War Horse Hoofcare: The Way It Was

It's War Horse week on The Hoof Blog. We'll start off with a short and not very sweet video of the British Army farrier encampment somewhere in India.You can see the forges and the horses lined up, and you can also notice the division of labor between the Indians and the British. 

Who's pumping the bellows?

The second part of the clip demonstrates what they are calling the Lightwark Tackle System. I haven't found any other reference to this. It is similar to other systems used to desensitize a green horse and get shoes on it.

They didn't have much time, and this is how they got it done. I don't know how many horses broke their legs or necks or how many young Indians were seriously injured in the making of this film, but I know that the American Humane Association--the organization that watched over the making of War Horse and gave the film its highest rating for the welfare of the horses on the set--wouldn't have been pleased that the British even made this film, much less actually used that system.

It's just the way things were.

I hope you will enjoy the posts planned for this week and that you will go see War Horse, if you live in the United States or Australia. Go see it on a big screen and watch what's going on in the background as well as where the camera is pointed.

This film is from the archives of the War Horse: Fact or Fiction exhibit at the National Army Museum in London.

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© 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.

Kauto Star's Horseshoes Are As Good as Gold: British Jump Champion Is a Golden Oldie in the Winner's Circle

Eleven-year-old British National Hunt superstar Kauto Star, one of the racing world's biggest stars, now has golden shoes, thanks to farrier Michael Jones who was commissioned to forge the special shoes. (Betfair photo)

You know you've made it in the world of sports when you look down and notice that your shoes are gold.

 

Olympic gold medalist track star Michael Johnson started the gold shoes tradition. His custom-made Nike running shoes were made from a gold-spun DuPont fiber. Photo by Klew97.

British soccer star David Beckham and his sponsor Adidas got in the act by custom-making these golden boots for his 100th game representing England. Photo by Aѕкαяαℓι Mคttย๓๓.

Jamaica's Usain Bolt wore untied gold shoes to win three gold medals, thanks to his sponsor, Puma. Photo by Sumeet Mulani.

It's one thing to get DuPont to spin a special golden synthetic fiber for an athletic shoe, but what do you do when the shoes need to be made of steel or aluminum?

That was the assignment given to English farrier Michael Jones DipWCF of MJ Farriers by the British wagering firm Betfair. Betfair wanted the National Hunt hero Kauto Star to know that he is as loved and honored as the human athletes, so they commissioned a set of gold horseshoes.

The assignment came during the runup to today's William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton Park racecourse in England. Kauto Star had won it four times but lost in 2010 to his great rival, Long Run--a horse who, at only six years old--is about half his age.

This is what it looks like when a winter-running jump horse with more than 40 lifetime starts (and about $5 million US in winnings) rewrites the racing record books:

Kauto Star is the only racehorse to have won consecutive Grade One races in eight consecutive years.

Mike Jones said that he began by forging the shoes from steel rather than aluminum; they were then plated with 13-karat gold. It took him two weeks to get them done.

"This is the first time I've made horseshoes out of gold," Jones commented in a press release from Betfair. "The process was much more intricate than normal. It was a real test of my craftsmanship, but I think these hooves are fit for a King."

The shoes will be presented to Kauto Star's trainer, Paul Nicholls.

"They are very fitting for a horse of his talent," Jones said by email. When I reached him tonight, he was celebrating at the pub with friends but talked for a few minutes about the project.

He said that he thought he had been chosen--out of all the farriers in Great Britain--to do this shoemaking project because he has been, until recently, the farrier for the Royal Household, which means that he shod horses for the Queen.

"These sorts of special projects just seem to find me," he said tonight.

Dan Hubbard DipWCF of Bath, England is Kauto Star's farrier for the un-ceremonial shoes that get the old campaigner around the track and back, year after year after year. I think he deserves some gold shoes, too!

Kauto Star turns 12 on Sunday, along with all the other Thoroughbreds in the Northern Hemisphere. That sounds like job security for Dan Hubbard. The Golden Oldie runs next in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which he was won twice.

© 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.

Nothing Says "Happy Holidays" Like a Horse in the Snow

What, you're not in the holiday spirit? The Hoof Blog has a cure for that. Just sit down and watch my collection of favorite Christmas television commercials. All have horses featured in them.

If you don't have the ho-ho-ho's by the time you're finished watching these, try some egg nog and watch again.

