Jack Hanna at Ohio State's Equine Lameness Lab: Running Amok Through Gait Analysis

Watch a segment of Jack Hanna's "Into the Wild" television show filmed in a lameness lab

Television wildlife promoter Jack Hanna visited The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center's Galbreath Equine Center in Columbus, Ohio in February; he was filming a segment for his television show "Into the Wild."

Hanna and crew were hosted by our friend Alicia Bertone, DVM, PhD, DACVS professor of Equine Orthopedic Surgery and The Trueman Chair in Equine Clinical Medicine and Surgery at Ohio State.

Dr. Bertone tried to explain different diagnostic methods for osteoarthritis in horses as well as how a horse progresses through her new clinical trial for horses with osteoarthritis--when Jack wasn't mugging for the camera. It's nothing short of fun to watch Jack stumble through the familiar treadmills and force plates and surgery room hoists, all the while taking Dr Bertone not very seriously. Luckily, we know she has a great sense of humor and was well-chosen to host someone like Jack.

If you live in the United States and watch television, you know Jack Hanna. But since so many Hoof Blog readers are not US residents, it might be helpful to explain who this character is. Some might say that he is best known for taking his role as director of the down-at-the-heels and unknown Columbus Zoo back in the 1980s and turning "Jack Hanna"--and that zoo--into household names through his back-to-back appearances on every news and talk show on television. He actually does have a show of his own, however.

But most of us see him over breakfast on "Good Morning America" or late at night on David Letterman's show. He brings the creepiest or cutest animals he can find and turns them loose on Dave's desk.

Jack Hanna still lives in Ohio; that location meant that he became the de facto spokesman to the press during the terrible tragedy of a home zoo gone mad when wild animals escaped from a Zanesville, Ohio farm.

One reason he's so effective on-camera is because he plays dumb. Sure, it's dumb like a fox, but it works to get--and keep--the audience on his side. He's been able to become the most visible icon of American wildlife not in spite of but perhaps because of his lack of a DVM or a PhD. With the possible exception of the Zanesville aftermath, Jack Hanna doesn't usually lecture or talk down to his audiences. He falls over his own words often, makes more than his share of off-the-wall comments, and acts downright goofy sometimes, especially when David Letterman is around.

The AVMA and AAZPA may or may not approve of what Jack Hanna says or does, but they can't argue that he fuels the public's interest in wild animals, and has probably done more than any individual to increase the sales of family tickets to zoos and nature parks around the country.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

The horse world could use someone to do for us what Jack has done for zoos. Maybe this little video is a start. 

Click on the ad to learn more about this beautiful guide to the equine foot anatomy

 © 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.

FEI Veterinarian ID Card System Begins June 1, 2012; All Treating, Team and Private Equine Practitioners at Events Must Comply

The following information is posted to assist the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the worldwide governing body for horse sport. It applies to veterinarians from all countries who plan to work on horses at events in all FEI sports:

The FEI has announced the introduction of an ID card and online exam for veterinarians working at FEI events. The exam focuses on the FEI Veterinary and Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations.

The new system, which comes into effect on 1 June 2012, requires Competitors’ Private Veterinarians, Team Veterinarians and Treating Veterinarians appointed by Organizing Committees to pass the online exam based on the relevant FEI regulations affecting vets who support horses competing at FEI events.

Veterinarians work far behind the scenes at FEI events, as well as during the event itself, for national teams and sometimes for individual owners. Now they will all be required to meet the FEI's standards and carry appropriate credentials reflecting that. (USDA photo)

Veterinarians wishing to work at FEI events must apply for access to the exam through their National Federations and fulfill the FEI eligibility requirements. Successful candidates should then download their “FEI Permitted Treating Veterinarian” ID card and obtain accreditation from Organizing Committees for stable and treatment areas.

Existing FEI Official Veterinarians (including Veterinary Delegates, Testing Veterinarians and Head Treatment Vets) are currently exempt from the examination requirement, providing they download their “FEI Official Veterinarian” ID cards before 31 December 2012.

