Headlamps and Horseshoes: Finnish Farriers Shed Some Light on Their Equipment

Farrier Lee Canham works in the dark Finnish winter with a headlamp that illuminates the hoof for him.
 (photo by Tuomas Kauko)

They call it the Midnight Sun. In winter, above a certain northern latitude, there's simply not much daylight. For farriers who must keep working on their clients' hooves, that means shoeing in the dark for at least part of the year.

Finnish farriers Lee Canham and Tuomas Kauko make sure they can see what they are doing by wearing headlamps while they work. They contributed some insight on why every photo I see of them seems to include a cyclops eye in the middle of their foreheads:

"No matter how well lit up a place is, a farrier will almost always find his or herself working in their own shadow," wrote Lee, who was born in Wales and has also lived in Spain, Iceland, and Sweden. "Hence the headlamp: problem solved! That´s my theory; also it's dark half of the time in Finland and when it's minus 20 or 30 degrees (Celsius), a good headlamp can help with the frostbitten fingers."

Is Finland the safest place in the world to shoe a horse? Lee Canham wins the best-dressed award for his noise-cancelling headphones, safety glasses and headlamp. No comment on the cigarette! (photo by Tuomas Kauko)

Tuomas Kauko likes the idea of conjuring the image of a dentist in his clients' minds: "I use it to look professional," he said. "I'm quite convinced that usually people think that I'm kind of like a dentist but just a bit sensitive to strong odors so I can't work around people`s mouths..."

I think his tongue was in his frozen cheek for that one, since farriers are bound to catch--or even create--some interesting odors in their daily work.

The Hoof Blog originally found Tuomas and Lee through this portrait of Tuomas at work, taken by Lee. I used it as an example of how to take a good picture of a farrier: the photographer should get down low and shoot up--too many photos of farriers don't show their faces well, if at all, because of angle compromises, lighting, and cap brims. But I didn't realize until much later that the photo was actually taken by a farrier, which helps explain why it is so good. The headlamp intrigued me and I decided to track these two down--even though they are a world away in Finland. And I'm glad I did.

"Not that many farriers use headlamps," Tuomas continued.  "I think it`s a neglected but (sometimes) very useful tool. I think Lee always uses his lamp but I only use in stables that have poor lighting. Winter time we don`t get much light from the windows so I end up using it much more during the winter.

"By the way, I once spoke with a German guy who was doing his apprenticeship with a very, very respected farrier and they always used tiny headlamps," he added. "The headlamp I use is the kind they sell for sport."

This terrific photo of the interior of Lee's van shows off his photographic skills. This is not an easy photo to take--in any light. (Lee Canham photo)

Lee and Tuomas don't work together, but their paths cross--so these two talented photographers sometimes get to take photos of each other, like the ones you see here. "Tuomas and I occasionally get to work at the same stables and sharing the same hobby (with the cameras) makes work more fun than it already is," Lee wrote.

If it sounds like Lee and Tuomas are far, far away in their corner of northern Europe, remember that everyone else seems that way to them. Their beautiful country is the center of their universe.

Lee waxed philosophical on the loneliness, sometimes, of the self-employed. He wrote, "Have you ever heard that being a farrier is always challenging? Of course you have. What I think makes it more challenging is the fact that every farrier is so busy and one soon becomes isolated by working for and with one's self. Therefore, the ability to learn from others can be cut off.

"This is where your (Hoofcare + Lameness/The Hoof Blog) site becomes a farrier's asset, along with his tools," he added.

As I write this, Tuomas is leaving for India and Nepal on holiday. He has traveled the world seeking adventure and, as he goes, documenting the horses and farriers he meets. He's even been to Australia and been on a wild horse research trip to the Outback with Dr Pollitt's Australian Brumby Research Unit. 

His goal--enthusiastically encouraged by his interviewer, who is now one of his biggest fans--is to publish a book of his photos about shoeing around the world.

The sunlight in India will surely blind him when he gets off the plane but I'm sure he has a plan for that.