1. First, a  montage of Irish Christmas commercials, past and present, including scenes from ads for Guinness, Land Rover, Kerrygold and some other companies I don't recognize (sorry):

2. More from Ireland: I love the Guinness ad, so let's look at that one in its entirety:

3. Here's the classic Christmas commercial, American-style: the 1987 Budweiser Vermont Christmas ad, shot in my old hometown of South Woodstock:

4. I don't remember when the Budweiser Clydesdales took credit for turning on the Christmas lights, but I'm happy they did it in this commercial:

5. Just for the record, Miller High Life beat Budweiser to Vermont; this one is from 1981 and still stands the test of time. What a classic:

6.  No snowman is safe when there are horses around. This Wells Fargo commercial makes that point very clearly!




Go ahead, use the little envelope symbol at the bottom of this post to email a link to this video collection and make it your Christmas greeting, too! Or use the symbols to share this on Facebook and Twitter. Spread the joy to the world!

Happy holidays to all!

Thanks for your support and friendship 

and all you do to help horses!

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof 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).  Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to info@hoofcare.com.  

Follow Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @Hoofblog

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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.

British Equestrian Federation Medal of Honor to Farrier Haydn Price

The British Equestrian Federation (BEF) has awarded its Medal of Honour to farrier Haydn Price of Monmouthshire, Wales. Haydn is consultant farrier to Team GBR--the British equestrian teams--and provides farrier services to the BEF's World Class Performance program, including caring for the dressage and show jumping teams for international competition.

According to the organization's web site, the BEF Medal of Honour "is an award designed to recognise activities connected with international endeavour in relation to equestrian sport, it is awarded for outstanding services to the British Equestrian Federation or one of its member bodies. This can be in recognition of riding prowess or other support of the British international effort. "

"Apparently it is in recognition of something called 'doing your job'," Haydn said on Wednesday. "But I was very humbled to be awarded it and very very happy."

Haydn is director of the Farriery Centre, a modern shoeing forge located outside Usk in Wales.
The specialist arm to the practice specifically targets farriery treatment processes that involve both poor performance and lameness; it is a referral center to a number of veterinary practices within the UK.

Just four years after receiving his Diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers in 1983, Haydn attained Approved Training Farrier (ATF) status and has trained 11 apprentices.

Haydn has served as a part-time lecturer at Warwickshire College's farrier training curriculum. He has lectured in Europe, North America, Australia and Singapore, has competed on the Welsh farrier team and acted as a consultant to charity-based farriery programs in Central America with World Horse Welfare.

The farrier education and regulatory system in the United Kingdom has benefit from Haydn's service of five years as chairman of the Joint Farrier Training Committee; he later served as a board member of the Farriers Registration Council.

What horse wouldn't want to be in Haydn's shoes? He began his consultancy to Team GBR and the British Equestrian Federation in 2002; the Olympics in London next year will mark his tenth anniversary in service to his country. 

Haydn's service has included traveling to the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing (Hong Kong) Olympics and many European and World Championships, including the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, where Great Britain won the silver medal in dressage. In 2011, Great Britain won the gold team medal the European Dressage Championships. In July, Haydn provided farrier services at the Olympic Test Event in Greenwich Park.

In 2004, Haydn developed Equinalysis, a practical computer-based software system for use as a clinical tool in the dynamic assessment of performance horses with integrated video analsysis. The system has been used by the British World Class Performance team system.

The book Shoeing for Performance in the Sound and Lame Horse was co-authored by Haydn in 1986 with British veterinarian Rod Fisher. Haydn has authored many articles, including several for Hoofcare + Lameness: Journal of Equine Foot Science, including one of the magazine's most-read articles of all time: Hock Displacement: Lateral Extension Shoes to Support the Hind Limb in Sport Horses.

When does he sleep? He might not. Haydn also loves to fly--both helicopters and planes. His farrier clinic is located near his family's home where he lives, overlooking beautiful Welsh countryside, with his wife Rachel, daughter Martha, five horses, three dogs, a cat--and the British Equestrian Federation's Medal of Honour, for doing his job so well.

Photo of Haydn via Carl Hester Dressage web site.

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Hoofcare@WEG Begins: British Team Farriers Interview

© 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.

A Horseshoe Pile Transformed to a Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree outside the shoeing shop on the Kriz family farm in Bethany, Connecticut is decorated for the season. Notice the chain that encircles it leaves some room for expansion. (photo courtesy of Joe Kriz Jr.)

What happens to old horseshoes when they're pulled off horses? Some farriers leave them behind for clients to dispose, some have a place to drop them off for recycling but quite a few still pursue the traditional art of building a shoe pile outside the home forge. When they return at night, the day's pulled shoes go on the pile.

