Fran Jurga`s Hoofcare + Lameness

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Olympic Test Event: London 2012 Will Bring a Country Sport to the City

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London's preparing! The host city for the 2012 Olympics is running an equestrian "test event" over the inner-city park that will be home to all the equestrian events next summer during the Games. Photo by Ollie O'Brien.

The Olympics began this week in London. Not really, it was just the test event to get the feel of the equestrian facilities in Greenwich Park, but there's no doubt that the 2012 Olympics is only a little more than a year away, and there's no better way to make people take it seriously than to have a walk around the new facility. Forty top riders took part in the test event, which was at the two-star level and ended on Wednesday with show jumping. Dozens more riders attended as observers to check the lay of the land, or the arena, depending on whether they are eventers, dressage riders, or show jumpers.

An above-ground arena and stabling area was designed to be built in London's Greenwich Park for this week's Olympic Test Event and next year's Olympics. The temporary dressage and jumping ring means that the Olympics will disturb the historic park as little as possible. Photo by Khedara.

Notice that the grass underneath the dressage and showjumping arena was not dug up; the 5000 square-meter arena merely perches atop the grand lawn on 2100 legs. Presumably they are sunk into the ground.

Great Britain's Piggy French, the eventual individual winner, lead from the dressage phase. Just as much as everyone cares who wins, people care what the arena surface is like, how the warmup rings work, where the start for cross-country is located, and dozens of other aspects of the event. Eventing is only one of the equestrian sports, including modern pentathalon, that will use the facility.

Nina Ligon of Thailand (and Virginia, USA) rode her dressage test in the bright sun on Monday. Nina's farrier, David Watson, accompanied Team Thailand to London.

Haydn Price, head farrier for the Olympic Test Event (© photo by Fran Jurga)

The man of the hour is Haydn Price, head farrier for London 2012's test event. Haydn is from Wales and is normally Great Britain's team farrier for dressage and show jumping.

Haydn was ecstatic about the facilities that have been built at Greenwich Park--which include pop-up stables and an equally pop-up 5000 square-meter arena standing on 2100 legs. He described that setting as "lovely" by email and went on to comment:

"It is going to be an amazing event next year, (one) where the event will be taken to the people rather than the people taken to the event.

"The atmosphere here today has been incredible: the local schools have been made an integral aspect of this event by being invited to attend. Children of all ages have today experienced something truly magnificent; many of then had never seen a horse other than the occasional mounted police officers that patrol London and the district.

"Yep, the countryside has well and truly arrived in the heart of the City of London!"

The wash stall; the "pop-up" Olympic stabling area is built above ground on platforms; horses come and go on ramps. (© FEI photo by Kit Houghton)

Equestrian Route in Greenwich Park for 2012 Olympics

I had to ask what a "Saxon Tumuli" is (or are). Apparently they are ancient burial mounds.

Here's a map of Greenwich Park with the route of the cross-country overlaid, although I am not sure if this is the four-star cross-country route proposed for the Olympics or the five-minute 2-star used for the test event. What the Google Earth view doesn't show you is the undulating terrain, which made for a course with lots of tight turns and ups and downs.

This brief video, courtesy of www.greenwich.co.uk shows some action from the cross-country on Tuesday. The opening shots are from a jump where a group of vocal and local schoolchildren dominated the spectators. They added a very different dimension to the traditional course observation etiquette.

How's this for great community public relations? The schoolchildren of Greenwich are working to “design a Greenwich jump” which will feature in the cross-country course for London 2012.

The right stud for Olympic terrain

Riders chose to stud up today. From a report by John Thier on Eventingnation.com earlier today: "People were using some huge studs today. The ground was maybe a bit firm and not the least bit muddy, but it was still slick.

"I don't know how to describe the ground at Greenwich--it isn't sand but it isn't clay and it doesn't have the feel of plain dirt. It does not have much hold and after the first few rides word quickly filtered back to the barns to really stud up. With the big studs the ground rode fine."

A photo slide show from Tuesday's cross-country, courtesy of www.greenwich.co.uk.

Wednesday's program consisted of two consecutive show jumping competitions to determine both the team result (winner: Great Britain) and the individual high-scorer (Piggy French of Great Britain). A showjumping demonstration by specialist jumpers and riders also gave the arena a workout.

