Favorite Video: A Horseshoe Is Born

by Fran Jurga, originally published October 28, 2008 at www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

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I remember the first time I ever set foot in a horseshoe factory. It was in Australia. Carl O'Dwyer was squiring me around. We were off to the races or something when he stopped by the factory (O'Dwyer Horseshoes). It didn't occur to him that I would want to see the factory part of the business. Then he couldn't get me out of there. I remember his shoes were made by young Irish girls wielding huge tongs. I took rolls and rolls of film and not a single photo captured what I felt I really saw in that place.

If you haven't ever seen a horseshoe assembly line, it's quite an operation. There are two popular ways to make horseshoes commercially. One is to drop-forge and the other is to turn. Drop-forging is the "American" style. Turning is the European style, as used by Kerckhaert and Werkman.

American horseshoers were in a real battle in the early 1980s. Many farriers felt that the "keg" (machinemade) shoes available to them just weren't good enough and there was a call for "real" farriers to handmake all their shoes if they cared about properly shoeing the horse. Then two things happened in 1985: The first was that the Carlson family took over the St Croix Forge horseshoe company in Minnesota and pledged to design and make a superior American-made shoe. Which, to everyone's amazement, they did.

The second thing was that a charming Frenchman named Jean-Claude Faure came to an American Farrier's convention with a turned shoe from his Faure factory in Europe. He walked around the convention in elegant clothing carrying shoes in the pockets of his suit jacket. He did not speak English. He would pull a shoe from his pocket and ask a farrier to hold it, to look at it. For most of them, it was the first time they had seen a turned shoe or any shoe punched for E-head nails. (European shoes typically use European e-head nails; American shoes are punched to fit City head nails, but that's another story.)

While the farrier politely looked at the shoe and peered through those big nail holes, the gallant Mr. Faure grinned at them and said the two words he had learned in English, "You like?" in a hopeful voice.

Leading farrier Bruce Daniels agreed to be Faure's dealer in the USA. Kerckhaert was right there and Werkman not far behind. Farrier conventions became international festivals, just as now we have the slick Italian designer aluminums and the Chinese and Malaysian imports from Asia.

In 1985, the European shoes were a revelation; they had clips built into the shoes. They came in lefts and rights and fronts and hinds, with toe clips or side clips: an inventory nightmare. And they fit the new wave of big-footed European warmbloods that were becoming popular in America. St Croix geared up and answered the Euro challenge, inspiring improvements from all US shoe manufacturers. The golden age of horseshoe manufacturing dawned.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

In this clip you see snippets of the line at the Werkman factory in Holland. Most manufacturers are not eager to show their lines and equipment, and you will note that Werkman does not show the process in order, and you do not get to see how they make the clips, one of the steps that has always mystified me.

Two elements are missing from this video: the heat and the noise. Both are off the charts, if Werkman's factory is like others. But this video is a window into the world of horseshoes before they touch human hands, all with the matching mirror of a horse's hoof in mind.

Thanks to Werkman for this video clip; the horses have never had it so good.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. 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 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.

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A Closer Look at the Pro-Ride Racing Surface

Pro-Ride Racing Surface, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

Sarah Andrew is on hand at Santa Anita for the Breeders Cup and shows this view of the Pro-Ride artificial surface. According to one report, the footing reached a temperature of 145 degrees today in the California heat. In this photo, which was surely shot in the early morning, you can see some material sticking to the horses' feet and shoes.

What's next, teflon non-stick horseshoes? Spraying the feet with Pam?

Thanks, Sarah!

Champion Australian Jockey Takes Off His Shoeing Apron to Don Silks

There's something about fillies: Australian jockey (and farrier) Glen Boss has been one of the world's leading money-winning jockeys in recent years. He rode to victory in three consecutive Melbourne Cups aboard superstar mare Makybe Diva. This weekend he rides favorite Samantha Miss in the $3 million Cox Plate.

As America gears up for the Breeders Cup championship races this week, all eyes in Australia will be on the $3 Million Cox Plate to be run at Mooney Valley. In the jockeys' room, however, one pair of eyes will be solemnly focused on the scales.

