Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have some fun today! This photo is from sport.yahoo.com's coverage of this year's Cheltenham Festival of steeplechase racing in England.

Hoof Blog Retrospective: Slide Show for the 500th Article Published

Photo highlights from the first 500 posts on Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog.

Sometimes a good idea sticks, and that has been the story with this blog. We now have 500 stories posted here and hundreds of people visit this blog daily...from every corner of the planet. Most zip in to grab details of a single story (Tildren and collateral ligament injuries are always at the top of the list) or watch a video. Others, mostly loyal Hoofcare and Lameness Journal subscribers, start at the top and read the new posts each day.

An uncountable number of people read this blog by email now and many more read an RSS feed of the headlines on their Yahoo/Google/AOL newsreader pages (but miss all the photos and videos). This blog now have a "widget" of code that will display the headlines on anyone's web site or blog (just ask).

No matter how they read it, people do read it. I know because so many leave encouraging or disparaging remarks, usually by email. These remarks either make or break my day.

The only thing that gets me up in the morning (or keeps me up late at night) to post these stories is the positive feedback from the people who tell me that they check the blog before they head out off to work or the barn/track/forge/clinic or when they get home at night. That, and wanting to share with you all the news of the hoof.

It's just too interesting to keep to myself.

Thank you all for reading and for the emails and occasional comments. Thanks for being patient about the erratic publishing schedule of Hoofcare and Lameness. Thanks for being not passive readers of the news, but the makers of the news. This blog is yours.

All HoofBlog text and images © Hoofcare Publishing 2008 unless otherwise noted.

To learn more about new research, products, and treatments for the horse's hooves and legs as reported to veterinarians and farriers in the award-winning "Hoofcare & Lameness Journal",
go to http://www.hoofcare.com
Contact Hoofcare Publishing anytime:
tel 978 281 3222 or fax 978 283 8775 or email bloginquiry@hoofcare.com

British Farrier/Vet Conference Planned for April

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) and the National Association of Farriers, Blacksmiths and Agricultural Engineers (NAFBAE) have joined forces to present an informative and stimulating one day conference with international speakers from the USA and The Netherlands.

The Diagnosis and Management of Conditions of the Foot: An International Approach will be held on Monday, April 14 in Nottingham, England.

The event will feature a Commercial Exhibition, strongly supported by manufacturers of equipment and related products, which presents an ideal opportunity to acquire the latest tools and materials and discuss the application of new techniques.

This conference sold out when last run. The event will be held on a Monday, at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham, a slightly larger venue than in previous years, with tiered seating and enhanced audio-visual aids to improve the ability to present to a large audience.

Speakers and topics include:
MRI of the equine foot (Application of a new technique and its implications): Tim Mair
Useful foot-related measurements from the horse and its radiographs: Richard Mansmann
Advances in diagnostic techniques: Peter Clegg
Pressure mat analysis in the assessment of foot balance: Ian Hughes
International perspective: Meike Van Heel (replacing Pascal Ebel)
Pathological conditions of the donkey foot: Karen Rickards & Colin Goldsworthy
Slip and grip (Dynamics of the hoof): Chris Pardoe
Foot measurements in approaching clinical cases: Richard Mansmann

Unfortunately Pascal Ebel of The Netherlands,who was scheduled to speak, has been injured and will be replaced by Dr Meike Van Heel. Van Heel is a movement scientist, equine physiotherapist, and part of the same team at Utrecht as Ebel. Meike Van Heel completed her PhD on "the effects of trimming and shoeing warmblood horses" and has developed a prototype horseshoe which benefits the horse’s joint load and limb movement. She has also carried out studies into the development of uneven feet in foals due to grazing behavior and conformation.

Click here to download the updated program schedule. (A one-page Adobe Acrobat pdf file will automatically download from the NAFBAE web site.)

Click here to download the seminar's complete color brochure. (A larger Adobe Acrobat pdf file will automatically download from the NAFBAE web site.)

The Inside Track: Summit Sessions on Shoeing and Surfaces at Next Week's Jockey Club Racehorse Welfare and Safety Meeting

The second Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit will be held Monday, March 17, and Tuesday, March 18, at the Keeneland Sales Pavilion.

