"Hey, Mom, what's that thing?"
Photographer Nadja Fischer captured this rite of passage at the Oswood Stallion Station in Weatherford, Texas recently. The shiny tool box on wheels is old hat to the mare, but the foal is curious, and will probably soon feel the cool cut of the rasp's teeth on the soft hoof wall.
Nadja Fischer is a bilingual German/English photographer just launching her career with a promising portfolio of images. We wish her luck as, just like this foal, she learns her way around the business and rises, hopefully, to the top through the proven combination of hard work and talent.
Weatherford, Texas is one of the cutting horse industry's central points for breeding and training farms, and also home to several major equine hospitals.
Thanks, Nadja, and good luck to foal #38!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Foal Meets His First Rasp
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Another Country Heard From: 2009 Malaysian Farriers Competition
by Fran Jurga | 14 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog
Last week's National Horse Show at Penang in Malaysia featured the nation's farrier competition. We don't have any details, but these photos are more than we've had in previous years...if there have been competitions in Malaysia in previous years. Thanks to Zehom for sharing these photos with The Hoof Blog. I know we have blog readers from Malaysia, so I hope that someone in this photo gets the news that these photos are making their way around the world!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbBwqEGkl57q6qNxk-FkM0flzFIp6Osj_qhggT86qkNEPXB9OlX6C6v3Pijwu4UwSZ6-S5GzNhAYVTKBzzDru-OjDebmmcfhccSukxx6Nye5yfVyWhYE0faKNqcsgFEYV8abFwg/s400/FLK+zehom+3607029965_c948738041.jpg)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Australian Anatomy Animation: Tendons and Ligaments of the Distal Limb
by Fran Jurga | 9 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog
The technical definition of a ligament is an attachment between two bones; generally a ligament is in a position that will make use of its fibruous strength in just the right place and angle to stabilize a joint. Ligaments allow flexion, but prevent malfunction. Tendons, of course, are extensions of the muscles in the upper limb that move the joints in the lower limb.
Jonathan Merritt's PhD thesis at the University of Melbourne was on the biomechanics of the forelimb of the horse. The focus of the research has been the relationship between the dynamics of locomotion and the strains induced in the third metacarpal bone. Dr. Merritt's work includes being lead researcher in the study Influence of Muscle-Tendon Wrapping on Calculations of Joint Reaction Forces in the Equine Distal Forelimb in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology (Click here to read online.)
Here's his description of how the little video was made: "The models of the bones were created from real equine limb bones using in-house photogrammetric software that I wrote. The bones were imported into Blender, and the ligaments and tendons were modeled by hand. Finally, a custom RenderMan exporter script was used to export the models and camera animations to the Aqsis renderer."
Dr. Merritt has been very generous to post this video and others he's made both on YouTube and vimeo.com.
I don't know that you can or should download it and hope that no one will abuse his generosity in both posting the videos and allowing them to be seen in places like this blog. The right thing to do would be to bookmark the video, send others to watch it and send an email to him letting him know you appreciated his hard work.
Encouraging talented people like Dr Merritt to pursue further studies in equine biomechanics and anatomy would benefit us all. Thanking generous people like him can't be done often enough.
Click here to go to Jonathan Merritt's home page on YouTube.com; you can send him an email from there and also see some of his other videos.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlL79Vt3PnDEBwGsufj-wVPBN0pd1mZSC-yEH7UK4m2oSYOYdW2LqqH-5lckoTjlkHo396_8OKRpKCFGr5WLfU9jZSE3j0ZSV7vX-IcQrE3tAbGIzE1mgpKeotwcvhuxkDgbFJQ/s200/++HoofcarePubsRevBWLogo+sm+lr.jpg)
Sunday, June 07, 2009
More About Tex
by Fran Jurga | 7 June 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog
A service was held today for Tex Cauthen, a farrier who died in Kentucky last week. At first, all the newspapers could say was that the father of a famous jockey had died, but after a few days, articles like this one ("Tex Taught People to Live") from the Cincinnati newspaper began to bring the true identity of this man to light.
Turfway Park President Bob Elliston said Cauthen was one of the best farriers in the thoroughbred business. In the article he said, "Tex was one of the classiest people I ever met. He was incredibly gifted in his craft and was equally gifted as a human being."
That is wonderful praise.
I've heard from members of Tex's family and friends and learned so much about him that I never knew. I hope you'll take a minute and read the article from the Cincinnati newspaper.
I also hope you all read Ada Gates Patton's memoir of running into Tex in Cinncinati last winter. It was very nice of her to write that all down and share it. Just scroll down to the first article about Tex from last week and click on the comments to read Ada's letter.
© 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.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbMwHwnNjkiOweSHyjyXYyrAuqVm4sXreoFSZWe4WB3oV3WTT3Csd7ORRs1U9AnGyu-o6GMwu09hu2pz-uPsIE5gXTx3AWvEJMY8zMqp9Mz0-zJSzq6-E4l7_1mNbmWcQ7Z5G6RQ/s320/texcauthen2.jpg)
Turfway Park President Bob Elliston said Cauthen was one of the best farriers in the thoroughbred business. In the article he said, "Tex was one of the classiest people I ever met. He was incredibly gifted in his craft and was equally gifted as a human being."
That is wonderful praise.
I've heard from members of Tex's family and friends and learned so much about him that I never knew. I hope you'll take a minute and read the article from the Cincinnati newspaper.
I also hope you all read Ada Gates Patton's memoir of running into Tex in Cinncinati last winter. It was very nice of her to write that all down and share it. Just scroll down to the first article about Tex from last week and click on the comments to read Ada's letter.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyjcf04b-c-tKVn6aU8kBpgRuGeQAO-CiHnbP_lxWcNJV9lauLQBPVUu-kagsvWXrtthgLOmo51-E4c9oOQVps7JKic-V97K76q6NAOh24GYIIDrguFBLuTjfRSDh18kA-M_xg2g/s200/++HoofcarePubsRevBWLogo+sm+HR.jpg)
Saturday, June 06, 2009
D-Day in the Forge: Invading Troops Found a Farrier in Normandy
Note: This article was written in 2009. Since then, an account has emerged that British troops used a French horse to carry their mortar as they advanced. Could it be the same horse in my photos? Gray draft horses are common in Normandy, which is the home of the Percheron breed. But perhaps the British realized that the horse they commandeered had lost a shoe, or needed the attention of a farrier.
Today (June 6) is the anniversary of D-Day, the World War II invasion of France by an allied force of troops and air support from Great Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada, and other nations. They came by sea and they dropped from the sky by parachute. You've seen the movies, and you probably know the story.
UPDATE: The BBC has changed access to this video. It can now only be viewed inside the United Kingdom. American, Canadian, and other readers will not be able to play the video. If you have a way to access it, the link is: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p07c9k5w/48520886
Imagine my surprise years ago when I found these photos in the archives of the invasion. In the midst of all the fighter planes, tanks and artillery, we find some unidentified soldiers who appear to have stumbled on a smithy in Creully, one the first towns inland from the beaches, and hence one of the first real places in France to be "liberated" by the invading allies. Or, was he shoeing their horse, I wondered.
The elderly marechal ferrant (that's French for farrier) is not caught up in the revelry of liberation. I am sure that when this photo was taken you could hear the battle going on, yet inside this smithy, time has stopped. Perhaps the Canadian soldiers had banged on his door. He was probably hiding deep inside, as tanks rolled through his village from the beaches to the east, and convoys of German trucks and wagons evacuated.
It's easy to imagine a scenario here: Perhaps one of the soldiers is a farm boy from Saskatchewan or Manitoba who had never seen the European way of holding up the hind foot for the farrier. He'd be saying (with a helmet on, after just almost being killed during the amphibious landing on the beach), "Gee, that's dangerous! Watch out you don't get kicked, old man!"
Or perhaps he was an inner city boy from Montreal or Toronto who had never seen a horse shod in his life. After surviving the landing on the beach and marching inland, he sees life with new eyes. He and his detail may have been assigned to check that all the buildings of this village are empty and secure and instead they find this old man and a farmer's son shoeing a cart horse. Are they being ordered to leave? But first, they insist on finishing the horse: they're not going anywhere until the last nail on the last shoe is clinched.
Or did the Canadians need the horse to be shod so they could use him, as the BBC newsreel footage suggests?
I think these photos illustrate one of the most magical things about shoeing horses, anywhere and everywhere it happens, but especially in a purpose-built forge. Time does seem to stop. No one can go anywhere until it's done, nor do they want to. No matter how modern the materials, the ritual is as timeless now as it has always been.
So many years later, I was amazed to find these photos and couldn't wait until June 6 rolled around on the calendar to share them with you. I hope you will remember the importance of this day and all the people who died, and know that this day in history has many dimensions, and many stories that should be told again and again so we never forget.
Photo credit: Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie / National Archives USA. Many thanks for the loan of these photographs.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNnCV9kbmhWfFW3x-eDNfVMl5SIMY09T5KRGhqITjcTcgH392X8E3OQhhIX2dolxZm8vMLR6WQVmlm9dqK9kG8Efvwf4RJn6MYEf62ahfDTg42kGx8kdOxSTuwnie3eeyAxWZwg/s200/GlassHorse+P3+Hoofcare+logo+LR+for+web.jpg)
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.
Imagine my surprise years ago when I found these photos in the archives of the invasion. In the midst of all the fighter planes, tanks and artillery, we find some unidentified soldiers who appear to have stumbled on a smithy in Creully, one the first towns inland from the beaches, and hence one of the first real places in France to be "liberated" by the invading allies. Or, was he shoeing their horse, I wondered.
![]() |
Here's an enlargement of the men's faces. This could be a Norman Rockwell painting.
|
It's easy to imagine a scenario here: Perhaps one of the soldiers is a farm boy from Saskatchewan or Manitoba who had never seen the European way of holding up the hind foot for the farrier. He'd be saying (with a helmet on, after just almost being killed during the amphibious landing on the beach), "Gee, that's dangerous! Watch out you don't get kicked, old man!"
Or perhaps he was an inner city boy from Montreal or Toronto who had never seen a horse shod in his life. After surviving the landing on the beach and marching inland, he sees life with new eyes. He and his detail may have been assigned to check that all the buildings of this village are empty and secure and instead they find this old man and a farmer's son shoeing a cart horse. Are they being ordered to leave? But first, they insist on finishing the horse: they're not going anywhere until the last nail on the last shoe is clinched.
Or did the Canadians need the horse to be shod so they could use him, as the BBC newsreel footage suggests?
I think these photos illustrate one of the most magical things about shoeing horses, anywhere and everywhere it happens, but especially in a purpose-built forge. Time does seem to stop. No one can go anywhere until it's done, nor do they want to. No matter how modern the materials, the ritual is as timeless now as it has always been.
So many years later, I was amazed to find these photos and couldn't wait until June 6 rolled around on the calendar to share them with you. I hope you will remember the importance of this day and all the people who died, and know that this day in history has many dimensions, and many stories that should be told again and again so we never forget.
--by Fran Jurga
Photo credit: Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie / National Archives USA. Many thanks for the loan of these photographs.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGNnCV9kbmhWfFW3x-eDNfVMl5SIMY09T5KRGhqITjcTcgH392X8E3OQhhIX2dolxZm8vMLR6WQVmlm9dqK9kG8Efvwf4RJn6MYEf62ahfDTg42kGx8kdOxSTuwnie3eeyAxWZwg/s200/GlassHorse+P3+Hoofcare+logo+LR+for+web.jpg)
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.
Questions about this blog? Send email to hoofblog@gmail.com.
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What's special about this photo is that it was taken minutes after the finish of the Kentucky Derby. My guess is that Mine That Bird's camp had not done a dress rehearsal of where to go and what to do if the horse won and would be headed to the winner's circle.
Charlie Figueroa has been Mine That Bird's groom and exercise rider throughout the Triple Crown, as well as Chip Woolley's legs while the trainer has been on crutches. Charlie normally works at the farm back in New Mexico, where he breaks and trains the young horses.
I've seen a hundred pictures of this man in the past couple of months and he's been smiling in most of them. But the smile on his face in this photo, when he's just grabbed his muddy horse out of the winner's circle to bring him back to the barn, is very special. You can almost see the lift in his walk. He's a happy man.
After all that racing has been through lately, the Triple Crown seemed to have an angel looking over it, even though Friesan Fire and Dunkirk are now out with fractures, I Want Revenge has fetlock ligament damage, and we're still waiting for Florida Derby winner Quality Road to get back to the races after recovering from his matching front and hind quarter cracks.
They've gone to the four winds: Pioneerof The Nile with his hot fit flames is back to California. Belmont winner Summer Bird is headed to Louisiana. Mine That Bird's team seems to understandably like it at Churchill Downs, where rumor has it that the Kentucky Derby Museum has asked Chip Woolley for his crutches when he's ready to walk on his own again.
The Triple Crown may be over, but in six weeks, the sun will be glowing through the fog in Saratoga at dawn, the way it always does and the way it always has. With luck, these three-year-old horses we've come to know and maybe even Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra will give the racing tribe some thrills at America's oldest track.
Charlie, his big smile, and his fast little horse would fit right in.
See you there!
Hoofcare Publishing will host a series of informal educational events in Saratoga during the race meet on Tuesday evenings. Watch this blog for more details of speakers and sponsors, or email Saratoga@hoofcare.com for more details about attending or sponsoring. The blog will come alive! Most events are held either at the Parting Pub's back room or at the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.