Friends at Work: "Good Hands" Are Part of the Job Description

I always say that farriers are "two-faced". Not dishonesty-wise, but literally. Farriers who have spent their lives on the job usually have great faces enhanced by plenty of laugh lines around their eyes.

But their hands are a second "face" and you can read a lot about them by looking at their hands' creases, their scars, their lumps and bumps and all the old burn scars inside their wrists and sometimes up to the crooks of their elbows.

Pennsylvania farrier Bob Skradzio Sr. has the most interesting hands of anyone I've met and I've even photographed them! His hands were featured for a month on the Hoofcare & Lameness/St. Croix Forge wall calendar about ten years ago, and many people told me that it was one of their favorite of all the photos, even though no horses, no hooves, no shoes, and no tools were in the picture. In a way, all those things were there because you could see what 50 years of shoeing horses had done to his hands.

That's what came to mind on Sunday when I read the article in Sunday's Augusta Chronicle about Mark Berchtold, a farrier in Aiken, South Carolina. It's a nice article, to be sure, but my eye went to the photo of Mark's hands cradling a hoof, shown above. I'm sure most would be checking the position or fit of the shoe but I was looking at Mark's hands.

In the article, Mark admits that he broke his left hand twice and his right hand three times and lost part of his thumb. And right now he's having a knuckle problem.

The newspaper did a nice article about Mark, and there's a little slide show, too.

Two of my favorite faces, four of my favorite hands: lifetime veteran farriers Bob Skradzio, Sr. of Pennsylvania and Joe Kriz, Sr. of Connecticut. Both have sons (by the same names) who are farriers.

© 2008 Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. All images and text protected to full extent of law. Permissions for use in other media or elsewhere on the web can be easily arranged. 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's web page or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service. An RSS feed is also available. To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

United Kingdom Dominates Farrier Apprentice Competition; Ireland Second

Apprentice Farrier, originally uploaded by Diamanx.

Thanks to Tony Diamanx for making this photo available. I do not know the identity of this farrier.

The British apprentice team of Ben Casserly (age 21) from Uckfield, East Sussex and Ricky Hilton (age 22) from Welshpool, Powys, in Wales, scored a gold medal for their nation at the truly unique Euroskills competition last weekend in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Young farriers from all over the European Union were tested on shoemaking skills using gas forges.

In addition, Ricky Hilton (who is apprentice to former world champion James Blurton of Wales) won the individual gold medal and Ben Casserly (who is apprentice to his father), won the silver.

Ireland's team of Paul O'Reilly and Ruairi Brennan won the silver medal, with Paul winning the individual bronze medal.

Switzerland was third.

The competition tested apprentices who are learning all sorts of trades, from hairdressing and car repair to culinary arts and even cleaning, against one another in national teams.

The world finals will be held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 2009.

The winning British farrier apprentices, Ben Casserly and Ricky Hilton, were exuberant on the dais, compared to their counterparts from Ireland and Switzerland. (UKSkills photo)

Ricky Hilton, left, and Ben Casserly, right, European champion farrier apprentices. (UKSkills photo)

These photos are mirrored from the UkSkills web site, which followed the exploits of all the British teams from all trades.

James Blurton has written an article with more photos of Ricky Hilton in action on his web site. Click here to read "Probably the Best Apprentice in the World". While you're there, have a look round Jim's site; it is quite well done.

"Best Shod" Classes Keep Farriery Front and Center in Britain and California

We're coming down the stretch of a very long show season and the end-of-year "Big Shows" will soon be here. All the horses and ponies who have been chasing points all summer find out if they have qualified to compete at the "indoors" for hunters and jumpers and the "nationals" for breeds like Arabians. The Quarter horses are pointed toward the Congress in Ohio or the World show later in the fall. This weekend is the big Dressage at Devon show in Pennsylvania, which has a phenomenal in-hand division as well as actual dressage test classes.

On the regional level, those year-end banquets start, with endless awards for point winners that will hopefully keep people coming back to show next year.

