Giant Stride for Toe Grab Ban: No Graded Stakes May Be Run at Tracks Allowing Grabs in 2009

You're looking at the foot of a young Thoroughbred racehorse. The toe grab is the dark gray line that you can see from 7 to 5 o'clock on the circular face of the foot/shoe. (file photo)

The American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) today announced new eligibility requirements for graded stakes races in the United States.

At its meeting this week in Saratoga Springs, New York, the committee adopted two new eligibility requirements for graded stakes.

1. States or racetracks through house rules must adopt, at a minimum, the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) model rule on androgenic anabolic steroids by January 1, 2009 or the date of a state or racetrack’s first graded race in 2009, whichever is later. If a state or racetrack does not adopt the model rule, then their races will lose their graded status. Those races will not be eligible again for grading until the rule is adopted.

2. The committee adopted a requirement for grade eligibility whereby states or racetracks through house rules must adopt the ARCI model rule on toe grabs on front feet by January 1, 2009 or the date of a state or track’s first graded stake in 2009. If the rule is not adopted, then races will lose their graded status. Those races will become eligible for grading once the rule is adopted.

Interpretation: States or tracks that allow toe grabs on horses and/or the use of steroids after January 1, 2009 will lose their ratings on any graded stakes that are run there.

Gray area: There are actually two ARCI model rules, at this point. First is the 2007 ARCI model rule, which says that front toe grabs must be less than 4 mm. This is the rule that was adopted by California last year. But since last week, there is a second proposed ARCI rule  that would limit toe grabs to 2 mm. That rule was sent from the model rules committee to the ARCI Board but I do not believe that it was voted on.

This is masterful politics. If states or tracks don't ban toe grabs, they can't run their big races that bring in big crowds, big name horses, and big handles.

My understanding of this rule until reading the text was that it would apply to the races themselves, but it seems that this is a much, much broader sweep.

This, my friends, is NEWS.

Shoeing for the World: Kelvin Lymer's Shoeing Role at Hong Kong Olympics

Kelvin Lymer of Worcester, England will be working as the official farrier of the Olympics in Hong Kong for three weeks, along with Ian Hughes of Wales. Kelvin and Ian will run the forge and shoeing clinic, facilitate the work of team farriers from other countries and help with horses from countries (the majority) who are not sending farriers. That must be his very favorite good-luck apron. One of the apron manufacturers hopefully sent him a new one to wear in Hong Kong! Picture by Emma Attwood, Worcester News

British farrier Kelvin Lymer DipWCF is serving as one of two official full-time event farriers for the 2008 Olympics Equestrian Events.

Kelvin, along with Ian Hughes of Wales, arrived last week and is staffing a farrier's forge and shoeing shop that are designed for use by both the official farriers and also to assist team farriers from different countries who will be attending. They'll also be helped by Australian Greg Murray as well as farriers from the Hong Kong Jockey Club, since there is no racing in the Territory during August. Kelvin will be in Hong Kong for three weeks; Ian will be on hand for eight weeks, since he will also be the farrier for the Paralympics in September.

Kelvin is no stranger to the bright lights of major competition; he has been the official farrier for the British endurance teams at events like the World Equestrian Games.

There's a great article about Kelvin in the Worcester News, his home paper in England (except for the part where they spelled his name wrong). Click here to read a lot more about Kelvin and his plans for Hong Kong.

As far as I know, this is the first time that the Olympics or any big FEI event has hired full time farriers to staff a purpose-built clinic for the hoofcare needs of the horses. It's an honor to be asked to shoe for your nation, to be sure, but to be asked to shoe for the world: that's a lifetime achievement. Three solid weeks on the job will be filled with great memories for Kelvin...and a lot of work and responsibility. He'll have great stories to tell when he gets home!

Meet Rodney King: Rood and Riddle Has a New Accent on Farriery

Rodney and Natalie King left their home and horses in New Zealand for the exposure to lameness and hoofcare technology at Kentucky's Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital Podiatry Clinic. From the sounds of it, Rodney will be bringing skills and experience that will make his trip mutually beneficial!

For many in the USA, a life’s dream would be to visit the sparkling green country of New Zealand. We’d buy horses or we’d go skiing, or we’d race a sailboat, or bungee-jump into a rainforest. For Americans who’ve been there, New Zealand always tops the list of places they’d like to escape to again…and not come back.

So why would anyone leave?

New Zealand is also one of the horsiest places on earth. There’s a racetrack in every town, the three-day event riders are major sports personalities, and a farrier can make a good living there.
But Rodney King thinks there’s more to see and do in his career as a farrier.

Last week, Rodney started his new job as a farrier at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Rood and Riddle has a very successful “podiatry” clinic staffed by a talented team of vets and farriers and technicians…and loaded with cases and clients.

Rodney’s accent should puzzle the Kentuckians!