Showjumping in an outdoor urban setting was the grand finale of the test event on Wednesday. (© Kit Houghton/FEI image)

Leader of Greenwich Council Mr. Chris Roberts was quoted on the greenwich.co.uk web site as saying that being a host borough continued “to be a source of tremendous pride” for his district.

"(One thousand) of our residents are working on the Olympic sites, our businesses have secured something like £70million worth of contracts and we have the most iconic venues of the Games, which will continue to support our tourism in the years following the Games," Roberts is quoted as saying.

Just out of site in this shot is the Greenwich Maritime Museum, one of the greatest historical museums in the world, and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the 0 hour by which all clocks in the world are set and time zones and meridiens of longitude are determined.

In case you ever wondered: there is no daylight savings time in GMT.

If you're looking for Greenwich on your GPS, the longitude coordinate is 0° 0' 0". Latitude, however, is 51° 28' 38"N.

At night, a green laser cuts through the night sky in Greenwich to mark the meridien.

Test event individual winner Piggy French of Great Britain (© FEI photo by Kit Houghton)

So what happens on Wednesday night? Does someone pull a plug? Does the arena have a fold-up command, will the stables deflate, do the crowds just disappear?

The main part of the park has already been re-opened to the public, after being closed off during the cross-country.

You get the feeling that Greenwich Park--which is 568 years old--might just go back to being a place for picnics and dog walkers. There's probably a plan to fill in all the hoofprints, and leave no trace of the horses behind.

But they'll be back, and they're bringing their friends. Word is spreading around the world that Greenwich has passed The Test, with flying colors.

Let's hope that Olympic mascots Wenlock (left) and Mandeville (right) aren't allowed anywhere near the horses. (Photo by Matt Northam)

The Olympic Rings hang in a London train station; I wonder if they are pointing the way to Platform 9 3/4? There's no question that for many people, a trip to London for the Olympics next year will be full of Harry Potter symbolism. I wonder if the cross-country or show jumping designers will theme an obstacle or jump that will be recognizable as such only to the wizards in the crowd.

Travel from the coffin bone to the periople in a special microscopic image; just click here to order this poster created by Dr Lisa Lancaster at the Equine Foot Laboratory at Michigan State University.

© 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, July 05, 2011

On the Case with Austin Edens: Engineering Prevention of Support Limb Laminitis with a Removable Clog Screwed to a Shoe

The plywood "clog" shoe used to treat laminitis can be a tool in itself or it can be a component of a limb extension and support package, as illustrated in this article about a removable clog used as part of a plan to prevent support limb laminitis. The system was designed by Texas farrier Austin Edens.

The Steward Clog was developed by Dr. Mike Steward in Shawnee, Oklahoma as an economical way for him to treat the rampant laminitis cases in his area.

Standard Steward Clog screwed into foot

He wanted an alternative for the horses of owners who couldn’t afford hand-forged heart-bar or glue-on elevator shoes and tenotomy surgery. He succeeded with a disk of plywood that he literally screwed into a horse’s foot. He charged the client $50. When the clog succeeded and he started telling people about it, farriers and veterinarians had to start adding their own high-tech touches to the world’s most low-tech shoe, whether it was casting tape, non-slip bottoms, shock- absorbing soles, impression material, or even plastic strap-on, strap-off versions.

Before we knew it, the once-lowly Steward Clog was turning into a designer horseshoe with a price to match. Not only that: in a few years' time, the clog design has gone full circle: the same concept can be utilized for both preventing and treating laminitis.

My eyes lit up when I saw a photo of a Steward clog of the latter type that looks like it has been to engineering school. And graduated at the head of the class.

Farrier Austin Edens probably chuckled as he set out to build a three-piece system out of a shoe that was conceived as the anti-system shoe. Consider Austin's illogical but ultimately functional design: he added not one, but two actual horseshoes, of two different metals, to a device that was meant to replace the horseshoe. Are three shoes better than one? The horse will decide.

Attaching the clog to a horseshoe so that the clog can be altered, replaced or removed--using a simple Phillips-head screwdriver and without re-shoeing the horse or disturbing its foot--is the bonus that an engineer-oriented mind like Austin’s can bring to the challenge of preventing laminitis.

Remember that the prospects for fine-tuning a shoe on the "good" foot of a horse with an injured limb are limited after the initial shoeing is done with the horse under anesthesia. The horse is not likely to be able to cooperate much in terms of lifting the good foot for shoe adjustment once he is standing. A removable device that screws onto a shoe and can be slid out from under the foot (and back on again) is a practical solution.