Thanks to Tuomas and Lee for their help with this article and for their beautiful, inspiring photography, which they kindly agree to share with Hoof Blog readers today.

To learn more:

Lee Canham photostream on Flickr.com

Tuomas Kauto photostream on Flickr.com

A Slip of the Anvil on Downton Abbey: Did you catch the reference?

Here's some trivia for a February Sunday afternoon: how closely are you paying attention when you watch television?

Notice the horse being shod
in the background as the
wedding proceeds. 

If you're like me, you'll be glued to the television tonight for the final episode of the second year of the PBS/BBC mini-series Downton Abbey. 

And if you're also anything like me, you knew that, sooner or later, something related to hoofcare would show up in the second series. 

A horse lost a shoe in the first series, with no farrier to be found. Lady Mary was very annoyed that she had to walk the horse home.  I thought that surely the farrier would materialize and later turn out to be the rightful heir to the estate. 

 This year, I've been waiting patiently for writer Julian Fellowes to let another hoof reference fly. And he did. 

It happened last week: Second series, episode six, the one where the war is over, but the Spanish Flu has hit instead.

But did you catch the reference? 

It was a fleeting one. Lady Sybil has eloped with her Irish anarchist chauffeur lover; they've driven off into the night when Lady Mary discovers they're missing. 

Which way did they go? You might wonder. 

But Lady Mary knew instantly where they had gone. "Oh, we must hurry! They'll be halfway to Gretna Green by now!" she gushes as she and Lady Edith rush out the door. 

That's it. The alarm is sounded: "Gretna Green" means only one thing: Lady Sybil has run away to stand in front of an anvil in Scotland. And since Downton Abbey is supposed to be in Yorkshire, they didn't have that far to go.

The dowager countess will definitely not approve.

Kilts are probably optional and you probably have to pay the piper but weddings are still big business in Gretna Green, which rivals Las Vegas as a town with a wedding-as-industry mindset.

Apparently it was the way that elopements happened for centuries in England. By crossing the border from England to Scotland, couples were eligible to be wed--no questions asked. And the first place you came to when you crossed over from Cumbria was a smithy in the hamlet of Gretna Green.

And the smith had the legal power to perform marriages.

You might wonder how I happen to know about an obscure Scottish village. Well, I've even been there. Twice. Not to get married, but to be a tourist. Gretna Green is in Dumfriesshire, just down the road from Closeburn, the ancestral home of Edward Martin, FWCF, MBE,  the great Scottish farrier and blacksmith. 

 You can bet that Gretna Green was on the tourist route for his incredible hospitality when Americans came his way. 

The history was interesting and it was sort of amusing to be tourists at the weddings of total strangers, but a gift shop full of anvil-theme items was simply a candy store for farrier visitors to take home as mementos of this unique village. It must be the anvil souvenir capital of the world.

Now that it's been mentioned on the world's favorite television drama, the wedding business must be booming in Gretna Green. But then again, it always has been.

Photos: Anvil emblem by Chris in Plymouth, smiddy interior by Andrys Stienstra, happy couple by Matt Thorpe. 

© 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.

ON THE (Dressage) CASE: Euro Rock ‘n Roll Horseshoe Evolves with Vet-Farrier Collaboration, California Style

Just As Successful Dressage Illustrates Synergy Between Horse and Rider, 

Successful Dressage Hoofcare Illustrates Synergy Between Vet and Farrier 
by Fran Jurga

Background: The Hoof Blog took a long look at the Euro “rock n roll” shoe this fall, with photos of the great Spanish PRE grand prix dressage horse Fuego, who wears them when he competes against the likes of Totilas and Parzival. His high-tech, high-fashion Italian-made (of course) aluminum shoes help him pirouette and piaffe with the best of them, as applied by his vet/farrier Hans Castelijns of Italy.

