Zarkava in l'Arc: Unbeaten Filly's Domination Continues As She Captures World's Richest Race

The sacred victory and the mystique of horse racing, French style: this intro to the 2007 l'Arc personifies the confidence the French have that this is THE horse race to win. They might be right! And in true French style, they will celebrate the domination today of one of the world's greatest racehorses, the filly Zarkava.

If you needed an excuse to splurge on a bottle of French champagne, you can justify it tonight: the incredible filly Zarkava has demolished an international field of turf superstars in France's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The filly has won everything in Europe, or so it seems; the Arc was her fifth Group One stakes win.

Zarkava is owned by HH. The Aga Khan, who doesn't even need the $6,243,600 prize money. He both bred and races the filly and said after the victory, "No decision has been made yet concerning her future career. She will not run in the Breeders’ Cup. Today is the apogée for a breeding operation which dates back 90 years and for five generations of my family. I am really amazed by my filly."

The filly won from the #1 post position, and didn't break well. She ran an amazing come-from-behind race over the grueling 12 furlongs. Her trainer withheld the decision of whether she would run or not until the afternoon, so that the condition of the track could be assessed.

Why the concern? First of all, the inside post position meant that she would break over the most cutup section of the track, and it had also rained during the night.

Second, the filly has a racing style somewhat like Big Brown's, with an off-on switch controlling a superhero-like surge of ground-eating speed. That means that she likes firm ground, so she can skim over the surface without using her energy to pull her feet out of the ground with each stride. Remember that grass racing (and all racing in France) is done with totally flat shoes. In the USA, rain on race day often means switching a turf race to dirt; in France, they don't have that option, so the trainers watch the weather and the tracks have a system for rating the condition of the track.

What might have been: We can only wonder. Earlier this summer, American superstar Curlin was being aimed to race against the filly in The Arc, but his career on grass was short, and he went back to the dirt. Now he is being switched again, this time to Cushion Ride, the newly-installed artificial surface at California's Santa Anita racetrack. If he likes it (how do you tell without a race?), he'll take on leading three-year-old Big Brown in the Breeders Cup Classic on October 25.

A cadre of European invaders are expected at Santa Anita to take on Curlin and other top American horses. Many grass horses (almost all racing in Europe is on grass) switch well to artificial surfaces, but rarely dominate when switched to dirt.

Zarkava is not expected to make the trip to the Breeders Cup, but there's hope for next year, since she is only three years old.

You can watch videos of the race on YouTube.com, but the voiceovers seem to all be in Japanese, since there was a Japanese horse in the race. The effect, however, is the same in any language: Zarkava is incredible!

Note: This year, it is remarkable that two of the leading horses in the world are both fillies, both are undefeated, and both have names starting with the letter "Z". We have Zenyatta racing in the USA and headed for the Breeders Cup in 18 days, and Zarkava in Europe.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. This post was originally published on October 4, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

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 free daily email through an automated delivery service.

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

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Working with Horses: Veterinary Practice Acts Defended in Courts

What color is your state? Blue states allow non-vet equine dentists to work on horses; orange states allow non-vet equine massage therapists to work on horses; striped states allow both professions to work independently of veterinarians; white states have either not modified their veterinary practice laws to allow dentists and massage therapists to work or have possibly not adopted the AVMA's newest model veterinary practice act, which tightens restrictions on the definition of veterinary care of animals. Some states may be more permissive, others may be tolerant but have restrictions, such as IAED certification for non-vet dentists, but charges against a non-vet are often based on complaints from horse owners or veterinarians, so everyone is still subject to discipline. In most states there are high fines and criminal statutes for practicing veterinary medicine without proper licensing. Even a a person with a DVM degree is subject to prosecution or discipline if he or she is not licensed to work in a given state. (Map: JAVMA)

An article in the upcoming October 15th edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) summarizes the ongoing legal confrontations going on in Texas and Maryland between state veterinary medical boards and legal consultants defending equine massage therapists and horse dentists.

A third lawsuit, questioning the legality of the veterinary practice act in Minnesota, resulted in a court decision in favor of the vet board in that state, and against the rights of an individual to earn a living as a horse dentist.

In each case, the non-veterinarian practitioners have been represented by the Institute for Justice, a civil liberties law concern in Arlington, Virginia. At question is the right of individuals to continue to earn a living, when their occupation has been redefined as within the scope of veterinary medicine under the new vet practice acts adopted in some states.