The FEI Official Veterinarian ID card will allow these veterinarians to work either as FEI Official Veterinarians or as Permitted Treating Veterinarians at an event. The ID cards must be produced if requested by Stewards and other FEI Officials. The cards have an advanced “QR” (quick-response) bar code, which allows easy public access to professional profiles on the FEI’s dedicated new database.

The exam and ID card are free of charge and relevant documents are available online for reference to encourage understanding of the key FEI Veterinary Regulations, Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations and General Regulations.

Graeme Cook, FEI Veterinary Director

“The FEI is continuing to harness the latest technology in its Clean Sport campaign,” explained Graeme Cooke, FEI Veterinary Director. “This initiative follows the launch of several online tools to help everyone associated with horse sport manage their responsibilities under the FEI Equine Anti-Doping Rules.”

Further comments from Graeme Cook:

“The introduction of this exam and ID card for veterinarians working at FEI events has been well received during the initial testing phase and is designed to strengthen our very clear approach to anti-doping and biosecurity at FEI Events.

“The new exam will ensure a consistent level of understanding and interpretation of our current regulations, wider knowledge of Clean Sport and help us to maintain the longstanding FEI Welfare Code.

 “The simple process has been designed with busy practicing vets in mind, for instance candidates can save their progress and complete the exam later should they be interrupted.

“The introduction of ID cards with QR codes also allows FEI Officials to efficiently check the identity of veterinarians at our events using iPhone, BlackBerry or Android smartphones.”

Got credentials? This is a media credential confirmation package for the 2008 Olympics.

Editor's Note:  There are two types of veterinarians working at FEI events: Permitted Treating Veterinarians and FEI Official Veterinarians.

The FEI Veterinary and Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations, along with various other resources are available at the FEI Clean Sport website; additionally the General Regulations are available here.

Olympic credentials photo for media by PJMorse. FEI veterinary ID art via FEI Focus. Thanks!

© 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.

Titanic Disaster: The farrier who went down with the world's greatest ship

It was a big newsday when the world learned that the Titanic, a ship hailed as "unsinkable", had indeed sunk in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg on April 16, 1912.

Every year in April, we hear once again about the sinking, as the world pauses in honor of the terrible tragedy: the "unsinkable" British cruise ship hit an iceberg. Since it was woefully unprepared for the possibility of sinking, 1500 lives were lost.

At least one farrier went down with that very big ship.

George Henry Green was a 40-year-old farrier who had been shoeing in the town of Dorking in Surrey, England. He was emigrating to South Dakota, in hopes of making a new life in a gold mining town, and was a third-class passenger on the Titanic.

Not long before the ship hit the iceberg, he had sent a post card home, saying that he was enjoying "lovely sailing".

Farrier George Green, from

encyclopedia-titanica.org

As a third-class passenger, George may well have been locked below deck when the ship's crew followed orders that would seal the lower-paying passengers' fate. You hear so much about the Strausses and the Astors and other first-class passengers yet we don't know much about those poor people belowdecks who met one of the worst fates imaginable.

They didn't have a chance of escape and possibly never even knew what hit the ship or what was going on above them.

Out of 599 third-class passengers, only 172 survived. And George wasn't among them.

Here's another horseshoeing-related trivia fact about the Titanic; The first lifeboat to be lowered was manned by Titanic crew member James Robert McGough, the son of an Irish horseshoer who had emigrated to Philadelphia.

And did you know that it took 20 draft horses to pull one of Titanic's 15-ton anchors through Belfast to the shipyard on a wagon?

George Green's body was never recovered from the icy North Atlantic but his name appears on the grave of his sister in Fawley Churchyard, Buckinghamshire, England. Thanks to Roger Marks for finding the grave, taking this photo and giving permission to share it on The Hoof Blog: (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by R~P~M

Were there horses aboard the Titanic? That's still a mystery. Some sources say there were polo ponies aboard, and there's an unverified story about a German racehorse who had a private paddock on C deck.

