Favorite Photo: This Horse Was In Good Hands

by Fran Jurga | 11 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

"You're in Good Hands" by Dwight Usry

This photo just showed up in my email a while ago. I thought it was quite beautiful...and even moreso when I realized what I was looking at.

This horse's toe crack has been patched with PMMA adhesive, which will harden into a shell-like covering that closely mimics the hoof wall. Plastic wrap is placed over the material while it sets and the farrier is smoothing the big patch as it goes through its processes from a pastey liquid to a solid when it is exposed to the air after mixing the two parts together.

The same procedure is used to build up heels, fill in gaps in the wall or sometimes cover a quarter crack patch. A similar process was used in the 2008 Triple Crown by hoof repair specialist Ian McKinlay in his work on Big Brown's separations and crack. The material also can be used to glue shoes onto hooves.

By feeling the texture and heat through the plastic, the farrier will know when it is safe to put the foot down. Once hardened, the patch can be rasped and shaped and may be indistinguishable from the "real" wall at the quarters if the job is done with skill.

You can be pretty sure that was the case here; those long fingers that look like they should belong to an artist or musician were Mr. Edgar Watson's, an expert farrier from Keswick, Virginia. Eddie died this fall, and the farrier world hasn't been the same since.

I'd like to thank Dwight Usry of Peak's Forge in Hanover, Virginia for sharing this photo.

Architect's drawing of the Britt-Watson Veterinarian/Farrier Facility to be built in Virginia in memory of farrier Eddie Watson. The location is The Meadow Event Center; The Meadow is the farm where Secretariat was foaled. The farm was recently taken over as a horse show park and will be the new site of the Virginia State Fair.

Be sure to watch for news of Dwight's fundraiser for the Britt-Watson Veterinarian/Farrier Facility to be built in Mr. Watson's memory at The Meadow Event Park, a new horse park and home for the state fair, built on the farm in Doswell, Virginia where Secretariat was born. Farrier Product Distribution (FPD) has already kicked off the fundraising with a $1000 donation. If you'd like to chip in, I can fax the donation form to you or click here to send Dwight an email.

© 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.

Hoofcare 101 Part Three: Functional Aspects of Sole Loading and Heel Expansion

by Fran Jurga | 10 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



Welcome to Part 3 of this week's featured video series on hoof function and anatomy from the Extension Service. The segments feature farrier instructor Nate Allen from Central Community Technical College in Hastings, Nebraska.

"Wait a minute, where's Part 2?" you may ask. There's a technical glitch with that video, and I hope to have it ready for you as soon as possible. In the meantime, pat yourself on the back: you can graduate to Part 3!

The majority of this segment is footage from the excellent video/dvd "Horse Foot Studies" by Dr. Chris Pollitt of the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit and Wild Horse Research Unit at the University of Queensland, Australia. The complete video is available from Hoofcare and Lameness Journal; click here to place an order.

Click here to view part one of the video series, which is made possible by the University of Nebraska and Purina Mills. Please note that this is a very general introduction to foot anatomy and functions; much more in-depth material is available for study for those who seek it, but this is a good introduction.

© 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.

Hoofcare 101 Part One: Anatomy Basics Refresher Course Video with Nate Allen

This blog is read by hoofcare professionals of all levels and stripes and ranks and religions. It is also read by hundreds of people each day who are just "passing through" and are interested in a specific aspect of the hoof, or maybe manufacture a product or are horseowners looking for a clue that will help a lame horse.

Farrier instructor Nate Allen of Allen Farrier Service in Juanita, Nebraska and Central Community Technical College in Hastings, Nebraska, narrates this and other videos in the series that I will be posting in short segments so as not to overwhelm you all. This project is made possible by support from the University of Nebraska and Purina Mills through the Cooperative Extension Service network of educational agriculture resource providers and eXtension.org, an educational partnership of 74 universities in the United States.

Note: if you think this video is too basic for you, be patient. The series has to walk before it can run, and I think it is a good idea both to review basic anatomy and learn the terms and principles that Nate Allen will prefer to use in later videos. Anatomy doesn't change and is not a creative subject, but people do approach it in different ways and educators tend to vary in the way that they stress the roles of different structures.

I should probably add that throughout these videos, Nate is sharing his own point of view on subjects like sole pressure, hoof expansion, the role of structures in hoof mechanism, etc. and I realize that many people do not share the tried-and-true farrier science approach. Again, these videos are what a mainstream, middle-of-the-road well-educated farrier instructor thinks people should know about hoofcare. He has put a lot of work into this project and deserves a lot credit and respect, whether you agree with him or not.

You could also download these videos and use them for educating horse owners, or run them on a loop at a trade show booth. You can't go wrong by starting with the basics...and no matter what people tell you, most of them can't find their way around the most basic anatomy diagram and have forgotten everything they learned decades ago in Pony Club or 4-H. Letting them watch this refresher-course video may save them a lot of embarrassment, and you'll be even more of a hero than you already are.

© 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.

Australian Wild Horses at Risk for Laminitis After Floods Turn Scrubland to Pasture

by Fran Jurga | 6 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The Australian Equine Brumby Research Unit, led by Dr. Chris Pollitt, is hard at work in western Queensland, where the natural habitat of many wild horses is underwater, thanks to once-every-ten-years floods. Yes, as fires destroyed Victoria in the south of Australia, floods were inundating the North!