Spain’s FEI dressage star Fuego de Cardenas is not a warmblood but he’s near the top of the world rankings. He wears Euro-style rock ‘n roll shoes not often seen outside Europe. (Erin Ryder photo)

Utilizing the negative space under a horse’s foot made sense to a lot of people. And curious minds have been either debating or deliberating over how it might help their horses ever since that article appeared. It went around the world and back again and was the most popular story on this blog in three years.

Is Euro rock ‘n roll shoe design some kind of rocket science? Just remember: rock ‘n roll was born in the USA. Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis would be proud of California farrier Ernest Woodward and sport-horse veterinarian Mark Silverman DVM of Sporthorse Veterinary Service in San Marcos, California. Together, they visualized an Americanized version of the concept they had seen illustrated in the Hoof Blog on a successful competition horse.

Silverman challenged Ernest to figure out how to make the shoe in a cost-effective way that worked on different hoof types.

California dressage-specialist farrier Ernest Woodward Americanized the Euro-style 3-D full rolling motion shoe with a simple fabrication plan. A base plate and pony shoe are held together with a few screws and some PMMA adhesive.

“This shoe eases breakover in all directions but backwards,” Ernest observed after the first shoes were nailed on. “We applied it to a working competition horse with a few different issues but the main one we were hoping to address was strain on the medial collateral ligament (of the coffin joint) of the forelimb.”

Ernest began by cutting the 6mm plate out with a jig saw. Black Equilox (PMMA adhesive) holds the shoe to the plate. He also drilled holes in the crease of the pony shoe and placed a few screws through the plate to secure the two levels of aluminum.

The impression material used under the plate is brown Sound Horse 25 durometer (extra-soft), pre-medicated with copper sulfate.

Ernest’s two-fiered design (shown with foot surface down, ground surface up): On hard surfaces, the horse stands on the inner, or bottom, shoe--a Triple 0 Kerckhaert Triumph aluminum pony shoe. The outer foot plate conforms to the foot’s shape from heel to heel. The inner shoe, a.k.a. the breakover sweet spot, kicks in for the “lateral” work required in upper level dressage.

My conversations with Ernest and Dr Silverman reminded me of talking to designers of racing sailboats. Much of the stability of a saiboat is based on what’s underwater--the shape of the hull and the keel.

When it comes to the racing boats at the level of The America’s Cup, there’s a lot of sail up in the sky but it has to work seamlessly with what’s under the water.

A hoof isn’t shaped anything like a hull but would a dressage horse benefit from a little bit of a keel in arena footing to help it turn with less stress on joints and ligaments??

These shoes were called “flying saucers” when they first came out. Can you see why?

Both Ernest and Dr Silverman shared my interest in what happens when a horse hits the corner of the arena or is asked to do non-linear movements. When a sailboat falters, the sails are said to “luff”. They flutter against the mast until the vessel corrects course and the wind fills them again. A lot of horses luff a bit in deep corners.

“I’ve known a lot of horses that would earn nothing but 10s if they only had to go in a straight line,” Dr Silverman remarked. We go to great lengths to study how horses land when going straight and extrapolate that the horse uses that landing pattern throughout his work.

But think about it: Does shoe wear always reflect the linear landing pattern?

 “A square toe helps when the horse is going in a straight line, but can actually lengthen the breakover distance when the horse needs to break over the corner of that squared toe,” Ernest observed, then added that a minimum bevel on his shoes is from second nail hole to second nail hole.

It all began with a simple aluminium plate cut out with a jigsaw to match a tracing of the horse’s foot. The border is beveled and nail holes drilled. The sample shoe that Ernest made for this article has a crease in the plate so it looks startlingly like two shoes. He said he heated up the plate to make the crease and punch the nail holes but that is the only heat he used in the fabrication.

Ernest Woodward is an analytical farrier with a penchant for video documentation, which Dr Silverman also shares. Ernest analyzed a current grand prix dressage test and found that 34 percent of the movements required lateral work by the hind end of the horse. With that fact in hand, Ernest now builds a smaller-scale lateral rocking effect into almost all his hind dressage shoes.