Other people to think about include Charles Robert Bainbrigge, a 23-year-old horse trainer from the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. Charles was traveling to Savage's International Stock Farm in Minnesota for work and to be near his sister who had already moved to Minnesota. The farm was known as the "Taj Mahal of horse farms" and was home to one of the most famous pacers of all time, Dan Patch.

Two passengers listed their professionals as horse grooms.

Sometimes tragedies just sound like a lot of numbers, but there are real people in those numbers. People like you and me.

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© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is the news service for Hoofcare and Lameness Publishing. Please, no re-use of text or images on other sites or social media without permission--please link instead. (Just ask if you need help to do that.) The Hoof Blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a headlines-link email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page). Use the little envelope symbol below to email this article to others. The "translator" tool in the right sidebar will convert this article (roughly) to the language of your choice. To share this article on Facebook and other social media, click on the small symbols below the labels. Be sure to "like" the Hoofcare and Lameness Facebook page and click on "get notifications" under the page's "like" button to keep up with the hoof news on Facebook. Questions or problems with the Hoof Blog? Click here to send an email hoofblog@gmail.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.

Trophy Hoof: Taxidermist Rowland Ward Preserved Part of a Favorite Horse Forever

Every once in a while, you'll see one in an antique store or on eBay: a preserved hoof from long ago. A favorite hunter or cavalry charger lives on because one of his hooves was preserved as a trophy.

The National Army Museum in London, England has their collection on display now as part of their "War Horse: Fact & Fiction" exhibition.

The two primary ones used in curator Pip Dodd's video lecture are excellent contrasts in hoof form and shoe fit.

Would you care for a cordial? Rowland Ward combined his big game expertise and his hoof trophy specialty in this mini-bar created from an African elephant's foot.

Now, here's my question: Did they only preserve one hoof? Would they have just tossed out the others? What if it was a really famous horse?

More recently, I've come to question the preparation of the hooves themselves. If British army regulations required hooves to be burned with identification numerals, and if the farriers were required to retrieve the numbered hooves after battle, why do we seldom see hooves with numbers burned into the wall? Were they sanded down until the numbers disappeared?

Were some preserved hooves merely vehicles to display horseshoes? This heart bar shoe is almost 100 years old; it lives in the beautiful tack room at the Badminton House stables in England. The hoof doesn't look particularly like it suffered badly from laminitis, although the beloved horse who wore the shoe apparently did. There may have been different priorities for hoof trophies.

Perhaps the answer lies here, in this blog's story from December 2011 about the dreaded farrier ax:

"The Household Cavalry still burns numbers into three out of four of each horse's hooves. The near hind bears the horse's army number, the near fore his squadron number and the off fore has the regiment's initials."

While some people are repulsed at the site of hoof trophies, others are intrigued. First of all, they were preserved in an era where a rider may not have had the option of a photo or even a drawing to remember a favorite horse.

But what intrigues Hoofcare + Lameness readers is that the final product of a trophy doesn't seem to have much--if anything--to do with how the horse was shod. The shoes attached to the trophies seem to have been crafted by silversmiths, not farriers. Their fit is questionable and some even lack nails, although the clinches can still be seen in the hoof wall.

Much more information on hoof preservation--not just of horse hooves but safari trophies and game--was detailed in the 1883 book, Observations on the Preservation of Hoofs and Designing of Hoof Trophies, by Rowland Ward of London and Nairobi.

Ward, who had aspired to become a sculptor in his youth, was quite a prolific trophy artist; he offered more than 50 designs for hooves in his shop. His designs were patented and his clients included the Duke of Edinburgh.

A Rowland Wolf hoof chair

He was a man of near and far ambitions; while his bread-and-butter might have been British horse hooves, his fame and fortune came from big game bagged by his wealthy clients--many of them Americans--on safari in Kenya.

