For Want of a Nail...Queen's Colt Loses Epsom Derby (and a Shoe)

If you look closely at this photo by David Davies/PA mirrored from The Guardian newspaper in England, you can see Carlton House's shoe landing on the grass of the Epsom Racecourse as he was charging home in the 2011 Epsom Derby last weekend. 

Carlton House (red sleeves) was favored to win, and his victory would have brought great joy to his owner, Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who is now 85 years old and hasn't ever won the race. 

Carlton House was a gift to the Queen from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai. The Queen was watching it all from the royal box, and must believe, like all racehorse owners, that she'll make it to the winner's circle next year.

"Just wait until next year," she seems to be thinking as her colt finished third. Hopefully no "off with his head!"  thoughts crossed her mind! (Reuters/Suzanne Pluckett photo via Fotoglif)

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost;
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
(--unknown; English nursery rhyme and moralist tale, dating back to 1390)

Just a few weeks ago, the Queen was laughing and smiling at the Irish National Stud. The farriers there were delighted to meet her. She might be thinking of the age-old frailties of the hoof this week, as she experiences the universal highs and lows of owning racehorses.

In fairness, according to observers, the shoe was lost after the colt's chance of winning had passed and didn't affect the order of finish.

Fear not, our friend and intrepid British racing journalist and broadcaster Graham Cunningham was seen sporting the shoe after the race. Note the extended pinky. Is that the proper way to hold a horseshoe, as one would hold a china teacup? If that's in a royal etiquette book somewhere, let us know! (Courtesy of Graham Cunningham)

Click here to order the hoof wall anatomy poster.

 © 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). 

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Farrier Jim Quick's Colorado Shop and Equipment Destroyed by Fire, Explosion

Fire and an explosion destroyed farrier Jim Quick's workshop in Niwot, Colorado on Sunday, June 5, 2011. This is all that remained.  (Jim Quick photo)

 Jim Quick is a lucky man. He has a good sense of timing, too.

He took a break from working on some tools Sunday morning. The well-known farrier clinician and competitor left his farrier shop in Niwot, Colorado to step onto his patio and speak to a neighbor for a few minutes. It would be the last time he'd set foot in that shop.

Jim Quick will still compete at Calgary

 Jim said, "I was running the power hammer and using a gas forge" before he shut everything off to speak to the neighbor. "We walked up to the house to sit on the patio when we heard a boom..." he continued. The blast was said to have sent a gas tank flying 100 yards in the air before it landed in a field.

According to a passerby quoted on Denver's Channel 7 ABC-TV local news, the shop caught fire and then exploded, eventually leaving behind just a few hulking metal skeletons.

Jim was mourning the loss of some of his favorite tools today, many of which were made for him or were gifts from great farriers and friends, living and dead, from all over the world. His Kohlswa anvil and some hammers survived the explosion and his shoeing truck was not damaged.

"The Practice Palace is gone," Jim Quick wrote on Monday after fire and an explosion destroyed his shop. (photo provided by Jim Quick)

"The Practice Palace is gone," he wrote on Monday. But even without most of his beloved special tools, he plans to keep practicing.

Looking at the calendar, it's easy math to see that Jim Quick has exactly 30 days left to practice for the Calgary Stampede World Championship Blacksmiths' Competition in Canada next month. He's promised he won't let his teammates down. I told him Monday night that he may be practicing under the stars, so it had better not rain for the next month.

He's a lucky man to be practicing at all.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Racehorse Fetlock Screening Via Standing MRI Could Identify Horses at Risk for Condylar Fractures of the Fetlock

If there is one thing that we all learned by watching the Kentucky Derby this year, it was the term "condylar fracture". Watching first Battle of Hastings and then Archarcharch load into the horse ambulance was the low point of the day.

Are you one of the people who just shrugs and says, "That's racing!" or are you one of the people who asks, "Why? Why? Why?"

Maybe this article will raise the eyebrows of people in both camps and get them both saying, "What if..."

So what if...

What if a standing MRI could help identify horses with potential fetlock problems before any injury ever even happens? It's possible, and that's the prospect that equine practitioner John Peloso of Equine Medical Associates of Ocala, Florida put forward in March in an article in Thoroughbred Times.

Little did he know how timely the article would be six weeks later!

Let's start with the injury. Condylar fracture means that the portion of the long bone that was broken was the condyle. When you look at the end of the cannon bone, you see a ridge in the middle, between two rounded bulbs, called condyles.

