Sunday, October 03, 2010

Hoofcare@WEG: Cutest Farrier Rig at the World Equestrian Games


I don't know how Sandy Johnson gets any work done. Everyone is so curious about her cute little shoeing trailer that she has to keep showing it off. But she doesn't seem to mind.

Shoeing trailers have become the road fashion accessory of the American farrier for the past few years. Some farriers work out of them on a daily basis, and get to enjoy having a truck that functions as a truck. Or they can pull a small trailer with a smaller truck or SUV, as Sandy has done with this Honda Pilot.

The little black trailer was built this spring from Sandy's scale drawings by Stonewell Forge in Genoa, New York.

Sandy lives in Wellington, Florida, where she and her husband, Joe, operate their International Farrier Service. Horses shod by IFS competed in the Dressage at WEG in the first week and will compete in the Para Dressage in the second week. Sandy was credentialed in horse handling operations for WEG and you might have found her out on the runway at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, riding the high-low up and down with a bouquet of leadlines in her hand. Joe and Sandy were the US Team Farriers for show jumping at the World Equestrian Games in 1996 in Rome, Italy.

The black trailer is only used to service clients in the north during the off season. Sandy's is one of many clever designs rolling down the highways that are saving space and gas and making convenient unhooking locations or even transporting shoeing trailers within cargo containers for overseas work or inside big horse vans or moving vans. Try doing that with a truck.

Sorry it was raining when these photos were taken!

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hoof Balance Perspective: Duckett and Caldwell Speakers at Oakencroft’s October Podiatry Conference in New York

Do you know the difference between Duckett's Dot and The Bridge? For years, the Dot stuck in people's memories but the Bridge was probably where most people thought the Dot was. This is a useful illustration technique used in Dr Lisa Lancaster's book, The Sound Hoof, for her explanation of Duckett's system.

Who: Farriers and veterinarians
What: 5th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium
When: October 15-16, 2010
Where: South Bethlehem/Selkirk, New York (near Albany)
Presented by The Clinic at Oakencroft and Greene County Horseshoe Supply

A Hoofcare + Lameness Recommended Event

Sometimes I sit in the dark watching speaker’s slides at conferences and think like an Irish country matchmaker. I’d like to see her talk on the same program with him, or get this German together with this Australian, or whatever, and see what they come up with when a horse walks in to be evaluated.

When I heard British educator Mark Caldwell roll through the results of his research that had compared different hoof balance methods over a shoeing period, I wondered if Dave Duckett knew that someone had put his “Dot” (and Bridge and all the rest of his landmarks) to the test not just of measurement, but of time.

As it turned out, he didn’t know, but the news got his attention. Now it’s time for the two to present their versions of what hoof balance was, is or will be, side by side on the same program. It's a speaker-match made in hoofcare heaven.

Two years later, the man with all the hoof balance testing tools and the man with all the ideas in his head instead of on paper will present their views on hoof shape and balance together, and perhaps re-define or update their studies, or influence each other. Consider this: is the best trimming method for a foot the method that leaves the foot looking balanced when the farrier drives away, or is it the one that prepares the hoof to grow out evenly and maintain a balanced base and flat landing over the four or six or eight week shoeing period?

 A foot map to where, exactly? This exercise included mapping out the foot as it existed at the time of trimming. Caldwell sketched in the wider base of frog that is one of his goals for this foot to show his students where the foot would be going, if it was trimmed not for the moment but for the continuum until the next farrier visit. If you're trying to help the horse develop the frog, would you trim differently than someone who thought this foot was acceptable as is? Should you map the foot the horse has or the foot the horse is capable of having?

THE SPEAKERS:
David Duckett FWCF: The well-known and highly honored British farrier and farrier competitor now lives in Pennsylvania. By my math, this year should be roughly the 25th anniversary of his first major hoof balance lectures. Based on observation and a lot of dissections and anatomy studies, Duckett’s idea was to get farriers interested in hoof anatomy by giving clever names to landmarks. His hoof balance system strives to inspire farriers to focus on the points on the horse’s foot least likely to change rather than to dwell on shapes that can and do migrate or grow unevenly. In spite of his system’s simplicity, or perhaps because of it, it is very often misunderstood and the points are transposed.

Mark Caldwell FWCF instructs the farriery courses at Myerscough College in England. He trained as a farrier in the British Army and then became a specialist in shoeing horses for lameness problems at a veterinary hospital before turning to teaching. His research studies use gait analysis and weight-scanning mats; his quest is to define what he calls “evidence-based farriery”.