You might ask why Ernest Woodward pursued this shoe design rather than use an out-of-the-box rail shoe. His answer: “The focus is for the competition horse. The traditional rail shoe is a very extreme forward breakover, and not as smooth and symmetrical to the other points of the compass. Also, the prefab shoes are generally very hard to fit and nail for any application other than just making an unsound horse feel more comfortable at rest.”

Silverman mentioned another alternative that had been considered and not adopted for this case. “The now-traditional approach to shoeing horses with unilateral injury to the collateral ligament of the coffin joint involves the use of asymmetric shoes. While the asymmetric approach may prove beneficial in the acutely injured horse, it would not provide the horse with a chronic issue the omnidirectional freedom that it needs while in work.”

Lateral view of the shoe nailed on; the horse is standing on a hard surface to lllustrate the height of the shoe. Ernest said that the materials used cost a total of perhaps $25 for a pair of shoes that would be affordable to most owners, including the adhesive.

Ernest remarked that slipping hasn’t been a problem for the horses wearing these shoes; they live in deeply-bedded stalls and work in cushioned arenas. He said that the only hard surfaces his clients’ horses walk on are some concrete walkways and barn area paving blocks. “The shoe is a surprisingly more stable platform than I anticipated on a hard surface,” Ernest remarked.

If horses were subject to a lot of walking on hard surfaces, an interesting feature of this shoe might be that the plate can be reset and a worn wear-point pony shoe can simply be unscrewed and replaced.

The finished shoe lifts the horse about 14 mm on a hard surface (6 mm plate plus about 8 mm thick pony shoe).

“The horse was trotted afterward and looked very promising in the arena in a fairly tight circle on the lunge. We are eager to see how this horse progresses over time,” Ernest commented.

“We wanted to just try it,” he continued. “This shoe is a prototype and just one of what ’m sure are many versions to come as we refine things and learn more. It’s just one more way, and a cost-efficient proof of concept. It has already taught us a lot for how we approach conventionally-shod horses on a daily basis.”

Silverman is an advocate of collaborative problem-solving on cases like this one. “When working with farriers, especially one with Ernest's creativity, I find that it's best to suggest what I would like to achieve, then leave it to the farrier to open his or her mental toolbox to build an appliance that will meet our needs.”

“As farriers and vets we all learn off each other,” Ernest concluded. “I can’t wait to see future articles: Someone, somewhere will take it to the next level.”


From the Casebook

The case: Hanoverian mare, 16’1” tall, age 10, working at third or fourth level, with a history of medial collateral ligament strain.

The history: She had previously been shod with Kerckhaert Steel Comfort shoes and leather wedge pads with brown dental impression material. “That was successful for a time,” Ernest recalled. “I’d say that it was improvement, but not a fix.” The California-style 3D Euro full rolling motion shoes were nailed on in January and Ernest saw immediate improvement. This video was shot about a week after the new shoes were applied.

Ernest also commented: “The landing on the outside of one heel and the inside of the other does show the need for the rockering area all the way back to the heel of the shoe.”

Notice: All images, media and text in this article are protected under international copyright by Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. Images and video © Ernest Woodward and Erin Ryder. This article and media are provided for the enrichment of subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This is their blog.

To learn more:

Previously on the Hoof Blog: Dressage, Fuego-Style: It's What's Underneath That Counts as Euro Rocker Shoes Score for Spain (by Fran Jurga with Hans Castelijns, Erin Ryder, and many others)

Castelijns, Hans: Flying saucers and rock n' roll: Full rolling motion shoes in equine podiatry: Hoofcare + Lameness 78. (back issues and reprints available)

Castelijns, Hans: Shoeing for Palmar Hoof Pain at http://www.farriery.eu

Caudron et al: Radiological assessment of the effects of a full rolling motion shoe during asymmetrical bearing: Equine Veterinary Journal Suppl. 23 (1997)

© 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, so pleas do! 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). Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.  

Updates to this blog are posted 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.

