GAIT ANALYSIS: Western Pleasure Show Classes Under Scrutiny for Gait Anomalies

A meeting in Dallas in September, jointly hosted by American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA), invited the top 100 riders from NSBA, the top 10 riders from open Western Pleasure at AQHA’s World Championship Show from the past three years and a team of judges who specialize in western pleasure.

They took the classes apart and looked at the equitation, the judging rules and especially the gaits and movement and speed of the horses in the ring. A special sub-committee is now working on a video to educate the entire industry on the specifics of Western Pleasure horse movement.

Some of the points to be covered in the video include:

• Placing more emphasis on judging the walk and using the video to educate exhibitors on improving the walk.
• Finding a balance for the amount of time spent judging the jog and the moderate extension of the jog.
• Addressing the head-bob at the lope, why it occurs and ways to avoid or correct it. This included educating exhibitors on lengthening their horse’s stride versus shorter, manmade strides; addressing the importance of conformation and what movements certain horses are physically capable of; and reassuring exhibitors that it is OK to show off the rail and that passing another horse can give exhibitors an opportunity to demonstrate their horsemanship, and show their horse’s ability to guide while maintaining an even cadence and consistent performance
• Educating rank-in-file members and beginning western pleasure competitors on the positive and negative characteristics of western pleasure horses, and on how the discipline continues to improve.
• Additional education for judges and continuing to push for and establish industry standards.
• Varying the gait calls to make it more interesting for horses, exhibitors and spectators.

As far as I know, this is the first time that the head-bobbing lope has been mentioned by Western Pleasure officials. What they describe as "manmade gaits" will confuse readers who are not familiar with this type of showing. How a horse can win a blue ribbon for a head-bobbing lope is something that takes a bit of getting used to, and video will be the best way to get the message across, surely.

For the uninitiated, this sport also has a unique training phenomenon called the "spur stop" or even rating the horse by leg pressure so that the reins don't have to be shortened.

(Sorry, I know that is not a very accurate description. The video should explain the logic behind the spur stop. The absolute perfect cadence of these horses is a script that must be followed and trainers have figured out how to achieve it. The result is that a moving horse need not cover much ground.)

Western pleasure survived the "peanut roller" controversy a decade or so ago and the classes only grew larger, so surely this latest revamp will also move things forward and improve the well-being of these horses.

Re-Worked Cushion Track Ready for Santa Anita's Opening Day

Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California will open for its winter race meet today. The track opened its one-mile oval main track for training on Saturday, after having been closed for additional repairs since December 3rd. Workers labored around the clock to adjust the new synthetic surface. Rainy weather complicated repairs.

Cushion Track, installed over the summer at a cost of more than $10 million, is comprised of silica sand mixed with synthetic fibers, elastic fiber and shredded rubber. The material is coated with a blend of wax.

“Our original Cushion Track surface simply was not draining properly,” said Santa Anita President Ron Charles. “Even though it’s not draining to specifications, it has improved and we’re hoping that will remain so. This project has taken longer than we originally intended and we know this has inconvenienced everyone, but the main thing is that we had to address these issues now, in advance of the winter rains that we do expect."

The Cushion Track surface was well-received by jockeys, trainers and horsemen during the recent Oak Tree meet, which concluded on November 4. Cushion Track proved that it was a sound and consistent surface, after withstanding summer temperatures that at times exceeded 100 degrees.

However, due to continued concerns about drainage, Santa Anita has solicited numerous track surface and soil preparation specialists, who have conducted a number of maintenance programs on the main track and water tests in the seven furlong chute. These experts all agreed that it would be advisable to conduct further investigative efforts on the Cushion Track and its drainage foundation before the Santa Anita meet begins today.

Although the same major components—silica sand, synthetic fibers, elastic fiber and granulated rubber and wax are present in every Cushion Track surface, the combination of these elements is custom designed to meet the weather conditions at each track. So too is the size, porosity and composition of the underlying rock layers that cover the miles of drainage pipes that have been installed.

In addition to remixing the Cushion Track material, workmen had to address the two-inch thick blacktop underpinning of the track as well. “Due to the fact we had far too much fine sand in the original mixture, a lot of that material had coated and effectively sealed the blacktop, which is designed to be porous. It was quite a job, but we’ve got the blacktop cleaned and draining well,” said Charles.

Horsemen based at Santa Anita have had to work their stock either on Santa Anita’s six-furlong dirt training track, or ship across Los Angeles to Inglewood to use Hollywood Park’s Cushion Track.