Mark is currently involved in a post-graduate PhD program studying "limb loading and the effects on hoof capsule morphometrics" at the University of Liverpool Department of Veterinary Clinical Science in Liverpool, England.

Together, these two speakers can explain where the ideas come from (Duckett) and what happens when you put the idea to a test that filters out the subjective tricks we play on ourselves when we evaluate horses’ feet (Caldwell). This clinic is a chance to hear “from the horses’ mouths” where in the world “Duckett’s Dot” came from…and perhaps where it is going in the future.

In other words: this will not be a shoemaking clinic. This clinic most likely will be about looking at feet and identifying/evaluating the matrix that dictates a foot’s shape and growth pattern.

THE CONFERENCE:
The Clinic at Oakencroft’s Podiatry Conference is a casual and friendly event in a beautiful location in rural New York near the Massachusetts and Connecticut borders, just south of Albany. The Clinic hosts monthly meetings with local farriers and they feel at home there—you will, too.

The format of the conference is presentations, discussions, and lots of great food. There are hotels nearby.

Full conference, hotel and registration information can be downloaded at this link:
http://www.oakencroft.org/Articles/5th_Annual_Podiatry.Farrier_announcement%5B1%5D.pdf

The clinic fee is $300 for both days, $200 for Friday only or $150 for Saturday only. Registration should be complete by October 1st. Late registration will be at the discretion of the Clinic, as space allows.

Registration can be done online, by mail, or by phone. If you have specific questions or wish to contact the clinic, you may call 518 767 2906 or send a fax to 518 767 3505.



© 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.
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Hoofcare@WEG: Educational Events for Hoof Blog Readers

Ok, horse world, it's time to plan how and when you're going to take in the opportunities waiting for you in Lexington, Kentucky over the next few weeks. And the opportunities abound, with more events being announced each day. Whether you come for a day or a week, and whether you stay in a penthouse or pitch a tent, you'll never forget this.

Think of it as Woodstock for the horse world.

The World Equestrian Games, along with downtown Lexington's International Equestrian Festival, have a great lineup of both hoofcare and lameness related events coming up over the next three weeks. Both events have trade shows with horse health exhibits; there is a third horse expo in Georgetown, Kentucky (on the north side of the Kentucky Horse Park) as well (featuring legendary trainer John Lyons), and the wonderful Secretariat Festival on Saturday, October 2 in Paris, Kentucky sounds like fun.

The education kicks off on Wednesday with the AAEP/Rood and Riddle/Alltech Veterinary Sport Horse Symposium . Familiar speakers from the Hoof Blog at the conference include Drs. Jean-Marie Denoix, Scott Morrison, Scott Pleasant, and Jeff Thomason among many others. Dr Simon Collins from Dr. Chris Pollitt's Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland was a late cancellation.

On Friday, the AAEP and Rood and Riddle will host A Winning Edge: Promoting Peak Performance in Equine Athletes with speakers like Dr. Hilary Clayton and farrier Rodney King on the roster of widely respected names.

The Games begin on Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park, with the opening ceremonies. The hoofcare education continues with daily lectures and demonstrations at Rood and Riddle's pavilion within the huge Alltech exhibition hall. Farrier Michael DeLeonardo will be working on thermography imaging demonstrations for Equine IR, the company that is providing free scans for the competition horses. USA team farrier Steve Teichman is speaking at the Draper Equine Therapy booth, and the Horse Park's farrier shop has just received a decor upgrade, thanks to Farrier Product Distribution.

In downtown Lexington at the International Equestrian Festival, hoofcare activities range from the Kentucky Horseshoeing School's live demonstrations to a six-lecture full seminar by Dr. Ric Redden and the heart-warming encore of Ada Gates Patton's Hoofcare@Saratoga presentation, "Debutante to Blacksmith".

The American Farrier's Association has assembled a rotating able-bodied crew of volunteer farriers who are covering various phases of the Games. Watch for farrier chairman Thom Gabel and his crews to be both providing services to teams as needed in the barn area and to be standing by ringside during events in their "official farrier" capacity. And if they need administrative support, they won't have far to go, since their national headquarters office is located right in the Horse Park.

Last but not least, Lexington opens its heart on Sunday night, October 3rd, for the premiere of the new Disney film, Secretariat, starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich. You can bet there will be plenty of Secretariat fans among the eventing spectators in Lexington that weekend. Ironically, the premiere will be the night before the anniversary of the day that Secretariat died, October 4th. Surely this will bring to mind why Secretariat died--he had laminitis--and stimulate discussion about how progress is coming on preventing and treating and understanding one of world's most elusive, painful and frustrating diseases.

