Equine Imaging: Hallmarq's Standing MRI Expertise Accessible Through Hoof Blog Alliance

This video, produced by Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging, details the procedure involved in preparing for and executing a standing MRI as practiced by Sarah E. Powell, MA, VetMB, MRCVS in the Hallmarq suite at Rossdales Equine Diagnostic Centre in Newmarket, England.

Get ready for some exciting new additions to the Hoof Blog. Over the next few weeks, the H-Blog will present information for and with the assistance of Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging, a company that is recognized as the worldwide leader in standing-MRI imaging of the horse's lower limb.

Now that 14 leading North American university and private equine hospitals are equipped with specialized Hallmarq magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units for hoof imaging, there is a "need to know" in the horse owner, trainer, technician, therapist and farrier sectors about what this type of veterinary diagnostic imaging involves and what its value to the horse can be. Worldwide, almost 50 Hallmarq lower limb imaging suites are in use; images of almost 20,000 equine lameness cases have been archived in the company's central database. But what does that mean to a horse in my care, or in yours?

Why does a veterinarian need an MRI if a radiograph has already been taken? An MRI looks literally "into the foot" from different angles and reveals the condition of soft tissue structures, such as tendons, ligaments, and hard-to-view points like the navicular bursa. A radiograph's weaknesses are an MRI's strengths. MRI results are especially valuable for making a prognosis for a performance-related injury. (Hallmarq image)

With Hallmarq's expertise and vast database of images, we will be helping to de-mystify where, when and how MRI fits into the bigger picture of horse foot injury imaging and explaining specific foot problems that are especially well-suited for detailed soft-tissue analysis using MRI technology. Hallmarq's unit, as you will see in this video, also allows the horse to be imaged while standing, so that only sedation is required rather than subjecting the horse to the risks of general anesthesia.

That's the process, and while we all are interested in the end results, it's important to know what can be done to best prepare horses for an MRI appointment and to appreciate the valuable information that MRI might provide. Information from leading clinics and lameness specialists will provide insights and perhaps give insight to what the future may hold.

Watch for more in the Hallmarq-sponsored article series this summer, and check their social media system and especially their info-deep web site for lots more information.

To learn more about Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging and standing MRI technology for horses:

• Become a fan  of the new Hallmarq Equine MRI Facebook page;
• Follow @HallmarqMRI on Twitter;
• Subscribe to the hallmarqvetimaging channel on YouTube.com;
• Watch for a growing equine distal limb Hallmarq MRI image gallery on Flickr.com;
• Visit the Hallmarq.net web site. (Plan to spend some time there!)

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About Hoof Blog sponsored articles: From time to time, the HOOF BLOG publishes articles made possible by the sponsorship of industry partners and advertisers. These articles will always be clearly marked as sponsored content. They are developed and created by Hoofcare Publishing in collaboration with the sponsor. Only articles clearly marked as sponsored content have commercial affiliations. Sponsored content opportunities are available to companies whose programs, events or products are relevant to the educational mission of Hoofcare Publishing and the interests of its subscribers. Please email Hoofcare more information on sponsorship opportunities.

England's Steven Beane Repeats as Calgary World Champion

The Calgary Stampede put together this little video about the farrier competition.

"Beane" there, done that--Two years in a row!

Steven Beane of England, shown early in this video, was named the 2010 World Champion Blacksmith at the Calgary Stampede today.  That makes it two in a row for the Yorkshire farrier, who was also champion in 2009 and is currently reserve European champion for 2010.

According to the Calgary Stampede, Beane was virtually unbeatable when it counted Sunday, dominating the semifinal and final rounds under the Big Top to win his second consecutive World Championship Blacksmiths’ Competition title at the Calgary Stampede.

Beane, who hails from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, is the first backto-back WCBC champion since Billy Crothers of Wales won the second and third of his five Stampede crowns back in 1995 and 1996.

“It’s unbelievably hard to do that. Really, really hard,” said Beane, 31. “You’ve got so many good guys competing here . . . you’ve got to be on the top of your game, and I’m lucky I was on top of my game today.

“I’ve had a bad year up until now, to be honest,” added Beane, who said he competes at between 15 and 20 farrier competitions during a year. “I went to the European championships, where I’d won two years in a row, and I was second there. That was kind of hard to take. But I must admit that for the last couple of months, I’ve been focused on coming back here.”