It's also pressure time for farriers. Nothing is worse than qualifying for year-end competitions, only to have your horse too lame to compete. After such hard campaigns, these horses suffer from foot fatigue and unless a horse has great hoof walls, this is the time of year when farriers reach for the glue, the pads, the wall repair compounds.

This time of year reminds me that farriers receive little recognition in the show world. Sometimes I see farriers and vets and grooms listed in congratulatory ads in the breed magazines, but it's pretty rare.

All of which makes me remember how British horse shows give "best shod" awards at their shows. These classes were originally encouraged by groups like the Worshipful Company of Farriers or horse welfare groups.

Here's an example of a show with these classes. It is in Hay, on the English-Welsh border, in the county of Hereford. From their show list, held in July:

"Included into the following classes for 2008 will be judging of the "Best Shod" Horse or Pony. Classes: 34, 35, 37, 38, 41, 71 & 72. The Judge for 'Best Shod' will be Mr. Mark Jones Dip. WCF., Dorstone, Hereford. Clients of Mr. Jones, of course, are not eligible for judging.

"Winning Horses and Ponies will receive a Best Shod rosette and will be asked to supply the name and address of their Farrier. A 'Best Shod' card will be sent to the successful Farriers."

(This show obviously includes many in-hand classes for Welsh ponies and cobs, like the one shown in the photo.)

These classes provide a consolation prize for owners and exhibitors--the horse may not have won a class, but it did go home with a prize ribbon for its feet. And those ribbons look just as good hanging over the mantle. But they also make that owner a little more appreciative of the farrier who works on the horse. And for the farrier, it's nice to have some recognition.

Different shows in Britain run these best-shod awards differently. At a breed show, there might be a "best feet" award. At the Suffolk show, having a heavy horse best feet winner is a great honor; the breed made good feet an emphasis years ago and the class still has a great honor attached to it. (Just ask Roger Clark, FWCF Hons., who takes great pride in the classes he was won...and who won again this year.)

One of the favorite best-shod or best-feet classes is at the Badminton Horse Trials, held each May. You'll see familiar names of top competition and world-champion farriers like Billy Crothers and James Blurton on the recent list of winners of the "Farrier's Prize". Last year's winner was Martin Deacon FWCF and before that, Sam Head, the up and coming shoeing son of former WCF Master, Mac Head FWCF.

This year's Badminton best-shod winner was Paul Gordon of Cheshire, England, farrier to the scarily-named Valdemar. On the awards page for this most prestigious event in the world, Paul is listed, not the owner and not the rider. Just Paul, and the horse's name. Just to clarify, there may be little correlation between winning at Badminton and the Farrier's Prize: Valdemar finished 36th in the horse trials, but was #1 in the hoof-judging.

James Blurton of Wales won both the Gatcombe Park and Burleigh horse trials awards for best-shod horse this year.

At England's Melplash show for heavy horses, the class is described this way: "This Competition is for the best shod horse in the Heavy Horse Section (Classes 80 - 85). The judge will examine each horse before or during the line-up for preliminary judging, taking into consideration: a. Condition of the feet; b. The making (or preparation) and fitting of the shoes; c. Nailing, and position of the clips. Normal shoes and showing plates are equally acceptable, PROVIDED they are suitable for the horse."

For more information about best-shod classes, a good reference has been written by Tim Challoner AFCL who describes the why and how of the best-shod class for the Dales Pony exhibitors.

In the USA, the only class of this type that I know of is at the Draft Horse Classic in Grass Valley, California, which also hosts an actual farrier competition and is dedicated to the legendary Scottish farrier, Mr. Edward Martin FWCF. Some of the winners of the best-shod class at that show have included well-known California farriers (and outstanding competitors) Jason Harmeson and Jason Smith. It's great for non-competition farriers to have their work quality judged alongside the pro competitors. As far as I know, in these classes, handmade shoes are not required.

The Draft Horse Classic had the world-class judge and former world-champion, Mr. David Wilson FWCF of Scotland as judge this year. It was his only US clinic/competition this year.