The fetlock joint surface can be subject to a lot of wear and tear, as well as evidence of a degenerative condition, that might now show on a radiograph but might be visible via MRI. (John Peloso DVM photo)

The condyles sit in the fetlock joint and rotate within it, like balls in a socket, as the horse flexes his lower leg. Battle of Hastings' fracture was the medial (rough translation: inner side of the limb) condyle, whereas Archarcharch's injury involved the lateral  (rough translation: outer side of the limb) condyle.

Racehorses are especially prone to condylar fractures. Something (trainers like to call it "a bad step") causes increased pressure on the condyles in the fetlock joint. Normally a horse is fine but sometimes the condyle fractures, to varying degrees. A radiograph will show what looks like a crack in the cannon bone in the condyle area.

Thoroughbreds "Make It or Break It"

In his article, Dr Peloso reminds us that the process of building and creating an equine athlete is dependent on the horse's ability to "remodel" his bones.

The rigors of training cause a horse to continually lose bone and then replace it. In a healthy normal horse, the resulting replacement is more dense than the original.

But in some horses, the lost bone is not adequately replaced or fortified. This is called non-adaptive bone modeling. The effects of training may actually weaken the bone rather than fortify it.

If you have looked at a good radiograph of a horse's fetlock and cannon bone, you know that bone has different density values, and yet the inadequate bone modeling syndrome is deep in the bone and difficult for a radiograph to show. The depth of the problem means that the tissue around the joint doesn't swell, either. It's invisible.

MRI scans the fetlock in 3-D

Which horse would you bet on? The horse on the left had not begun training; the horse on the right shows mild thickening of the subchondral bone in the condyle region. (John Peloso photo)

Dr Peloso recommends the use of standing MRI to evaluate racehorses. MRI scans the fetlock in three dimensions and shows what's going on with the soft tissue in and around the joint as well as the architecture of the bony column itself. And with standing MRI, the horse does not need general anesthesia; trainers are reluctant to schedule their horses in training for anesthesia.

Standing MRI allows the horse to stand in a natural position while the scanning goes on. The horse is sedated but does not need general anesthesia. (Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging photo)

Certainly there is no way to know how many injuries can be prevented by monitoring fetlocks for non-adaptive bone remodeling. But in human medicine, MRI is the modality of choice to routinely detect almost-invisible stress fractures in athletes.

Dr Peloso noted that standing MRI screening of the fetlock is commonly performed in England, Ireland, France and Dubai, where many vet clinics are equipped with standing MRI units and may screen as many as two to three racehorses per day.

What veterinarians like Dr. Peloso hope to help trainers avoid: two examples of the early stages of condylar fracture of the fetlock. The red arrows are pointing to white crack-like lines that indicate a fracture has begun. (John Peloso photo)

Of course, you have to wonder why this happens at all: why are some horses normal? Why is it that the bones in other horses--horses who look and act perfectly healthy--just don't adapt properly?

Those are big questions. MRI can't answer those but a racehorse monitoring protocol of standing MRI sounds like a hopeful proposal that could possibly save some American horses' lives, careers or months lost from training. It could be that famous "ounce of prevention" that is worth many pounds of surgery, layup and rehabilitative cure.

Thanks to the kindness of our friends at Thoroughbred Times, we're able to post the entire article by Dr Peloso here on the Hoof Blog. You'll find an interactive window at the end of this article. Use the controls at the bottom of the document window to enlarge the text or scroll through the pages.

To contact Dr Peloso about his work on bone remodeling in Thoroughbreds, please contact John G. Peloso, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVS, Equine Medical Center of Ocala, 7107 West Highway 326, Ocala, Florida 34482.

To learn more about standing MRI, visit Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging on the web.

Also on the Hoof Blog:

• Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging Presents Dr Sue Dyson's Patient, A Showjumper Who Wanted to Stay on the Left Lead
• No Farrier, No MRI: Diagnostic Imaging Sessions Begin With Careful Un-Shoeing
• Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging Looks at the Statistics of Equine Foot Lameness: New Diagnostics Document More Precise Damage to the Feet of Sport Horses
• More information and images appear regularly on Hallmarq's Facebook page
• Follow Hallmarq on Twitter: @HallmarqMRI

Thoroughbred Times 032511 Hallmarq Benefits of MRI Peloso

Article reprinted with permission from
Thoroughbred Times
 

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Hoofcare Publishing contracted to receive compensation for compiling this post but the veterinary expertise and opinions in the article were provided by John Peloso DVM and Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging.  The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only, and should not be used to replace professional veterinary advice for your horse. Visitors to the website are responsible for how they choose to utilize this content. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Polydactyl Horses (and People): Why Are Some Horses Born with an Extra Hoof?

