This week we have a fine example of the independent-spirit brand of American horseshoer. You don't have to call him a farrier, because he is perfectly happy being a horseshoer. In fact, he seems perfectly happy, period.
Ricky Price lives in Ramona, California and has used shoeing horses as a way to live the good life in the hills east of San Diego. In this nice audio slideshow from San Diego Online, you'll see Ricky (and his fantastic mustache) and you'll hear the sounds that he hears--horses, hammer on anvil, his pickup truck, the buzz of his grinder, a steel shoe being released from the pulloff jaws with a clatter.
Somewhere, there's the Other San Diego, with all the hustle and bustle, but Ricky's beyond all that, or at least he's east of it, out past San Diego Wild Animal Park. He won't cross Interstate 15, which is sort of a dividing line between San Diego, the sprawl, and San Diego County, the place where people like Ricky Price can and do live. He starts the day when he's ready. He finishes it when he's done. He still has time and energy to ride every night when it's over. He can still hear himself think, and one thing he thinks is that he can help a horse relax and enjoy being shod.
Oscar walks on two prosthetic hind feet that are attached to "pegs" surgically implanted in the remaining bone in his hind leg. The pegs mimic deer antler in that skin can--and does--attach to them. Once the pegs healed, the detachable feet could be attached. Photo by Jim Incledon via The Bionic Vet
You might want to think twice before saying, "Here, kitty, kitty!" to a cute little black cat...who is missing both his hind feet. Oscar got the short end of a run-in with a combine on a farm, but that tragedy led to his becoming possibly the world's most famous cat. Oscar was referred to an Irish vet surgeon named Noel Fitzpatrick who now practices in England.
Oscar became a candidate for a very special surgical procedure that implanted pegs into the stump of his limbs, in plain English. The implants healed and tiny prosthetic paws were attached to them.
Oscar, the Irish vet, the surgical process and an inspiring cast of surgeons, physiotherapists and forward-thinking animal advocates are featured in The Bionic Vet, a new British BBC "reality" show set in the progressive vet hospital where Fitzpatrick tries to help the handicapped animals brought to him.
Many readers know that I have been working with Molly the Pony for the last few years. Molly is an amputee who survived being abandoned during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans only to be mauled by a pit bull; gallant surgery at Louisiana State University's vet school amputated her lower right front leg. She now visits hospitals and schools to inspire and encourage people to do what she has done: overcome adversity. (You'll be able to meet Molly at the World Equestrian Games this fall.) I've seen first-hand how complex the care of all four of her legs is, and always wondered if there might be something on the horizon. And now I can see it, though I realize it may be pretty far off for horses.
Here are a few clips about cases that you might see on the show if it is shown in the USA (or wherever you live). The dog paw is an older case but I thought it might be useful to show it:
The revolutionary design of the feet uses custom-made implants to ‘peg’ the ankle to the foot and mimics the way in which deer antler bone grows through skin – a case of science ‘copycatting’ the natural world.
These pegs, or ITAPs (Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthetics), were first developed by a team from University College London’s Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science. Intraosseous means into the bone; Transcutaneous means through the skin; Amputation means the intentional surgical removal of a body part, usually a portion of a limb; Prosthetics means the design and/or application of devices to act as functional or cosmetic replacements.
In a three-hour operation, the veterinary surgical team inserted the ITAPs by drilling into the bones in each of the hind legs. This in itself was an extremely delicate feat, one that could have fractured the ankle joint before the procedure had even begun. It was even more challenging because it had to be performed perfectly twice, once in each leg. The artificial (titanium) implants which are inserted into the bone are coated with hydroxyapatite, which encourages bone cells to grow onto the metal.
The skin then grows over the special umbrella at the end of the ITAP to form a resilient seal against bacteria and potentially fatal infections. The ITAP itself protrudes through the bone and skin, allowing the custom-built artificial paws to be securely attached.
In 2008 Noel Fitzpatrick opened a £10 million state-of-the-art facility in Surrey, England. His goal is to transform the face of modern veterinary surgery. His clinic offers a unique blend of leading-edge diagnostics and surgery with rehabilitation modalities including on-site physiotherapy and hydrotherapy.
