What Do Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird and Actor Walter Matthau Have in Common? A Grumpy Old Man Would Be Gambling Today

by Fran Jurga | 16 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

They have Leonard Blach in common. The New Mexico veterinarian plays the role of owner in the real life of Mine That Bird; he acted in the role of the veterinarian in the film Casey's Shadow with Matthau. The rest of the time, he actually is a veterinarian.

When you look him up, he checks out. He's a Colorado State graduate, from a ranching family, owns a New Mexico clinic.

But the softspoken co-owner of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is actually a veterinarian and race horse owner with Hollywood ties and a movie set past that make the Mine That Bird's story one level more surreal and storybook than they may already appear. This veterinarian has his union card and is ready for his close-up.

And he is fully versed in the world of storybook endings, so bring on the Preakness.

Before I interviewed Dr. Blach, I thought I should do my homework, so I sat down to watch the 1978 horse-racing family classic, Casey's Shadow. And as I watched, I wondered about the fairy tale story that was unfolding before me.

If you can believe this: Walter Matthau plays a washed up Cajun running horse trainer and grumpy (of course) single dad who ruins every chance he has to prove to his sons how much he loves them. For some reason, they stick together. Salvation comes along in the form of a lightning-fast colt, so the family heads to Ruidoso, New Mexico to run against the best in the country for the big bucks and maybe a pickup truck that starts.

Except the colt is iffy in the soundness department. And there's drama. Drama that reaches its zenith late one night when the vet's truck pulls up to the barn and Leonard Blach--yes! Mine That Bird's Dr. Leonard Blach!--gets out and feels the heat in the colt's foreleg.

Blach's warning to Matthau not to risk the colt's life in the American International falls on deaf ears. Matthau has waited all his life for a colt that fast. And he's doing it for his kids. They need the money. It's a gamble. Get out the ice. He's gonna run.

It's interesting to note that this movie must have been written right after the Ruffian tragedy and I wonder how much that influenced the storyline. You know what's going to happen, and yet this is a family movie so there's a twist at the end, even if there isn't a new pickup.

The original title of the movie was Coon-Ass Colt, and there's even a song in the movie by that name, by Dr. John. The soundtrack has some great music. The film was made by Norman Ritt, famed more for social-issues films like Norma Rae.

The Cajun parts of the movie reminded me of the Calvin Borel interview on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno the other night; Leno showed a photo of Borel's childhood home and asked if they had electricity. That may be a good parallel for how much many people in mainstream racing understand about what goes on outside the spotlight of national-broadcast racing.

Blach was happy to reminisce with me about the fun days of filming Casey's Shadow, when Hollywood came to Ruidoso and Santa Fe. Apparently, there's work for veterinarians on movie sets, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. We were both surprised that the press hasn't drawn more parallels between the film and the real life story that unfolded right before us on May 2, 2009.

Horse racing is Dr. Blach's world, and racing in New Mexico is unique. The purses seem huge for a sprint, the atmosphere seems casual and the technology amassed to reproduce and refine the Quarter horse running machine in utero would amaze anyone who has been parked in the Thoroughbred world's breeding sheds for a while.

Case in point: Consider the recent application of technology to extend Storm Cat's career by retiring him from Thoroughbreds to reinventing him for artificial breeding for Quarter horses; a droplet of Storm Cat's sperm can be bioengineered or "extended" to insure his fertility in the Quarter horse world for a long time to come.

And if you live in that world where talk is not so much of foals but of embryos, you would know the name of Dr. Leonard Blach and his Buena Suerte Clinic. The equine hospital in Roswell has stood some of the leading money-winners in Quarter horse racing, including the greats Go Man Go and Easy Jet.

Dr. Blach thought that if there was something that could come of his group's colorful trek to Louisville and Mine That Bird's inspired romp under Calvin Borel's guidance, it would be to introduce America to The Other Racing. There is another way to race horses. There is another way to breed and raise horses. There is another way to dress and talk and look at the world.

If you rent Casey's Shadow, it looks dated and hokey but there is still something authentic about it, no matter how bad Matthau's attempt at a Cajun accent. It's a good horse racing movie, filmed on location. They didn't try to make Santa Anita look like Ruidoso Downs: they went there, instead, and actors and cameramen alike ate the dust of those horses.

Right now, Dr. Blach and his group from New Mexico have our attention and have put New Mexico on the racing map for many people. But guess what? It was there all along. And thriving.

This afternoon, Americans will gather in front of television sets to watch the Preakness. My guess is more than a few will be wearing cowboy hats in support of the boys from New Mexico and their little horse.

I'll be hoping for another Hollywood ending.

This post originally appeared in a slightly different version on www.equisearch.com. Thanks to repro specialist Gregg Veneklasen DVM of Timber Creek Veterinary Hospital in Canyon, Texas for linking Dr. Blach to the film.

