Michael Dickinson Turns to Artificial Surface Duties, Will End Training Efforts

One of the world's great racing personalities will change his role in 2008. Trainer Michael Dickinson, the celebrity trainer of Maryland's Fair Hill complex, will devote fulltime efforts to the sales and development of his Tapeta racing surface business, according to an article posted on bloodhorse.com today. Tapeta is now in use in five countries around the world. Dickinson has long been a champion of safer all-weather training surfaces and went to work to prove to the world that horses can train and run more safely by developing his own formula and engineering system. “I have been concerned for some time about the welfare of horses racing on unsuitable surfaces and really want to repay the horse in my own small way,” Dickinson’s statement said. A native of Yorkshire, England, Dickinson trained the first five finishers in England's 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup. In the U.S., he established Tapeta Farm in Maryland. Dickinson’s most acclaimed training feat came when he conditioned 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Da Hoss to a repeat win in that race’s 1998 renewal at Churchill Downs, after a two-year layoff. Da Hoss was plagued with so many training setbacks while on the comeback trail that most trainers would have relinquished the notion of bringing him back to the races. Da Hoss is familiar to Hoofcare and Lameness readers because the game colt raced his entire career with only half a coffin bone in one of his front feet. Michael Dickinson is an eccentric personality known as "the mad genius". His turf training system includes strips of hilly terrain. He drives next to the galloping horses in his Range Rover and shouts encouragement as he observes the horses closely. He feeds his horses special treats like Guiness stout, free-range eggs, and organic grass--among other things--and may be remembered a few years ago for striding boldly out into the middle of Churchill Downs before the Kentucky Derby to personally check the surface before allowing his colt Tapit to run. Dr. George Pratt, a noted engineering professor at MIT who is a specialist in impact surface reaction forces (especially for racetracks), assessed Dickinson's Tapeta surface and noted that horses working on the Tapeta™ surface experience one-half the impact as compared to running on a conventional surface. He said "It's like running on a living room rug." Dickinson is so confident of the surface that if a horse has a chip, fracture, or quarter crack while in training at Tapeta™ Farm, he will pay for the surgery to be done at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. Racing needs Michael Dickinson. I wish he could be cloned. Good luck to one of my heroes!

University of Minnesota's Leatherdale Equine Center Opens

Click here to view a sound-enhanced slide show from today's Star-Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis-St. Paul, showing the features of the recently-opened Leatherdale Equine Center at the University of Minnesota.

Click here to read the supporting article.

Directed by muscle disorder expert Dr. Stephanie Valberg, the new center is a complete diagnostic and treatment center specializing in equine sports medicine.

In spite of harsh winters, equestrian activities are growing in Minnesota and the new center reflects the demand for state of the art veterinary care in the region. Minnesota has the tenth largest horse population of the 50 U.S. states.

Life Imitates Art: World Championship Blacksmiths Pitch Their Tent in Massachusetts

Maybe it was my head cold, but it seemed like a tableau off the wall of a British art gallery. I had just finished selecting a series of Murfin paintings for the next issue of Hoofcare and Lameness; they depict the sights and sweats of the Shire Horse Show shoeing competition held in Peterborough, England each March.

On Friday, the paintings seemd to come alive right in front of me when the World Championship Blacksmiths Competition passed through western Massachusetts; they pitched their big yellow tent at our regional all-breed, all-sport horse fair, Equine Affaire. I was able to drop in for a few minute minutes between sniffles and sneezes.

Both the name recognition factor of the competitors and the geography represented were impressive. Also impressive was the lineup of farriers on the spectator side of the "caution" tape line, the announcer (New Mexico farrier and WCB front man Craig Trnka) and the judge, Billy Crothers of Wales.

Probably my favorite part was the blasting music. Who couldn't smile when you walk up to a big yellow tent full of blazing coal forges and hear Johnny Cash singing "Ring of Fire"? Maybe it was my cold medicine, but I swear the hammers were swinging to the beat.

My heart skipped a beat a little as I looked around and saw what was missing. My late great friend, New York farrier (and tireless competitor) Vern Hornquist, would have been front and center in a very big way at this event. Vern, as many of you know, died a few years ago.

Note: World Championship Blacksmiths is a private corporation producing regional forging competitions around the USA. I believe this was their fourth event, leading up to a national championship to be held in Tampa, Florida in February. Anyone wishing to compete may join the organization and admission seemed to be free for spectators.

About the paintings: These Murfin images are posted for viewing on this blog only. You may double click on the image to see a larger version. You can see more from this series in the next issue of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. No downloading or reproduction of these images without permission of Hoofcare Publishing and the artist. They are protected by both British and American copyright.

Icelandic Hoof Interlude at Cornell: Sigurdsson Tolts On

Rider Sigurdur Oli Kristinsson, farrier Sigurdur Sigurdsson, and Cornell's Michael Wildenstein pose with a furry Icelandic horse (don't call them ponies!) after an in-depth seminar on shoeing and gait adjustment on the Icelandic horse. The farrier speaker brought a top rider with him to illustrate the fine points of gaiting the fast little island-bred horses that have become very popular in the United States. Below are the finished front feet on this horse. The fine art of adjusting a horse's gaits was covered; the Icelandic horse has five natural gaits, including the four-beat "tolt" which can be trotty or pacey. Adjusting shoe weight behind or in front can have a big effect on the horse's tolt, as illustrated by Siggy and Siggy on two horses worked on the indoor matted horse run at Cornell. The farrier's job is to make sure that the tolt is a true four-beat gait. "Siggy Sig" is director of hoofcare studies at Holar University College, Iceland and is very active as a rider in international competition. Many farriers from the Northeast attended to learn about these horses that are showing up in their practices. It was an outstanding presentation; it's a rare treat to see a farrier pleased enough with his work to ride the horse and there were many points that would have been valuable for trainers or farriers. No one in the audience could say "been there, done that". You know it's a good clinic when I'm not the only one taking photos.

UPenn's Rob Sigafoos Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

America's "Mad Scientist" of farriery received the lifetime achievement award at the Fourth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday. Sigafoos's career has spanned more than 20 years of innovative thinking that culminated in his important role in the team working on Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro during the colt's long stay at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, where Sigafoos has been staff farrier for more than 20 years.

Among Sigafoos's many contributions to veterinary medicine and farriery have been pioneering the use of PMMA adhesives like "Equilox", glue-on shoes with cloth cuffs, external fixator braces, and many innovative cast and brace designs for orthopedic cases.

If there are giants in the farrier world, Rob is one. He-who-hates-nails changed the way we approach therapeutic options for hoof conditions, and showed us all how to think way outside the box.

Congratulations, Rob!

Million-Dollar Gift from Marianne and John Castle Will Boost Laminitis Research

Several major news stories are in development this morning as I have just returned from the Fourth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Complete details will follow, but let me be hopefully the first to announce to the world that Mr. and Mrs. John Castle of New York, New York and Palm Beach, Florida stunned the audience at the conference with the announcement that they will donate one million dollars to Dr. James Orsini's new Laminitis Institute at the University of Pennsylvania for the study of the causes and treatment of laminitis in the horse.

A more formal article will follow, but I wanted to share the great news!

Some background information on the laminitis initiatives at UPenn are outlined in this file.