Lost Legend Found: Meet Man o' War's Horseshoer (Finally)

by Fran Jurga | 28 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The statue of champion racehorse Man o" War is the centerpiece of the grounds of the Kentucky Horse Park outside Lexington, Kentucky. (Frank Parsons photo, used with permission)

Today is Man o' War's birthday. An announcement that 1987 Kentucky Derby winner Alysheba died last night made me think again about Man o' War and how little anyone seems to know about who shod him, or how he was shod.

Grass Laminitis: Something Else to Blame on Global Warming?

by Fran Jurga | 26 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

This pony is demonstrating the typical stance of a horse that is in pain from laminitis. It is stretching its legs out in front to get weight off painful hoof tissue in the toe area. (Photo courtesy of World Horse Welfare)

Spillers, the British feed manufacturer, thinks the answer to that question in the title might be “yes!”

I checked today, and the store on the corner still has rock salt, windshield fluid and ice scrapers on display when you walk in the door. But I'm sure it is getting to be spring somewhere. And I'm anticipating that the flower seeds, suntan lotion and seasickness remedies will be on the shelves here any day now--evidence that winter has finally passed. The only more sure sign of spring will be the first case of laminitis. But I can wait on that one.

In an interesting press release, Spillers warned British horse and pony owners of the impact that climate change could have on horses and ponies prone to laminitis, and their theory is as valid on this side of the still-icy Atlantic as it is in Britain.

"Winter" grass laminitis is a new way of looking at things, but it does make some sense...except around here, of course, the grass was very safely buried under many feet of snow most of the last four months!

Here’s the idea, as put forth by Spillers:

As if it's not bad enough already, in the coming years, laminitis really could be the single biggest risk to a horse’s health. The climate is changing and the seasons are beginning to merge into each other. Milder, wetter winters are countered by unpredictable summers that bring about flooding or droughts--and all this can have a severely detrimental effect on the way that grass grows and the "sugar" it contains.

Horses and ponies are designed to eat a variety of grasses, plants and shrubs that are typically of low nutrient value and in particular are lower in soluble carbohydrate ("sugar"). But the pasture that we keep horses on today tends to be much richer. With our milder winters too, grass may be growing all year round now. Recent research worryingly suggests that the nutrient value of winter grass in Britain is now very similar to spring/summer grass in years past.

Laminitis is now a real risk throughout the whole year.

Clare Lockyer, nutritionist and research and development manager at Spillers says: “Don’t ignore the predisposing signs in your horse or pony, such as a cresty neck, sore feet or a change in hoof shape, as these are all warning signs. It is at this time that you have the chance to take preventative action because waiting until it happens could prove disastrous for your horse.”

If you think a horse or pony could be prone to laminitis, it is sensible to provide or recommend a high-fiber, low-starch, low-sugar, low-calorie diet...and more exercise.

Thanks to Spillers for sharing that cheerful news.

Want to know (a lot) more about laminitis? Click here for a free download of the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit and Dr. Chris Pollitt's 34-page discourse What Causes Equine Laminitis? The role of impaired glucose uptake as provided by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation of the Australia government.

© 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.

Learning to Love LEX: Is Lexington Ready for Its (Really) Big Blue Horse Icon?

by Fran Jurga | 22 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

New York has the Statue of Liberty. New Orleans has the fleur de lis. Baltimore has the crab. Boston has the beanpot. And St Louis has The Arch. Now Lexington, Kentucky has LEX the Horse, but he’s not the same stallion we have known and loved for the past 150 or so years.

The new symbol of Lexington, Kentucky is a variation of the famous old painting of the Thoroughbred stallion named Lexington by Edward Troye. (VisitLex.com image)

The famous New York/London design firm called Pentagram, hired by the city to re-define its identity and culture, has an easy explanation for the blue beast: apparently eating all that Kentucky Bluegrass turned the stallion the same color as the University of Kentucky's basketball team jerseys. (How timely, during NCAA March Madness!)

Who is this horse? Once upon a time there was a very famous Thoroughbred stallion named Lexington. I can spot his portrait from a mile away because for as long as I can remember, his portrait has adorned the front cover of the Blood-Horse Annual Stallion Directory, a book that resides permanently on my desk until the next year's arrives.

Open any book on the history of the horse in art, and there’s that classic portrait of Lexington.