© 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.

It was his first (Derby) rodeo...Chuck Woolley's waistline decor

l

the belt buckle, originally uploaded by wendyu.

The classic Kentucky horseman's belt is a tasteful strip of saddle leather adorned with a halter name plate bearing the person's name.

But not this year. Wendy caught up with Mine That Bird's trainer Chuck Woolley on the backside at Pimlico this morning, where the Kentucky Derby winner will run in the second leg of the Triple Crown this afternoon.

Woolley, like all of Mine That Bird's connections, is from New Mexico, and won the Kentucky Derby the first time he entered...with a horse he drove there in a trailer pulled by his own pickup. A big belt buckle is how you celebrate, back home in New Mexico. Looks good to me!

Drop whatever you are doing at 5 p.m. eastern time today and find a television that receives the NBC network. Mine That Bird lost his hot jockey, Calvin Borel, to an even hotter filly, Rachel Alexandra, and plenty of good Derby horses like Friesan Fire, Musket Man, Papa Clem and Pioneerof The Nile are back for the tight turns and shorter distance that will test them all.

Kiwis Trot Off with Badminton's Farriers Prize for 2009

by Fran Jurga | 16 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

New Zealand rider Tim Price with Vortex, shod by Andrew Nickalls, was judged Best Shod at the 60th Badminton Horse Trials in England last weekend. (Nico Morgan Photography)

By now, Hoof Blog readers know how it works. A shoeing judge observes all the horses entered in the venerable four-star Badminton Horse Trials on Wednesday of the event, as they "trot up" for the first presentation to the ground jury, where they are judged on soundness. The hoof judge is also looking at soundness and can look at their shoes.

The foot judge can have a second look on Sunday morning, when the field has narrowed down to the survivors of Saturday's cross-country, and those survivors are presented to the ground jury again, to be judged fit to continue in the show jumping. So the foot judge sees what the feet look like after dressage and cross-country, sees which shoes stayed on, and sees which horses are still in the competition and, most importantly, which are still sound.

In 2009, the judge awarded the prize to a New Zealand Thoroughbred, Vortex, ridden to Tim Price and shod by Andrew Nickalls, the team farrier for New Zealand's eventing team.

More about Vortex: A 15-year-old Thoroughbred, Vortex had a lot working against him in the competition. By that age, an eventer has a lot of wear and tear on his legs and hooves. This horse is a veteran. Andrew said, "Vortex has good feet, and is lovely to shoe. Janelle (Richards), his co-owner and groom, simply put some oil on his hooves, nothing special."

Other horses had their hooves highly polished and buffed with coatings so that the nail heads and clips, if they were there, were barely visible. Nickalls and Price chose the opposite tack for Vortex and let his true hooves show.

Compare Vortex's hooves with these highly polished hoof capsules.

It is interesting to note that Tim Price owned this horse in New Zealand, sold him to Sweden, then bought him back after he moved to England. Reunited, they finished 20th at Badminton, where it is a great accomplishment just to finish at all.

More about Andrew Nickalls: Andrew has been in the UK for ten years. He apprenticed at home in New Zealand, and is originally from Tutaruru on the North Island; he took his Diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (DipWCF) exam after some additional training in England.

Andrew has traveled with the New Zealand team to two Olympics now, and has competed himself at the international level of farriery at the Calgary Stampede World Championships four times since 2004, and was in the Top Ten there three years in a row. He married last year and bought a house in Dorset, on the west coast of England.

More about the shoes: We are waiting for more photos so you can see at least one of the shoes, and these will be posted as soon as they get here. Vortex wears handmade shoes made from 3/4 x 3/8" concave, with side clips, and with quarter clips behind, and is done every five weeks.

About the judge: Judge for the competition was Welsh farrier James Blurton, who himself has won the best-shod award three times.


Thanks to the Badminton event office for looking up all the previous winners. If you have trouble reading the list, double-click on the image and you should be able to see it at a much larger view size. James Blurton and Bernie Tidmarsh are tied for the most wins, with three each. Notice that all three of Bernie's wins were with New Zealand horses! I think it is interesting that no horse and only one rider (Andrew Bennie of New Zealand) has ever won twice.

Andrew said he made the trip to Badminton on Saturday to be on hand for cross-country, but Vortex had no problems after the long test. "So we just hung out and had a beer and I drove home," he said in his matter-of-fact Kiwi way. Tim called him on Sunday when the announcement of the trophy was made.

Congratulations, all the way around the world.

(Note: cover at left features Bernie Tidmarsh, resident farrier at Badminton; if you ever have a chance to meet him, don't miss it!)

© 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.

What's Wrong with This Foot?