“Harnessing advanced biomimetic material and mechanics with the latest surgical techniques”, Noel Fitzpatrick says, “is set to transform the future of orthopedic practice in both human and animal medicine.”
I live in a place that takes the traditions of the Fourth of July very seriously. It's a celebration here of Olympic proportions, as 800,000 or so of your closest friends all get together on the banks of the Charles River in Boston and wait for the sky to erupt in one of the most dazzling fireworks displays anywhere. Everyone waits for the orchestra to strike up the grand finale, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. The church bells ring, cannons fire, and the fireworks begin.
And it's all choreographed perfectly--every year!
But people haven't always cheered to the 1812. Tchaikovsky didn't even write his 1812 Overture until the 1880s and he probably never heard it performed outdoors with cannons and church bells.
Musical tone anvils are still manufactured today outside Boston, Massachusetts, as demonstrated here by manufacturer/percussionist Neil Grover.
No, that was Boston's idea. Back in the 1980s, the city needed to boost the outdoor concert; they needed a grand finale showstopper. The 1812 filled the bill, since there were churches nearby to help out with the bells. It worked so well that other cities and orchestras followed suit and now everyone connects that piece of music with fireworks and the US celebration of the Fourth of July. And everyone knows there was a war in the United States in 1812, even though the music was written to commemorate Napoleon's ill-fated siege of Moscow in 1812.
So what did they play for a grand finale back in the old days? Chances are, they played the Anvil Chorus. And they played it very loud. With anvils.
Like most Americans of a certain age, I grew up listening to the Anvil Chorus because it was built so many of the soundtracks of the cartoons I watched on television. When you heard the familiar chorus, it signaled something dramatic to follow. Usually it was Roadrunner being buried under a pile of boulders that tumbled on top of him in time to the music.
To celebrate the end of the Civil War in Boston, 100 farrier anvils provided percussion for a performance of Verdi's Anvil Chorus in what was the largest outdoor concert in history until Woodstock in 1969. Did anyone play an anvil there? Here you see the firemen rehearsing.
Verdi's opera Il Trovatore, which contains the Anvil Chorus, premiered in 1853, in an era when so-called "musical" anvils were already embedded in orchestras' percussion sections. Wagner used them elaborately in his German operas, but Verdi brought the anvils on stage. His score directed that the sound of the anvils was not to emanate from the orchestra pit. The singers in the chorus were to hammer the anvils: basses should play (hit) their anvils on the beat; tenors provided the offbeat on-stage percussion. The audience loved it, and the rest is history.
Percussionists have always appreciated what an anvil could offer them. But as percussion became more sophisticated, orchestras didn't use just any anvils; there actually was a demand for anvils identifiable not for their horn shape or heel width, but for their tones.
Even though the sound of an anvil can be created and manipulated electronically, percussion anvils--which look nothing at all like "real" anvils, but sound just like them--are still manufactured and sold; one manufacturer is Grover Pro Percussion, in Woburn, Massachusetts.
But sometimes just an anvil or two would not be enough: Wagner wrote music for 16 different anvils in his opera, Das Rheingold. And when the city of Boston was ready to celebrate the end of the Civil War, the party planners knew what the audience would want to hear. They put a call out to the city's horseshoers, who donated a whopping 100 anvils for the big night. The city's firemen were dressed up in finery to play the anvils. In an age with no microphones, no sound systems, and no speakers, you can be sure that the people in the back row over by the river heard the percussion for the Anvil Chorus.
That concert, by the way, was the largest attendance at a musical event in history, until Woodstock came along 100 years later. Were there anvils on stage at Woodstock? The great tradition of the Anvil Chorus has always had a way of making anvils heard, wherever and whenever great music is made.
The Hoof Blog is the news service for Hoofcare and Lameness Publishing. Please, do not copy and paste text or images from this blog on other sites or social media without permission--please link and share instead. (Just ask if you need help.) The Hoof Blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a headlines-link email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). Use the little envelope symbol below to email this article to others. The "translator" tool in the right sidebar will convert this article (roughly) to the language of your choice. To share this article on Facebook and other social media, click on the small symbols below the labels. Be sure to "like" the Hoofcare and Lameness Facebook page and click on "get notifications" under the page's "like" button to keep up with the hoof news on Facebook.
Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + LamenessFacebook Page
Disclosure of Material Connection: The Hoof Blog (Hoofcare Publishing) has not received any direct compensation for writing this post. Hoofcare Publishing has no material connection to the brands, products, or services mentioned, other than products and services of Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Between World Cup matches, Dutch farrier Rob Renirie found his way to dressage star Anky van Grunsven's training center in Erp this week to shoe some of her horses in training; here you see him working on Nelson. Anky was impressed that he used a fan to keep away the flies. I was impressed that even Anky van Grunsven has flies. While Anky will not be competing for a place on the Dutch dressage team at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this September, she scored a personal-best 70.5 on her most recent reining test. I believe two 68s are the requirement to qualify for WEG. Unfortunately Anky's low score didn't count since she rewarded her horse too soon and her score dropped to zero! Rob Renirie, on the other hand, should be a shoe-in to be the Dutch team farrier at WEG in Kentucky and we'll hope to see him there! Maybe the Brazilians will have recovered by then. Photo mirrored fromwww.anky.nl.
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 sad news from Kentucky is that Black Tie Affair was humanely destroyed yesterday. Apparently he had been suffering from laminitis.
Black Tie Affair was Horse of the Year and won the Breeders Cup Classic back in 1991--which seems like just yesterday. He was bred in Ireland, raced out of Chicago, and stood at stud in Japan, among other places.
But he had the good fortune to end up at Old Friends, a retirement for horses outside Lexington, Kentucky. According to their Facebook page, when he arrived at the farm, he suffered terribly from melanoma and arthritis; apparently laminitis was a problem for some or all of the time as well.
Black Tie Affair was one of those horses that inspires his fans. He ran better than you thought he could. He was tenacious. And he was a beautiful gray streak to watch among all the bays and chestnuts on the track, especially that day when he won the Breeders Cup Classic.
I remember that Black Tie Affair was shod by Joe Trhlik at Arlington Park back in the 1990s.
I heard a quote just today and put it on my Facebook page earlier. Little did I know it would come back to haunt me: "A racehorse is an animal that can take several thousand people for a ride at the same time." It's from the soon-to-be-published book, Secretariat's Meadow.
Black Tie Affair took millions of us for a great ride. A ride that ended Thursday. Laminitis did it again.
Thanks to Kate Hunter of Keiblog, one of our Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance affiliates, for posting this amazing (and bloggable) photo of Black Tie Affair. It was taken about three weeks ago at Old Friends.
Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital's Dr Larry Bramlage will be a key speaker at this week's third Grayson-Jockey Club Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky as racing experts gather to address concerns inherent to racing. Chief among these concerns will be racing injuries and the choice of surfaces.
This Reuters video was made back in the spring, before the 2010 Kentucky Derby. Dr. Bramlage enjoys--or endures--a flurry of interviews and activity at Derby and Breeders Cup time, or whenever racing comes into the consciousness of the media.
Dr. Bramlage is the principal spokesman for the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) "On Call" on-air media-consulting program. He routinely answers questions for NBC, ESPN and newspaper journalists at Churchill Downs, and other tracks; who could forget his as-it-happened commentary on Barbaro's breakdown?
This year, Dr. Bramlage provided the Associated Press with essential information about steroid use in horses. The article, Racing Seeks Balance in Regulating Some Steroids, ran in over 200 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and USA Today during Derby week. The article addresses the current ban on anabolic steroids and the uses of corticosteroids, which can have many beneficial effects, but can potentially be more dangerous than anabolic steroids if misused.
Just as the media turns to Dr. Bramlage to put it all together, the industry will do the same this week at the Welfare and Safety Summit.
The Keeneland Association will provide a live video stream when the Summit is held on Monday and Tuesday. All of Monday’s sessions and one session on Tuesday will be open to the public and available by video stream atkeeneland.com.
The Hoof Blog will be quiet for a few days; Fran Jurga is a delegate to the Summit and will be working hard in Kentucky.
Information from Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Reuters, and the Associated Press was utilized in the preparation of this blog post.
