Friends (Still) at Work: Noni Harland

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

Life Data Labs in Cherokee, Alabama is such a nice place to work that no one wants to retire. That's the gist of an article in an Alabama newspaper today, which cited the supplement manufacturer for its high percentage of workers who are working beyond retirement age...because they want to.

But Noni Harland wins the prize. She is 91, and still comes to work every day.

The day I visited, Noni was keeping an eagle eye on the vaccum-sealed bags of supplements as they were packed for shipping. Hard work runs in her family; Noni's daughter Linda is president of Life Data Labs.

I remember visiting the plant a while ago, and there she was, just as bright and friendly as can be, although that could be said of all the employees. I think it is hard for some people to reconcile the "big company" status of Life Data: they dominate the hoof supplement race, do their own research with a PhD/DVM on hand every day, and run a research farm that would be the envy of any big feed company. And the horses that run in the fields there would be the envy of many Thoroughbred breeders.

So you think their corporate headquarters is in a skyscraper somewhere, don't you? Or in a glass and steel temple in an upscale corporate office park? Think again. Corporate offices are a few steps from the entrance to the spotless mill where the supplements are made. And the massive warehouse is just beyond that.

Dr. Frank Gravlee took some time off to show me around the warehouse. I think he might be researching anti-aging supplements for humans on the side.

From my experience, I'd say that Noni and Dr. Frank and others at Life Data Labs keep working into their senior years because there's no place they'd rather be but keeping that company at the forefront. Their hard work put Farriers Formula on top, and my guess is that they plan to keep it that way.

To read more about the unique age group of employees at Life Data Labs, read the article in the Muscles Shoals Times Daily. The Life Data Labs web site is always worth a visit too, as is their new YouTube channel. You can subscribe to their channel and you'll receive email notifications when new videos are posted by Life Data Labs on youtube.com.

And the next time you open a bucket of Farriers Formula, and you see that little brochure in there on top of the pellets, you can stop and smile. Noni's been hard at work to get it ready for you.

© 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.

Introduction to Hoof Anatomy: Dermal and Epidermal Structures

18 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com



Time for an anatomy review? The exterior of the horse's hoof is pretty familiar territory to anyone reading this blog, but sometimes the anatomical reference terms used in this article are all new to someone from outside the hands-on world of horses, or maybe some blog readers get confused about the terms in the English language, since, according to the statistics I've been checking, this blog is read by people from just about every country on the planet!

This simple video reviews the structures of the hoof capsule with an emphasis on dermal vs epidermal (inner vs outer, in plain language; sometimes referred to as sensitive vs insensitive in older terminology that described the laminae and sole).

If an anatomist was comparing the hooves of several mammals, he or she would use the terminology you will hear in this video. Everything has a noun to identify and an adjective to modify or locate it. The most common ones you'll hear are directional--medial or lateral, dorsal or palmar, but listen for things described as epidermis and corium, and for the characteristics of the layers of tissue in the coronary band. It's nice that the narrator speaks so slowly.

I apologize if this is too basic for you, but maybe you'll watch it anyway, and pass it on to someone who would like to study anatomy.

Lately it seems like some people don't study anatomy as much as they interpret it, according to their theories of the function of the hoof, but that seems backwards to me. I think my own theory on this is based on years of marveling at the hoof and hearing the most learned scholars marvel too at the complexity of the hoof's design and yet the efficiency of its functions.

I don't think we've cracked the case yet, but when we do, I believe it really will be like finishing a jigsaw puzzle: you just can't have any leftover unexplained anatomy pieces lying off to the side when you're done with your explanation of the foot. Everything that is there, is there for a reason and is doing something. All the parts work together. All the parts are important. That's the beauty of it...and the mystery of it, as well.

Thanks to mido851114 , an Egyptian vet who obviously found this video helpful, and posted it on YouTube so I could embed it here for you. The video was originally made for a set of comparative species dissection narrations at the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995 with credits to Drs. Nongnuch Inpanbutr and Maureen Caito. Dr. Inpanbutr is from Thailand. And so the world gets smaller and smaller...

© 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.

Video: Watch Another World Record in Dressage Freestyle for the Dutch Black Stallion Totilas

by Fran Jurga | 16 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Everyone in the horse world will be talking about this little video...and if they aren't, show it to them! At the FEI Dressage World Cup Qualifier tonight at London's Olympia Horse Show, European champion Moorlands Totilas broke his own world record for highest score ever given. He racked up 92.30%. Ridden by Edward Gal of The Netherlands, Totilas has a specific goal: to come to America next fall and win the gold medal at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. That's still 282 days away but this horse is the one everyone will come to see, assuming he can stay sound and healthy. And until that day, he will be the one everyone analyzes. Watch the way he downshifts from a canter to a tight pirouette around the middle of the test and comes out of it. This horse knows where his feet are. And where to put them next. He's the one to watch.