Watch the Hoof Blog for lots of news and a full schedule about all these activities and many more as they approach. No matter what your interest in horses or hooves, the new few weeks in Lexington will be a feast for your senses and your mind. I hope to meet you while we're there! Send an email if you'd like to get together: blog (at) hoofcare.com. Follow the Blog's hoof-related Tweets from WEG on Twitter.com under @HoofcareJournal and general WEG Tweets under @FranJurga.



© 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.
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Hoofcare@WEG Begins: British Team Farriers Interview



The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games haven't quite begun yet, but around the British stables, the farriers were hard at work this weekend. Except they weren't shoeing horses; there were no horses no shoe, as the European horses were still in quarantine at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport 80 miles away.


No, Haydn Price (team farrier for dressage and show jumping and lead farrier for the British "Equestrian World Class" Program) and Brendan Murray (team farrier for eventing) were pitching in just like everyone else in the British organization. They were laying stall mats,  fluffing bedding, assembling wheelbarrows, and sweating in the Kentucky sun.


Thanks to our colleague Samantha Clark of the 2010 Radio Show on Horse Radio Network, the Hoof Blog is able to share this video interview with Brendan and Haydn with you. It's probably a good thing--in a few days they'll be way too busy to stop and chat.





© 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.
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Thursday, September 09, 2010

Leg Boots for Sport Horses: Protection? Support? Do They Work?



How much do you know about protective and supportive leg boots for sport and performance horses? I don't mean just the difference between polo wraps and jumping boots, but how much do you really think they help prevent injuries to structures like the always-vulnerable suspensory ligament. Do you know the difference between protection and support?

British equine science consultant David Marlin PhD is about to teach you a lot more in this lecture kindly videotaped and provided for us by the US Eventing Association.

David's campaign to test horse gear the same way we test human gear makes a lot of sense and this video is a first step to understanding more about what some of the superficial leg injuries in eventing are like, where in the lower limb the horses tend to hit, how hard they tend to hit and whether a boot or wrap can make a difference.

Sit down, relax, and take this in, or make some time later to come back and watch this. Please Tweet or email this page to others so that this information can spread. It may sound basic, but we find over and over again that it is the most basic things that people often do not understand because they seem so...well... basic, that they don't bother to ask questions. This is written by someone who has put boots on upside down plenty of times and been publicly embarrassed for it!

I will certainly suggest to David that if there are to be rules about boots that marking "top" and "inside" should be mandatory.

Thanks again to US Eventing and to Dr. Marlin for providing this excellent lecture.



© 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.
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Poetry in Motion: The Japan Racing Association Captures the Simple Beauty of a Galloping Racehorse...in a Commercial


I think if I could just keep this YouTube video on a continuous loop and keep watching it, I'd have no problems keeping stress at bay. There is something very relaxing about watching these Thoroughbreds stretch across the black-and-white frame of this film, as the lovely music plays.

It's not real, of course.  This is a sort of "greatest hits" reel of slow-motion galloping horses from a series of Japan Racing Association (JRA) commercials; someone has kindly edited the slo-mo galloping sequences together for us.

I'm quite often asked for slo-mo galloping clips that do not have distracting backgrounds so for all of you who have asked, here you go. I see footage like this and can only hope that Disney did as well when shooting Secretariat (which will be out a month from now, as a matter of fact).

The original JRA commercial was quite nice and it dovetails with the melancholy I feel each September when Saratoga is over and the Breeders Cup isn't really here yet. Thank goodness for the World Equestrian Games this year.

And, for those of you like me who want to know such things, here's how they filmed the horses galloping (and the rest of the original commercial):


I've always been a fan of the rousing instrumental musical equestrian commercial genre made famous and perfected by Rolex, but I think the JRA has done something very special here. It's a commercial that conveys a reverence for horse racing and horses.

Imagine that.

Indulge yourself by watching the gallopers as many times as you please. I know some of you will be able to use these horses in your teaching. Be sure to thank the JRA the next time you see a representative at a conference. They do wonderful things.

PS As a post script, I am really happy to see that this article has been near the top of the most popular posts on this blog for the past month or so. I'm not the only one who likes it! Or, someone is watching it over and over and over again! Thanks again to the JRA.


© 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.
Follow the Hoof Blog on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal
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