Nevada farrier Jean Meneley gets the credit for organizing that event and keeping it going for many years. She believes that both the best-shod class for the showing horses and the farrier competition make horse owners and breeders more aware of the role of farriers in the well-being of these special horses.

Texas Clinic Partners with Palm Beach Equine; Podiatry Services to Expand

(edited from a longer press release)

The growing trend toward veterinary clinic networks and shared consultants continues. Along with that trend is the concept of podiatry services as a profit center or consultant service. How different clinics plan to incorporate this concept into their service offereings is always interesting: Veterinarians wearing shoeing aprons is a new fashion statement. This information was received today:

Katy Equine Clinic in Katy, Texas and Palm Beach Equine Clinic, headquartered in Wellington, Florida, have formed a strategic partnership. Katy Equine's clients will now have access to Palm Beach's state of the art resources, including 19 leading Florida-based veterinarians, streamlined digital medical records and advanced diagnostic and treatment options. These new resources augment the current services that the Katy Equine Clinic and its founder, James "Mike" Heitmann, D.V.M., M.S., have provided for more than 25 years.

Plans call for the Katy Equine Clinic to become a regional referral hospital specializing in surgery, lameness, podiatry and emergency / ICU care. On the immediate horizon will be the construction of a new surgical suite and the purchase of additional diagnostic tools. Already available are digital radiography, computed radiography, ultrasound, two surgical rooms, shockwave therapy and the ability to create platelet-rich plasma for the treatment of wounds and ligament and tendon injuries. The number of staff veterinarians has already doubled, with Michelle Dumas, D.V.M., and Josh Zacharias, D.V.M., M.S., joining Dr. Heitmann and Catherine Berry, D.V.M.

"Joining the Palm Beach Equine Clinic team is a great opportunity to work with experienced veterinarians and utilize state of the art technology," says Dr. Zacharias, who has a Master's Degree in Veterinary Clinical Sciences and was the Equine Emergency Surgeon at Iowa State University before the move to Texas.

In addition to his role as surgeon, Dr. Zacharias has a keen interest in the equine hoof and attended farrier school. "Equine podiatry is critical to maintaining the athlete's soundness. I look forward to working with the farriers in the Katy and Houston area and providing world-class equine hoof health," he explained in the press release.

© 2008 Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This post was originally published on September 24, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

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

Questions? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

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Belknap's Laminitis Paper Wins Scientific Publishing Award

(University news release)

Dr. James Belknap, associate professor of equine surgery in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded the annual Equine Veterinary Journal Open Award for 2007 for his work as senior author of a paper published in the Equine Veterinary Journal. The Open Award is funded by the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Trust and presented to the senior author in recognition of a paper considered by the judges to be of outstanding excellence.

The paper, "Lamellar pro-inflammatory cytokine expression patterns in laminitis at the developmental stage and at the onset of lameness innate vs. adaptive immune response," focused on inflammation of the laminae, which they recognized as present in early forms of laminitis.

"No matter what type of laminitis, inflammation is playing a large role in the developmental process," Dr. Belknap said. "Researchers used to believe that inflammation was not a major component of the disease, and that the disease was mainly caused by a decrease in blood flow."

Dr. Belknap said discovering that inflammation plays a key role in the developmental stages of the disease has caused a paradigm shift in the way the disease is researched worldwide. This opens up new opportunities for discovery of novel treatments for this disease, which commonly results in crippling lameness of affected horses.

"We still have a long way to go to answer the big questions," he explained. "We still must determine which specific pathologic will eventually allow us to formulate an effective therapeutic regimen for this devastating disease."

Dr. Belknap received his veterinary degree from Colorado State University and has worked at Ohio State for four years as a surgeon; he has a special interest in equine podiatry. He grew up in Kentucky on a farm where he developed an early interest in horses.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. All images and text protected to full extent of law. Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service. To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness, please visit our main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

This post originally appeared at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com on September 23, 2008.

