriers by taking them on as apprentices. One of the best Jackie stories is when he took on a white apprentice, the first in Lexington. He went around to all the trainers at Keeneland to make sure it was all right with them if a white man helped him work on their horses.

Services are Monday, September 10 at Shiloh Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Lexington Herald-Leader has a nice obituary of Jackie, who was 81.

I'll never forget him.

Indiana Farrier Jim Keith Receives Clyde Stringer Award

Farrier Jim Keith instructs vet students about the role of farriers in equine health and medicine.

Jim Keith of Wingate, Indiana is the ninth recipient of the Clyde Stringer Award, presented by the Indian Farriers Association for service in education and teaching farriery.

When Jim was the president of the Indiana Farriers Association, he appointed a committee to set the award up. This year, he was chosen by his peers to receive the award.

“It has some significance to me even more so than somebody who didn’t have anything to do with it,” he said in an interview. “I was kind of humble and of course pleased that they were proud of me.”

Jim, who is 61, teaches educational clinics and a yearly class at Purdue University for veterinary students on shoeing horses. He has taught at universities in Romania, and is going back to Romania and Hungary with Christian Veterinary Missions in October to present farrier courses.

Jim has subscribed to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal since 1986. He's a worthy recipient of the award and we congratulate him!

Clyde Stringer is former president of the Indiana Farriers Association. He is retired from shoeing and recently had knee surgery.

The IFA also has the Al Morgan Award, named for one of the organization's foundation who died ten years ago, for volunteer service.