Fran Jurga`s Hoofcare + Lameness

Friday, January 16, 2009

A Great Wooden Smithy Doorway Opens into the 17th Century Claverdon Forge in Warwickshire, England

Claverdon Forge is yet another British smithy with a horseshoe shaped door, although this one is the most rustic and broad-toed one I've seen. It's wooden rather than stonework, but it's still there. This type of construction is called "half timber". And it looks cozy in there!

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Special Media Eclipse Award to AAEP "On Call" Racing Injury/Safety Program

by Fran Jurga | 15 January 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

AAEP On Call team member Dr. Larry Bramlage (right) interviewed on NBC during a Triple Crown race (AAEP photo)

(from an NTRA press release)

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers Association today announced that the veterinary On Call media-assistance program of the American Association of Equine Practitioners has been honored with the 2008 Special Eclipse Award. The Special Eclipse Award honors outstanding individual achievements in, or contributions to, the sport of Thoroughbred racing.

Representatives of the On Call program of the AAEP will be presented the Special Eclipse at the 38th Annual Eclipse Awards on Monday, January 26 in Miami Beach, Florida.

“It is an incredible honor for the On Call program to be recognized for its contributions to racing and its role in increasing the public’s knowledge of horse health issues,” said AAEP Executive Director David L. Foley. “We dedicate this award to the many AAEP members who have volunteered their time and expertise to serve the industry, the media and, most importantly, the horse.”

The On Call group was formed in the wake of the accidents and injuries which occurred in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup, and the lack of equine medical information available to the viewing public. Since its creation in 1991, On Call has developed into an innovative media-assistance program of equine professionals, who provide accurate veterinary information to the broadcast and print media during live, network races. More than 20 media-trained equine veterinarians are available to respond to crisis situations at 100 televised races throughout the year, or whenever there’s a need to address a media inquiry about matters that affect horses’ health and safety, such as the national inquiries that followed Barbaro’s Preakness injury in 2006.

“Members of the National Turf Writers Association, other media members who cover racing’s major races, and the entire racing industry owe a great deal to the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ On Call Program,” said Tom Law, president of the National Turf Writers Association and managing editor of Thoroughbred Times. “Since the program’s inception in 1991, the On Call Program has educated and informed members of the media as well as the general public about any injuries or tragedies that unfortunately occur on the racetrack, and its team members do so in a very calm and collected manner that is good for the short- and long-term health of the game.”

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask. 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 page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the 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.

The World Is Flat? The Hoof Is Round? Horseshoe Designs Cover Both Extremes

I call this the "banana moon" shoe. Another great photo by Loic Entwistle from Germany.

Or is it that the world is round and the hoof is flat? Sometimes it is hard to tell.

Here in America, we have banana shoes and Dr. Ric Redden's rock-and-roll shoes, but here's a really rocking, all-belly laminitis shoe borrowed from the archive of German farrier Loic Entwistle, whose collection of photos never fails to fascinate me.

I don't know anything about this case and there is no photo of the bottom of the foot. But it started me thinking.

In my part of the world, we have special shoes called "bog shoes", or "marsh shoes". Not so long ago, horses had to be able to travel over the salt marshes, because that's where the hay was. In the early colonial times around here, the only open fields were the marshes. So the horses were fitted with big flat platform shoes so they wouldn't sink.

This old illustration is actually from Holland, where they probably perfected the bog shoe centuries before the Pilgrims made it to Plymouth. This image bothers me because I am so distracted by the horses' shoes that I don't question the rest of the scene. Can someone tell me why the wheels of the wagon wouldn't just sink up to the hubs?

These days, great minds in farriery tinker with the bottom of a horse's foot like it's meant to be a radius; Loic's shoe doesn't have a belly point like a Danny Dunson banana shoe--it's all belly.

Some days you want the world to be flat, some days you want it to be round.

An antique store near the Hoofcare & Lameness office has a collection of bog shoes; no two are alike and there must be 100 of them hanging from the rafters. It is appropriately called Salt Marsh Antiques. And they're not for sale, although I did borrow the collection once for an exhibit. The proprietor even has a salesman's catalog for readymade bog shoes like this very heavy steel plate. Most are wooden and look like thrifty yankee farmers made them out of barn boards. They resemble the Dutch shoes in this old print. I think this one is from Michael Wildenstein's collection. Most people who go to see the antique store's shoe collection leave with a new table or some old tools. Note: the toe is at the bottom of this photo, I think.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

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 page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the 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.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Safe but Not Sound: World Horse Welfare Tries to Help Large, Lame Young Clydesdale

The World Horse Welfare's Belwade Farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland recently took in its largest charity case ever. Digger is only four years old, and is already 19 hands. Such a large horse might be a novelty that would appear to someone to adopt, but he also needs a lot to eat.

And first, vets at the University of Edinburgh have to decide if his hind limb osteochondrosis ( a floating "bone chip"), coupled with the gait abnormality known as "stringhalt" on the opposite limb, can be treated so the horse has a viable future.

Of course, it is possible that Digger may not even know he's lame. He's so young, he may never have moved correctly so the hitch in his gait is all he knows.

I'd like to share more hind limb lameness videos here so people can get used to what a shiverer and a stringhalt case, for instance, look like.

An interesting footnote to Digger's story is that he was orphaned as a foal and always fed by hand.

Digger would a great "pet" project for someone. I certainly wish him the best and, as always, congratulate WHW for trying to do the right thing.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Looking Ahead: 2009 Hoof Conferences and Meetings

You probably have a shiny new calendar in front of you, with lots of blank pages. Here are some suggestions of events to plan to attend in 2009. There are probably many more in the planning stages, but these are on my calendar. What's on yours?

February 3-6 International Hoof-Care Summit, Cincinnati, Ohio (Visit Hoofcare & Lameness in Booth 100)

February 26-28 American Farrier's Association Convention, Chattanooga, Tennessee (Visit Hoofcare & Lameness in Booth 420)

July 19-21 American Association of Equine Practitioners "Focus on the Foot" meeting in Columbus, Ohio

July 28 Hoofcare@Saratoga Racing Season Kickoff Event and Exhibit Expansion Celebration at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Saratoga Springs, New York

August 4, 11, and 18 5th Annual Hoofcare@ Saratoga Weekly Event Series and Speakers in Saratoga Springs, New York (Evening events at The Parting Glass, all are welcome)

September 23-25 Northeast Association of Equine Practitioners Farriers Symposium at Foxwoods Casino, Connecticut

October (tentative, based on signup) Hoofcare & Lameness Group Trip to Luwex's Hufsymposium in Krueth, Germany.

November 5-7 5th International Equine Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot in West Palm Beach, Florida

November 14-15 Cornell Farrier Conference at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York

December 6-10 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada

Watch for more details about additional events!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

World War II: Spike Jones' comic horseshoer, beach patrols by horseback, and a Chinese horseshoeing school

Here's a bit of horseshoeing history disguised as entertainment. The catchy Blacksmith's Song 1942 video posted today was created by Spike Jones, who plays the role of the bare-chested horseshoer. You have to love the desktop anvil!

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