Book Announcement: Pete Ramey's Collaborative Reference "Care and Rehabilitation of the Equine Foot" from Hoofcare Books

Title:  Care and Rehabilitation of the Equine Foot
Author: Pete Ramey, lead author, with collaborative chapter authors
Chapter authors: 
Robert M. Bowker, VMD, PhD
Hilary M. Clayton, PhD, Dipl ACVSMR, MRCVS
Brian Hampson, PhD
Eleanor Kellon, VMD
Kerry Ridgway, DVM
Debra R. Taylor, DVM, MS, DACVIM
Kathryn Watts, BS

CHAPTERS BY GUEST AUTHORS: Concept of the Good Foot: Its Evolution and Significance in a Clinical Setting (Bowker); The Feral Horse Foot: The Australian Brumby Studies (Hampson); Growth of the Hoof Wall from the Foal to Adult Horse (Bowker); The Horse’s foot as a Neurosensory Organ: How the Horse Perceives its Environment (Bowker); Metabolic Laminitis (Kellon); Nutrition and the Hoof (Kellon); Carbohydrates in Pasture Plants: A Moving Target (Watts); Hay Analysis (Kellon); Balancing the Diet (Kellon); Equine Ulcers: Are We Seeing Just the Tip of the Iceberg? (Ridgway); Veterinary Management of the Laminitis Patient (Taylor); Radiographic Imaging of the Laminitis Patient (Taylor); Hoof Mechanics During Locomotion (Clayton); Low Heel/High Heel Syndrome (Ridgway)

Chapters by Pete Ramey: Hoof Care Theory; The Hoof Trimmer’s Attitude; Evaluating and Trimming the Sole; Evaluating and Trimming the Frog; Evaluating and Trimming the Bars; Heel Height: The Deciding Factor; Care and Rehabilitation of the Hoof Walls and Lamellar Attachment; Distal Descent of P3; Under-Run Heels; Club Foot; Angular Deformities; Contracted Heels; Hoof Protection; Laminitis; Navicular Disease: Special Considerations for Donkeys and Mules; Reflections/Closing

Review: This is much more than a book about barefoot vs shod. In fact, it’s not about that at all. This is the new way of thinking about care for the foot--care takes on a double meaning. Instead of just compensating for the horse’s problems, look at how to help the horse grow a better foot. Think ‘rehabilitation’ instead of ‘compensation’, when you can. It might make people turn their heads, especially  for work on young horses--the idea is to anticipate problems and avoid them instead of fix them.

We live in an age where collaboration is not just an interesting undertaking--it's almost a requirement. Pete Ramey has wrapped his reference book in a cloak of collaborative experts to create a synergistic look at how hooves can be nurtured back to health--or rehabilitated to a state of health that the horse may never have known in its life.

Forget what you know about barefoot trimming and be prepared for the launching pad to the next era of collaborative hoofcare technology. Ramey admits that he has softened his stance on shoeing, but believes we can do better than continuous shoeing with steel or neglectful long intervals between re-shoeings. This book is a snapshot of where we are now--with bare hooves, booted hooves and metal/aluminum/plastic shoes creating the spectrum of choices. It may not be what we choose, he concludes, but how we use the materials and methods.

I like the way that this book opens the door to the future--and leaves it open. Innovation is the path through the door and this book should encourage everyone to decry neglect, ignorance and lack of skill as hooves worst enemies. Some horses may be well through that door, thanks to having new materials and methods and smart, skilled people on their side. I hope in our quest for innovation we don't create a divided society of "hooves" and "hooves not". The best solutions will be the ones that are affordable and usable in many hands.

Ramey also includes veterinary support, imaging, nutrition, pasture management and locomotion in his spectrum; without working them into the hoof equation, the rehabilitation is not going to be realized. Collaboration is not an option, it's a requirement. The hoof needs to feel the influence of much more than a rasp and a knife to find its way along recovery road.

