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url: hoofcare.blogspot.com/
site_owner: Fran Jurga, Hoofcare Publishing
address1: PO Box 6600
address2:
city: Gloucester
state: MA
country: USA
postal_code: 01930
phone_number: 1 978 281 3222, Fax: 1 978 283 8775
display_email: blog@hoofcare.com
site_name: Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog
site_description: Writings concerning equine lameness, horse hoof and foot problems, veterinary and farriery science, laminitis, farriers and the horse industry by Fran Jurga, editor and publisher of Hoofcare and Lameness, The Journal of Equine Foot Science.© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Where's My Brumby Now: Chris Pollitt Offers Donors a Chance to Ride Along for Hoof Research...by Satellite!

I am posting a research brief from Dr. Pollitt that should be of interest to every reader of Hoofcare & Lameness Journal. I think a brumby's hoof data would make a great Christmas present! Above: Australian feral horses ("brumbies") photographed from the air by Dr Pollitt in July of 2007 while conducting preliminary research.

Australian Hoof Research Project Brief: Determining the range of the Australian wild horse (Brumby) and the relationship to foot type and conformation.

Our team has spent much of the past 12 months investigating the use of GPS technology to track the movements of horses. As a result we have developed the ideal tool to track the day-to-day movements of horses in both the domestic and wild environments.

Our GPS tracking units allow us to accurately pinpoint the location, speed and altitude of the horse at one-second intervals for up to one week or at 30-second intervals for up to six months.

Domestic horse wearing a collar with GPS tracker attached.

A GPS unit attached to a strap around the horse's neck is able to fix the position of the horse by aligning its position with at least six satellites orbiting overhead and storing the data on board. When data is retrieved, it is interfaced with Google Earth to 1) produce an aerial photograph of the horse's movements (see photo) and 2) be overlaid on a geographical mapping system which applies the data to soil and vegetation type, use of water points and topography type.

This exciting technology is being applied to horses for the first time by our research team, with the goal of establishing a complete picture of the movements of horses, both domestic and wild, and how they interact with their environment.

The effect of movement and environment on the horse’s foot is a significant focus of the research. We know from preliminary work that the typical domestic horse’s foot travels very little (approximately 7 km daily) in comparison to its wild counterpart which may travel up to 50 km or more in a single walk. We have several populations of "Brumbies" (Australian feral horses) under investigation to determine natural foot structure and function under various environmental conditions.

Tracking data (3 days) from horses grazing a large 40-acre forested paddock

We are about to embark on the most exciting part of the research: to track the wild horses. Brumbies will be darted silently from a hide with a tranquilizer, giving the team two minutes to photograph feet, place permanent markers to determine hoof wall growth rates and attach the GPS collar (see photo).

On reversal of the tranquilizer, the horse will rejoin its family band unaware of the intervention. The same horse will be recaptured using the dart gun at the end of the trial to retrieve equipment and then released back to the wild.

This work will begin in March 2008 and continue for 12 months in locations in Central and Northern Queensland and the Northern Territory and Eastern Kimberly region of Western Australia. The project will ultimately identify the relationship between a horse’s movement and the effect on foot conformation, structure and function.

Our goal is to make well-informed recommendations of the ideal conditions to keep domestic horses to improve the well-being of their feet.

You can help in this groundbreaking research. The more GPS units we can attach to wild horses, the better and more accurate the data set will be. For AUS$3000 (approx $2,600 US) you can own and name a wild horse for the 4 to 6 month tracking season. We will supply photos and location data at the time of GPS attachment and, when retrieved, we will use the GPS download from your horse to generate a report using Google Earth maps.

Ultimately, the combined data from all the horses will be compiled into freely available scientific reports.

Please help if you can.

Professor Chris Pollitt
Professor of Equine Medicine
School of Veterinary Science
The University of Queensland
St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland AUSTRALIA
email c.pollitt@uq.edu.au
website: www.laminitisresearch.org
fax 07 3365 2351

Note: To learn more about Dr. Pollitt and his observations of brumby feet, refer to "The Natural Hoof Down Under" in Hoofcare and Lameness Issue #69. He has also been a keen observer of zebra feet in the wild.

