Is California Farrier Doug Roberts the Hardest Working Person in America?

Doug Roberts is a hard-working guy. He's been shoeing horses for 37 years, and he has no plans to quit. Ever.

But when the Livermore, California farrier heard about a contest to find the hardest working person in America, he figured there couldn't be many people who worked harder than he does. And the judges agreed, because today they announced that Doug is a finalist, one of ten people chosen as the hardest working people in America.

Mitchum, which manufactures what it calls the hardest working antiperspirant/deodorant, launched the promotional campaign in May 2010.

"Mitchum challenged regular people to create reality films telling their true stories of hard work, and the public responded in a strong way," said Alan T. Ennis, CEO of Revlon, Mitchum's parent company. "Mitchum is a brand that prides itself on working hard and these finalists have proven they do just that. Not only are they finalists, they are true Mitchum brand ambassadors. Through this contest, Mitchum and the public have the power to make a difference in someone's life."

Besides Doug Roberts, the finalists selected include a man who is cleaning up the nation's rivers; a U.S. Air Force Fighter pilot; an 88-year-old working mom; an elementary school custodial worker; the founder of First Response Team of America; a man helping young campers build character, respect and leadership;  an actor, trash-hauler, artist, silkscreener and landscaper; a construction worker and dad who moonlights as a college student; and an Army drill sergeant.

Beginning today, the public can log on to www.mitchumhardestworking.com and vote for the “Hardest Working Person in America”--as long as you promise to vote for Doug! The grand prize winner of the contest will receive a $100,000 cash prize and be the subject of a short film by legendary documentarian Albert Maysles and co-filmmaker Bradley Kaplan with a first-place winner also receiving a $20,000 cash prize. In addition, Mitchum will also present an “Audience Award” winner with a $5,000 prize and a “golden” Mitchum trophy for the video which received the most votes in the first round of the contest. Voting will close on August 15, 2010 and all three winners will be announced between August 16-23, 2010.

For contest rules or to view the hardest working films, television spots and finalist videos visit mitchumhardestworking.com, www.facebook.com/mitchum, or follow the campaign on Twitter at @MitchumTM (twitter.com/mitchumtm. Just be sure to vote for Doug as often as they'll let you!

© 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.

Overdose Is Back! Champion Euro Sprinter Wins After Laminitis Layup

Great news from Bratislava, Slovakia this weekend: Champion Hungarian sprinter Overdose, a.k.a. "The Budapest Bullet", remained undefeated when he won a race. This was his first start since being sidelined for 15 months by laminitis. Overdose's recovery from laminitis was featured in the Hoof Blog in May. Should Overdose stay sound and fit, he is slated to run in England this summer.

© 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.

Is This What They Mean by "Loads Well"?

Is this what it means in the horses-for-sale listings when an ad says that a horse "loads well"? These two photos are from an amazing series taken in Poland this spring when the floods were so bad there. An amphibious military craft became a makeshift horse van. This draft horse is certainly being a good sport about climbing into the vessel. How many horses would even try? It obviously took a few attempts to get him on board. I guess the water was too deep to lower the ramp. This photo reminds me of all the natural horsemanship lessons of getting your horse to walk willingly onto a trailer. It's doubtful whether the fellow in the boat is a genius horse whisperer or this horse has been through a NH seminar but they eventually got him into the boat. The fellow in blue is doing a great job of staying out of the way. Photos from fOTOGLIF

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

America's Got Talent: Bike Riding Horseshoer Advances on Reality Show

He says he got his upper body strength from bucking hay bales. He lives in the loft of a barn. And he made it past the tough judges and through two big broadcasts of the NBC reality show America's Got Talent. Now he's on his way to the finals in Hollywood.

Jeremy Vanschoonhoven could probably shoe a horse while sitting on his bike. Why not? He can ride it across tightropes and scale uneven parallel bars on a stage in front of thousands of people. But the horseshoer from Talent, Oregon is going to need a lot of support from the horse world when he gets to the Hollywood finals.

You know he's practicing; he even builds his own sets. Keep an eye on the television listings and cheer Jeremy on! I think you can call in and vote for him , too--that's how the show works.

Here's a little video that Jeremy put together to showcase his talent off the stage.

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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.

Springs in the Bluegrass; Fine-tuning a Thoroughbred Yearling's Hooves 30 Days Before the Sale

A funny thing happened on the way to the airport.