"Santa Anita has now invested over $11 million to provide a safe racing surface,” Charles added. “We are looking to Cushion Track to provide the ultimate answer to this problem.”

The traditional opening day feature is the Grade I Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs; the race attracted a full field of 14. Ninety-nine horses are entered in races at the beautiful racecourse today.

Santa Anita will host the 2008 Breeders Cup on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, 2008. It will be the first Breeders Cup run on an artificial surface instead aof dirt.

Note: Information for this post was supplied by Santa Anita as part of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal's ongoing efforts to report on new surfaces used for equestrian sports and racing and how they may impact equine safety and soundness.

Is That a Starfish Atop Your Holiday Tree?

Thanks to my friend Ellen Harvey of Harness Racing Communications, a project of the US Trotting Association, for reminding me of a great parable that is so symbolic of the renewal and reflection that should mark our days over this holiday break.

Ellen occasionally drives out to the New Holland (Pennsylvania) horse sale where she methodically buys a few youngish Standardbreds. She and a few investors fund rehab and retraining on a couple of ex-racehorses a year until they are ready to go to homes as pleasure horses. When one is placed in a home, they go get another.

Ellen's efforts save the equivalent of a very small drop in the bound-for-slaughter bucket.

She calls her project "Starfish Stable" and there's a good story behind the name.

No one knows the source of the starfish metaphor. It is attributed to the late anthropologist Loren Eisley, but even he admits that he is just retelling a story told to him. And here it is:

The Starfish Story
as told by Loren Eiseley

A young man was picking up objects off the beach and tossing them out into the sea. A second man approached him, and saw that the objects were starfish.

'Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water?'

'If the starfish are still on the beach when the tide goes out and the sun rises high in the sky, they will die,' replied the young man.

'That's ridiculous. There are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. You can't really believe that what you're doing could possibly make a difference!'

The young man picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully, and remarked as he tossed it out into the waves, 'It makes a difference to this one.'

Sometimes starfish have four hooves and a mane and a tail. Starfish aren't just at the killer auctions. They abound in the hoof world, and they are all around us.

They're the foundered horses you brought home when the owners gave up. They're alive and well in those bills that you "forgot" to send out, or the ones where you dropped a zero off the total. There are starfish among the kids you let follow you around. That 28-year-old Cushings horse with laminitis who can now trot in his new booties proves that you're never too old to be a starfish.

Maybe we can't save all the foundered horses in the world, or prevent every racehorse from breaking down or fund all the research that needs to be done. But each of us can--and, I believe, based on what I see, does--help make a difference by helping out a few starfish now and then.

Looking down this long, long beach, I hear splashes, all year long.

Merry Christmas to all the lucky starfish in the sea and to all of you. Cheers!

'Twas the Night Before Horseshoes and All Through Poughkeepsie...

Somewhere in this engraving of the Phoenix horseshoe mill in Poughkeepsie, New York is the little house where "The Night Before Christmas" is believed to have been written. Double-click on the image to see an enlarged view.

Do your holiday plans include reading or reciting "The Night Before Christmas", also known as "A Visit from St. Nick"? It may well be the best-known bit of poetry ever written in America. But did you know that there's a horseshoe connection to the poem?

The poem is believed to have been written by a Poughkeepsie, New York gentleman, Henry Livingston, who read it to his children. After his death, the poem was published in a Troy, New York newspaper and attributed to the poet Clement Clark Moore.

The Livingston family has been fighting for the poem to be credited properly to their ancestor, but it has been hard to prove. One tidbit from their family web site is that the reindeer names may actually have been the names of Henry Livingston’s horses.

After Henry's death, the Livingston family’s home became the headquarters office of the fledgling Phoenix Horseshoe Company, whose massive factories soon lined the shore of the Hudson River. Phoenix and the Troy-based Burden Horse Shoes, an hour further up the Hudson River, dominated the horseshoe manufacturing world up until the World War II era.

Isn't it odd that the two leading cities of horseshoe manufacturing would also be the two cities of the Christmas poem's controversy?

After the turn of the century, Phoenix tore Henry Livingston's house down, but horseshoe moguls obviously believed in Henry's authorship of the poem. Phoenix carefully removed and donated the mantle and hearth, such a vivid setting for St. Nicholas in the poem, to the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Poughkeepsie chapter. It is supposed to be in the Clinton museum there.

I'd say that if the business of Phoenix Horse Shoes was conducted before that hearth, it is doubly of interest and worth knowing its whereabouts!