While laminitis is not believed to be common in wild horses, it apparently is quite a risk during situations like this and might even be thought of as a form of very painful population control. As the floodwaters are absorbed into the desert-like soil or drain into nearby dried-up lake beds, the desert will bloom and even sprout grass.

The foot of a wild horse with laminitis

The wild horses are accustomed to living on scrub weeds, and the researchers assume that the flush of grass causes laminitis. But they have to prove that it is the grass, and that they horses do have grass laminitis. Laminitis might also be caused by a poisonous plant or some other side effect of the environmental change.

The wild horse research group is the brilliant step-child of the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit, which studies laminitis in domestic horses and seeks both a way to prevent the disease and to understand the mechanism by which it attacks the inner hooves of horses.

Assisting Dr. Pollitt are several student researchers and, temporarily at least, the able-bodied American, Dr. Don Walsh of the Animal Health Foundation who is on sabbatical to perform laminitis research with the Australians.

The core mission of the brumby (that's Australian for "wild horse") research is to understand how environment affects the wild horse and how its feet change as the environment changes. To that end, the group is tranferring horses between herds and observing and recording the adaptation stages...and whether the horses can even survive the drastic extremes of Australian climates and terrains.

Dr. Pollitt and his group have plenty of wild horses to study: Australia has more wild horses than any other place on earth.

The group has a lively web site with down-to-earth research reports and monthly newsletters, and is a most worthy cause for anyone wishing to support equine research that will benefit horses everywhere, as we finally learn how our management of horses may need to change to maintain the healthiest hooves and the soundest horses.

Hoof Blog Recommends This Link: http://www.wildhorseresearch.com

To read the February Newsletter from the researchers, click here.

To purchase freeze-dried specimen feet of Australian wild horses, click here.

To donate to the research efforts, click here.

© 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.

Friends at Work: Hot Fitting on a Cold Day in Idaho

Spencer and Jim, originally uploaded by Mountain Mike.

Our friend Mountain Mike Edminster has done it again. Here to share is one of my favorite hot-fitting photos to date. Not one farrier saturating his thick layers of winter clothes with eau-de-burnt-hoof but two!

Spencer and Ed are hard at work but they have an appreciative audience in Mike the Photographer...and all the readers of the Hoof Blog.

I hope it is spring wherever you are today...but I know that here in New England the ground is still white with snow...and it surely still is in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Thanks, Mike, Spencer and Jim!

Churchill Downs Announces Enhanced Horse Safety and Welfare Policies

by Fran Jurga | 2 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Kentucky's Churchill Downs Incorporated ("CDI") announced new safety and welfare rules today. These measures will be in place at the Louisville racetrack in advance of the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on Saturday, May 2, and will include unprecedented standardized third-party testing of track surfaces and comprehensive tests on all winning horses for more than 100 prohibited drugs.

The safety initiatives will be implemented at Churchill Downs when its 2009 Spring Meet opens on April 25, and will be phased in at all other racetracks owned by the Churchill Downs group (Arlington Park in Illinois; Calder Race Course in Florida; and Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in Louisiana) by the start of their respective 2010 race meets.

In development for nearly a year, the “Safety from Start to Finish” initiative is designed to incorporate new health and wellness measures, as well as long-standing safety policies and standards, under a single formalized initiative to serve as a blueprint for all CDI facilities.

The key safety initiatives that will be in place at Churchill Downs prior to Kentucky Derby 135 are as follows; the wording is as presented by Churchill Downs' official announcement:

1. Independent, standardized third-party testing and monitoring of track surfaces;
2. “Supertesting” of all winning horses for more than 100 performance-enhancing drugs;
3. Age restrictions requiring Thoroughbreds to be at least 24 calendar months of age before becoming eligible to race;
4. The freezing and storage of equine blood and urine samples to allow for retrospective testing;
5. The banning of steroids;
6. Limits on the number of horses allowed to compete in certain races;
7. The prohibition of “milkshaking”, which results in excessive levels of total carbon dioxide in Thoroughbred racehorses;
8. Prohibiting the transport of horses from CDI facilities for slaughter;
9. The banning of unsafe horseshoes, including front shoe toe grabs longer than two millimeters;
10. The use of low-impact riding whips with limited usage rules;
11. The presence of on-site medical personnel, equipment, and state-of-the-art equine ambulances;
12. Immediate online access to jockey medical histories for emergency medical personnel;
13. $1 million in catastrophic injury insurance coverage for jockeys;
14. Mandatory and uniform reporting of equine injuries to the Equine Injury Database System, thereby assisting in the compilation of statistics and trends to improve safety conditions around the country;
15. A professionally designed and installed safety rail on the inside of the dirt course;
16. Mandatory usage by all jockeys, exercise riders and other on-track personnel of safety vests and safety helmets that meet internationally acknowledged quality standards;
17. 3/8-inch foam padding on all parts of the starting gates;
18. Significant financial support for equine retirement programs;
19. Inspection of all horses by regulatory veterinarians prior to and following all races;
20. Review of security procedures around barns and other racetrack backstretch areas;
21. Continued maintenance of protocols for the treatment of horses that have been injured during racing or training, to ensure the most humane treatment possible; and
22. Mandatory, independent, and complete necropsies of any horse that dies as a result of an injury sustained while racing or training at Churchill Downs.

© 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.