This polydactyl was found in British Columbia by one of the farrier students at Kwantlen College. Gerard Laverty, the instructor at Kwantlen, sent these images to me, which started my collection. Image © Hoofcare Publishing and Gerard Laverty.

If you visit farms and horse barns in New England, you'll sooner or later find one with a clan of double-pawed cats. Their owners are usually quite proud of them and love to show off their big mitts. The condition is so common around here that most people don't give it a second thought. A lot of people actually prefer them, especially if they are Maine Coon Cats.

But when the equivalent of a "double paw" shows up on a giant Shire draft horse, people notice.

Shackleford's Preakness is First Triple Crown Win for Synthetic Horseshoes; Dewey-Walters Shoeing Team Claims Two-Thirds of Crown, Going for Triple

Jockey Jesus Lopez Castanon had so many reasons to smile as Shackleford lunged across the finish line of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Were you watching? Were you one of the millions of people who didn't notice anything unusual about this horse? UPI/Kevin Dietsch/Fotoglif image

"Oh well, another year without a Triple Crown winner," everyone said, as they turned off their televisions after Saturday's Preakness Stakes. Early speedster Shackleford had surprised everyone and held on as the late-charging Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom came from way behind and reached the chestnut's flank at the wire. But that's as close as he would come; the wire was over their heads too soon for Animal Kingdom to save his Triple Crown bid. It came just in time for Shackleford.

Click. So, what's for dinner? Do you want to go out or stay home?

But wait just a minute. Turn the television back on. Back up the DVR. Play it again, Sam.

There's another story left to tell here, and maybe this little story will help make the Belmont Stakes more interesting.

We saw Shackleford in the Fountain of Youth, the Florida Derby, the Kentucky Derby. It's hard to miss him because he has a wide white blaze with an arrow's point at the top, like a wide white racing stripe on a Cobra. You could definitely find this horse in a field in the dark.

Maybe his big white face is so distracting that no one ever looks at his feet. And maybe they should. If they did, they'd do a double-take.

Exercise rider Faustino Ramos and Shackleford cast a long shadow during a workout just before the Kentucky Derby. Shades of things to come? Shackeford finished fourth in the Derby after leading most of the race. REUTERS/Jeff Haynes/Fotoglif

What no one picked up on Saturday is that Shackleford was wearing clear polyurethane "Polyflex" glue-on shoes, and he has been wearing them for the past three months. They were attached without nails, so his hoof walls were smooth as glass, without any telltale nail clinches.

Shackleford's victory in the Preakness marks the first Triple Crown race won by a horse in synthetic shoes.

Of course, Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in glue-on shoes, and they are pretty standard equipment these days, but no one we know of has done it since, and no one has done it in synthetic shoes. Ever.

Click on this link to go to the licensing survey for racetrack horseshoers.

Racetrack horseshoers have several glue-specialty manufacturers' shoeing products to choose from, or they can glue normal race plates on with what is called the "direct glue" method. Using adhesive-impregnated tape, they can also put a virtual cast on the foot and nail or glue a shoe onto that, as well.

But the material that usually hits the dirt or turf or synthetic track surface in those cases is aluminum.

Shackleford wasn't the only one in the Preakness with high-tech synthetic sport shoes: third-place finisher Astrology wore them as well. And in the Derby, Nehro wore them. Perhaps others in both races did, too.

Shackleford wore clear nailless polyurethane Polyflex shoes like this one on his front feet

Shackleford's Shoer on Synthetic Shoes

"It's about time someone noticed!" laughed horseshoer Brad Dewey on the  phone today. "I could see them, even on television, in the post parade." The horse has been wearing the special glue-on shoes since before the Fountain of Youth Stakes this spring. That was three months ago." No one has brought it up.

Dewey said that he originally put a pair of the Polyflex shoes on the colt's front feet because he had an abscess that was going to blow out. "These shoes allow movement," he said, "it's sort of hard to explain but thanks to the shoes, the horse never had to take a day off. One day we noticed that the abscess had blown out, and he moved on but he was going well so we kept the shoes on."

Dewey mentioned that Shackleford's hind feet are shod with "regular" hind Thoro'Bred plates, nailed on.

I asked trainer Dale Romans today if the Polyflex shoes were a regular alternative for him to try on his horses. He sounded surprised, "No, no, this is a first," he said quickly, "and we're really thrilled."

Shackleford trained for the Kentucky Derby on a wet Churchill Downs surface in his glue-on shoes. In this photo you can clearly see the PMMA adhesive on the heels of his front hooves. Apparently no one noticed. Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Fotoglif photo.

Triple Crown of Horseshoes?

