Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Friday, January 07, 2011
Favorite Rap Video of 2010: Equine Biomechanics Researcher Jacob Setterbo's "Stay in School" Message
Who says engineers can't be creative? Or cool? Score (another) one for Jacob Setterbo, PhD candidate in the J.D. Wheat Veterinary Orthopedic Research Laboratory at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He's been part of the California-based research efforts to find some basic truths about the relationship between galloping horses' legs, hooves and racetracks--and his work there will ultimately mean that some horses' lives will be saved. He will soon receive his doctorate for his efforts in engineering the systems that measure the hoof-track interface.
But he can still have some fun. Jake has volunteered at a local elementary school and came up with the idea for a little rap music video to get kids to connect the dots between thinking what he does in his research is "cool" and the idea that they can do it too...if they just stay in school.
The first time I watched this video I couldn't believe it, and I've been forwarding the link to it to teacher friends ever since. I hope you will do the same, as well as show it to any school-age kids in your social circle.
Jake's backup singers, by the way, are some fifth graders.
For my part, I'd make a very similar one, but I'd be encouraging people to go back to school. It's never too late! In 2010, I spent a week at Michigan State University's McPhail Equine Performance Center taking Dr Hilary Clayton's Equinology class for non-veterinarians on gait analysis and biomechanics.
For me, it was almost better than a week on the beach at St Bart's. True, we just pretended to do research, but it was a hands-on experience with real horses at one of the world's leading centers for equine biomechanics research.
If nothing else, being in the class reminded me of all I don't know about horses, all I need to learn, how much things are changing and the fact that these courses are out there--all you have to do is sign up. You don't have to move away for a seminar or a year, you can try things out first, see how you like it, and spend time with people like Hilary Clayton and her staff and graduate and doctoral candidates, who will have suggestions of what you might do if you want to pursue education goals once you've been out of school for a while. Progams like Equinology are amazing!
Universities are full of comeback kids like you (and maybe even me, someday). Like most things, once you take that first step, the rest seems much easier. Sitting in a lecture seems more natural, and the whole idea is much less intimidating when you're looking at it from the inside than it ever was from the outside.
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| The Equinology course required pre-arrival anatomy study but it was still a challenge to apply the gait analysis stickers in exact locations. In other words, before we could connect the dots, we had to place the dots, and there's no wiggle room when you're palpating a joint to mark it for gait analysis. (Sarah Miles photo) |
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Monday, January 03, 2011
Best of the Old Year: Mr Beane On Top Of The Farrier World (Again)
On Top Of The World, originally uploaded by Feversham Lens.
Before 2010 fades to a distant memory, some credit where credit is due.
Congratulations to farrier Steven Beane of Trenholme Bar, North Yorkshire, England. Steve repeated his 2009 win as World Champion at the Calgary Stampede and brought home the title again in 2010. This beautiful portrait photo of Steven was taken as he fit a shoe to a client's horse. Credit where it's due again: image by Feversham Lens.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
From Post Parade to Rose Parade: Ada Gates is Underfoot as Pasadena's Official Horseshoe Safety Inspector
From ABC News in Los Angeles: Would your horse's hooves pass the Ada Gates inspection?
It's not unusual to find Ada Gates behind the scenes at a parade but it would most likely be the post parade at California's Santa Anita racetrack. She's at a different parade today.
The first woman licensed to shoe racehorses in America picked up the feet of 236 horses--including Budweiser Clydesdales, silver-draped Andalusians and military mules--this morning as she made sure their hooves were in compliance with the rules of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. The parade has specific rules for hoofcare that must be followed, as they hope to both prevent slipping on the pavement and lameness problems along the parade route. I did notice the horse trailers in the parade, ready to pick up any horses in distress or in need of relief.
NBC also has a video featuring Ada Gates and several of the equestrian units in today's parade, filmed at the parade's stabling at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center at Griffith Park in Burbank, but it did not have an embedding code so it can't be seen here on the blog. If a code becomes available, you'll see that video here, as well.
The Hoof Blog had a report from Ada after the 2008 Rose Parade with her observations about the hooves she sees at the parade: Traction Counts at the Rose Parade (Just Ask Ada).
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Friday, December 31, 2010
What Might a Horseshoer's Front Page Funeral and Your New Year's Resolution Have in Common?
If you've never been to a horseshoer's funeral, now you can say you have been.
On this last day of the year, it's time to reflect on the events that shaped this year. We'll get to that; the year's not over yet.