Aboriginal Brumby Walkabout: Pollitt and Hampson Back from the Outback

Professor Pollitt has been chasing wild horses in the Australian Outback. His studies are comparing the hooves of wild horse herds in different regions, with different environmental influences and breed/origin characteristics.

"We spent two weeks hiding at water holes, on mountain ridges, and walking through the desert photographing and filming horses and other wildlife including camels, dingos and emus..."

So begins the latest chapter in the literally "wild" annals of The Australian Brumby Research Team at the University of Queensland. The intrepid team is lead by Dr. Chris Pollitt and PhD candidate in hoof studies, Brian Hampson, and is attached to the famed Australian Equine Lamnitis Research Unit.

The researchers continue to trek out to the most remote areas in the huge country of Australia. Their goal is to find herds of horses that are surviving without human intervention. Over the past few months, this meant a wilderness expedition into Aborigine territory in the sparsely populated zone known as Central Australia. It's outback of Everywhere.

Many people, especially Americans, are not aware that Australia has, by far, the largest feral horse population in the world, and the most vast area of country for horses to run. Even more interesting is that the wild horses co-habitate with feral camels.

A "feral" horse, by the way, is a horse running wild that is descended from domesticated horse that were turned loose or that escaped from ranches or military units. The only true "wild" horses left on the planet are the Przewalski horses, most of whom live in zoos. In colorful Aussie lingo, a "Brumby" is a feral horse running wild Down Under. You may remember the dazzling brumbies of the film Man from Snowy River. If you don't, you can watch a clip of it that was posted on this blog last April by clicking here. If you have never seen that film, rent it!

The Australian Equine Genetics Research Unit at The University of Queensland is collaborating with the wild horse unit to test the DNA of different groups of wild horses in the studies. The aim is to find out what breed or breeds have been the most influential over isolated groups; this should make studying the feet more valid. For instance, a mountain group might be heavily Arabian, a desert group might have more Thoroughbred influence, or there may be a surprise breed, such as drafts or ponies, that crops up in the DNA.

Brian Hampson writes of the latest research trip: "The traditional land owners, the Urkaka people, allowed us to perform our study on their land. This is predominantly sandhill desert country with rocky valley systems 50km long and 5km wide on the edge. Our three Aboriginal guides took us through the valley system, where few white people (have) had access, to show us a permanent spring which was the only water for 30km.

"The horse and camel pads into the spring were like highways from the helicopter. We saw hundreds of horses and camels and got up very close to them at water holes. We darted and applied GPS collars to six horses and retrieved four collars after one week. One horse was more than 50km away from water on the last two days and couldn't be found. The other stallion couldn't be redarted at this time. I will be back out there later in September to do some more work on the desert horses and collect the other two collars.

"The sandy desert horses have long feet but not broken away. They scrape their toe through in swing phase in the deep sand and some square off the toe. The rocky desert horses have a short wall with a smooth bevel all the way round.

"The places these horses go, what they eat and how often they drink will amaze most people. Mares with foals are poor but stallions and loan colts are good to fat condition. The country is baron desert around water holes and horses have to walk out 10-15 km before finding any feed."

Hoofcare and Lameness has been involved in cheering on the efforts of the Brumby team because the wild horse has not been well-documented in the annals of natural history. I hope you will visit the unit's web site and consider donating to this important project. Click here to go to the sponsorship page and learn more about getting involved with this project. You can help, even if you live half a world away!

Congratulations to Greg Giles and his company, Cavallo "Simple Boots", for joining the sponsor list for the Brumby research, along with the Footloose Syndicate, a trio of private citizens who will be assisting on future research expeditions.

An unidentified Brumby foot from one of the desert herds. Hampson noted differences in hoof morphology between rocky desert and sandy desert hooves. This is possibly a rocky desert hoof, judging by his description.

© Fran Jurga, Hoofcare Publishing and the Australian Brumby Research Unit. No use without permission.

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 www.hoofcare.blogspot.com or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service. This post was originally published on 22 September 2008.

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