Some people still love a challenge; that is what this business is all about. Thank goodness Austin and people like him (and probably like many of you reading this article) are On the Case.

--Fran Jurga

PHOTO 1

1. I arrived at the vet clinic to find that surgical treatment for lacerated tendons on the injured left front leg of the horse had been completed. The horse was still under anesthesia and the “good” foot had been measured for the application of a support limb laminitis prevention shoe package. The surgeons asked me to add two inches of length to the horse’s right front, or “good” foot to aid in the prevention of support limb laminitis in that foot.

PHOTO 2

2. The surgeon asked me to elevate the "good limb" two inches so that it was the same length as the limb in the cast. The cast and its wear material on the near fore added almost two inches of length. My job was to extend the contralateral limb beyond the length of the cast limb and to prevent support limb laminitis. Using wood was the best way for me to elevate the limb.

The first step in creating the appliance was a beveled aluminum shoe with side clips, which I made from 1/2” x 1” aluminum bar stock.

PHOTO 3

3. The aluminum shoe was nailed on--not an easy thing to do on a leg that is dangling in the air and bouncing whenever the hammer touches it.

PHOTO 4

4. When I forged the shoe, I made six holes around the perimeter of the shoe, countersunk at 45 degrees. A block of wood (clog) 1.5 inches thick was shaped to the shoe, and also tapered behind the toe of the shoe for ease of breakover. I screwed in six 1 5/8” long wood screws through those holes into the wood. They held in the wood at 45 degrees, giving a good hold across the clog. A simple Delta Challenger horseshoe was nailed (with horseshoe nails) into the clog to prevent the soft wood from wearing.

PHOTO 5

5. One of the final steps was to pour Vettec’s Equipak into the cavity of the sole, filling up any space that existed between the foot and the plywood. This was a little awkward to do. I used Play-Doh for a dam to hold it in the foot.

PHOTO 6

6. This closeup shows the countersunk screw insets at the toe; there were also two at the heel and two at the quarters, all set at 45 degrees, to anchor the wood onto the shoe.

PHOTO 7

7. The final step, once the EquiPak was set up, was just for insurance. I wrapped the extension in Equicast casting tape.

About support limb laminitis

Laminitis is usually thought of as a disease with a medical basis, but it can also be caused by mechanical conditions. Both excess concussion, known as road founder, and lack of movement can result in a disruption in the metabolism of one of more of a horse’s feet. The most common scenario is when a horse injures a leg and the opposite, or contralateral, limb bears more than its share of weight. The horse may not shift weight regularly off the “good” leg, or there may be some circulatory or other reason why the laminar junction of of the hoof wall-coffin bone interface becomes compromised. Because the horse may be unable to shift its weight away from the pain of the laminitis, support limb laminitis is especially painful for a horse.

In order to prevent support (contralateral) limb laminitis, many equine hospitals routinely apply heart-bar shoes or go through a special protocol to pre-emptively shoe or cast the good foot when the horse is in surgery for an injury.

About Austin Edens

Austin Edens is a farrier who is based in Dripping Springs, Texas, and Wellington, Florida, but you might run into him almost anywhere in the world. He is widely known as one of the most successful and consistent international farrier competitors in history (including being World Champion) and a popular judge. Austin’s farrier work today is centered on a sport horse client list and challenging veterinary collaborations such as the one illustrated in these photos. He is also a product consultant and clinician with Delta Mustad Hoofcare in the United States.

On the Case is a new feature of the Hoof Blog. Brief photo- or media-based problem-solving reports on cases from subscribers will be featured. Text and photographs © 2011 Hoofcare Publishing.

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Friday, July 01, 2011

Laminitis Research: Australian Breakthrough on Insulin Function in Equine Foot

(Text published as provided)

Researchers funded by the US-based Animal Health Foundation announced June 15, 2011, that they have made a major breakthrough in understanding how the insulin form of laminitis occurs.

Drs. Melody de Laat and Chris Pollitt of the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland have discovered that receptors designed to receive insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) may be binding to insulin instead if horses have high levels of insulin.

This groundbreaking discovery may enable scientists to develop strategies to try to block IGF-1 receptors from receiving insulin and prevent the disease from occurring.

The receptor also has been shown to be responsible for the metastatis of malignant tumors in humans, and drugs currently are being developed to block the receptor. These drugs may be of use in trying to treat horses that are prone to laminitis from developing high levels of insulin.