Rodney knows what he is getting into. He visited Rood and Riddle last year on a New Zealand Equine Research Foundation scholarship and, when a position became open, he applied for it.

Now Rodney and his wife Natalie are living in Lexington, and learning the American way of doing things. At Rood and Riddle, that means lots of aluminum glue-on shoes, lots of laminitis, and lots of long hours. In return, a farrier or vet has the chance of a lifetime to learn about the horse’s foot and be around some of the leading minds in the world of the hoof.

Rodney has already passed his AFA journeyman certification test and, in fact, was told that he had the highest written-portion score of the year.

Dr Scott Morrison, director of the clinic, said today that Rodney “fit right in and went right to work. He knows what the routine is,” he said.

Welcome to America, Rodney!

But is it art? New York museum goers gawk at hanging horse

Visitors to a New York City museum are struck by the ironic juxtaposition of a horse hanging over their heads. How'd it get way up there? Who put it  there? And why head first?

Well, art is in the eye of the beholder, we are told, but also in the intent of the artist. Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan admits that this installation currently on view in Manhattan is not a real horse, but a taxidermied horse hide (so where do you get one of those? on eBay?) and a fiberglas resin artistic vision of a horse.

Ok, Maurizio, that explains the horse. Now explain the wall.

The "piece" is part of "After Nature,'' the summer group exhibition at New York's New Museum of Contemporary Art. According to the press, "the show pits the helplessly human against the forces of the natural world to decidedly uplifting effect". We are told that the dangling horse "forms a powerful allegory of cruelty, madness, failed ambition and redemption".

Of course, I am distracted by the odd angle of the dangling lower legs and see another scenario entirely. That horse didn't collide with the wall at a gallop; if he had, his front legs would be through the wall. Standing still, he for some reason put his head through a hole in the wall, perhaps to get a carrot, and got stuck. Or maybe he's a cribber, and he gnawed his way through the wall. He was standing on mid-winter Vermont snowpack when he got stuck, and it melted underneath him, leaving him dangling. So they moved the entire wall to Manhattan and installed it in the museum.

That's why I write about horses, not art. I don't go looking for cruelty, madness, or failed ambition when I go to a museum. Do you? Redemption, maybe.

Read more about the artist and exhibits at bloomberg.com.

Big Relief: Big Brown Wins Haskell Invitational at Monmouth, Shoes Still Glued

I guess he can hold his head high again. Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner (and Belmont also-ran) Big Brown returned to form this afternoon and won the Haskell Invitational Stakes at New Jersey's Monmouth Park.

That answers one question, but opens a lot of others. Will the van take him back to Aqueduct on Long Island...or will it swerve northward toward Saratoga, where the bigger test and a rematch with his Triple Crown mates might be waiting at the Travers Stakes on August 23?

Hoof repair expert Ian McKinlay checked in today and reported that Big Brown is still wearing the glue-on Yasha shoes with thick black heel cushions.

Remember, Ian will be speaking on hoof repair and glue-on shoes on Tuesday, August 12 at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, New York, sponsored by Life Data Labs, and again that evening in downtown Saratoga, as part of the Hoofcare@Saratoga events. Standardbred shoer Conny Svensson from the Meadowlands and racetrack surfaces researcher Dr Mick Peterson will also be speaking on the 12th.

This week, the 5th, is a program from the Grayson Jockey Club Foundation's Shoeing Committee on shoe variation and surface variation with new high-speed videos from Mitch Taylor along with Steve Norman and Bill Casner, with a guest lecture from trainer/surface expert Michael Dickinson of Maryland.

Call the office at 978 281 3222 for more information, or email saratoga@hoofcare.com. I look forward to seeing you there...and thanks! to all the blog readers who came last week.

I think most of us would like to see Big Brown in Saratoga, too.

Thanks to Steve Sherack and IEAH for the nice photo of their horse, Big Brown.

Shoeing for the World: Two Tons of Horseshoes for Hong Kong

Two tons of horseshoes were ordered for the farrier clinic at the Olympic stabling center adjacent to Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong. The shoes were primarily shipped from the warehouses at Mustad and Kerckhaert headquarters on the European continent. 

Head Olympics Farrier Ian Hughes of Wales said that the containers were filled this spring, and that he included "everything I could think of that anyone might need", including plenty of glue-on shoes and adhesive.

South Asia is not a remote outpost for farrier and vet supplies. Martin Draper's Tallahesse company is based in Singapore but has a branch in Hong Kong. He imports most of the farrier supplies used at the racetracks and in horse breeding and showing, including Victory, St. Croix, and Kerckhaert shoes.

Ian and two assistants will serve the horses at Hong Kong, along with the official "team" farriers dedicated to countries like Great Britain, Holland, Germany and the USA. In addition, the Hong Kong Jockey Club said that the 22 farriers at the racetrack are serving in a standby capacity.