Lexington will start seeing blue horses everywhere; the rest of us will start seeing them in tourism campaigns for the 2010 World Equestrian Games, to be held in Lexington, which I guess we are supposed to start calling "Lex", as on our luggage tags. (Pentagram photo)

The real Thoroughbred named Lexington was the leading sire in the Bluegrass region for 16 years in the mid-1800s and established an unequaled record for dominance in the breed. His offspring won everything from Kentucky to Saratoga and would have won more if the Civil War hadn't inconvenienced racing and disrupted the lives of Kentucky gentlemen (to say nothing of their horses' lives). For several years, his colts went to war, not to the races; one was even the chosen charger of General Ulysses S. Grant.

Recently, someone in Lexington decided that the good old horse should make a comeback; a new generation of townspeople and college students should embrace the iconic stallion, who was painted many times by Troye, although the favored portrait is the one also used annually by The Blood-Horse. The brand's rationale is that by re-embracing Lexington, the city is reaffirming its heritage of horses.

So, Lexington (the town) is on a Lexington (the horse) kick. The Kentucky Historical Society dedicated a highway marker in Lexington last week--on the stallion's 159th birthday--in his honor. The Kentucky Horse Park wants to display his skeleton in their museum, if the Smithsonian in Washington will loan it.

All this is good news to those of us in the horse business, considering that Lexington's chosen icon might just as easily have been a blue Lexmark printer, a blue Amazon.com warehouse or just a Big Blue Hoop.

The timing for this embrace of the traditional Lexington horse image seems a bit odd, since next year Lexington will become the sport horse capital of the world, at least temporarily, as the World Equestrian Games come to town. The mega-event will surely eclipse Thoroughbreds for a few months. Besides, the mood in Lexington's Thoroughbred sector--as in the rest of the racing world--is a bit down in the dumps lately. The big blue horse may be unintentionally symbolic of the mood in the sales ring and breeding shed.

Coincidence? Big Lex's appearance in Kentucky coincides with the recent unveiling of a huge blue mustang at the Denver Airport in Colorado. I am sure there are some conspiracy theories out there. They even seem to be the same color. (Rocky Mountain News photo)

Is the bluing of Troye's classic Lexington like seeing Mona Lisa with a mustache or Whistler's Mother in a Barcalounger? They have tampered with something that seems quite sacred. Denver's mustang is anonymous. For many people, Lexington is as well-known for basketball as it is for horses, but should the two be mixed? And will the public get the connection? Did that commercial of Shaq in jockey silks inspire this icon?

Comparisons to the nonsense rhyme about the purple cow by Gelett Burgess are inevitable when the Big Lex campaign gets even bigger during the World Equestrian Games next year. (Pentagram photo)

The design firm's rollout of the LEX concept includes plans for the installation of really big blue horses in downtown Lexington. But, wait: When Troye painted Lexington, the stud wasn't exactly racing fit. Much worse for observant Hoofcare and Lameness readers: his right front seems to have gotten increasingly clubby in the process of silhouetting.

"Angel of the South" sculpture to be constructed in England, designed by Mark Wallinger. (University of Glasgow image)

But great design minds do think alike. In England, plans call for a 150-feet-high gray Thoroughbred sculpture to be built along the highway leading from the Chunnel and ferry docks of the south coast, so that visitors arriving for the 2012 Olympics in London will be welcomed to England by a big horse. The English icon looks quite a big younger, and infinitely more fit, than poor Lex.

Technically, visitors to Britain will be welcomed by a closeup view of the horse’s hindquarters, which face the highway. The horse seems to be looking longingly toward Ireland, as this simulated video shows. Is he distracted? Or perhaps, since horses are herd animals, he may be gazing even further, trying to catch a glimpse of LEX, who should be hard to miss.

To learn more:
Click here to read the Pentagram story about the design of the Big Lex icon, and see more images of proposed uses for the big guy

Click here for the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau web site for Big Lex.

Click here to read a recent article about Lexington's skeleton and efforts to return it to Kentucky.

© 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.

Event Announcement: AAEP's "Focus on the Equine Foot" July 19-20, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio

by Fran Jurga | 19 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP)

Would like to invite veterinarians and farriers to attend:

FOCUS ON THE EQUINE FOOT

To be held July 19-20, 2009 in Columbus, Ohio

Schedule highlights include these topics and speakers:

Sunday, July 19

Sunday Morning (Moderator: Harry W. Werner)

8-8:50 a.m. Overview of Imaging the Equine Foot – Which Modality, When and Why – A. Kent Allen

8:50-9:40 a.m. Imaging for the Equine Practitioner – Radiology and Ultrasonography – Randy Eggleston

10-10:50 a.m. Imaging of the Foot – You Have to Know Your Anatomy – Rich Redding

10:50-11:40 a.m. Biomechanics of the Equine Foot - Jeff Thomason

Sunday Afternoon (Moderator: Steve O’Grady)