During the 10-man semifinal, Beane opened up a 21-point lead on Jake Engler of Magnolia, Texas, and in the final, he increased that advantage, prevailing by 32 points over Engler in the end.

Beane finished with 147 points to Engler’s 115. As for the other finalists, Scotland’s Derek Gardner was
third with 115 (Engler won a tiebreaker on the fit of a horse’s shoe); fellow Scot David Varini was fourth with 94, and Texan Gene Lieser ended up fifth with 87.

Beane wins a cheque for $10,000, as well as a gold-and-silver Stampede championship buckle, a limited  edition bronze trophy, and a champion’s jacket. More than $50,000 in cash and prizes were handed out to WCBC competitors this weekend.

“It was pretty rough going for me today. Nothing was clicking,” said Engler. “Beane is always on the money, and he’s hard to beat. But I’m pretty happy with (second place). It can’t be too bad, since there’s  only one guy better than me.”

Congratulations to all the farriers who made the trip to Calgary and represented their countries.

Information and quotes provided by the Calgary Stampede were used in this report. Photo and video courtesy of the Calgary Stampede.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing


Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. 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.

Calgary Stampede Top Ten Announced

C A L G A R Y  2 0 1 0

Fifty-six competitors representing 12 countries have been pounding it out at Calgary, Alberta in Canada for the Calgary Stampede’s 31^st annual World Championship Blacksmiths’ Competition (WCBC). Three former Stampede champions, including 2009 World Champion Stephen Beane of England, are competing this year.

At stake are $50,000 in cash and prizes, with the winner receiving a $10,000 check, a limited edition bronze trophy, a Stampede handcrafted buckle, and a champion’s jacket. But anyone will tell you that it's more about the title than the prizes.

Saturday night, after accumulating points in eight different forging and shoeing classes over three days, the top 10 competitors were announced for Sunday's semifinal under the Big Top. Squaring off will be Beane, Canada's Colain Duret, Scotland’s Ian Gajczak, Derek Gardner, and David Varini, and three Americans: Jake Engler, Gene Lieser, Chris Madrid, Tim McPhee, and Jim Quick.

The top five from the 10-man semifinal will return immediately for the WCBC’s final round. A World Champion should be announced later Sunday afternoon.

England’s Darren Bazin has won Calgary three times and been second once. “Being a world champion, you get to shoe better horses, and you work with better clientele,” Bazin, 39, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, told Stampede interviewers. Beane also competes in other world-class blacksmithing competitions such as the Royal Show, the International, and the European championships. “There’s a lot of good younger guys competing now, but I rely on experience, really, and there’s a lot of preparation that goes into a competition like this. You can’t just show up and compete--not at this level.”

“Last year, we brought attention to the (WCBC’s) 30^th anniversary, and it was an opportunity for past world champions who hadn’t been here for a while to congregate for a special event,” says Blaine Virostek, chairman of the Stampede’s Blacksmiths committee. “But we do continue to see new, younger guys starting to compete at this level, so the talent pool has definitely been growing over the past six to eight years. That shows us we’re going in the right direction.”

Virostek also says this year’s 31st annual competition marks the beginning of a subtle change in proceedings, with a move toward a team concept.
“This year, for example, we’re introducing a two-man shoeing competition,” he says. “When you get back into the industry, farriers do work in teams. There’s a master-apprentice kind of relationship. It’s a real-world application.”

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing
Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. 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.

Calgary Stampede: World Champion Will Be Named on Sunday

C   A   L   G   A   R   Y

I'd like to be able to tell you who is winning and who is losing at the 2010 World Championship Blacksmith Competition at the Calgary Stampede, but I honestly don't know. I've been promised the results but they aren't available yet.

I do know that there are 60 farrier competitors and that they represent these countries: Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Hungary, The Isle of Man, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, and the USA. The judges are Andrew Reader-Smith of New Zealand and Craig Trnka of the USA.

It doesn't seem possible that there is no one there from Wales. Farriers from Wales have probably held the World Champion title more years than any other country: Grant Moon, Billy Crothers, James Blurton and Richard Ellis were all World Champions from the tiny country. And Grant Moon won the title something like six times!

