Royal Veterinary College Announces Graduate Equine Locomotor Research Diploma for Farriers

These images from recent locomotor research at the RVC were part of a test on the influence of hoof packing on a shod horse's foot deformation at the walk and trot. (©RVC image)

Hoof Blog comment: Progress happens slowly, and this announcement has been a long time coming--about 225 years, in fact. Sometimes making progress requires going back to the beginning of things and looking it all, all over again. That’s what’s happening in Great Britain this summer, as the Royal Veterinary College prepares to invite farriers to return to the vet school, which (like all vet schools) began when 19th century farriers sought to improve their scientific knowledge, banded together, and expanded their skills. The result was the invention a new field of medicine: veterinary science. 

The United Kingdom's Royal Veterinary College (RVC) announced today that it will launch a new Graduate Diploma in Equine Locomotor Research (Grad Dip ELR). The new program offers farriers the opportunity to gain skills and experience in producing original research to both increase the evidence base behind farriery, and to enhance equine welfare.

American Farrier’s Association and Life Data Labs, Inc., Makers of Farriers Formula Hoof Supplement, Announce Partnership

The following information is an edited excerpt from a news release supplied by the AFA. Photos and and media added by Hoofcare Publishing:

The American Farrier’s Association (AFA) and Life Data Labs, Inc. have entered into an educational communications partnership designed to bring Life Data Labs’ considerable expertise in the area of equine nutrition to the Association’s membership through various communications channels managed by the AFA. This includes the AFA's bi-monthly newsletter No Foot, No Horse and the recently redesigned AFA website, among other plans.

Synergy of Modeling, Imaging Technologies Compares Thoroughbred Limb Biomechanics Shod and Unshod

The final version of an Open Access hoof biomechanics research paper previewed
in February is now available for free download by Hoof Blog readers.

In A preliminary case study of the effect of shoe-wearing on the biomechanics of a horse’s foot, published in the Open Access journal PeerJ, an international research team explored the capability of combining still and motion imaging and modeling technologies and systems to evaluate the effect of a stainless steel horseshoe on the function of the same foot of the same horse.

The horseshoe's effects were compared to the same foot of the same horse without a shoe. This early experiment is expected to be followed with additional research that would be applicable to the safety and efficiency of racehorse hooves.

American Farrier’s Association and Purina Animal Nutrition announce educational partnership

via press release

The American Farrier’s Association (AFA) and Purina Animal Nutrition, LLC ("Purina") have entered into an agreement that will lend support for the educational goals AFA stresses for its members. It will also offer Purina researchers an opportunity to share results of their considerable body of work in equine nutrition while engaging farriers in discussions about the impact that they observe nutrition having on hoof integrity.

Discipline Committee strips British farrier of right to practice; apprentice complained of bullying

A sculpture honoring the relationship between a master and apprentice above the Craiglockhart Primary School in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo by Kim Traynor.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Farriers Registration Council (FRC) in Great Britain has announced the removal of a long-established farrier from the nation’s Farrier Register. The decision to “strike off” the farrier--thus ending his ability to practice farriery in that country--came after a much-publicized hearing in London in March, when the FRC publicly investigated complaints of bullying behavior lodged by an apprentice the farrier had agreed to train.

Pennsylvania Court Petitioned to Require State to Resume Racetrack Farrier License Tests

On Tuesday, June 7, the International Chapter of Horseshoers and Equine Trades, Local 947, ("the Union") filed a writ of mandamus in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania naming the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission, a board administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, as defendant.

The document petitions the Pennsylvania judicial system to direct the Racing Commission to follow its own law regarding the requirements to obtain a license to shoe horses on the grounds of Penn National and other Thoroughbred racetracks in the state.