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

Foot infections are curious things. A reader sent this in and I thought I'd share it because it seemed unusual to me. Perhaps different parts of the world have different types of foot infections; this horse lives in a very wet climate.

I know that we have only just begun to learn about immune system disorders in horses and how they may affect the feet. There's new information coming...but there is also much to be gleaned by going back and reading the old books.

It is always said of infections like canker that it affects one horse in 100 and then there is always the story that makes you scratch your head.

The city of Cleveland is said to have had an outbreak of canker in the winter of 1894 that practically shut down public transportation because so many streetcar horses were lame; they blamed it on the salt mixture that was used to melt the snow and ice off the tracks. The city switched to sand the next year and never had a mass lameness problem again.

Hoofcare & Lameness #77 had a special section on foot infections--deep sulcus thrush, canker, pemphigus, insect bites, pastern dermatitis, vasculitis, lymphedema and fungal-type infections of the hoof wall. We're now working with Dr. Knottenbelt at the University of Liverpool on an update of his work on some immune disorders that affect the foot and pastern and hope to have some of his brilliant work to share with you soon.

But in the meantime, please tell me--and other blog readers--more about this foot.

© 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.

Warning: Lawn Clippings Are Not Good for Horses!

by Fran Jurga | 14 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Golden Light, originally uploaded by Dan65

Vet and farrier readers: This post is your clients--please share!

There’s no mistaking that sound: the mowers have started. Is there a more sure sign of summer?

If the sound of mowers is the first sound of summer, the second should be the sound of horse owners explaining to landscapers, lawn crews and neighbors that, while the thought is kind, it is NOT okay to dump mulch mower bags or raked-up grass clippings into horse paddocks or feeders.

Some people will think they are doing some clever recycling and being kind of animals, but the opposite is true.

Wet green lawn clippings are often left in mower bags or in piles, where they start to ferment quickly. A hungry horse will nibble at the clippings, and the fermentation (and the gastric gases it creates) in the gut can be deadly. We won’t even talk about the chemicals from herbicides and fertilizers!

Horses can also choke on clumps of grass clippings.

Laminitis might be a real risk too, particularly for horses with other considerations like insulin resistance, and for ponies.

Here are some suggestions, especially if you have horses that are at risk for colic or laminitis problems:

If your turnout borders an area served by a landscape crew, talk to the crew foreman. If you are off at work and leave your horses turned out, consider posting a sign on your fence.

If possible, make sure that town and county road maintenance crews that mow roadsides and median strips know not to dump trimmings into horse pastures.

When you arrive home in the evening, check your pastures, paddocks and arenas, especially along any sections facing neighbors or the road to make sure nothing has been dumped.

Consider writing a letter to the editor of your local paper, and post this article in your feed store and any stores that sell lawn mowers or at nurseries and farmstands that sell plants.

Chances are, your neighbors and community members are completely unaware of the dangers of grass clippings to horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Remember, they probably mean well.

Do you have experiences with horses suffering the ill effects of grass clippings? Or neighborhood relations suffering? I know this is sort of a suburban issue, but that is where so many of our horses live these days...or the suburbs have come to them!

I was at a party once when a gentleman came up to me and smugly introduced himself as a neighbor to the boarding farm where my horse was living. He informed me that he was kind to animals and dumped the clippings of his vast chemical green carpet into my mare's paddock. I was speechless, and had to be, as the farm's relationship in the neighborhood was at stake. You might need that neighbor at a zoning or board of health meeting sometime.

© 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.

Mine That Bird Started His Career With Victor In His Camp

by Fran Jurga | 12 May 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

In the race to explain Mine That Bird's Derby zeitgeist, no one has offered the Roswell alien connection...yet. If that horse runs that way again in the Preakness, we might want to go back and look some more at the history of the town that sent him to the Derby and what happened there on July 7, 1947.

Mine That Bird's dazzling victory in the 2009 Kentucky Derby has been explained away by the longest list of reasons that any great moment in sports has ever enjoyed. Or suffered, depending on your point of view.

The most popular, of course: a brilliant, hair-raising, let's-see-that-again ride by jockey Calvin Borel. Agreed!

A regular reader of this blog (or so he tells me, to my delight), Dr. Sid Gustafson, offers some equine sports science reasons this week in the blog of The New York Times, The Rail: the change in altitude meant that Mine That Bird was running with New Mexico oxygen capacity at a Louisville elevation. Gustafson also saw some ethereal quality in Mine That Bird's hooves that he described as "mudders". Oh, and the colt has big nostrils. The better to breathe that oxygen-depleted high desert air, I guess.

Others point to his sire, or his career on artificial surfaces creating a zeitgeist effect when he switched to good old (if muddy) Churchill Downs dirt. And there there was that two-mile gallop before the Derby (see elevation switch, above). And the trailer ride, all that way from New Mexico, that must have had something to do with it. And the reasons go on.