Double-click on any photo to view it in an enlarged size but please remember that these photos are the property of Dr. Pollitt and are protected by the copyright of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal and www.hoofcare.com, to say nothing of Dr. Pollitt's six satellites circling the earth.

Western Pleasure Gait Analysis: Is this what the rule book ordered?

Traditional definitions of the number of beats in a given gait are being challenged by the unique movement of horses shown in the western pleasure classes at US horse shows.

A new study published in the journal Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology sheds some light on perhaps why I get so confused when I watch the western pleasure classes at the Quarter Horse Congress.

Our friend Molly Nicodemus PhD, formerly of the McPhail Center at Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine and now at Mississippi State, and J.E. Booker of Auburn University analyzed a group of western pleasure horses at the jog and lope.

While the paper contains a lot of information, it requires a bit of reading between the lines. It tells you what a western pleasure horse (if the horses tested are typical) does but without comparing it to what other "normal" horses do.

For instance, the study determined that both the jog and lope are four-beat stepping gaits. (A stepping gait is one in which the horse has at least one foot on the ground at all times--think: walk, rack, running walk, fox trot, tolt, paso largo, etc.). The opposite of a stepping gait is a leaping gait, which contains an "aerial" phase when no limb is in contact with the ground--think: trot. piaffe, gallop.)

Gait analysis has shown pretty reliably that the trot is a two-beat leaping gait and the canter is a three-beat leaping gait.

In her book The Dynamic Horse, Dr. Hilary Clayton describes the western pleasure jog as a symmetrical two-beat stepping with a high degree of collection (what trainers call "being in the frame" and what makes it look, to the uneducated spectator, like the horses are trotting in place and will never get all the way around the arena.)

Does the new research mean that the jog and lope are variations of the walk?

The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), which also defines the jog as a "smooth, ground-covering two-beat diagonal gait", recently changed the judging standards for western pleasure classes: "The horse (in the jog) works from one pair of diagonals to the other pair. The jog should be square, balanced and with straight, forward movement of the feet. Horses walking with their back feet and trotting in the front are not considered performing the required gait."

Also from the AQHA: "The lope is an easy, rhythmical three-beat gait....Horses traveling at a four-beat gait are not considered to be performing at a proper lope."

The AQHA obviously believes that corrrectly-performing Western Pleasure horses are exhibiting aerial gaits; Molly Nicodemus' paper documents that the horses she tested are not in compliance with AQHA standards.

Here's a confusing sentence from the AQHA rulebook: "Lope with forward motion will become the only gait recognized as a lope." Can a horse lope without making forward motion? That's one for a gait analysis project...

Not too many years ago, Hilary Clayton's gait analysis showed that medal-winning FEI dressage horses were not performing movements as prescribed in the stone tablets of dressage judging standards. The canter pirouette, in particular, and the piaffe were found to be quite different than believed.

Go to most recent story on the Hoof Blog and read all news.

Hilary Clayton Footing Lecture This Friday in Orlando, Florida

Dr. Hilary Clayton will lecture on the nature of footing, in all its depths and shapes and surfaces, at the United States Dressage Federation Convention this week in Orlando, Florida at the Disney Coronado Resort. Hilary will speak on Friday, November 30, both in the morning and again in the afternoon. The title of the lecture is "Impact of Arena Footing on Soundness". The USDF convention has an extensive program on horse health, and lameness in particular, this year.

Next week, Dr. Clayton will lecture on her latest research on the temporomandibular joint, reporting on how horses chew hay and pellets. That lecture will be on Wednesday, December 5 at 11:05 a.m. as part of a seminar on dentistry at the American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, also in Orlando, but at the Orange County Convention Center.

Watch for a new book and dvd set coming soon from Dr. Clayton, who is the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and a key contributing editor to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal.