The Calgary Sun has a short video report on this year's competition. It features California's Mike Chisham and Missouri's Cody Gregory.

More news will be available soon, hopefully. The Top Ten competitors from the events so far were presumably announced tonight and will go forward to tomorrow's nail-biting finals.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com 
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing 
Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. 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.

Favorite Photo: A Good Hand Around a Horse

Working hand, originally uploaded by loustinephoto.

Some photos are more effective because of what they don't show you.

You don't need to see this farrier's face. You know him just by looking at his hand.

Look at the size of this man's thumb and the breadth from thumb to forefinger. My thumb doesn't even reach the first knuckle on my forefinger; it is set low on my hand and can't grasp much. This man's thumb is extraordinary.

I believe that a horse understands the difference when a hand like this touches it. A horse recognizes a touch somewhere in its genetic memory.

Maybe there aren't many good horsemen left, as everyone is always lamenting. But there are still a few good hands. This is one of them.

Global Hunter Takes a Detour to the Winner's Circle, Via Surgery at Alamo Pintado

It was a game finish to the American Handicap at California's Hollywood Park on the Fourth of July. While the rest of us were on the barbeque and fireworks circuit, a nice racehorse was being pulled up after winning the race by a neck. They called it a "bad step" in the racing press. In spite of the win, a nice horse became a statistic, and almost a fatality.

Global Hunter never made it to the winner's circle. The veterinarians took over and the Grade 1 stakes winner was vanned that night to Dr. Doug Herthel's Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, California. That's a long van ride; Los Olivos is north of Santa Barbara. But it was worth the trip.

Radiographs apparently showed that the horse dislocated his fetlock but did not actually fracture his leg, although I am sure more detailed images have been taken now, and the surgeons may have found some damage. Virtually all the racing publications, web sites and TVG reported that the horse went into surgery at Alamo Pintado under the care of Dr Carter Judy, and that he seemed to recover well afterwards and was standing on all four legs. Dr Carter's surgical repairs used plates and screws to realign and stabilize the lower limb.

Now begins the vigil. A Global Hunter Facebook page immediately popped up and will hopefully keep a flow of news available to those who care about the horse

Global Hunter is a seven-year-old Argentine-bred son of Jade Hunter who has done well racing in California. The Grade II American Handicap was a turf race.

About the joint: The fetlock, or metacarpophalangeal joint,  is a relatively straightforward joint that flexes and extends with the changing segments of the horse's stride. The cannon (third metacarpal) bone meets the long pastern bone (proximal phalanx) and the knob-like proximal sesamoids to form this joint. A small sagittal ridge between the condyles (rounded ends) of the cannon bone creates a sort of stabilizing bar within the joint so that it only opens and closes in a flex-extend acceptable range of motion. This ridge and the condyles of the cannon bone sit perfectly into the joint cavity created by the long pastern bone. Such a nicely designed joint architecture is held in place by a network of short, tight ligaments that prevent both side-to-side motion and dangerous knuckling forward of the joint. In addition, the two proximal sesamoid bones are points of attachment for the branches of the suspensory ligament (interosseous) and the deep digital flexor tendon rides across the back of the two sesamoids. In summary, the fetlock is much more than a mere joint: it is an intersection of both soft and bony tissue and one of the most critical structures for both weightbearing and locomotion.

Global Hunter will no doubt remain at Alamo Pintado for the time being. The hospital made this video available about its fracture repair services. While Global Hunter's injury may not technically not a long-bone fracture, the process to repair it is similar to the fracture repair and surgical processes detailed in this video, so I thought I would share this. He is a lucky horse, but we will find out in the weeks to come just how lucky. Maybe someday he'll make it back to the winner's circle at Hollywood Park for his win photo from the Fourth of July.

To learn more: An excellent paper on the structure and function of the fetlock joint and the how-and-why of injuries in racehorses is Articular Fetlock Injuries in Exercising Horses by Elizabeth M. Santschi DVM of the College of Veterinary Medicine at The Ohio State University. It is published in Performance Horse Lameness and Orthopedics, Volume 24 No. 1 (April 2008) of Veterinary Clinics of North America: Equine Practice.

Video courtesy of Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, California

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com
© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing


Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask. 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.