Five states--New Hampshire, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Oregon--have amended vet practice acts that allow non-vet dentists and massage therapists to work legally.

In many cases, the affected parties have held up horse shoeing (and trimming) as examples of an unregulated field that is allowed to continue without interference by state veterinary boards.

In some other states, horse owners have organized to legally challenge state veterinary boards, charging that they have the right to hire whatever practitioner they wish to care or treat their animals. In Florida, a proposed state law allowing horse owners to choose their practitioners failed to pass the state legislature.

In the case of the Minnesota dentist who protested the law, he would have been allowed to continue working if he had become certified by the International Association of Equine Dentistry (IAED), but he did not want to go through the certification process.

The Institute for Justice defends the rights of individuals to pursue their chosen professions.

Reading this article, and perusing the map of US states that have granted concessions to non-vet dentists and massage therapists is recommended for anyone who makes his or her living working with horses.

What's especially interesting is that the problems seem to be centered on horse care rather than all species of animals.

From the court documents in Minnesota, as quoted by the AVMA: "The state may legitimately exercise its police power to protect public health, safety, or welfare through the regulation of occupations that require specialized training or skill and the public will benefit from assurance of initial or continuing occupational ability ... Veterinarians are the natural group to provide education and training with respect to the overall health and anatomy of animals."

Click here to read the upcoming JAVMA article.

Click here to visit the International Association for Equine Dentistry, whose certification is recnognized in Minnesota.

Click here to meet Mercedes Clemens, the certified massage therapist in Maryland who is no longer allowed to work on horses.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. This blog post was originally published on 3 October 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

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.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Comments to individual posts are welcome; please click on the comment icon at the bottom of the post.

Happy Birthday to Mr. Edward Martin

Edward Martin Portrait
© David and Charles Publishing (UK) and Hoofcare Publishing 2008

Today's post is a personal one.

I thought I heard music outside the office, but it was two Scottish people having a chat. Their voices were so musical, I went outside to say hello.

The Quinns, as they introduced themselves, had set sail from Kirkcudbright in Galloway, one of the border counties of Scotland. I knew the place, I told them, because I had visited that lovely seaside village with my friend Edward Martin from Closeburn, near Thornhill in the neighboring county of Dumfries.

The Quinns, as I came to know them, were aghast, as they went to Scottish dances in the village hall in Closeburn.

And so it goes. It's a small, small world. We spent some time telling Scotland stories and Edward Martin stories, and Mr. Quinn of course recited some Robert Burns poetry for me. I was charmed.

Then they got into their dinghy, rowed out to their sailboat, and sailed away to make the tide through the Cape Cod Canal. I felt like I had been visited by Scottish pixies or something.

And today, it turns out, is Edward Martin's birthday. The godfather of the modern international farrier scene turns 83 today.

Edward is a victim of Parkinson's disease, but very alive in our thoughts, and still bringing people together, even if he has hung up his tattered passport.

Wherever you are, give a thought for the grand farrier from Closeburn. And maybe a wee dram for a toast.

We miss you, Edward.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. This post originally appeared on Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog on October 2, 2008: http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

New Extreme Hoof Makeover Video: Ian McKinlay and Conny Svensson Combine Glue, Nails, Adhesive and New Shoe Designs for 11th Hour Pre-Race Hoofcare

In July, a Standardbred named Before He Cheats needed major hoof renovations before he could race in a big stakes at The Meadowlands. Harness shoer specialist Conny Svensson and hoof repair specialist Ian McKinlay went to work and, when they were re-done, rebuilt and reshod all four feet.

Luckily, Ian had his video camera and he created a start-to-finish documentary of the process and is allowing the Hoof Blog to share it with you.

The segments are roughly nine minutes each, since YouTube.com has a ten-minute limit for clips. So, settle back and watch this horse's feet change shape. Remember that this is an 11th hour makeover. In reality, the horse should not have been allowed to get to this stage. Conny and Ian were asked to transform it for a race a few days afterwards. This is stop-gap therapy. Hoof triage. It certainly could have been prevented.

Here's part one:



And here's part two (with a very happy ending):



© 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 or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service.

This post was originally published on October 2, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com, with the permission of Ian McKinlay and www.tenderhoof.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 or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com. Comments to individual posts are welcome; please click on the comment icon at the bottom of the post.

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.