If you are attending either the USDF or AAEP conventions (or both), say hello to your faithful blogger!

In the photo: Palamino warmblood stallion Treliver Decanter from Treliver Stud in Buckinghamshire, England makes good use of his arena's footing.

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Speedy Recovery Wishes to Farrier Allen Smith

Some horses in Massachusetts have had to allow a stranger to pick up their hooves lately. Forgive them if they're restless; some of these horses have never even known another farrier. That will be the case today when a Dutch Warmblood named Iabony lifts his big feet for Tom Maker, who'll be helping out a friend.

Allen Smith normally shoes for a very select client list; his list hasn't changed much over the years. But right now, Allen is recovering from cataract surgery and a detached retina, so Tom and some other farriers are lending their able hands for an old friend.

Allen is known, of course, as the former president of the American Farrier's Association and its de facto ombudsman. But he really does shoe horses when he's not quoting Roberts Rules of Order.

The AFA has always depended on Allen to see things clearly and he hopefully will be doing that again very soon.

(I've known Allen so long that the photos of him in his file with the magazine are black and white!)

"Farriery: The Whole Horse Approach" Nudges Farriers to Take A Look Above the Hairline

Author David Gill contends that the normal supporting limb (during the progression of the stride) is positioned at an angle of around 84 to 86 degrees, rather than directly perpendicular to the ground as often portrayed in diagrams. Therefore, he writes, lateral heel landing should be considered normal.

Hoofcare and Lameness Journal is the exclusive US source for the new book Farriery: The Whole Horse Approach by British farrier David Gill. The first copies have arrived and already found their way into the hands of eager readers. And the discussions are beginning!

This is the first book to truly focus on grazing stance, shoulder angle, chest width, back pain, “handedness”, crookedness, etc. and their effect on horses with mismatched feet and/or limb deformities and gait asymmetries. It redefines evaluating the foot as an indication of the horse’s development and athleticism, both normal and abnormal. And it suggests that "normal" may not look like what we have been studying in textbooks all these years.

This is the most in-depth treatise on imbalance in the modern horse that has been written. The author perceives the hoof as the dynamic structure that is the great equalizer (or victim, in some cases) of asymmetric weightbearing, gait and conformational challenges from above, and suggests how to recognize problems that can be corrected and compensate for those that cannot.

Chapters: Anatomy (40 pages), Hoof Balance Revealed, Anterioposterior Balance, "Odd But Normal" Hooves, Mediolateral Hoof Balance, The Crooked Horse, Farriery in Practice.

From a subscriber who bought one of the first copies: "The book I bought from you at the meeting (Farriery: The Whole Horse Concept by Gill) is a very good book and I'm reading it cover-to-cover. It is very succinct and the illustrations are excellent. References cited in the book are current and reflect the author's obvious study of leading edge research."

The illustrations are excellent. Whether you agree with the author or not, you will admit that this book diagrams functional hoof anatomy at a level not available to us before. As with our other new book, Hoof Problems by Rob Van Nassau, I wish the illustrations were available in a cd-rom archive for educators (and journal editors).

Introductory Price: $80 (subject to change) plus post
Postage: USA $6, Overseas $15; actual cost will vary by country and may not be insurable.
Specs: 7.5 x 10" with 146 pages, laminated hard cover
Illustrations: over 200 (estimated) color photographs and drawings
Availability: Now in Stock
Click here for a faxable/mailable order form.
Click here to visit our web page on this book.
You may order by phone (01 978 281 3222), by fax (01 978 283 8775); by email (books@hoofcare.com) or by mail (Hoofcare & Lameness Journal, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA). Visa and MasterCard accepted.
The author is meticulous about the fresh specimen prepared for his photos. He used mostly white feet. All the photos of cadaver limbs are identified as such, and all photos of limbs have been vignetted so there is no distracting background except when living horses are shown. This photo of the laminae making their hairpin turn at the heel is coupled with a photo of a corn seen from the solar surface.


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