Equine Gait Analysis Has a Secondary Benefit: Upgrading Video Game Quality

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

Sometimes I see people shake their heads after a lecture on the wonders of video-based gait analysis of horses. They just don't get it. And admittedly, the lectures can be boring, although Mark Aikens certainly showed how interesting and practical it can be when he spoke at Cornell University's farrier conference two weeks ago. (More information is coming on that presentation!)

But did you know that roughly the same process used to identify gait abnormalities in a clinical setting is used to collect data points of horses for animation? Today's video takes you to a makeshift video studio on a riding arena in England, where a video crew is "filming" a white horse that will later star in a video game.



Here's a rough cut of what the animators were able to re-create from the data points. So the next time you waste an hour playing Oblivion, just ask yourself where that horse got his moves. His moves might just be data points, plucked out of a riding arena by a geeky animation crew that could moonlight at an equine hospital, if they were so inclined.



© 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.

Thanks

26 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Farrier Family Portrait, Germany, circa 1900.

To the Hoof Blog's USA readers:
Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving from the Hoof Blog!

I hope that you all have wonderful holidays with your families and friends and horses and dogs. I am most thankful for the opportunity to write for you and act as a conduit for new and old information. Most of all, I'm thankful for the friendships I've made with other professionals in the horse industry and I appreciate the way that you all keep me inspired.

Enjoy your turkeys and your football games!

Note: if things get slow today, I would refer you to last year's Thanksgiving blog post, which was one of our most popular ever: it revealed the long-forgotten story of the shoeing of turkeys. I will never top that one. Enjoy!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, 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.

Rood and Riddle, AllTech and AAEP Partner to Add Education for Veterinarians and Horse Owners to 2010 World Equestrian Games Experience

19 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

(received via press release; please note that this event will immediately precede the opening of the Games. For those who may not know, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital is a large referral equine healthcare complex outside Lexington, Kentucky.)

Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital’s role as the Official Veterinary Partner of the Games will not be limited to providing veterinary support during the competition but will also include hosting educational forums for veterinarians and horse owners. Rood & Riddle, Alltech and the American Association of Equine Practitioners have joined forces to sponsor a sport horse symposium for veterinarians and another for horse owners, to be held in conjunction with the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, which opens September 25 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.

The continuing education program for veterinarians, titled “Promoting Peak Performance in Equine Athletes,” will be held from September 22-24, 2010, at the Marriot Griffin Gate Resort in Lexington, KY. An international roster of speakers will present in-depth, current information on orthopedic problems, diagnostic imaging, equine podiatry, lameness versus neurological disease, upper and respiratory disease, muscle disease, and nutrition with focus on the veterinary care as it applies to the equine athlete.

Featured speakers include orthopedic surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage, and internal medicine specialist Dr. Steve Reed from Rood & Riddle, and Dr. Kent Allen, Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, and Dr. Jean-Marie Denoix.

A one-day horse owner workshop is scheduled for September 24, 2010 at the Embassy Suites in Lexington. The workshop will be conducted by veterinarians and nutritionists to provide horse owners, trainers, managers, and riders with valuable information for managing injuries and maintaining peak performance in the sport and performance horse.

Registration will be available for both programs in June 2010. Final program and schedule information is expected to be ready for release in early spring 2010. A group of rooms will be available at the Marriott at a special symposium rate for veterinarians registered to attend. This information will be available on the Rood & Riddle, AAEP and Alltech websites with announcements distributed to multiple media outlets.

In addition to these excellent programs, Rood & Riddle will also host hospital tours, short lectures and demonstrations throughout the weeks of the Games. Some of these offerings will be available in the exhibit area at the Kentucky Horse Park. Schedules and appointment information for these special events will be posted at www.roodandriddle.com in May 2010, and will also be promoted through other media releases.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, 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.

Equine Obesity Update: Do Horse Owners Comprehend the Dangers?

14 November 2009 Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com



There's no doubt that the horseowning public in the United States and abroad is becoming more aware of the problem of obesity in horses. Just look at the variety of new feed products and supplements designed to help horses lose weight, and you will see just the first wave of a marketing tsunami aimed at assisting horse owners in reducing the weight of the horses.

The problem may not lie in just recognizing obesity, however. For many horse owners, telling them their horses are fat is akin to telling them that they have spoiled a child with candy. In their eyes, fat horse is a sign of a well-fed and much loved horse, but they may not connect the dots to the real health risks associated with obesity, such as insulin resistance and a high risk for laminitis.

In this video, the British international charity World Horse Welfare updates us on their progress in educating horse owners and also in surveying horse owners for their perceptions of obesity in horses. You'll also see a severely overweight pony that was confiscated by officials as a welfare case because of its obesity. This was the first prosecution of horse owners for welfare violations directly related to overfeeding a horse.

I love the last part, where the pony stands next to a pile of bags of feed equal to the weight he has lost.

Thanks in advance for sharing this video and keeping public awareness of the dangers of equine obesity at the forefront.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, 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.

New DVD: Recognizing the Horse in Pain

California sport-horse specialist Joanna Robson DVM examines problems of performance-related discomfort and subtle lameness in English and Western horses in this brand new 75-minute DVD packed with information on the effects of badly-adjusted or ill-fitted tack, lack of attention to saddle fit, poor condition in horses, and a long list of behavior and attitude problems that can be traced to musculoskeletal tension or pain. 

Chiropractics, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, thermography and farriery are just a few of the modalities that are touched on in this all-inclusive, holistic look at the horse in training. The filming is excellent and the horses are "real". 

As Dr. Robson says, these are the horses who aren't going to be helped by a prescription of "bute and stall rest". Their pain has a cause, and removing that cause will return them to the training regimen their owners and riders want them to follow. 

Note: This excellent DVD is no longer available from Hoofcare Publishing but hopefully you can find it elsewhere.

Clipper Folly: A Sad Chapter in Horse Care History from World War I

11 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

In the Middle East during World War I, horses arriving from Australia would have had winter coats and required clipping to withstand the heat of the desert campaigns. These men are using the hand clippers that were standard for the task at that time; it would take three men a long time to clip each horse, compared to today. The British military had horses in the winter mud in Belgium and France, and in the searing heat of Palestine. Clipping was a godsend for the desert, but what did mandatory clipping mean for the wet horses shivering on the Western Front?

When war was declared in 1914, the British were not prepared. They had only about 25,000 horses and mules ready for war; they also operated five Remount Depots and four Remount companies, with a remount strength of approximately 1,200 horses and mules. They were going to need a lot more than that. And they needed them almost overnight.