© 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.

Danny Ward Teaches Horseshoeing as a Sound Survival Skill for a Lame Economy

16 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Danny Ward's Horseshoeing School is featured on Blue Ridge Public Television this month.

Virginia's Blue Ridge Public Television made a field trip recently to a place many of us know very well: Danny Ward's Horseshoeing School in Martinsville, Virginia. But this time the reason wasn't the huge gathering of the farrier clan held there every November, or the visit of a horseshoeing guru from abroad, but an economic sidebar on the value of becoming a farrier as a second career in the stressed economy that is making finding a job difficult for many people who want to work.

Danny's school has been there since 1964, when his father, Smoky Ward, began teaching his skills, and it has weathered all sorts of economic boom and lean times in those 45 years. Danny just keeps on doing what he does. The world keeps beating a path to his iconic forge's door. It's kind of comforting to know he's there.

It's amazing to hear the optimism in his students' voices. I hope there is plenty of work for them out there. And I hope they are listening to every word Danny says, and staying up late practicing because they will need that sort of dedication to make it in the real world, no matter what shape the economy is in.

Thanks to Blue Ridge Public Television, JobQuest, and Carol Jennings for sharing this video.

© 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.

Friends at Work: Colten Preston, Australian Farrier Apprentice of the Year

16 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

Queensland's Colten Preston has been named Farrier Apprentice of the Year in Australia. Colten is 19, and works for racehorse farrier Mark O'Leary on the Gold Coast. He won a competition for apprentices in Victoria recently, but competition is nothing new to him; he is a serious polocrosse rider and has represented Australia internationally in that sport. Colten is just completing the Australian three-year TAFE training program, which includes college courses, and will work for Mark for one more year. Click here to read the nice article about Colten in today's Courier-Mail from Brisbane; photo courtesy of the Courier-Mail.

© 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.

The Farrier's Portrait: No Chestnut Trees in Sight

15 December 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

A friend asked me yesterday who my favorite photographer of farrier subjects was, and I couldn't answer. I've been thinking about it ever since. My friend is an aspiring photographer who wants to capture the world of farriery right down to its most intimate gestures of tongs or rasp or nipper.

I guess my answer is that I'm just incredibly curious how people take pictures of the horse's hoof and, secondarily, its attendant humans and environment. I've looked at probably millions of photos and I am just amazed when I keep seeing a point of view or a subject that I hadn't seen covered before. The possibilities are endless.

Take, for instance, this self-portrait of British farrier Gary Huston. He put the camera on the ground at the base of his hoofstand and got an ant's eye view of the horseshoer at work. His face is distorted, but that's gravity and focal length at work.

Sometimes a portrait doesn't even show the person's face. It might be straight-on shot of something you see of that person every day; it can be magic if the colors are right and the shutter speed cooperates. Daniele Voltattorni from Italy captured every move farrier Giordano Gidiucci made while shoeing his show jumper Nelson. He did a great job with this one, and some lovely metal-on-metal portraits of his Delta nails and tools as well. I thought maybe he was their ad agency in Italy! But he just likes the color and texture and light characteristics of metal. There's no one element in this photo that competes with the sparks, they all compliment the flying colors and the light on the farrier's hands. You don't need to see his face.

It's really pretty hard getting a good portrait image of a farrier. They either have caps on, or the light is bad, or you can't see their faces. The talented New York photographer Sarah Jean Condon solved that problem for farrier Kaytlin Bell by using the horse's comfy topline as a prop. All you see of her is her face, and one gloved hand. The Hoof Blog won the American Horse Publications first place award for this photo back in June. Remember this one the next time a photographer comes around (and you have a gray horse handy).

These are just a couple of shots that come to mind for me; it's all about how you look at things, and how/when/if that little crack of light sneaks in and lights things up. I think a good photographer always knows that there is a crack where some light will get in, in every good shot. That's where they start, and build the photo around the light, which might be just a speck...or the whole side of a horse.

I don't think that there could be a more interesting subject to photograph than horses' feet, farriers, veterinarians and all the barns and driveways and dark smithies and brightly lit clinics each present special challenges. When you get a really good image, you know you've earned it.

Many thanks to Gary, Daniele and Sarah for allowing their images to be shown on this blog.

PS: Farriers might be curious about the weird inner rim on Gary's shoe in the first image. I certainly was. It's not part of the shoe, it's the base of his hoofstand. He uses this plate (above) which he says is cut out to fit the size frog of most of the horses he shoes, and when the horse puts his foot on the plate, it locks in for Gary to rasp away on or clinch. Here's the plate all by itself; Gary took this photo just to explain it to me because I was a little slow to catch on to the concept.

© 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.