Saturday, October 23, 2010

Hoofcare & Lameness Presents World Horse Welfare's Laminitis Video Conference (Part 5: How to fat score a horse with Samantha Lewis)


Welcome to the fifth in a series of feature presentations designed to help horse owners recognize the signs of laminitis in horses and to work toward preventing endocrine-related laminitis. In this video, World Horse Welfare expert Samantha Lewis goes through the steps of fat scoring a pony to determine its relative risk for laminitis and other health problems.

The entire series of videos from World Horse Welfare's laminitis awareness conference--consisting of the introduction video and five topics--have been edited together into a special laminitis-themed YouTube playlist for you so that they will play continuously. Alternately, you can watch them one by one on The Hoof Blog.

Just scroll back through the past week to find them all.

Hopefully you will support the World Horse Welfare's efforts to educate the public about laminitis and the dangers it presents to horses.


© 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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Friday, October 22, 2010

Books for Your Reference Shelf: "Principles of Farriery" by Colles and Ware


Welcome to Principles of Farriery by Chris Colles and Ron Ware. Published September 2010 in UK, November 2010 in USA. Shoe examples handmade by Billy Crothers. Specifications: 400+ pages, 8.5 x 11", full color throughout, hard cover with dust jacket, fully indexed. Price: $125 each plus post. Order by email books@hoofcare.com or call 978 281 3222. Fax orders to 978 283 8755. Full order details below.

Principles of Farriery by Colles and Ware is the first completely new farrier textbook and reference to be published in recent years. This major book is a timeless guide to the traditional practice of professional farriery and to the actual craft of shoeing horses. It describes hoofcare and horseshoeing in its bare-bones form: this book will work just as well in a third-world country as in an upscale hunter/jumper barn because it does not prescribe any special tools, products or procedures. It simply and elegantly describes the horse's foot and explains how a professional farrier would go about shoeing it--within various hoof balance or lameness scenarios--by using only the most straightforward tools and either common factory-made shoes or specific handmade shoes.

Horseshoes in the book were specially made by world champion Billy Crothers and were photographed to show both the ground surface and the foot surface. This open-toed bar shoe was used to show the difference in nail hole position between it and using a normal shoe backwards.
The book is written by two of the most accomplished and respected experts in Great Britain: a lameness-specialist veterinarian who is deeply involved in farrier education, and a hoof balance specialist farrier who is fascinated by the horse's foot and limb conformation.

An announcement has finally been made, and it looks like Principles of Farriery is on its way to the USA. Beginning today, Hoofcare + Lameness is accepting reservations for the first shipment of books, expected the second week of November. Update: As of 9 November, the first books are in stock and ready to be shipped!
I have been looking forward to this book for years. Colles and Ware worked together for many years; Colles brought the concept of hoof balance to the attention of the veterinary world in his papers on treating navicular disease back in the 1980s.  He is currently a senior partner in Avonvale Veterinary Practice, UK, specializing in equine orthopaedics.

Colles (shown right, courtesy of Avonvale Vet Practice) is recognized by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as a Specialist in Equine Orthopaedic Surgery. He and Dr Chris Pollitt are the only two veterinarians I've ever heard of who have received the honorary Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Farriers. Dr. Colles is also co-author with Sue Dyson of Clinical Radiology of the Horse and the useful booklet, Functional Anatomy of the Horse.

Ron Ware paused in his work at the Animal Health Trust forge in 1985 (or so) for this photo. Yes, he is very tall.
Ron Ware's Fellowship thesis on hoof balance for this FWCF qualification in the Worshipful Company of Farriers was the landmark paper for its time and one of the most important publications of the last 50 years in farriery.  He has always been one of the most highly respected farriers in Great Britain, although you've never seen him lined up at a contest and his name is not a household word. He is a farrier's farrier. He was for many years the resident consulting farrier at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England, and also has had a relationship with the Hong Kong Jockey Club as a farrier adviser there.

Ron, in my opinion, is a sort of Zen master of farriery; he is someone who has thought very deeply and always shared his knowledge, yet he always focuses on the foot itself and the importance of limb conformation and his shoeing methods appear to be very simple and straightforward because he primarily addresses the foot, not the shoe. His reputation is above reproach in Great Britain, although he has been retired for several years.

I believe that this will be the first farriery book with a vet and farrier as co-authors.

The 400-page book is described by the publisher in this blurb: "The coverage starts with a brief history of farriery, then looks at the legalities of the job and how to control equines for trimming and shoeing. The authors describe the care and maintenance of the forge and farriery tools, as well as the anatomy and function of the horse, especially the lower limbs, the principles of foot balance, and the practice of shoeing. Shoe making, surgical shoes, lameness and shoeing are dealt with in detail, and the book is embellished with hundreds of specially taken photos, and explanatory line drawings."

