Bulldozers Primed to Uproot Wellington's Green Carpet; Showgrounds Will Get High-Tech Euro-Footing in Time for WEF

Equestrian Sport Productions, LLC Managing Partner Mark Bellissimo (left) and Olympic footing expert Bart Poels of Belgium (right) surveying Palm Beach International Equestrian Center's Internationale Arena in preparation for installing an all-weather surface.

The 124th National Horse Show winds up tomorrow at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington, Florida.

For years, we have come to associate the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF), which opens in mid-January, and other events held at Wellington's Palm Beach Polo Club grounds, with carpets of green grass. Green is a foreign color to northern eyes in winter.

But all that changes forever on Monday: Heavy equipment is waiting in the wings. The 2008 Olympic Games footing specialist, Belgian Bart Poels, has received the nod to rip up the grass--immediately--and put in an all-weather surface in time for the big shows to start a scant five weeks from now. One grass ring will be preserved.

The first major project will be to install an all-weather surface in the Internationale Arena. An area measuring almost 70 by 120 meters (230 by 394 feet) on the side of the arena closest to the Jockey Club will be all-weather.

(Note: At 8,400 square meters that is more than double the size of 4,000 square meters required for International Equestrian Federation (FEI) outdoor jumping competitions and larger than Hong Kong's Olympic arena; it can hold three dressage arenas when the jumping circuit moves on.)

All-weather footing is also scheduled to be installed at the adjacent Stadium facility that is being completely rebuilt to become a major high performance event arena.

Poels is also working with HITS/Culpeper (Virginia) on arena footing for 2008, having completed consultation on HITS/Thermal (California) footing for the upcoming west coast shows.

Different types of sand that are the primary ingredient of what is known as the "Poels-sand" surface footing were sourced to several quarries in Florida. Mixing the sand and other ingredients has been underway at a site near Wellington since November 27. Over the following two to three weeks, about 4,500 tons of rocks of varying sizes and 2,000 tons of sand will be installed in four layers.

In addition to the Hong Kong Olympic arena, the Poels family has installed indoor and outdoor arenas in their native Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Portugal, United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Individual customers include top riders Francois Mathy, Ludo Philipaerts, Philippe Lejeurne, Mark van Dijck and Henk Nooren.

All-weather outdoor arenas have replaced grass at some of the world's top horse shows in recent years because of concerns over the welfare of horses and the difficulties of maintaining grass for longer than the four to six days of a major competition. Among those to have made the switch are Rotterdam and Rome, both of which are in the Samsung Super League Nations Cup series.

WEF in 2008 is being expanded to 12 weeks in Wellington, from January 16 through April 6 with record prize money of more than $4.7 million. Wellington Equestrian Partners, LLC, operating as Equestrian Sports Productions (ESP), bought The Show Grounds and The Stadium in September and acquired the U.S. Equestrian Federation Wellington licenses in November to enable it to stage several months of hunter, jumper and dressage shows, including the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Wellington.

A year ago, the WEF was almost delayed or even canceled when an outbreak of Equine Herpes virus (EHV) in December sent the show and polo communities into paralytic quarantine.

Check this blog in late January for feedback from the farriers on how cuppy, slippy, trappy, dusty or hopefully perfect the new footing turns out to be. There's a lot riding on that surface, and the horses shipped south with their shoes set up for training and showing on specific surfaces. Many go south with extra shoes already made up from their northern shoers.

The expression "horses for courses" applies to show horses as much as to racehorses; certain horses seem to prefer some types of footing, or a certain showground. Some horses excel on grass, while others are "indoor" specialists. Schooling and warmup areas can make a big difference, too.

Will the last Jack Russell on the grounds please have a good roll on the grass?

Blood-Horse: Polytrack Gets a Thumbs Up

The Blood-Horse web site has a good article ("Vote of Confidence for Synthetics") as Ron Mitchell reports from the University of Arizona's Symposium on Racing and Gaming. He compiles comments from a panel of track executives that are now conducting race meets on Polytrack, one of three synthetic track surfaces in use in the USA.

New Blood-Horse editor Dan Liebman has a slightly more cautious editorial online, too. The magazine published a special section on synthetic surfaces this week.

Polytrack is pursuing the equestrian arena market now, as evidenced by a nice double-page spread ad in Sidelines, the Palm Beach, Florida show/polo magazine. The surface originated in England and American interests are partnered by the Keeneland Association in Kentucky.

Photos in this blog post have been enhanced; originals were courtesy of Polytrack. All the eagle-eyed farriers who read this blog will wonder about the shoe in the top photo....maybe it's a stable pony?

Dressage Biomechanics Seminar with Hilary Clayton Announced

When: Saturday, January 19, 2008
Where: Hilton Palm Beach Airport, 150 Australian Avenue, West Palm Beach, Florida

The Palm Beach Dressage Derby, Inc. will offer a one-day seminar on sport horse biomechanics with Drs. Hilary Clayton and Rob van Nessum on January 19, 2008. Proceeds will benefit the Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center at Michigan State University. The seminar is open to the public.

Morning Session
9:00-12:00 Biomechanics of the Pyramid of Training, presented by Hilary Clayton, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS

Afternoon Session
1:00-4:00 "Anatomy and Physiology of the Dressage Horse", presented by Rob van Wessum, DVM, MS and "Saddle Fitting and Rider Assessment", presented by Dr. Clayton

(Note: Rob van Nessum is a Dutch veterinarian and rider/trainer/judge who recently joined Dr. Clayton's sport horse program at Michigan State University as a lameness specialist.)