Last year, we noted Winstar Farm's Double Stetson; they won two of three Triple Crown races by book-ending Super Saver in the Kentucky Derby and Drosselmeyer in the Belmont. Bill Casner's Stetson in the winner's circle was a crown itself, Texas style.

But this year we might have a Triple Crown of a different sort. The New York and Florida-based horseshoeing partnership of Mark Dewey and Bernie Walter has scored a Derby win with Animal Kingdom, shod by Bernie. Now Mark's son, who works with the team, has shod Shackleford to win the Preakness.

Mark Dewey shoes Mucho Macho Man, so you have to like his chances in the Belmont. Mucho Macho Man also has glue-on front shoes, but they are applied by the "direct glue" method and, according to Brad Dewey, are No Vibe plates.

If they could pull off shoeing the winners of all three races within their own team, it would be a clever accomplishment.

About the shoe

The Burns Polyflex shoe (left) was developed by a horseshoer named Curtis Burns who, like so many others, lives and works in Florida and New York, according to the season. He and his wife Diane manufacture the shoes in a molding process that encases a metal wire that holds some shaping capability.

The shoe is typically applied by a horseshoer who has been trained to both use the shoe and to mix and apply the polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) adhesive. The company has an instructional video on their web site, www.noanvil.com.

The Polyflex got its big break when it was adopted as the shoe of choice for all-time top money earner Curlin in his four-year-old campaign; in fact, a separate square-toe design of the shoe was developed just for Curlin. Since then the shoe has been worn by numerous stakes winners, record setters, a Breeders Cup winner, and show horses. It's also used in podiatry applications for yearlings and adults horses with special shoeing needs.

To learn more:

Springs in the Bluegrass: Finetuning a Yearling's Hooves 30 Days Before the Sale

Curlin's Horseshoe Beat Him to the Hall of Fame

Heel Bulb Injuries 101: Big Brown's Latest Hoof Malady

Greetings from the Gluegrass: Will Big Brown and Pyro Choices of Designer Footwear Turn It Into the Ken-STUCK-y Derby?

"Glue-y Ville" Hosts Breeders Cup: Shoes Stay On

Curlin Goes for Glue: Breeders Cup Favorite Sports High-Tech Urethane Glue Shoe

© 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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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

The Royal Thoroughbred Tour: Irish Farriers Greet Britain's Queen Elizabeth at National Stud

When Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth set her royal foot on Irish soil last week, it was the first of her family's to do so since the Republic of Ireland gained complete independence from British rule.

But she didn't waste much time getting to the bits of Ireland that she'd probably been dying to see, like the Irish National Stud, the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud, and the legendary Coolmore Stud. All are leading Thoroughbred breeding establishments where forebears of the Queen's horses may have begun their lives or where she may have sent her mares to be bred, or where the horses originated who beat her own at Epsom or Newmarket or Ascot.

And at her first stop, the legendary Irish National Stud in County Kildare on the edge of the sweeping Curragh plains gallops, the Queen was appropriately greeted by a group of farriers.

Stud director Chryss O'Reilly escorted the Queen around the National Stud. I'm sorry I don't know who the gentleman in black is. Notice the shoe boards and signage about Irish farriery in the background. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/Fotoglif

When I saw this press photo with the shoe specimen boards in the background, I was soon on Skype to Martin Leahy, farrier at the Stud. It's hard to imagine, but even Martin seemed a little excited by what had transpired that afternoon. "She's actually a very nice lady," Martin reported, "and I'd say she'd be quite spry for her age, now." (The Queen is 85 years old.)
  
In other words, yes, he had met her and Prince Philip and he was quite pleased about it.

Also meeting the Queen were Irish Farrier Authority directors John Brennan, John O'Connell, and Jeremy Stanley, and Irish Farrier School coordinator Sue Lilley, who was widely interviewed in the press, as well as a crew of apprentices who were set up and working to impress the Queen. You can hear their anvils in the background of the video when the Queen is watching the jockey student on the simulator horse.

I think the Queen enjoyed herself at the Irish National Stud. Pool/Reuters/John Stillwell photo

This looks like the smile of someone who is really enjoying herself. I imagine it was snapped when she saw the farriers up ahead and she knew she could relax a bit. Somehow I think relaxing was probably the farthest thing from their minds but I'm sure she left with a good impression of Irish farriery and farriers, and with an anvil ringing in her royal ears.

Congratulations to Martin and all our friends in the Irish Master Farriers Association and at the Irish Farrier School and the Stud for what Sue Lilley described as "the biggest day of our lives."

© 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.  
 

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.