The book is beautifully designed. Examples of shoes are made by world champion farrier Billy Crothers and are, as one would expect, suitable for framing! Comments about traditional (i.e. somewhat archaic) designs of British shoes are re-examined and critiqued in gentle retrospect of the 21st century, with explanations of why they were developed in the past, but their use on today's horses (assuming one has the skill to make these shoes) is evaluated in candid commentary.

What this book does not have: No Equilox, no Vettec products, no impression material, no glue-ons. This book could have been written in the past; it can stand the test of time and will still be relevant in the future as commercial trends change. I believe that this was done intentionally; I also believe that the authors' philosophy is to concentrate on the foot and keep the shoeing simple. Modern balance theories are not discussed or compared.
A sample page from the beautifully laid out and referenced Principles of Farriery by Colles and Ware; reserve your copy now!

For this reason, I also think that some people may be disappointed initially because the feet in the book do not look like they are shod in state-of-the-art products. All you see is hoof and simple steel and nails. That book on high-tech farriery is yet to be written, and look to Hoofcare and Lameness to keep you up to date on trends and new ideas in the meantime. Look to Principles of Farriery to be an anchor of a reference on axial hoof balance and core farriery wisdom.

Please place your order now. Quantities in the USA will be limited. Shipping is expected to begin by mid-November.

HOW TO ORDER: $125 per book plus $10 shipping in USA, $20 shipping to Canada, $25 shipping to other countries. Price subject to change without notice. Payment by cash (in person), check (by mail), or PayPal (by Internet, using button below). Email inquiries to books@hoofcare.com. Fax to 978 283 8775. Mail orders to Hoofcare Books, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930. All orders must be prepaid. Please include email address or phone number on all orders so we can confirm order and notify you when book has been shipped. Allow three weeks from ship date in USA (should be quicker) and longer to other countries.

Note: this is a heavy book. Postage rates are based on an estimated weight. We reserve the right to change the postage rates if the book is heavier than estimated.



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© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. Please, no use without permission. You only need to ask.
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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Overgrown Hind Hooves Gone Very Bad: Cruelty Case Video Used in Court to Impose Sentence on Horse Owner


I guess this video doesn't need any explanation. The mare was probably confined in a stall, although I don't know that for a fact, and may even have been born with bilateral hind limb flexural deformity.


This video was provided by World Horse Welfare, formerly the International League for the Protection of Horses. As a result of this prosecution, the owner was banned from keeping horses for ten years, and ordered to pay almost £10,000 in costs and compensation. They ordered that six other horses be removed from the owner's care.

When Mr Barnes of World Horse Welfare and the RSPCA Inspector first saw the mare in the video, named Florence, she was barely able to walk. A veterinarian who examined her decided that so much damage had been done that she could not be saved, and she was put to sleep.

The court magistrates watched video footage of Florence after she had been removed from the owner's premises, possibly the same footage shown here. They heard veterinary evidence that the horse’s feet had been in a bad state for most of its life.

After the hearing Ted Barnes said: “I have found this case extremely upsetting. Years of experience haven’t hardened me to this prolonged neglect to Florence. This horse did not deserve to live most of her life with her feet in this condition. This is something I have never seen before, and neither had the veterinary surgeon who dealt with it.“

The video was apparently shot when the mare had been heavily medicated so that she could walk at all and was probably on her way to be euthanized.

This video is horrifying but I was just as horrified a few weeks ago in Kentucky at the International Equestrian Festival. At an excellent seminar on foal deformities by Dr. Ric Redden, he showed case after case of foals and adult horses with problems as bad as this horse that are brought to him to be "fixed".

One can only wonder what happens to the ones that are never brought forward for treatment or that don't respond to treatment. In spite of the literature and expertise available to them, many breeders never admit that a foal needs expert help until it is too late, if they admit it at all. Some, like this owner, simply hide the evidence in a back stall, hoping no one will see and that the horse will miraculously improve.

There are many ethical questions about keeping animals alive: are they in pain? do they enjoy a quality of life that is suitable? The same questions have come up with horses that have received amputation surgery or that have simply survived severe laminitis rather than recovered from it.

Veterinary ethics is just beginning to explore the issues surrounding chronically lame horses and the ethics of who lives and who dies in the first weeks of life, but the emotions and psychology of horse owners may be a more complex aspect of trying to help young horses with hoof and limb problems than learning medical, surgical or mechanical treatments.