Remember those gut-wrenching passages in Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit as the jockey tried to come back from injuries and keep his weight down, all at the same time? I remember a joke told by one of the Thoroughbred trainers about flying cross-country with a jockey. The trainer felt guilty eating the airline's peanuts. The jockey took one, and cut it into quarters...and rationed it to last the flight.

Now it's my turn to remember. I was at a farrier convention. The awards banquet followed a buffet dinner. I wasn't in a hurry to eat so I lingered by the bar. Then I heard loud grumbling. The line was halfway through...and the food was gone. All of it.

There couldn't be two people with different eating agendas than a jockey and a horseshoer.

Today, meet a man who is both.

Australian champion jockey Glen Boss has been trying to make the weight so he can ride the favorite--a young filly running against colts--in this weekend's Cox Plate. He'll be riding for his friend, the trainer, but under Australian riding terms, he needed to get his weight down to just (gulp) 47 kilos (103.4 pounds). He would need to lose more than 10 pounds from a body that already was so lean you can't pinch him.

Glen's effort has been poignantly documented in photos by an Australian newspaper. What attracted my attention was seeing a closeup of a jockey's head with the words "Fighting Farrier" stitched into a watch cap.

Yes, Glen Boss used boxing as one of his main exercise routines to drop the pounds. His trainer and advisor was fellow farrier and former Australian welterweight champion Julian Holland. According to the story, they met when shoeing in the Gold Coast region of Australia 20 years ago. Boss was able to put his race winnings to use and sponsor Holland. This year, Holland is returning the favor and training Boss to ride in one of the world's richest races.

The campaign for Holland's title would dub him "The Fighting Farrier" forevermore in Australian boxing history and that moniker certainly fits Boss now, as he emphasis shifts from fighting in the ring to fighting the scale.

Read the full story by clicking here. And stay tuned tomorrow to find out how Samantha Miss did in the Cox Plate.

Looking ahead a few weeks: Glen Boss will try to equal the record of consecutive Melbourne Cup wins when he rides Profound Beauty in that race for Euro trainer Dermot Weld. The race, run at Flemington Racecourse outside Melbourne in Victoria, is worth $5.5 million.

Or at least Glen Boss hopes to: ironically, the star filly who is willing to take on the colts in Australia's richest race is questionably sound with a bruised foot. Maybe Boss can take a look.

Glen Boss, left, spars in the ring with fellow farrier Julian Holland, former welterweight champion boxer of Australia, whose quest for that title was sponsored by Boss's race winnings.

Be sure to visit the photo gallery documenting what he's going through to make the weight. Click here to see 28 photos of a determined man.

Photos credit for this blog post: www.couriermail.com.au

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. This post was originally published on 23 October 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

Curlin Goes for Glue: Breeders Cup Favorite Sports High-Tech Urethane Glue Shoes

Curlin Saratoga Morning Workout, originally uploaded August 2008 by Rock and Racehorses.

Horseshoer Curtis Burns, inventor of the Burns Polyflex shoe, confirmed tonight that Curlin has been wearing a custom-designed square-toe Polyflex shoe since early last summer when the colt arrived in Saratoga, where Burns lives.

"We had so much rain in Saratoga early in the summer," Curtis said. "Steve Asmussen was looking for a way to protect his feet, so his blacksmith, Dave Hinton, changed to our shoes. And he was training so well, they just decided to race in them. And he won. So he still has them on."

Burns said that Curlin was re-shod at Santa Anita this week with the shoes, which are clear polyurethane with a steel wear plate and interior metal frame-wire for stability.

The only difference between the Polyflex shoes that Curlin wears and those that several other Breeders Cup horses will wear is that trainer Steve Asmussen convinced Burns to custom-make square setback toes for the front shoes of the big chestnut colt.

The shoes were so successful that, as of this week, Burns now offers both the full toe and square toe models for his customer.

Curlin remains the traditionalist in his hind feet, however: our friend Ed Kinney, president of Thoro'Bred Racing Plate Company, Inc. of Anaheim, California reports that Hinton confirmed that Curlin will wear Thoro'Bred wide web aluminum racing plates behind.

Other horses wearing the Burns Polyflex shoes will be (at the time of this writing) Big Booster in the Turf Marathon, Miraculous Miss in Friday's Sprint, and Student Council, and some other horses trained by Asmussen.