Do you think these guys were thirsty?

Some people are fastidious about interlocking the shoes into columns, some throw them into a pit, and some use the most freeform method of all: throwing the shoes onto a pile.

And some people look at them and see a Christmas tree. This would make a great Christmas card!

The photo at right shows the most fastidious shoe pile I've ever seen. It was featured in Popular Science Magazine in 1925. Notice that it appears to be completely freestanding. The article said that it was made completely of horseshoes; it stood in Edwardsville, Illinois.

Maybe there was a pub next door. Or maybe they were just thirsty when they threw the shoes on the pile.

Cornell vet school's farrier shop pile in 1920.

There's something about putting a final cap on the day as you pull up and throw the old shoes on your pile. There's a clink, a clunk, a slide as the stuck nails get a grip somewhere on the pile.

Aluminum sounds different than steel. Plastic shoes make little sound at all and stand out--some farriers have asked if urethane shoes can be recycled in their household bins.

The shoeing world is changing and not all farriers have the real estate at home to start and build a shoe pile. It's probably not in the condo rules. And when you move, you have to figure out what will happen to the shoe pile.

But what happens to a pile is that it takes a shape, and that shape naturally gets a peak.

And this time of year, the triangular peak starts to look an awful lot like a Christmas tree. It's a good thing, because (as you can see in the photo) the grass is green in New England this Christmas.

Sunday Humor: Strauss Feuerfest Anvil Steals the Show in Europe

Possibly the only thing that can come close to Vienna, Austria's New Year's Day concert would be when Andre Rieu decided to stage a pageant-like concert outdoors on a summer's night in the courtyard at Schoenbrunn Palace--one of the most outstanding surviving examples of baroque architecture in the world, and a historic site protected by UNESCO.

To make the evening special for Hoof Blog readers, Rieu kindly included in his concert that evening a performance of Feuerfest by Josef Strauss. Strauss actually wrote the piece to include percussion played on a real anvil. So look what happens when Andre Rieu calls in an anvil. Could it have come from next door at the stables of Spanish Riding School?

Rieu introduces the smith as the most talented percussionist in Paris--who also happens to be a smith. Several French jokes are lobbed at the smith until he decides to take over the performance. And he succeeds at that. When Rieu says that the anvil weighs 750 kg, I expect some eyebrows will go up!

Some Italian subtitles are embedded in this video if you mouse over the tool bar at the bottom of the frame.

   

Strauss may have been Austrian but his music is universal. Feuerfest is one of those uplifting Viennese polkas that buoys the spirit--even when played at a super-serious concert by the Philharmonic in Berlin, Germany. I think I saw some smiles in the dignified audience as this talented percussionist/smith went to work.

But what if the anvil is a little off-key? Or it's a little wavy across its face? Or both? Here's the anvilist for the Sibiu State Philharmonic of Transylvania in Romania (Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu) hammering on, regardless.

 

Ah, then there are the Ukranians. When they performed Feuerfest in Kiev, not only does the Philharmonic there pick up the tempo a notch (pity the poor dancers if this was played at a ball!), the anvilist (anvilteer?) upgraded the performance art with plates on the anvil's face and a pyrotechnic display!

 

Strauss' home town of Vienna gets the last word on Feuerfest. Who knew the polka had both anvils and lyrics, too? Here's the Vienna Boys Choir sharing the words in falsetto as only they can. Maybe one of the blog's German-speaking readers can tell us what they're singing.

I wish I could tell you that the lyrics are about a fire blazing in a smithy--and perhaps they are--but my research on the tune turned up the information that while the literal translation of Feuerfest is "festival of fire", Strauss took it to mean "fireproof" when in 1869 he was commissioned to compose this piece by a Viennese firm that built fireproof safes.

In addition to writing waltzes and polkas like the rest of his illustrious family, Josef Strauss worked as an engineer and invented a horse-drawn street sweeper to keep the beautiful city clean. He also wrote the Jockey's Polka, which calls for the sound of a whip in the percussion score.

Surely, Josef Strauss was a horseman at heart.

One thing I know: if I had a warmblood destined for high performance, I'd name him Feuerfest. Or, if I already had an upper level horse, I'd start choreographing a kur to Feuerfest. But, since I don't, I think I will give my cell phone a Feuerfest ringtone for Christmas!

I might need some of the Hoof Blog readers to dub in the anvil...do you think you could do it?

© 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 Hoofcare + Lameness on Twitter: @HoofcareJournal

Read this blog's headlines on the Hoofcare + Lameness Facebook Page

 

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.