© 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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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Video: Zenyatta's Fancy Hoofwork Scores a Ten with "Dancing on the Stars" Judge Len Goodman


The countdown: Two weeks and two days left to the Breeders Cup and Zenyatta's much-anticipated second run at the Classic against the colts. Can she do it again? We love her, no matter what happens that day, and we all believe she can and will do it again. And isn't it fun to watch all the publicity! This little video just showed up on YouTube.

© 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
Join the Hoofcare & Lameness Facebook Page

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Hoofcare & Lameness Presents World Horse Welfare's Laminitis Video Conference (Part 4: Measuring Invisble Body Fat Using Ultrasound to Accurately Determine Body Condition)


Welcome to the fourth in a series of feature presentations designed to help horse owners recognize the signs of laminitis in horses and to work toward preventing endocrine-related laminitis. In this video, laminitis researcher Alex Dugdale, currently at the University of Liverpool's Leverhulme Equine Hospital in Great Britain, talks about the subtleties and shortcomings of traditional body condition scoring.

For years, a simple visual evaluation of a horse has been used to determine a horse's relative body score, and this in turn was sufficient for a veterinarian to tell an owner if the horse might be at risk for laminitis and should be put on a weight management program and avoid excess grazing at high risk times.

But Dugdale is muddying that field considerably by suggesting that horses can appear to be slim--thus earning a mid-range or acceptable body score--but have large amounts of interior belly fat that may be making them susceptible to insulin resistance and, by extension, the potential complication of laminitis. Fat tissue can act almost like a gland in the way that it programs the body's reaction to nutritional stimuli, and reacts in particular to fluctuations of sugar-type nutrients in grasses and feed.

Simply put, some horses and ponies are just plain fat, while others show areas of fat in specific areas of their bodies that researchers have come to associate with a suspicion of equine metabolic syndrome. Now Dugdale is taking that regional adiposity a step further to include invisible fat.

Dugdale suggests using an ultrasound probe to scan a horse's belly lining  to see what sort of fat stores are laid down there. Unfortunately, the scan is not recorded on the video because of lighting problems, so this video is a bit incomplete.

To learn more about laminitis prevention: Watch Part 1 of the series, "The Horse's Foot and How It Goes Wrong" and then go on to Part 2, "Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis” and Part 3, Hoof Management and Pain Relief. This series was created by World Horse Welfare, a British charity that organized a series of horse owner conferences on laminitis with the support of Dodson and Horrell, a British feed company that is active in laminitis research.

More information about how to access body condition around the horse's girth is available in this article about laminitis prevention for horse owners on The Jurga Report.

© 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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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hoofcare & Lameness Presents World Horse Welfare's Laminitis Video Conference (Part 3: Management and Pain Relief with Catherine McGowan)


"Managing your laminitic and minimising his pain">Managing Your Laminitic (Horse) and Minimising His Pain" is the third in a series of feature presentations designed to help horse owners recognize the signs of laminitis in horses and to work toward preventing laminitis. In this video, laminitis researcher Catherine McGowan, currently at the University of Liverpool in Great Britain, talks about the tools that a farrier uses to help a horse and relief the physical foot pain caused by laminitis, as well as the pros and cons of medications like Bute for pain control.

The farrier who briefed McGowan is Ian Hughes, farrier at the University of Liverpool equine hospital. He's pretty shy about publicity, in spite of my best efforts.

Learn more about University of Liverpool farrier lecturer Ian Hughes and his role as chief farrier for the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong. This nice photo of Ian (left) at work with his Vettec gun is from the portfolio of Hot Shots Photography.

These videos were filmed at a laminitis awareness seminar organized by World Horse Welfare and British feed company Dodson and Horrell earlier this year. More videos from the series will be posted on the Hoof Blog in the next few days.

The conferences, which were held at leading UK veterinary universities, were organized by Dr Teresa Hollands, Senior Nutritionist at Dodson and Horrell. Featured specialists included Professor Derek Knottenbelt, Dr Cathy McGowan and Alex Dugdale from the University of Liverpool, David Catlow from Oakhill Veterinary Centre and Samantha Lewis from World Horse Welfare, among many others.

The videos in this series include “The Horse’s Foot and How it Goes Wrong” (Professor Knottenbelt,) “Managing your Laminitic and Minimizing his Pain” (Dr McGowan,) “Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis” (David Catlow,) “Using Ultrasound to show the Difference Between Fat and Muscle” (Alex Dugdale,) and “How to Fat Score a Horse” (Samantha Lewis.)

To learn more: Watch Part 1 of the series, "The Horse's Foot and How It Goes Wrong" and then go on to Part 2, "Recognizing the Early Signs of Laminitis”.

A partial list of Catherine McGowan's research is available on the National Library of Australia's scientific database website.


© 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