Monday, May 03, 2021

Message to Hoof Blog readers and email newsletter subscribers


Hoofcare Publishing will be back at work and publishing from the "real" office in town soon. In the meantime, some changes are coming to improve the delivery of your email newsletter and headline alerts.

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Remembering Britain's Prince Philip and the Quick-Thinking Farrier

Prince Philip's brush with danger at the 2013 Royal Windsor Horse Show has almost been forgotten but it could have ended quite differently. A quick-thinking farrier was the hero that day.
Prince Philip's brush with danger at the 2013 Royal Windsor Horse Show has almost been forgotten but it could have ended quite differently. A quick-thinking farrier was the hero that day.


The sound of the bagpipes and boatswain's whistles is fading, but the funeral of Great Britain's Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will remained etched in our minds as a tasteful, dignified farewell to an international icon of both monarchy and the horse world.

Prince Philip was, of course, an avid and exuberant competitive carriage driver, as well as polo player and long-time president of Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), the global governing body of equestrian sport.

What I'll remember, however, is a horse show mishap that could have ended quite differently.

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Monday, January 04, 2021

For Auld Lang Syne: New York's forgotten landmarks of hoof history



I have always wanted to organize a tour of New York City for horse and hoof history, but this might be as close as I can come until life gets back to normal.  Consider this a warmup, inspired by the New Year's Eve traditional celebration in Times Square. 

This article will cover midtown landmarks -- or "hoofmarks", as I call them -- around Times Square and Central Park.

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Barefoot by the Numbers: Swedish Standardbred trotters are faster without shoes, but risk breaking gait


Researchers at Sweden's University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) at Uppsala have analyzed the performance records of trotting Standardbreds based on varied configurations of fully shod,  front or hind shoes only, or without shoes entirely.