The advanced-registration cost is $85 per person for the entire day and includes a boxed lunch. On-site registration fee is $100.

Click here for more details and a link to register online.

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Horse Magazine Puts Spotlight on Barefoot's Pete Ramey

In all my years in horse journalism, I've never seen anything like this. Not even Burney Chapman, Hiltrud Strasser or Gene Ovnicek has ever received publicity like this.

Blog readers will be well-advised to pick up a copy of the December 2007 issue of Horse and Rider magazine. Sit down for a while and read all the way through the eight-page interview with barefoot's de facto spokesman, Pete Ramey.

Horse and Rider has been promoting barefoot hoofcare for some time now, and Pete Ramey in particular. I can't think of anyone who doesn't like Pete and I'm delighted for his success.

I think the barefoot-shod debate, if you want to call it that is evolving. Pete Ramey and other barefoot leaders endorse new generation hoof boots as "the horseshoes of the 21st century", to quote Pete. I cringe when I hear this. Such a statement places even more of a stigma on traditional horseshoes and a lot of peer pressure on owners from "barn nazis" to pull those evil shoes off a horse.

To be successful, the barefoot option has to be more than fashion, and saddling up a lame horse to go riding in hoof boots that may or may not fit is a new form of equine abuse that no one is talking about yet. I'd like to see people like Pete encourage boot use for long rides or rough conditions, not for every day use on a sore-footed horse as an alternative to traditional shoes and certainly not for turnout. A "2 butes + boots = ok to ride" formula is not much of an improvement.

I think of barefoot horses as the equine equivalent of hybrid cars: it's not enough just to have a car that saves gas, especially if the rest of your lifestyle includes an energy-guzzling home, boat and RV. Some people buy a hybrid to look cool or to save money for the drive to work in the morning without buying into the bigger commitment of living more lightly on the earth in terms of energy consumption.

Hoof boots are cool now. They also hide the hoof they are designed to help and no one but the rider knows what lies beneath or how raw those heel bulbs will be when the boot is finally pulled off. I've seen riders trade boots between horses that didn't have the same size or shape of feet. I've seen people put them on without cleaning them out. I've seen hairless coronets, dangling straps, and boots left on for days on turned-out horses.

One of my favorite stories is from years ago when I was at a boarding barn. The Old Macs boots had just come out and a wealthy boarder had bought four, to go all around her sore-footed barefoot horse. The boots seemed to fit and she rode off one afternoon.

She came back quite soon and seemed visibly shaken. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, “It’s those boots. He was raring to go. Geez, you know, I don’t think I’m a good enough rider to head out on a sound horse.”

A sound barefoot horse should always be the goal and I hope that part of Pete's message doesn't get lost. Read this article, it is important. Horse and Rider should be available on most newsstands and in tack shops.

Eleanor Green: First Woman President of the AAEP Takes Office for 2008

Eleanor Green, DVM, DACVIM, DABVP, of Gainesville, Florida, was installed as the 54th president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners during the group’s annual convention in Orlando, Florida on December 4, 2007. She will serve through 2008 and becomes the first female veterinarian to lead the association.

With a distinguished career in academia, Dr. Green currently is a professor and chair of the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. She also is the chief of staff of the college’s Large Animal Veterinary Medical Center. Dr. Green previously was a member of the veterinary faculties at Mississippi State University, the University of Missouri and the University of Tennessee and also has experience in private practice.

Under Dr. Green's leadership, the University of Florida is actively promoting staff farrier services. The university's web site devotes a page to the bio of staff farrier Mr. Adam Whitehead, who recently attended the Fourth International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida and is a Hoofcare and Lameness Journal subscriber.

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British Farrier Gary Darlow Honored by Leading Horse Charity

From England's Horse Trust (formerly the Home of Rest for Horses) comes this photo and news of a special honor given to one of Britain's leading international competitors:

British farrier Gary Darlow of Meadow Bank Farm in Over Peover, Knutsford, England is the first Horse Trust Open Farriery Champion.

Gary won the award, which included a perpetual rose bowl trophy and a check for £250, in a farriery contest recently at the British Army Farrier School at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. Competitors were required to participate in two classes -- Hunter shoeing and Therapeutic shoeing. Points were awarded for each class and Gary was the overall winner.

Gary, who treats riding ponies, polo ponies, hunters and Shire horses throughout Cheshire, England, learned the profession in the mid-1970s; he is now 48 years old. He has, he says, been competing ever since.

"For the apprentices and other farriers, contests are a fantastic learning curve. I've learned more by competing than from anything else," he says. "You get the best people in the world at competitions and you can learn from watching them. Most of those who compete are very good at what they do but are not recognized for it outside the farrier industry.

"Some of these lads, the practicing they do at home is amazing," Gary added. "Some of these shoes are very complicated to make, because there are so many different sorts of shoes and you have to practice them all. You may know before the competition what you will be asked to do, but you have to spend hours beforehand practicing to reach the standard. Competing at horseshoeing is like any other event: if you don’t practice you won't get there."

He was thrilled by the letter from The Horse Trust following the awards ceremony. Paul Jepson, chief executive of the Trust, wrote: "I can think of no one who has demonstrated a more consistently high standard of farriery over many years and you are a worthy champion."

Note: The Horse Trust was established in 1886 and is the oldest equine charity in the world. They are leading funding source in the UK for research into strangles, sweet itch, ragwort poisoning, colic and laminitis and fund many meetings and horse health initiatives. Over £20 million (approx. $40 million US) has been invested by the Trust in research and education.