No one has mentioned that he hails from Roswell, New Mexico, as does his new jockey, Mike Smith. And we all know what made that place famous on July 7, 1947. I'm surprised that no one has suggested an alien connection aided the horse in his zip along the rail on the first Saturday in May--Yet, that is!

I wasn't particularly looking for a reason, I was just enjoying the moment, until the other day that I found out that this little horse's past includes plenty of time spent with a familiar face around the Hoofcare and Lameness scene.

It seems that Needham/Betz Thoroughbreds in Kentucky, where Mine That Bird was born and raised, employs a very special farrier to take care of their young stock. I don't know how much you know about how foals are cared for on Kentucky Thoroughbred farms, but it is not unusual for a farrier and his or her crew to go through dozens of foals and yearlings in a day.

Except for one. There's one truck that stays in the driveway longer than the others, and one farrier who may only get through a few of the foals on the list on any given day. And when you ask him, three years later, about a particular foal, he'll not only remember the foal's dam, he'll remember the feet. And he'll be happy to tell you about them. In detail.

That farrier would be Victor Camp, of course. A transplanted New Yorker who looks like he'd be more at home in Greenwich Village than rural Kentucky, Victor has chosen the Lexington area for his mid-career farrier practice base and recently bought a home in Winchester, Kentucky. His practice is split between Thoroughbred farms and sport horses and his caveat with all his clients is that he be allowed time to work on each horse, consider what its most appropriate care should be, and take the time to do it properly.

Victor learned about horses and horseshoeing in a different world, in and out of the rarefied estates of Westchester County, New York where he apprenticed to older smiths in the 1970s when the fine horses he worked on required a level of craftsmanship that could be recognized but was rarely taught. He developed an analytical hoof theorist's angst that has made him the Woody Allen character of the farrier world today--all in a world where the answers to many of his questions are prefaced with, "Well, no one ever asked me that before." And also in a world where many don't ask questions at all.

When I tracked Victor down to ask him about Mine That Bird, he had no idea that anyone outside Lexington knew of his involvement with the gelding, but he was quick to launch into a recollection of what it was like to work at Needham/Betz two years ago when Mine That Bird was being prepared for the yearling sales. Victor continues to provide services at the farm.

"He was small," Victor recalled, "and I was concerned about him." Mine That Bird is not Victor's first Derby winner; Victor also prepped the feet of Monarchos, another somewhat surprise winner of the Derby, for his career ahead.

Victor advised, "I like to say that every foot I handle is handled like that colt is the next Derby winner. Every care must be taken to ensure it has the best foot possible underneath it!"

Victor had high praise for farm owner and breeder Judy Needham, whom he said was a "hands-on" owner who would often be in the barn and even hold the foals and yearlings for him, and discuss their development and sales plans as he worked. He particularly praised Needham for not pushing him to over-correct Mine That Bird's toe-out conformation, on the right front. "She said to give him time, and that's what that horse needed," Victor recalled. "That's the sign of a good owner, one who is willing to give a young horse a chance to come around rather than pressure the farrier to crank on these babies to look better by a sale date. I surely did not want to force him."

By now, everyone knows that Mine That Bird did not break $10,000 at the yearling sale.

Victor admitted that he was mowing his lawn when the Derby was on, and forgot all about watching it.

Victor remarked that Mine That Bird was a late foal, and that he could still be developing, particularly in his chest, a point on which co-owner Dr. Leonard Blach concurred in an interview with Hoofcare and Lameness earlier this week. Victor said that there are many reasons why a horse toes out--whether from a rotational deviation, an angular (joint angulation) deviation, or a combination of the two, in the pastern, fetlock and/or knee joints.

"By the time the horse is three, his pectorals should be filling in," Victor said, "and lots of these toed-out horses have figured out very well how to compensate. Then the muscles fill in. He might be ok. I'd like to see him."

Might be ok? Someone should show Victor the replay of this race.

The record books are full of horses who ran for years in spite of their imperfections--Sir Barton, Swaps, Assault and Buckpasser are four of the all-time great champion racehorses profiled in this blog recently--horses who ran on their hearts instead of their hooves.

Perhaps sometimes the blemished ones ultimately outrun their stablemates, the ones who had all the splints and braces and surgery and special shoes to make their toes point straight ahead on the day it counted.

For so many colts, the most important day of their lives, the day that counts, is the day of that yearling sale. But Mine That Bird was looking at a different calendar. For him, it was all about May 2, 2009.

Too bad Victor had to mow his lawn.

Photo: © Hoofcare and Lameness archive; Victor Camp lectured on onion-heel shoes at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine's farrier conference a few years ago.

© 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.