The book details an important part of hoof trophy-making that has always challenged me. He states that the shoe worn by the horse is useless when making a trophy because the foot will change shape during the preservation process, and that crafting a suitable shoe for the trophy is part of the trophy-builder's task--and that a farrier is not the craftsman to be hired to build the shoe.

A Rowland Wolf hoof lamp

"The farrier's work should stop when the horse dies," he writes, "by which I mean that when the hoof is severed at the fetlock joint, for treatment by the naturalist, the farrier should not be allowed to take off the shoe, or in any other way to exercise his craft, either by cleaning of the flesh or skin or hoof, in any way whatever, and particularly not by boiling, or scalding or baking...."

He also mentions that part of the skill of the trophy-builder was in repairing the frogs of horses that had been affected by thrush, which apparently was prevalent in the hooves sent to him for preservation. Unfortunately, he doesn't go into much detail about how he did this.

Ward employed an assistant who worked on nothing but horse hoof trophies for more than 20 years.

Rowland Ward died in 1912 but the Rowland Ward business is still in business in Johannesburg, South Africa.  For some time, there was a US branch of the business, most recently headquartered in Dallas. The US office closed in 2009.

The company's web site is a mecca for what is left of the big-game hunters, and those who study the history of hunting and taxidermy, and the skillful arts of Rowland Ward.

A Rowland Wolf hoof scale

Today we have plastination and freeze-drying to preserve horse hooves, but the reason behind the preservation tends to be for educational purposes, rather than to preserve a memory or create a memorial. We demand lifelike detail, rather than artistic expression.

For Rowland Ward, a hoof from a dead horse was a blank canvas for artistic expression and his imagination ran as wild as the big game that arrived on his doorstep to be preserved, hooves and all.

To learn more:

National Army Museum (UK) hoof trophy feature

Sports Illustrated (1959): A Man Who Knows How To Stuff An Elephant

Farrier's Ax: A Museum Restores a Gruesome Tool of Mercy Designed to End the War for Horses 

Why Is That Guy Following Prince William and Kate Middleton Carrying a Big Shiny Ax? Because He's the Farrier, That's Why! 

 A collection of hoof trophies, including at least one by Rowland Ward, in the collection of the Canadian Anglo-Boer War Museum

© 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. 

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 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.

Ever So Lucky Horseshoe Helped Colt Train for Keeneland's Toyota Bluegrass Stakes

"Like my new shoe? Pretty cool, eh?" Ever So Lucky, with the guidance of Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, worked under jockey Julian Leparoux on Tuesday morning over Keeneland's Polytrack surface. As he straightened out from the turn the three-year-old son of Indian Charlie flipped his fetlock and let ace photographer Wendy Wooley have a good look at his special bar shoe. (Image © Wendy Wooley/Equisport Photos)

One of top contenders in tomorrow's Toyota Bluegrass Stakes at Kentucky's Keeneland Racecourse is aptly named. "Ever So Lucky" should count his blessings that his connections knew the number of a horseshoer who could lend a hand--and a shoe--after the colt grabbed the outside heel of his right front foot.

Except he didn't just grab it. He ripped a chunk of it off.

Enlargement of Ever So Lucky's
right front foot. (© Wendy
Wooley/Equisport Photos)

"It looked like hamburger."

Kentucky horseshoer Steve Norman wasn't talking about what he ordered for lunch at the track kitchen. He was talking about what he saw when he picked up Ever So Lucky's right front foot a few weeks ago.

He was brought in by the veterinarian to see what could be done to keep the horse in training for his Pennsylvania-based Hall of Fame trainer, Jonathan Sheppard.

"He ripped the meat of his heel bulb right off," Steve said, echoing what I had read in the Barn Notes for Keeneland. "But that happens a lot. It probably happened in the starting gate, that's where it usually does. A horse scrambles and that hind foot just reached up there."

Steve Norman is busy this time of year. In the past, he shod Kentucky Derby winners like Alysheba, Go for Gin, War Emblem and possibly others. In 2009, he shod five runners in the Derby--he must have been in demand for tips that year.