Wait, there’s more. While there is no written history of Phoenix that I can find, there do seem to be ongoing ties between the Livingston family and the fledgling farrier industry of the 19th century. The Livingston Horse Nail Company, headed by S. Otis Livingston, had an agent who also represented Phoenix. The Livingstons made rasps and aprons, as well as Livingston, Anchor, New Haven and Coleman brand nails. Henry Livingston was involved as an investor--or more like a modern-day venture capitalist/equity trader--in the Forge Village and Globe horse nail companies in Massachusetts.

According to an ad in the 1907 Horseshoers Journal, the company was founded in 1845, predating Capewell. At that time, farriers were sold "horse nail iron" from Norway, which they used to make their nails. Early manufactured nails were sold unpointed, especially from some of the firms that Henry Livingston invested in.

The Livingstons were an influential political family and a very wealthy one. They helped write and then signed both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. It was a Livingston who swore George Washington into office for his first term. U.S. Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush are direct descendants of the Livingstons of Poughkeepsie.

I know if I dig deeper (or someone in Poughkeepsie does it for me) I will find a more direct link between the Livingstons and ownership or backing of the Phoenix Horse Shoe Company. Then, this really will be the night before horseshoes.

But for now, let’s pretend that Henry Livingston was frustrated because his horses all needed sharp winter shoes to get around the icy December roads of Poughkeepsie. He imagined they could fly, all hooked to a sleigh. Perhaps his farrier gave him an idea, too!

Merry Christmas…and to all, a good night!

Martha Stewart Salutes Her Farrier! (and you thought your customers were perfectionists?)

Kudos to stylemaker/domestic diva/media mogul Martha Stewart for a photo feature on her blog today that salutes her farrier, Hoofcare and Lameness subscriber Linda Friedman, who cares for the hooves of Martha Stewart's Friesian horses at her new farm outside New York City.

Click here to view Martha Stewart blog story about farrier Linda Friedman.

Congratulations to Linda for the relationship she has developed with Ms. Stewart. Linda is a caring professional whose client list includes some very high-profile horses and horseowners. She is a great ambassador for the farrier profession who excels in caring about the safety and well-being of the horses in her care.

I enjoyed seeing Linda at the recent laminitis conference in Florida. Linda is always diligent about continuing her professional educational development and she said she really enjoyed the half-day masterclass on warmblood shoeing with Dutch farrier Rob Renirie in Florida. Among Linda's clients are Mr. and Mrs. John Castle, that conference's "angel" benefactors.

I wonder what the interview process was like to be selected as Martha Stewart's farrier!

And notice the lovely white beadboard paneling (and heating ducts) in the barn aisle...lots more photos of Linda and the barn are on Martha's blog!


Here's a wider view of the barn aisle, from an article about the stable in New York magazine. Click here for a little show with more images of the stable interior and artisan design fencing.

Oxygen Chamber Explosion Killed Four Horses; Law Suit Announced

News out of Canada today is that all is not well at Nova Scotia's Horsepower Hotel. Owner Edwin Cameron, who is described on a tourism web site as the largest private farmland owner in Nova Scotia and operator of a bison farm, was the American Quarter Horse Association's 2006 World Pole Bending Champion.

Cameron is suing the manufacturer of his hyperbaeric oxygen chamber, which he says contained a design flaw that caused it to explode, killing four barrel horses that were undergoing treatment inside the unit at the time.

Earlier, Cameron's top horse, 2005 amateur and senior pole bending world champion, The Money Merger, had broken a leg and was euthanised shortly before the Quarter Horse Congress and AQHA World Show; then the chamber disaster wiped out his other horses. He bought horses with enough points from other riders and showed anyway, winning two world championships at the World Show. His wife's horse was killed in a fire around the same time, according to a story about Cameron on the AQHA web site.

It's not clear why Cameron was treating his horses with oxygen therapy, which is commonly used for horses with burns or other wounds, or laminitis. It is also used by human athletes for conditioning and in particular by deep-sea divers suffering from decompression ills.

Speakers from both the University of Tennessee's equine research program and Kentucky's Hagyard Equine Medical Institute detailed their treatment of laminitis with oxygen chambers at the recent laminitis conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. A chamber is in use at Winstar Farm and at Keswick Equine Therapy Center, both in Lexington, Kentucky, at Coolmore's training facility in Ireland and at Alamo Pintado Equine Hospital in the Santa Ynez Valley of California.

Sympathies to Cameron and his family over the loss of their horses. The accident wasn't publicized when it happened. I'll try to keep you posted on the progress of the trial.