1-1:50 p.m. Examination of the Foot – Let’s Go Back to the Basics – William A. Moyer

1:50-2:40 p.m. Diagnostic Anesthesia of the Foot – What Do We Really Know? - John Schumacher

3-3:50 p.m. Medical Treatment of Equine Foot Disorders – Kent Carter

3:50-4:40 p.m. Surgical Treatment of Equine Foot Disorders – Daniel Burba

Monday, July 20

Morning (Moderator: Bill Moyer)

8-10 a.m. Acute and Chronic Laminitis – An Overview – Andrew Parks

10:20-11:10 a.m. Proper Physiologic Horseshoeing – What Is It and How Do We Apply It – Stephen E. O’Grady

11:10 a.m.-Noon Therapeutic Shoeing – A Veterinarian’s Perspective – Scott Morrison

Monday Afternoon (Moderator: To Be Determined)

1:30-2:20 p.m. Therapeutic Shoeing – A Farrier’s Perspective – James Gilchrist

2:20-3:10 p.m. Farriery for the Performance Horse – Hoof Wall Defects and Separations – Ian McKinlay

3:30-4:20 p.m. Etiology, Treatment and a New Approach to Club Feet – William Stone and Keith Merritt

4:20-5:10 p.m. Orthopedic Approaches and Farriery for the Young Horse – Robert J. Hunt

For further details or to register, call 859-233-0147 or www.aaep.org

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.

Like a Foal with Extra Long (And Crooked) Legs: Equine-Specialist Vet Helps Louisville Zoo's Giraffe

by Fran Jurga | 18 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

A month-old giraffe born in February at the Louisville Zoo is responding after surgery to correct a hind limb deformity. Scott Bennett DVM, a well-known surgeon with Equine Services in Simpsonville, Kentucky performed the surgery at his clinic.

For the first time since his birth, Bakari is currently eating well and is now standing for hours at a time instead of minutes.

Through digital X-rays of Bakari’s legs, Bennett said he determined that Bakari had an angular limb deformity in both hind legs, which the Zoo described as "one side of his bones growing faster than the other", forcing Bakari to wobble and walk sideways.

“Dr. Bennett said the deformity probably started in utero, and that he sees many horse foals with the same problem,” Zoo vet Roy Burns DVM said.

The Zoo said that Bennett performed periosteal stripping, a brief surgical procedure that speeds bone growth on the short side of the leg. As far as Bennett and Burns know, this is the first periosteal stripping ever performed on a giraffe.

Periosteal stripping, also called periosteal elevation, is routinely performed on the front limbs of valuable Thoroughbred foals who show signs of angular limb deformities that might hamper their running ability or detract from their saleability in the auction ring.

Horses helped Bakari both with the technique of his limb surgery and in his immune system. Since he couldn’t stand to nurse, the Zoo’s veterinary team conducted a plasma transfer where horse immunoglobulins (or antibodies) were transfused into the giraffe through an intravenous line. Two plasma transfers were necessary to establish a protective immune system.

Bakari is a Masai giraffe; his name means "Hopeful" in English.

Thanks to the Louisville Zoo for the great photo of Bakari and their help with this article.

© 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.

One of the (Many) Reasons I Love Ireland: Racing on the Beach

by Fran Jurga | 17 March 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

This video is like a quick trip to Ireland, although to these beach races. The festival you see here is at Glenbeigh on Dingle Bay in County Kerry and is held every August. I don't know how long the races are, but I'm sure it is a good distance.  Glenbeigh is near the place where, in Irish mythology, Oisin and Niamh rode the white horse shod with silver shoes into the sea to journey to that land of eternal youth known as Tir na nOg. 

To learn more: Two favorite movies set in this part of Ireland are the heart-wrenching 1970s film about Irish rebellion, Ryan's Daughter, and Into the West from the 1980s. The latter is about two Traveler ("gypsy") children who run away from the slums of Dublin with their gallant horse named Tir na nOg, who unbeknownst to them just happens to be a famous show jumper missing from the Dublin Horse Show. They are convinced that they will find cowboys and Indians, or at least the land of Tir na nOg from the Irish legend, if they ride off into the west.  

Click here to read the original legend of Tir na nOg...and why it pays to take care of your horse. There are many versions of this legend, but most include references to hooves. In one version, the white mare gets a stone caught in her silver shoe and the hero dismounts to relieve her pain...and instantly ages.

Here's to Ireland--the people and her horses!