Here's a z bar shoe photo from the vault. The aluminum bar is welded into a Thoro'Bred plate. From the archive of aluminum bar shoes created by the late, great Emil Carre. (© Hoofcare Publishing)

Steve Norman's solution for Ever So Lucky was to build a z bar shoe by welding a frog support and a heel bypass into a racing plate. It's not a new answer for the Nebraska native and former jockey--he used a similar shoe on Unbridled's Song, now one of the country's top sires, when he needed to train for the Derby in 1996. That colt injured his heel bulb in the Wood Memorial while prepping for the Derby.

The z bar is often seen on horses with a quarter crack on heel bulb injury. It transfers some of the load to the frog. "You might even call it a half a heart bar," Steve mentioned. "I just shaped the shoe and welded in the bar. The insert z's over in front of the injury."

Like Unbridled Song, Ever So Lucky trained in the special shoe but if you're around the backside at Keeneland early Saturday morning, you might see Augustin Stable’s colt get switched back to a plain shoe. (The similarity ends there: Unbridled's Song switched to egg bars for the Derby, finished fifth, and sat out the rest of the Triple Crown.)

Steve Norman is ambivalent about changing the horse back over. "He could run in that shoe, without a problem," he said Friday afternoon from a stop at Ashford Stud. "Especially on that Polytrack at Keeneland. If he was at Churchill, yes, I'd never hesitate. An aluminum bar shoe with a frog like that is going to slide in the dirt but on Polytrack...it's so much stickier.

Here's a freeform imitation (sort of) of a z bar that I found when I picked up the foot of an event horse with a quarter crack. Ever So Lucky's connections are hesitant to race him on Polytrack without heel support under his injury. This horse had just completed an upper level cross-country course at a three-day event. I wonder how he fared at the trot-up the next morning. (© Hoofcare + Lameness file photo)

"We don't have the slip at Keeneland that you see on dirt. But it's fine to switch him, too," Steve said before starting his next horse.

Z bar shoes are either a great solution or...not, according to many horseshoers. They are often used for horses with quarter cracks, and are always good for a debate.

While they may raise an eyebrow when a Thoroughbred races in one, the Z-bar shoe for Standardbreds is much more ubiquitous, ever since the 1980s superstar Nihilator seemed to win every big stakes race--and do it in record time--wearing a Z-bar for his quarter cracks. 


Also called a "half mushroom" in some harness circles, the shoe has been the subject of a lot of debate over the years: should the bar be level or set down? Should the bar cross the frog or follow its edge? Joey Carroll was Nihilator's farrier and he always stressed the importance of proper shoe design and application for an injured foot.

"You're only as good as the last shoe you nailed on," is a line I have often heard from Steve Norman. Shoeing a horse to heal an injury while simultaneously keeping the horse comfortable and making it possible for the horse to get out and work in the morning is a Triple Crown feat of its own.

Ever So Lucky didn't train like a layup. He clocked five furlongs in :57 under Leparoux this week.

The Toyota Bluegrass Stakes is one of the final prep races for the 2012 Kentucky Derby. The favorite is the ghostlike gray Breeders Cup winner, Hansen. There's no shortage of interesting horses headed to the gate with him; the purse is $750,000 and possibly the bonus of a trip to Louisville on the first Saturday in May for the winner.

To learn more:


The Hoof Blog's perspective on quarter cracks and heel bulb injuries in a historical survey of this prevalent problem in Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing


Read about Steve Norman's hoof work on Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem for Bob Baffert.

Read "Hoof Care and Shoeing: Barring difficulty" with horseshoers Mark Dewey and Sonny Broaddus commenting, along with Kentucky trainer John Ward, on z-bar shoes.

For more on Nihilator and his Z-bar, dust off the photo and story in Hoofcare & Lameness 10, December 1985.