I had a chance to look over the shoulder of Dr Scott Morrison of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital's Podiatry Clinic, and who would turn that down? The patient was a perfectly healthy yearling colt being prepared for an August sale. But with 30 days left until the sale, the growing colt was showing a slight tendency to be "a bit upright" and some finetuning was in order.

Make no mistake: this colt’s hoof conformation wouldn’t be of much, if any, concern other than the fact that he’d be under the microscope at the sale and every detail has to be considered. Every detail, after all, can make the difference in a bidder's enthusiasm for a horse and where the colt would be ranked on a bidder's wish list. In the end, it comes down to dollars and cents but in the climate of recent yearling sales, it could be the difference between a sale and no sale.

Dr. Morrison’s solution to this horse’s problem was at once right out of the textbook and equally unorthodox in that it might have come out of two different textbooks. He arrived with two spring shoes, which would be on the menu of recommended shoes for a case like this. But the shoes for this horse were made of two different materials.

The solution to working on two front feet with different levels of contraction? 
Spring shoes made of two materials, one more flexible than the other. The aluminum 
shoe also had a hinge in the toe to open the right front more.

On the left front, which had the least amount of deviation, the horse now wears a Burns Polyflex shoe, into which Rood and Riddle added a spring wire, which is a v-shaped wire roughly the size and shape of the frog. The wire, however, does not touch the frog.

Polyflex spring shoe glued on, before cutting the horizontal keeper wire and adding
Equipak to fill the sole. The spring (frog-shaped wire) does not touch the frog.

The Polyflex shoe is made for glueing; it is composed of nearly-transparent polyurethane with a wire spine inside. The shoe was glued on with Equilox  hoof adhesive and then the sole was filled with Vettec’s Equipak, a clear cushioning urethane. Before pouring in the liquid padding, Morrison clipped the temporary horizontal keeper wire to release the spring action of the wire.

The Polyflex shoe did not have a hinge, but the spring action of the wire and the forgiving material of the shoe would help keep the foot open, Morrison believes.

Completed left front foot with polyurethane shoe after Equipak is solidified. Just to clarify: soft urethane-based Equipak fills and cushions the sole and frog; harder PMMA epoxy-type adhesive Equilox glues on the shoe.

On the right front, which was slightly more problematic, Rood and Riddle’s shoe fabrication specialist Manuel Cruz created an aluminum hinged shoe with a spring wire. The hinge was in the center of the toe, as typically described for hinge shoes to relieve club feet and contracted heels in more advanced cases. Equilox, the clipping of the horizontal keeper wire, and Equipak again followed.

Shoe fabrication specialist Manuel Cruz fabricates a vast repertoire 
of shoes and devices for the vets and farriers at Rood and Riddle.

Aluminum hinge shoe fabricated back at Rood and Riddle by Manuel Cruz. 
The spring is the same as in the Polyflex shoe, but the shoe has a 
hinge in the toe to open the foot. 

I asked Manuel about the discrepancy in thickness between the two shoes but he said that it was an illusion and that they were almost the same.

Morrison and McAninch tackled the application of these results-oriented horseshoes to the colt's front feet as if it was routine; with yearling sales season approaching, that may be the case. The organization at the clinic to prepare what's needed for supplies and to fabricate shoess must be impressive when you see how easily the work gets done without searching for things.

The case itself was intriguing but equally interesting was the process, especially the speed and efficiency with which Morrison and his technician Loryn McAninch completed the job. I know from my travels that this would have been a half-day job at most clinics but the feet had been traced and trimmed in advance, the shoes fabricated to the tracings, and the adhesive and support materials were ready to go.

Another good point about the way this case was handled, from an outside observation, was that the young horse had to stand for a minimal amount of time since the measuring, tracing and trimming had already been done. The unorthodox unmatching spring shoes may have been an insurance policy on this horse's value. We'll never know what his feet might have looked like without this intervention but prospective owners will appreciate the picture-perfect feet that they will see on this horse at the sale.

Thanks to Dr Morrison, Loryn, Manuel and the farm staff for allowing me to observe this procedure and photograph it. Good luck to the colt!

To learn more: A valuable detailed reference paper by Dr. Morrison, Foal Foot Care, is available for download from the Proceedings of the 2009 CanWest Veterinary Conference.

All photos © Fran Jurga | Hoofcare Publishing.

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