Most of the topics to be covered will be of great interest to Hoof Blog readers, in particular reports on committee studies of hoof care and horseshoeing, synthetic racetrack surfaces and injuries in racing.

Click here to read a complete press release describing the mission of this meeting and its unique structure for dynamic planning sessions and also visit the Summit's web site, which describes accomplishments of the first Summit, held in October 2006. Several PowerPoint presentations are available at that site's "Presentations" menu for download and study, including Bill Casner's animated slide show on the detrimental effects of toe grabs. (Note: this is a 7 MB PowerPoint file. Download only if you are sure your system is capable.)

Fran Jurga of Hoofcare Publishing will be one of 60 participants in the study groups. Fran joins shoeing and hoof care committee members Bill Casner (chair), Dr. Rick Arthur, Ed Bowen, Bob Curran, Bob Elliston, Dr. Rob Gillette, John Harris, Richard Mandella, Chris McCarron. Wayne McIlwraith, Dan Metzger, Steve Norman, Denny Oeschlager, Dr. Mick Peterson, Todd Pletcher, Richard Shapiro, Dr. Scott Stanley, Gary Stevens, Dr. Sue Stover and Mitch Taylor.

Mitch Taylor of Kentucky Horseshoeing School will present high-speed video studies of racehorses galloping on different surfaces wearing different shoes. Mitch has been building on his initial filming of horses with and without toe grabs that he presented at the "Hoofcare@Saratoga" forum last August and at the 4th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in November.

In the synthetic surfaces study group, Dr. Preston Hickman of the Wichita Equine and Sports Medicine Clinic, who also uses video analysis technology, will examine the potential causes of on-track injuries. Hickman was a farrier before becoming a veterinarian and is certified by the American Farrier's Association. He is a proponent of Dartfish motion analysis software. Below are some examples of Dartfish "Stromotion" images from the Dublin Horse Show and a short example of a clip of Dr. Preston's high-speed video.

This might be the most important meeting of the year. There is no charge to attend for audience members; there will be two public sessions, one of Monday morning and one on Tuesday afternoon (see schedule).

Please contact the Jockey Club for more information: (859) 224-2850.

All HoofBlog text and images © Hoofcare Publishing 2006-2008 unless otherwise noted. Please request permission to reproduce or capture images or content. This blog is available for delivery via RSS feed or as a daily email of new content.

To learn more about new research, products, and treatments for the horse's hooves and legs as reported to veterinarians and farriers in the award-winning "Hoofcare & Lameness Journal", go to http://www.hoofcare.com

Direct “subscribe now” link to Hoofcare & Lameness Journal: http://www.hoofcare.com/subscribe.html

Contact Hoofcare Publishing anytime:
tel 978 281 3222; fax 978 283 8775; email bloginquiry@hoofcare.com

Resource for Your Files: "Managing Equine Joint Inflammation" Free Download

Our friends at Idexx have a free download of a roundtable discussion featuring leading university lameness veterinarians at Colorado State University and Texas A&M University on the topic of joint inflammation. If you click on this link the download should start.

The document is a 2.4MB Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file created by Veterinary Learning Systems. You should end up with a 16-page document that you can print or read on your screen.

Idexx is the manufacturer of Surpass, a topical anti-inflammatory medication, and many other medications and products for equine veterinary care. The special report covers all aspects of new developments for equine joint problems.

Horseshoer Killed in Pancho Villa's Famous 1916 "Invasion" of New Mexico

General Francisco "Pancho" Villa was the people's hero during the Mexican Civil War in the early 1900s; depending on which history book you read, he was Braveheart with a great mustache...or Osama bin Laden in a sombrero.

Here's some history you won't find in any textbook. 

Montana farrier Scott Simpson and I share a fascination with the history of a raid by Mexican General Francisco "Pancho" Villa, who slipped across the border and raided the town of Columbus, New Mexico at dawn on March 9, 1916.  But I didn't expect there to be a horseshoer involved. Now I know otherwise.