Host Hotel Sold Out for November's Lamintiis Conference in Palm Beach

If you are planning to attend the Fourth International Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in Palm Beach in November, please note that it may not be possible for you to stay ath e host hotel, which is the West Palm Beach Marriott.

Additional rooms for conference participants are available at the Crowne Plaza West Palm Beach. The Crowne Plaza has extended the deadline for the discounted room rate until next week.

Please call 561-689-6400 for Crowne Plaza reservations and reference "Laminitis Conference"; shuttle buses will be available to take attendees back and forth to the convention center, so you should not need to rent a car.

Both the Marriott and the Crowne Plaza are close to the airport.

2008 American Farrier's Association Speakers Announced

AFA Convention Chairman Greg Johnson has sent along a list of speakers for the upcoming 2008 AFA Convention in Lexington, Kentucky.

This is a tentative list but should give farriers an idea of the types of presentations available: Chuck Jones, CJF (Farrier Rood & Riddle) “Shoeing the Sport Horse”; Chris Gregory, CJF, FWCF “Strategies for Passing Practical Certification Exams’; Eddie Williams, “Shoeing the Saddlebred”; Mitch Taylor, CJF “High Speed Video of Track Surfaces and Their Relationship to Toe Grabs”; Al Kane PhD, DVM, MPVM “Toe Grabs and the Effect on Race Horses”; Robert Hunt DVM “ Limb Corrections in the Juvenile Horse and the Associated Farriery Techniques”; Richelle Hochstatter, “Pros and Cons of an S Corporation and LLC, When & How”; Allie Hayes CF, “Anatomy Discussion Labs”; Charlie Helton, “ Ornamental Blacksmithing Demonstration”; AFA Certification Hands On; USDA Representative “Infectious Disease & The Relation to Farriers”; Scott Morrison DVM, TBA; Walt Taylor CF, “Professionalism in Farrier Practice”; and Brad Newman DVM, ”Acute Stage Laminitis Therapy”.

Other presentations include Round Table Discussion on Toe Grabs (Mitch Taylor, Al Kane, Steve Norman, & Thoroughbred Trainer to be announced; Buck McColl-Mini Lecture on “Nutrition”; John McNerney CJF Mini Lecture on “Tool Maintenance”; Tom Trosin CF, “How Not to Run a Farrier Business”; Horseman’s Day (Inviting owners, and trainers for Lexington Area).

For more information visit, the American Farrier's Association web site.

Convention dates are February 26 to March 1, 2008; the hosting chapter is the Bluegrass Horseshoers Association.

Today In History

The undefeated 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew defeated 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed in an historic race that pitted two Triple Crown winners against each other. Those were the days!

September 16, 1978:

For the first time in history, two Triple Crown winners met in a race, the Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park. Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown winner, defeated Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown winner, by three lengths.

Whenever I see this photo of Seattle Slew, I'm impressed with his running style. In 1992, his son A.O. Indy would chug down the lane at Belmont Park with that same yeoman-like stride. as the forelegs came down and the hooves disappeared into the track cushion, they seemed to pull the head down too. But I think something much more subtle was going on, and these colts used their necks and heads as either another pulling body part or as a balance aid, like a gyroscope. The colt Lure ran that way too a few years after A.P. Indy and I think I saw a little bit of it in Rags to Riches, who is the daughter of A.P. Indy. How sad that the announcement of her broken ankle would come on the day of her grandfather's great triumph.

(Thanks to the NTRA and to Patrick Kerrigan of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance for reminding me of that amazing race! )

Pastern Fracture Sidelines Rags to Riches; Filly Won't Run Again This Year

Rags to Riches in her stall at Saratoga in August.
Photo © Fran Jurga/www.hoofcare.com

Belmont Stakes winner Rags To Riches suffered a hairline fracture to her right front pastern during the running of the Grade 1, $250,000 Gazelle Stakes at Belmont Park yesterday. The filly finished second to Lear's Princess.

Here's the statement from her trainer, Todd Pletcher:

“The injury is not career ending, and she is expected to make a full recovery. It appears as though she sustained the injury during the stretch run. When she switched to the right lead, she came off the bridle and lugged in a bit. Though she cooled out fine following the race she appeared to be slightly off this morning. Subsequent x-rays discovered the hairline fracture. She is resting comfortably and will ship to Ashford Stud tomorrow where she will receive six weeks of stall rest to give the fracture time to heal. At the conclusion of her convalescence she will be re-x-rayed to determine when she will resume training. She will not race again until 2008."

Yesterday’s running of the Gazelle was the filly’s first race since her historic win over Preakness winner Curlin in the Belmont Stakes, June 9. That win catapulted her into the history books, as she became one of only three fillies to win the coveted “Test of the Champion” and the first to do so in 102 years.

Thanks to the NTRA and Kelly Wietsma of Todd Pletcher Racing for help with this post.

Dr. Chris Pollitt Video of Equine Influenza Symptoms at Australian Quarantine Encampment

Dr. Chris Pollitt of the University of Queensland's Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit took camera in hand on his rounds of the sick horses quarantined at the scene an FEI Eventing World Cup qualifier in Warwick, Queensland.

Dr. Pollitt's daughter Jane was to have ridden in the event; her Australian stock horse Washington is the fleabitten gray in the purple halter you will see in the video.

Be sure to check the web site of The Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit to learn more about Dr. Pollitt's work with another disease.

He will be headed to the USA in a few weeks for an extended lecture tour, culminating in the 4th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Horse's Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida on November 2-4. See you there!

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