While it's easy to point out the things and the people new to the world of the hoof in the past year, it's a little more painful to recognize that we are moving on without some key figures.
Hence, this video. I think this is the first video ever made of a horseshoer's funeral. I never thought I'd be posting a video of a funeral here. It is, of course, voices from people who attended the funeral of Joe Kriz Sr. on September 4, 2010, but if you listen to the voices, they can speak volumes about others who are also gone.
In 2010, we lost Bob Skradzio and Jack Miller as well; these two men were great pillars of support and friendship for me from the day I met them. More than that, just like Joe, they were two people who loved what they did, and did what they loved.
I hope that you can say that about what you do; I know I can.
If you can't, why don't you make a new year's resolution to find--or re-kindle--the passion in your life? May it be half as strong as the passion that Joe and Bob and Jack felt for what they did, and the lives they lived. If enough people dedicated or re-dedicated themselves to their work with and for horses, our world will be a better place and slowly but surely the hole left by the loss of these men will be filled.
I know they'd all three add a PS to that: "And be sure to pass it on." Just like they did.
By the way, toward the end of Joe's funeral video, when they arrive at the cemetery, Joe's casket, emblazoned as it was with Scotch-bottom draft horse shoes, was buried next to his brother and lifetime horseshoeing partner, Johnny, just as you'd expect. It's a beautiful place.
I notice that on Johnny's headstone are written the immortal closing words from Will Ogilvie's famous poem, The Hooves of the Horses:
When you lay me to slumber no spot can you choose
But will ring to the rhythm of galloping shoes,
And under the daisies no grave be so deep
But the hooves of the horses shall sound in my sleep.
But will ring to the rhythm of galloping shoes,
And under the daisies no grave be so deep
But the hooves of the horses shall sound in my sleep.
{ A note about the video }
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Sunday, December 26, 2010
Montana Marathon: Farriers and Veterinarians Trim 31 Donkeys' Hooves After Years Of Neglect
The struggling Montana Large Animal Sanctuary and Rescue gave up. It gave up trying to go on taking care of more than 1000 hooved animals it had taken in. There are camels and llamas and horses and donkeys and cows by the dozens.
According to news reports, they ran out of money, then they ran out of hay and now the animals have been rescued from the rescue. They are in temporary shelters while organizations in the state try to figure out what they will do to re-home them.
What these animals do have, in excess, however, is hoof. It's been years since the donkeys, at least, have been trimmed.
That changed this week when the donkeys were moved and a group of vets and farriers joined forces to get their hooves back to some semblance of normal. That, of course, wasn't easy. Some may be suffering from laminitis. All may be sore after trimming, whether from the trimming itself or the redistribution of load on tendons and ligaments. Donkeys are also prone to white line disease, which would require medication if they are affected.
But the farriers just kept on trimming.
According to the television news report, each hoof was radiographed before it was trimmed, and a farrier spent an average of 15 minutes sawing and then trimming each hoof.
The Montana Animal Care Association, Montana Horse Sanctuary, Montana Office of the Humane Society of the United States and Western Montana Equine Rescue and Rehabilitation all organized the effort to help the donkeys.
It's interesting that about 75 inquiries have already been received to adopt the donkeys, which will be going to new homes in pairs to lessen the stress of having been in a herd for so long. Their plight--and their pain--touched a lot of people.
Donations for the animals can be sent to: Western Montana Equine Rescue and Rehabilitation, P.O. Box 1168, Corvallis, MT 59828 (indicate "for donkeys" on check).
To help the horses, please contact Jane Heath, Montana Horse Sanctuary executive director, via email: ht@mt.net. They'll also fix you up with a camel. Or a llama. Or...
Thanks to KAJ18.com, the website for Channel 18 in Missoula, Montana, all the volunteer organizations, and all the veterinarians and farriers who worked on this rescue and the hoof trimming marathon. Special thanks to anyone who takes in one of these animals and gives it a home, at last.
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To date, Mike has entertained the blog with photos of Idaho horseshoers in the dead of winter and the heat of summer, he's shown beautiful tools, and he's played with color and black and white in the same photo. But we haven't see many of the horses from Sun Valley, other than a hoof here or there.
Well, now we know that Mike's been holding out on us. Meet Bart. Where's he been all my life? Notice that the horseshoer, Jesse, and his dog, Sage, both look a little hesitant about working on Bart, who's just had an operation of his right front (hence the duct tape).
Does it appear to anyone else that Bart's head is longer than his legs? I'm just saying...
Thanks, Mike! I hope Bart gets well soon!