The road through this massive book passes through the clinics, laboratories and research expeditions of authors well-known to Hoofcare + Lameness readers. I hope their names in the table of contents will encourage some readers who might dismiss this book as a "barefoot tome". You can read it on many levels and believe me, you will.

--Fran Jurga, Hoofcare Publishing

Specifications: Hardcover, 8 3/4 x 11 1/4; 464 pgs, full color, 630 pictures+ drawings, index, references.

Ordering information: Cost $176  + $14 Postage in USA (+ $33 to Canada; +$50 elsewhere) via Paypal, Visa, MC. US Postal Service does not specify delivery time. Packages are generally not trackable outside USA. Priority Mail service (6-10 days) available to most countries.

Order via PayPal link or contact office directly: Email books@hoofcare.com or call 978 281 3222. Checks in US $ to Hoofcare Books, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930.

Availability: In stock after 1 February 2012.

Choose Shipping Destination

Book ($176) + USA ($14) = $190.00 USD Book ($176) + Canada ($33) = $209.00 USD Book ($176) + Other countries( $50) = $226.00 USD

Just click on the arrow at the right of the drop-down menu to choose your shipping destination (USA, Canada, or elsewhere) so the correct postage will be calculated. Then click "add to cart" and your PayPal page will have the correct information.

© 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

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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 soliciting retail sales of the book from 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.

Have a Heart: Hoofcare's Plastinated Valentine to the World

Today's a big day for hearts. Whenever I think of hearts, I think of that racehorse champion of days gone by, Phar Lap. He's always associated with Australia, but the truth is that he was foaled in New Zealand. Next month will be the 80th anniversary of his tragic death at the heigh of his racing career.

When Phar Lap died, his heart and his hide went to two museums in Australia, and his skeleton went to a museum in New Zealand. Phar Lap's heart, at 6.3 kilograms (13.86 pounds) was considered extraordinarily large by horse standards; it lives in a museum in Canberra, Australia. The average weight of a horse heart is four kilograms and there's even an Australian saying: "a heart as big as Phar Lap's".

On the clinical side, horses' hearts are the subject of a lot of studies lately. Research and education are aided by plastinated organs, such as this heart preserved by Christoph von Horst, PhD, DVM of  HC Biovision in Germany. Yes, that was once a living, beating heart.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. 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.

Deformity in Motion: Neglected Hooves Respond in Ireland

Johnny and James are two otherwise anonymous donkeys in Ireland who have been lucky enough to be rescued and find some kind people at The Donkey Sanctuary there.

Horses and ponies and donkeys with overgrown hooves are not uncommon to find. We routinely see photos of them when they are rescued by agencies or brought to farriers and vets for care.

But Johnny and James are different because these are not still shots, these are videos. You can see not just how overgrown they are, but that these strong, adaptable donkeys can still get around. They've had to adapt their gait a bit, perhaps, but they're still on the move.

We are always taught that the hoof wall bears the horse's weight and that the weight is transferred down the bony column of the limb. But nature obviously has a plan B, so that the horse can transfer its weight to the heels.

Another thing we're taught is that the toe is the strongest part of the hoof and the heel is the weakest and most deformable. And yet in these donkeys and so many other neglected equines, the heels are standing up to the job. The foot doesn't collapse, the heels don't rupture.

The second video shows that Johnny began to recover once his feet were under him again. The sanctuary mentioned that the hooves were radiographed and that the trim would be fine-tuned over the weeks to come until his weightbearing and gait could be normalized.

The hoof has to be one of the most adaptive structures in nature, yet we always try to make it conform to our ideal--whatever that may be. Surely there is a sweet spot for every hoof, a place where that foot finds optimal function.

The trick is to find it, to find it before it is too late, and to keep the hoof shape and position under the limb within a range of that spot throughout the animal's life.

Visit The Donkey Sanctuary web site to learn more about the charity's work on behalf of donkeys in Ireland--and everywhere.

$176 + $11 P+H US only; ready to ship: Tel 978 281 3222, fax 978 283 8775, email: books@hoofcare.com

© 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.