Insulin is important in regulating the blood glucose within animals, but horses that have Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Cushing’s disease often have very high levels of insulin.

Pollitt and his team, funded by AHF since 1995, previously showed that high insulin is one of the major pathways that causes laminitis, but, to this point, they had not understood how.

The equine foot is very dependent on glucose for metabolism, but it is not dependent on insulin to deliver that glucose. Horses have a large number of IGF-1 receptors in their feet, but no insulin receptors. Pollitt’s team now theorizes that these IGF-1 receptors are being stimulated by insulin that mimics insulin-like growth factor 1 and is binding to these receptors.

When this happens, the laminar epitheleal cells start to proliferate. Normally these cells in the middle of the foot don’t multiply. The cells are made at the coronary band and migrate all the way down to the sole without multiplying.

This type of proliferation causes the laminae to stretch and lengthen and the weight of the horse to ruin the bond between the external hoof wall and the bone. The bone changes position, and laminitis occurs.

“We’re starting to understand the pathway of how insulin really causes laminitis,” said Dr. Don Walsh, president of the Animal Health Foundation.

Journey from coffin bone to periople in a colorful detailed super-microscopic image! Click to order!

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Thursday, June 30, 2011

What Century Is It? Scotland's Royal Highland Show Clydesdale Shoeing Competition Keeps Tradition in Sharp Focus

Royal Highland Show 2011 Clydesdale Shoeing by David McCrone

Sometimes a great photo just jumps up out of the Internet and begs to be featured on the Hoof Blog. Of all the millions of photos in the world, why do these very special ones find their ways here? I don't know, but I'm glad they do.

You're looking at a Clydesdale, the great national horse of Scotland. Each year the famed Royal Highland Show hosts an equally famous shoeing competition for farriers. Shoeing these horses is a time-honored tradition, and there exist minute variances in the way they are shod in these competitions that only a keen judge's eye can discern.

At the end of the competition, the horses' feet might all look more or less the same to the casual observer, but the judge knows better. And even within the strict Scottish tradition, there is room for a judge to have individual prejudices and preferences for details in the work that will often be the only dividing line between highly skilled executions of one of the most difficult shoeing assignments on earth.

After this photo was first published, the photogenic lads in the background were identified as former apprentices, now "qualified" (graduates who have earned their diplomas, and stayed on as employees) farriers, of two of today's leading British farriers, business partners Jim and Allan Ferrie in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Jim wrote when he saw the photo on the Hoofcare & Lameness Facebook Page: "(That's) Graham McBurney on left and Jackie Campbell on right. It was their first time competing as qualified Farriers at the Royal Highland. Jackie won the apprentice championship last year.

"Although they did not win, both got the hind toe bars welded on and finished on time with very respectable jobs."

Royal Highland Show Archives Copyright-Protected Image

Sixty years ago, the Royal Highland Show farriers worked outside. Here you see the late Edward Martin in his first Royal Highland shoeing competition. And right behind him, at the next anvil, is the grandfather of Allan and Jim Ferrie. As you can see, not that much has changed, although Edward is sadly missed since his death. I hope that the Ferries will have some connection to the Royal Highland Show for as long as it continues, which will likely be as long as there's a Scotland.

This photograph has a great story to tell. Click here to reveal what this day meant in the life of a very young Edward Martin.

You won't see adhesives and casting tape or aluminum and plastic. You will see hammers and fullers and pritchels at the anvil, rasp and nippers and a knife at the horse. And not much else. You have to do it with the same tools they've always used.

Another reason to love Scotland: tartan plaid ribbons. In Scotland, the red ribbon is first prize. (Photo courtesy of the Royal Highland Show)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Nicholas Frank, Noted Laminitis Researcher, Will Chair Tufts University's Cummings Vet School Department of Clinical Sciences

(Edited from press release)

Nicholas Frank, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, an equine clinician and researcher with expertise in laminitis, metabolic syndrome and endocrinology, has been named the chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

As chair of the veterinary school’s largest department, Frank will lead a group of nearly 50 academic and clinical faculty who serve clients in the Cummings School’s hospitals, teach throughout the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program, and undertake ground-breaking research to improve animal and human health.