Burns said that his shoes have been worn by several of Todd Pletcher's horses in the past. Because many farriers now feel comfortable applying the shoes, Burns no longer applies them himself and said he's not sure who's wearing them.

Curtis likes Midnight Lute, the 2007 Breeders Cup Sprint champion trained by Bob Baffert, to come back from a quarter crack. According to press reports, he will run in a bar shoe.

Food for thought: in the old, old days, glue was made from horses' hooves. Now we put glue ON their hooves.

Note to readers: I hope you will study Sarah's photo of Curlin on the Oklahoma track at Saratoga, where he was in training until a month ago. Notice how deeply his hooves sink into the "natural" dirt surface. Please read the blog article that follows this one, about the new artificial surface on which the Breeders Cup will be run, and watch the embedded video of Curlin galloping on that surface. Remember that Curlin won the 2007 Breeders Cup Classic in the pouring rain over a muddy-beyond-words track.

© 2008 Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing, publishing 23 October 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com

The Hooves Have It: Will Thoroughbreds Sink or Swim Over the New Surface at Santa Anita?

A horse trains over the hilly Pro-Ride covered training track at Lindsay Park Training Center in Australia. (Photo at www.prorideracing.com)

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“Training on dirt, you know exactly where you are going into a race. Synthetics? They all seem to train well over it but they don’t all run well. So, it’s a question mark.” (Trainer Todd Pletcher earlier today)

"Sure, I guess it is good publicity if a horse wearing my shoes wins the Breeders Cup but right now I don't care if my horses win or lose. I just want them to all come home safely. None of us wants to see an injury in the Breeders Cup, or any race, but on Saturday, well, I can't wait until it's over. And they're all home safe and sound." (Horseshoe manufacturer)

If you haven't been following the Breeders Cup, here's the nutshell version (Readers: if you are already up to speed on the Breeders Cup, please skip past this recap): America's biggest race series has expanded to two days this year, culminating in the Breeders Cup Classic, where 2007 Horse of the Year and all-time leading money earner Curlin will face off against the best American horses left standing and some of the best horses that Ireland and England have to offer.

Interest in the Classic was toned down several notches with the defection of Big Brown a few weeks ago, when a training mis-step ripped his heel and sent him to the Breeders Shed instead of the Breeders Cup.

The x factor in the Breeders Cup is that while the championship has been hosted at Santa Anita Racecourse outside Los Angeles, California in the past, this is the first time that it will be raced on an artificial surface. Santa Anita agreed to host the 2008 races years ago and installed an artificial surface last year, but had to rip it up and installed a different one in September of this year. The dark-colored Pro-Ride surface from Australia has not been raced on by most of the horses.

To make matters more interesting, most of the European horses have never raced on anything but grass. (And some Euro runners are entered in the turf races.) Classic entries HenrytheNavigator and Duke of Marmalade are running on a non-grass surface for the first time. The Euro excuse for poor performance over dirt in the past when running in the USA is that the horses hate having dirt kicked in their faces. And Pro Ride claims little to no kickback.

As Todd Pletcher says, horses all seem to train well over artificial tracks but they sometimes run differently than they would on dirt.

This video clip will give you an idea of how the hoof hits the surface; you can also see how dark the material is:



Colonel John and Tiago are two horses in the Classic who have won on an artificial surface; Japan's undefeated Casino Drive shipped in a month ago and ran in an allowance race in order to see how the undefeated colt did on the new track. (He won.)

According to the Pro-Ride web site, the new surface "has minimal kickback, provides greater hoof support and is the most consistent surface available." And, most interesting of all, it does not require watering.

The company estimates that the hoof penetrates 20 mm into the surface. Comments from farriers include that the surface does stick inside the foot, especially along the frog, and that some horses appear to be shedding the back parts of their frogs.

Horses need to adjust to a surface for exactly those kinds of reasons. Many Thoroughbreds have intentionally-thinned soles to create a cupping effect, but if the cup fills with track surface, it can make the horse sore until the horse gets used to it and the sole hardens. If a horse's sole fills with dirt or his frog is sore, he may adjust his stride to land more toe first, or heel first, as need be to avoid pain.

Trainers watch for this type of change in action and will pack the feet or poultice them or work with the horseshoer to adjust or change the shoes. Some horses in California now train over the artificial surfaces without shoes while trainers try to figure out what the best foot solution is for an individual horses.