Thanks to Wendy and Matt Wooley of Equisport Photos for noticing Ever So Lucky's special shoe on Tuesday--and for thinking of the Hoof Blog. Wendy and Matt write the "Turf and Dirt" blog and will keep you connected with the Kentucky Thoroughbred scene in a brilliantly visual way. Their current top story is a photo collection of Rachel Alexandra at home in her paddock at Stonestreet Farm.

© 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 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.

AVMA, AAEP Soring Policies Place Veterinarians on the Side and at the Side of USDA Inspectors at Tennessee Walking Horse Events

The following information was received from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) today. The article is posted as received from the AVMA.

Soring, illegal for more than 40 years, is the abusive act of intentionally inflicting pain on gaited horses through the use of chemical irritants, broken glass wedged in between a horse's shoe pads and sole, or overly tightened metal hoof bands. The extreme pain caused by these abuses forces the horse to lift its legs faster and higher, perhaps increasing its chance of winning in show rings across the country.

"A zero-tolerance policy being promoted by these shows would set a significant tenor for the entire show season."--AVMA President Rene Carlson

"It's time for this egregious form of animal cruelty to end," says Dr. Rene Carlson, President of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors are doing everything possible to detect evidence of soring before horses are allowed to compete.

Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, USDA inspectors are only able to attend a small number of the shows being held. It is going to take a team effort to put an end to the inhumane practice of soring horses, so America's veterinarians stand in support of government regulators and the walking horse industry in their horse protection efforts," said Carlson.

Thermographic image showing excessive warmth (seen as red and
orange colors), which may be caused by inflammation from soring.
The pattern seen is consistent with soring using a chemical agent.
(AVMA.org image courtesy of USDA)

In 2011, the USDA documented 587 violations of the Horse Protection Act while attending only 62 of the 650 or so gaited horse events held that year.

The USDA cited participants in the 2011 National Trainers' Show with 49 violations of the Horse Protection Act — the third highest number of violations for a single USDA-inspected show that year.

Prosecution of violators has met strong political opposition, challenging USDA's efforts at enforcement and creating an environment where recidivism is the norm.

Lateral radiographic view of the front left foot of a sored horse.
Notice the large number of nails, which were added to
increase the weight carried by the hoof and accentuate
 the gait, but can also place pressure on the sole, causing pain.
(AVMA.org image courtesy of USDA)

"For that reason, America's veterinarians are standing right beside USDA inspectors in urging the strengthening of the Horse Protection Act. Everyone -- inspectors, judges, trainers, riders and even spectators at these shows must take responsibility for ending soring. A zero-tolerance policy being promoted by these shows would set a significant tenor for the entire show season," Dr. Carlson added.

To assist in the return of the walking horse gait back to its natural beauty, the AVMA has created an educational video, produced in cooperation with the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and the USDA, to provide an overview of the issue of soring and highlight the tell-tale signs of when a horse has been sored.

Sole bruising caused by inserting hard objects
between the hoof and shoe to place pressure on the sole
 is a sign of mechanical soring. (AVMA.org image courtesy of USDA)

The video (shown above on The Hoof Blog via YouTube) includes an interview with Elizabeth Graves, a licensed Tennessee Walking Horse judge and gaited horse trainer and Dr. Nat Messer, a member of both the AVMA's and the AAEP's Animal Welfare Committees.

Additional materials, including a factsheet, backgrounder, reporting procedures, and the formal AVMA policy are available for general use.

The AVMA is confident that with appropriate recognition of the inhumane nature of soring; increased reporting of abuse; and stronger legislative and regulatory action, including adequate funding for inspections, the offspring of today's sored horses won't have to suffer tomorrow.

Resources on Soring:
AVMA Official Statement on Soring Practices
AAEP Statement on Soring (2002)
Download the AVMA Backgrounder on Soring Practices in Horses (2012)

Download the AAEP's white paper "Putting the Horse First" Veterinary Recommendations for Ending the Soring of Tennessee Walking Horses (2008)
USDA information on soring and the Horse Protection Act

© 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 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.