Dr. Frank

Dr. Frank comes to Tufts from the veterinary faculty at the University of Tennessee, where, as an equine internist, he was section chief of large animal medicine and led the Center for Equine Veterinary Research. He is an award-winning teacher and also serves as a consulting member of the University of Nottingham faculty in the United Kingdom. Dr. Frank has excelled as a clinician-scholar in the field of equine internal medicine and endocrinology.

“To join Tufts as department chair of such a talented and accomplished faculty represents a wonderful challenge and a true honor,” Frank said. “Several of Tufts’ clinical programs are renowned nationally and worldwide, and I look forward to building upon the clinical, research, and teaching programs already in-place.”

Hoof Blog Note: Dr. Frank is the lead author of this Consensus Statement on Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) for the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM), as published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. The paper is available for download at that link.

Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is located in North Grafton, Massachusetts.

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War Horse: The Movie! Trailer of Spielberg's Film Premieres; Meet His Equine Artistic Adviser

War Horse. Steven Spielberg. Dreamworks. Disney. Get ready to put it all together! Watch for the Disney/Dreamworks Hollywood film version of the hit London and Broadway stage play. You'll be able to see it in about six months; the tentative release date is December 28 in the United States.

The War Horse story took on another dimension today, with the release of the first trailer promoting the film version of the hit stage play.

If this trailer is any indication, it looks like Steven Spielberg's amazing directing talents easily extended themselves to showing horses in a very realistic and appealing light. And that's not easy to do!

Sure, the story of War Horse is epic, and a great one. But the horses could easily have ended up looking like stick figures, or limp two-dimensional background objects. Not every film with a great horse-related story line succeeds in showing horses both realistically and inspirationally. The Black Stallion and Phar Lap are two from the past that I think did do it well.

What did horses look like during World War I? How could today's horses be made to look like yesterday's? What about their manes and tails and tack? Yes, even their shoes? Spielberg needed some help there. (©Disney/Dreamworks publicity photo)

When they went looking for a horse to play Joey, the star horse of the film, I think they went to eventing yards. What do you think? Irish-bred? Yes, the mane is too long, you're right. But could it be that's intentional, to make the horse look like he would have during World War I? Ali Bannister would have had a hand in that. Who's she? Keep reading!

Note: for some reason, only the first minute or so of this audio file is playing. I'm sorry. The full file is playing on the Hoofcare and Lameness Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/hoofcareandlameness); I'll try to fix this file if I can.

Take a break and listen to this BBC Radio interview with British equestrian portrait artist Ali Bannister, who literally woke up one morning to find herself and her artwork and her design talents on the set of War Horse. Ali's title was "Equine Artistic Adviser". And while there may be no Academy Award for makeup and hair styling of horses, there is no question that the authenticity of this film rests on the portrayal of the horses as looking like they would have for the time period, and for their work on English farms and in the war. Ali shares her experiences in this first of many interviews.

Here's a sample of Ali Bannister's horse portraiture; watch Theo come to life. You'll see why Spielberg chose her! You can see lots more, and commission Ali to paint your horse or dog, at http://www.alibannister.com.

This video shows scenes of the making of the film in Devon, England last year. Note: the release date is mentioned as August, but it has now been pushed back to December.

If you're new to War Horse, it's both a play and now a film-in-progress based on a best-selling children's book by Michael Morpurgo.

The synopsis, from Disney/Dreamworks Films publicity: The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse—an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war— a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

Translation: Yes, of course. But there's more to it than that. War is too painful a subject sometimes to tell from the human perspective. People have built-in defenses in their subconscious selves, to protect them even for the time spent viewing a Spielberg film like Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List. But when you can show how war affects an animal that has no choice in the matter, people allow themselves to feel something--about animals, about humanity, about themselves--they might not otherwise let slip.

That's War Horse, in a nutshell. You feel it slip, and you let it. It's about a horse, so it's safe to let it slip. But of course it is about much, much more than a horse.

Special thanks to Kentucky equine photographer (and friend of Hoofcare and Lameness) Wendy Uzelac Wooley of Equisport Photos and her late, great ex-racehorse Jaguar Hope, who even after his death is doing amazing things. A sketch of Jaguar Hope by Ali Bannister appears on the Dreamworks crew logo caps for the War Horse film. I highly recommend Wendy's Racehorse to Showhorse blog for anyone who wants to see great photography presented in an upbeat format. Her contributions to this blog have added a lot and there wouldn't be a Hoof Blog without the support of generous, creative, collaborative-spirited people like Wendy.

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