Trainer Bobby Frankel is quoted in the New York Daily News yesterday as one who is having troubles with his horses' feet. He blames it on the heat: "When it's 90 degrees out, the (synthetic) track surface heats up to 160 degrees."

And many horses just take the changes in stride!

Here's a video clip, courtesy of Horse Racing TV, of Curlin in a public work last week at Santa Anita. I know this is pretty boring, but watch behind him as he gallops. There is very little, if any, displacement. Also notice how deeply (or not) his feet penetrate the surface.



John Sherreffs, trainer of Tiago, said on September 25: "I've looked at the course a couple of times, but the one thing I like about any racetrack is the ability of the horse to get a hold of it and get a little rotation of the foot into the track. Some of the synthetic tracks, they just stop the foot from going into the track at all so that...they don't slide. So, there's a little jarring and, personally, I don't like that for racehorses. I prefer that they get a little hold." (NTRA quote)

Other factors affecting the championship are that the temperature continues to be in the 90s, which is very hot for the Europeans, and which may affect the track, which is not supposed to need watering...but watering has been done during this hot spell. There are also wildfires in the hills around Arcadia, which could affect air quality on some level.

Trainer D. Wayne Lucas is one who avoids racing his horses on the artificial tracks. His quote: "I'm on all dirt tracks. I gear our program to that."

Four horses have broken down since the Oak Tree meet opened on September 20th, according to the Daily Racing Form.

Hoofprints in a Pro-Ride racing surface show distinct impressions; the manufacturer claims that the hoof sinks 20 mm into the surface. General observations about artificial surfaces are that the hoof slides less. (Pro-Ride photo)


© 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 blog may be read online or received via a daily email through an automated delivery service. This post was originally published on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.

To subscribe to 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.

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

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

"Women and Horses" Expo Includes Hoof Clinic with Ada Gates Patton

Those were the days: Ada Gates Patton dragged her stalljack, tool box, apron, and a horse from the Metropolitan Opera's production of Aida onto the stage of Late Night with David Letterman. Once she buckled her apron onto Letterman, they got to work nailing a shoe on the saint of a horse. This weekend, Ada will teach women to use her new hoof measuring ruler to keep records of changes in their horses' hooves.

Whe Women and Horses Expo premieres this weekend (October 24th through 26th) at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Missouri with three days of great equestrian entertainment, education and exhibitions, there will be one woman in the crowd who will be proud to be wearing an apron.

At an event like this, you'd expect demonstrations and clinics by respected horse trainers such as Julie Goodnight, Sue de Laurentis, Cheryl Childs and Donna Maye West. Entertainment from someone like Templeton Thompson, the Texas-born singer/songwriter would be a real bonus. The Women and Horses Expo will deliver three days of equestrienne-oriented programs and attractions!

But wait, there's more! Ada Gates will put her apron to good use and share information about horseshoeing and trimming with the audience.

Ada Gates Patton was the first woman in the United States and Canada to be licensed to shoe Thoroughbred race horses on the track. She shod horses for Monty Roberts at Hollywood Park and at Monty's Flag Is Up Farms during the late 70's and through the 80's. Ada has received advanced training in the Join Up methods and is currently being filmed for a DVD with Monty Roberts on hoofcare for his education series.

Ada should be quite at ease on stage; she has had more publicity than any other American farrier because of her burst through California's anvil ceiling back in the 1970s. She's been on the Today Show and old-time tv shows like "What's My Line" and "I've Got a Secret", not to mention a hilarious stint on 1980s late night television when she taught David Letterman to nail on a shoe.

Ada owns Harry Patton Horseshoeing Supplies in Monrovia, California and works on educational projects with Monty Roberts. Harry Patton was Ada's late husband, and a well-known racetrack horseshoer in California.

With Sedalia only half-a-day's drive from some of the biggest cities in the eight states bordering Missouri (and only about 375 miles from Dallas, Texas, for example!) and a region containing one of the largest horse populations in the country, the Expo is a great choice for a short weekend trip for all horsewomen in the eight state area, and a super source for holiday season shopping, with vendors offering everything for horse and rider as well as horse lovers of all ages!

© 2008 Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing