Google Ocean and the Animated MRI of a Horse's Foot

by Fran Jurga | 4 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

This blog post is comprised of three "aha!" moments.

It began back in February when I was intrigued by the launch of Google Oceans, an enhancement of Google Earth that allows us to look at the ocean floor, go inside the hull of a sunken ship, or explore the base of an iceberg in Antarctica. I imagine one day soon that the lobstermen around here won't have to go out and check their traps anymore; they will simply get on Google Ocean, type in the GPS coordinates of each trap, and see what they've caught. Then they would have to haul only those traps.

The image (above) that Google Ocean served up to promote its new program made me think of the horse's hoof, of course. The hoof has a lot in common with an iceberg. Everything is going on where we can't see it. Things are larger than they appear on the surface. And there's more to it than meets the eye. And as the history of the Titanic will tell you, a problem with an iceberg can ruin your day, or even end it. The same goes for a hoof.

Fast forward a couple of months and I'm lying inside an MRI unit in Massachusetts General Hospital. I'm determined to understand and appreciate this uncomfortable and deafening experience and use whatever I can get out of it to enhance my comprehension of magnetic imaging of the horse's foot.

Except no one on the staff wants to talk to me and the noise is too loud for conversation anyway.
I appreciate MRI images of the horse's foot because it is a new way to see inside the foot but I'm never sure what I'm looking at because I am trying to keep in mind that that is just a slice, unlike a radiograph. The MRI is like a strip of film negatives of a sequence of images in an old-fashioned filmstrip (albeit in 3D). When the radiologist looks at the MRI, he or she views the series mounted together on a sheet, not a single isolated image. Together, they make up the whole, but the isolated view reveals the injury.

MRI should be a collective noun, not a singular. That's what I brought out of that clanging tube that day at the hospital.

Fast forward again. Now it's the end of July and I'm in Columbus, Ohio, sitting in the back row at the AAEP's Focus on the Foot summer meeting. I'm really enjoying the speakers, taking notes like mad, and regretting missing the first day.

A change in the schedule brings North Carolina State University's Dr Rich Redding to the stage; he had been the victim of media glitches the day before, so his lecture was rescheduled. What a bonus for me! His lecture offers a hybrid approach to examining the foot and selecting the imaging modality for an injury diagnosis. All his images of the foot are lovely and explained very clearly but it all comes together for me when he compares four cases of foot injuries--puncture wound, two collateral ligament strains, and navicular zone pain by showing their MRIs.

The first thing that caught my attention was the should-be standard technique of showing a dissected foot cut at a specific point, and positioning an MRI "slice" at the same point next to it. That helped visualize the level in the foot where the injury was, and all the structures seen in the MRI, since the navicular bone can be viewed on so many different slices through the coffin joint.

Then, instead of showing an isolated MRI slice that showed the lesion site, he animated the slices into a fly-through of the entire MRI series.

Dr. Redding writes: "This was a horse that had a puncture to the navicular bone that damaged the Deep Digital Flexor (DDF) Tendon with a flap of tendinous tissue on the dorsal tendon proximal to the navicular bone. There is hemosiderin in the digital cushion where the nail penetrated the frog into the DDF and navicular bone." (Rough translation: the nail was in the back part of the foot so it grazed the upper surface of the navicular bone, which is at the level of the short pastern bone in the coffin joint. Watch the video and when the black square of P2 appears, you will see the injured area very briefly.)

It was Google Ocean all over again. You're beneath the surface, flying through; stop where you like and have a look around.

When they decide to do Google Hoof, I'm ready. Or maybe we're already doing it.

Thanks to Dr. Redding for the loan of this animation.


© 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.

Quality Road Recovers from Quarter Cracks and Smashes Track Record at Saratoga!

A quick news flash from Saratoga: You may remember the name of Quality Road, a three-year-old who was a top contender for the Triple Crown this spring until he popped a quarter crack in a hind foot while setting a new track record at Gulfstream.

While recovering from that crack, he popped one in his front foot on the same side. The colt has been laid up since March, trained lightly, and switched trainers from Jimmie Jerkens to Todd Pletcher.

Quality Road had his first start today since Gulfstream and he won the Amsterdam Stakes on while setting a new track record for six and a half furlongs on the dirt at New York's Saratoga track.

And he set that record in spite of stumbling out of the gate.

It looks like Quality Road is back on all four feet again. That's the kind of hoofcare success story we like to report.

Seamus Brady: US Equestrian Team Tribute to a Farrier

Gladstone, NJ - August 3, 2009 - The USET Foundation remembers today Seamus Brady of Whitehouse Station, NJ. Brady passed away on Monday, July 27, at the age of 77. Brady, who was born in County Cavin, Ireland, and trained at the Irish Army Equitation School in Dublin. He immigrated to the United States more than 50 years ago and became one of the most respected farriers in the world. Brady was the official farrier for the U.S. Equestrian Team for many years and was inducted into the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame in 2002.

Seamus came to the United States and worked for USET Director Arthur McCashin at his Four Furlongs Farm in Pluckemin, NJ. Seamus was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he was a chauffeur to a general. His time in the Army gave Seamus the chance to learn more about welding and metalworking. Arthur’s son, Dr. Fred McCashin VMD, remembers, “When he came out (of the Army), he came back to see dad, who gave him some tools to start shoeing on his own. The rest is history.”

Seamus made a name for himself by working for some of the largest show barns in the country, by pioneering techniques, by teaching a number of up-and-coming farriers, and by being a consummate horseman.

Farrier Tom Ciannello apprenticed with Seamus in 1975, and they were close friends for the next three decades. “Shoeing was his life; it was the center of his life,” he stated. “If something ‘couldn’t be done,’ he would strive even harder to accomplish it. Seamus really put his heart and soul into every shoeing job. Our favorite saying was that you gotta love it, and he really did. He just really cared. That was one thing that he instilled in everybody that worked with him. Don’t worry about how long it takes, but just be proud of what you did. Everybody is going to miss him.”

In addition to his work with the USET, where Seamus was the team farrier for all three disciplines and was the team farrier at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, he was the farrier at a number of show barns, from Ronnie Mutch’s Nimrod Farm to the Leone family’s Ri-Arm Farm. He was also the farrier for George Morris’ Hunterdon Farm for 34 years. “He was a great asset to the USET and really part of the USET in a way. He was one of the pillars of Hunterdon,” said Morris, who is now the U.S. Show Jumping Chef d’Equipe. “He was famous as a great guy and a great friend. He was a very good friend of mine.”

Carol Hoffman Thompson rode for the USET from 1963 to 1973 and remembers Seamus as a “master of shoeing.” She noted, “He was the very best. He had a great sense of humor, and I had a lot of respect for him.”

Morris agreed, “He was a real old-fashioned Irish horseman. He was a horseman first. He was innovative, very imaginative. As he went along, he kept being innovative. I would often listen to him and after conferring with him and the vets, sometimes use his advice and opinion over the vets’. He was the guru teacher, and subsequent generations will owe him. He brought people in as working students, he shared with other blacksmiths, and in a sense, he is a father of American blacksmith technology. That goes across North America and to Europe too. He was one of the greats that I ever had anything to do with. I can’t say enough about him.”

Ciannello felt the same about Seamus as Morris. “People know him from all over. He was quite an ambassador for the USET and the horse business. Everybody wanted to talk to him, and he was just a really nice guy. If you knew Seamus and he knew you, and there was a mutual respect there, he was the best friend you could have.”

Surviving are his beloved children, son, Douglas Brady and wife, Loriann of Flemington, NJ; his daughters, Linda Colleen Deutsch and husband, Adam of Whitehouse Station, NJ, and Laura Jean Brady of Summerfield, NC; Ruth Moyer Brady, the cherished mother of his children; his beloved grandchildren, Casey Ann and Douglas Brian; eight brothers and sisters in Ireland; along with many other loving relatives and friends who will miss Seamus dearly.

Prayer Service for Seamus was held on Saturday, August 1, at the Branchburg Funeral Home, in Branchburg, NJ. For more information or to send condolences, please visit, BranchburgFuneralHome.com.

Photo Credit: Former USET official farrier Seamus Brady, 1932-2009. Photo courtesy of Maureen Pethick.

AQHA Laminitis Download Link for Steward Clog Information

by Fran Jurga | 3 August 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

Dr. Mike Steward of Shawnee, Oklahoma developed a simple, inexpensive and effective shoeing treatment for laminitis by making a "Steward Clog" out of plywood. Photo by Andrew Knittle, The Shawnee News-Star.

Tomorrow night the town of Saratoga Springs, New York is going to hear all about clog shoes for laminitis. And have a good time doing it. The Hoofcare@Saratoga series will welcome Dr Michael Steward to be the first speaker of 2009, as we kickoff the year at the National Museum of Racing.

Whether you are planning to come or not, here's a chance to download a great article. "Going Dutch" by Holly Clanahan won second place in the American Horse Publications Awards last month for articles published in 2008. The article is about Dr. Michael Steward of Shawnee, Oklahoma and his clog shoe for laminitis.

AQHA graciously timed the first-ever release of a free download of the article to coincide with Dr. Steward's trip to speak in Saratoga. But this article can and will benefit plenty of horses, owners, veterinarians, and farriers who have never heard of Saratoga or Shawnee.

Click here to initiate the download process on the AQHA web site. Thanks to the AQHA for their help with this, and for the exposure they have given to Dr. Steward and his simple, cost-effective treatment. Yes, many of his cases are Quarter horses but this treatment has now been adopted and adapted (for better or worse) by many levels of farriers and veterinarians and is being used on all sorts of cases.

Tomorrow night we will be celebrating the shoes and boots that are on display in the National Museum of Racing lobby exhibit this summer. Among them is what looks like a stray piece of plywood that the exhibit fabricator left behind. That's the Steward Clog. It will be a pleasure to show Dr Steward his shoe in the Museum's collection.

The right foot of this horse is wearing a Steward Clog held in place with deck screws. Casting tape will stabilize the hoof wall and the appliance.

I think it is important to remember that this shoe was originally a simple design that Dr. Steward's clients could afford. Necessity was the mother of invention. For many people, laminitis was not a case of could their horse be helped but could they afford the help? The Steward Clog was an alternative. Now it seems to be in danger of becoming another high-priced boutique shoeing treatment.

The original way--the simple clog--still works and would be a great, cost-effective technique for equine rescue farms to master. I hope they'll be in the audience Tuesday night, along with everyone who cares about real-world laminitis.

I hope we can work toward a day when "lack of funds" will no longer have to be written as the cause of death on a foundered horse's medical record. And I thank Dr Steward and everyone else who is trying to help work toward that day.


© 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.

Jersey Girl! Rachel Alexandra Doesn't Mind Getting Her Feet Wet As She Scorches the Colts in the Haskell

Jersey Girl! Rachel Alexandra and Calvin Borel win the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

In Kentucky, they play "My Old Kentucky Home" before the Derby. Before the Preakness in Baltimore, it's "Maryland, My Maryland." The Belmont swings to the tune of "New York, New York."

And when Rachel Alexandra stepped out on the Monmouth Park racetrack on the Jersey Shore today, what song did they play to introduce the field of the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational?

Think about it.

Sure enough. Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run". If that song couldn't get a filly in the mood to fly, what song could? And off she went, toying two or three wide until midway around the turn for home and then whooosssh.

If you enlarge this photo, or go to YouTube and watch the race, you will see that this filly is so particular about her feet that jockey Calvin Borel finished the race with pretty much a clean set of silks. The same cannot be said of the other jockeys.

It was a miserable day with driving rain, lightning, flooding, and (unfortunately), horses down in the early races. I wondered if they wouldn't just load Rachel up and take her home to Saratoga but the weather improved and Rachel gave everyone something to talk about about.

She'll always have a soft spot for Springsteen now. And he'll be in Saratoga to play a concert the week of her (probably, hopefully) next start, the Travers Stakes on August 29.

Thanks to Sarah K. Andrew for this stunning capture of the finish line, where no one but Rachel was in sight.

Applied Anatomy: The Painted Horses as Teachers

by Fran Jurga | 30 July 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

How did we teach (and learn) anatomy before we had super-markers to paint directly on horses' bodies? I believe that this clever technique was popularized by American clinician Susan Harris in the 1990s, or at least she was the first to make an educational project out of horse-painting.

We've seen an expansion lately, in the art of painting on horses. Dr. Gerd Heuschmann uses the horse as a canvas in his terrific video, If Horses Could Speak, and there's a beautiful new book on the Hoofcare & Lameness list (ordering info below) called How Your Horse Moves that documents painted horses going through gaits and stretches.

The problem, of course, is that you can only suggest the surface structures, and so much lies beneath. And should you choose the skeleton or the muscles?

Nicole Rossa solved that problem by painting the muscles on one side and the bones and joints on the other. Nicole is an equine therapist in England who has written some interesting papers, most notably one on asymmetry of the pelvis in racehorses and the effect on performance. Now she has teamed up with horse insurance company PetPlan and is consultant to the most ambitious web site project in the horse health world, Yourstables.co.uk.

On second thought, don't click on that link. Yourstables.com is a distraction demon. It's an absolute vortex where hours can pass while you wander around inspecting the minute textures of the stable mats and what it says on the plaques of the walls in the office. You'll emerge hours later, blinking.

Yourstables is a setup for teaching horsecare through consulting professionals, with the guidance of eventing legend Lucinda Green as an avatar. A 3-D horse barn (British style) is equipped with the newest and best of everything. You mouse over items and navigate through videos and printable articles explaining everything from grooming to diseases. It's quite good and Nicole Rossa is the consulting therapist. This list video is an out-take from a video made for the web site.

Back to the painted ponies: I just have one question. Why stop with horses? Do dog health educators paint anatomy markers on greyhounds? Who wants to volunteer their Jack Russell or maybe a Pug to be anatomically decorated? Nicole Rossa might find some work on humans when Halloween comes around.

Heads up: How Your Horse Moves by Gillian Higgins can be ordered now. Super reference on anatomy, gaits, biomechanics, jumping, tendon function, back function, etc. All full color photography; most of the horses are anatomically enhanced and very nicely photographed. The cover does not do this book justice. Hardcover, 153 pages, indexed, 350 color photos. Intro by Chris Bartle and Bettina Hoy. I expect I will be seeing a lot of the photos in this book in other people's PowerPoints soon! The good news: $30 per book plus $6 per book post in USA, $13 per book elsewhere. To order call 978 281 3222 or email books@hoofcare.com.

NOTE: Gillian Higgins will be on the program at a conference with Dr Hilary Clayton February 13-14, 2010 in Grantham in Great Britain.

© 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.