Take a Culture Break: Driftwood Horses to Admire

It's Sunday morning. Take a break. Sit back and admire some fine, fine artistic endeavors. Marvel at these driftwood and/or bronze horse constructions from sculptors Heather Jansch and Deborah Butterfield. But don't stop here, proceed to Heather's website and marvel even more. Her work is reminescent of another of my favorite sculptors, Deborah Butterfield, but Heather has incorporated much more depth of material and exaggerated gesture, creating horses that are less contemplative and eerily lifelike in their stop-action poses. In simplest terms, Heather fleshed out the legs. And got them right. But Deborah's work is sparer, more evocative of "every" horse than a three-dimensional portrait of a specific one.

Which sculptor's work do you prefer?

PS Heather makes the hooves out of copper immersion tanks.





Here's one of Deborah's sculptures:

Laura Florence Launches Holistic Hoof Care Practice In Pennsylvania

As noted previously on this blog, our friend Laura Florence has left her former post as resident farrier at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center after seven years of meeting the challenges of referral hoof cases there. Although Laura remains loosely associated with the University in her role as a Special Research Fellow of the Dorothy Russell Havermeyer Foundation for the study of the hoof, she is now moving on to private practice.

In May, Laura will open the doors of her new business, "Holistic Hoof Care" at her new facility at 626 North Walnut Street in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The facility includes two holding stalls and a paddock and is based on the premise that her clients will bring the horses to her for trimming and/or shoeing.

According to her new brochure, Laura will offer trimming, customized boot fitting, therapeutic shoeing (both conventional nail-on and Sigafoos Series I and II) and coordination of integrative therapies for her patients. She will also offer consultations.

It's interesting to note that her boot service specifically mentions that she will fit boots for riding, for use on horses transitioning to barefoot, or for therapeutic applications. She carefully delineates between these three reasons why horses need to be fitted with boots.

My gut feeling is that Laura is The One To Watch. With her diplomacy and friendly manner, I think that her business model of offering integrated holistic and traditional farrier services, particularly for horses with advanced pathology, will be a model for others to emulate. I think that Laura has one foot in each world (Laura is certified by the American Farrier's Association yet she hopes to be able to use trimming techniques alone, when possible, to rehabilitate hooves affected by pathology), and will hopefully be offering her clients' horses the best of both worlds.

With luck, she will offer some sort of internship or residency so others may learn from her.

Her web site is still under construction but I think it will be one to check soon and often.

Bluegrass Time: See You in Kentucky?

It's time for my annual trip to Kentucky, ostensibly for the Rolex (Kentucky) Three-Day Event at the Kentucky Horse Park, but my plans are to cram as much in as I can. ("Rolex" is America's premier four-star event.)

I'll be tracking down Scott Sellers, farrier from the group farrier practice known as "Forging Ahead" in Round Hill, Virginia. Scott will be tuning up some of the top horses for the USA at the event, and standing by in case he's needed.

Another big part of Rolex is an afternoon of demonstrations in the podiatry clinic at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, just down the road from the Horse Park. The staff there probably has no idea how many people I've talked to who are planning to attend. They're even running buses between the Horse Park and Rood and Riddle!

Across town, I'll be checking in at Keeneland racecourse with my key contact, therapist Dianne Volz, who will be keeping a close eye on many of the Kentucky Derby contenders. This year is different in the run up to the Derby since so many trainers have chosen to stay in Lexington rather than stable at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The attraction? Training on Keeneland's Polytrack (artificial) surface, which many feel is kinder and gentler on a horse's legs.

Of course I'll also make a stop at Breeders Supply in Lexington, to see what's new at one of my favorite farrier supply stores. And stop in at a few of my favorite bookstores, and...the list goes on!

If you're in Kentucky too this week, look for me in any of these places and be sure to say hello. I would love to meet some of the people who read this blog (whoever you are). Send email to fran@hoofcare.com and let me know how to find you.

Walk This Way: Cool Hot Walkers Turn Barefoot Transitioning Into a Day at the Beach

For the past few months, I have been researching an article for Hoofcare and Lameness Journal about a company in England that is making what are basically conditioning surfaces for horses that are transitioning to shoelessness. I tried to visit the racing yard in Gloucestershire where these deluxe walkers are installed, but it didn't work out. The designers recently did me a favor and posted their DVD on the Google Video site, so I am link-posting it here for the consideration of all who lurk here and never leave comments.

Here's the deal: if you watch the video, leave a comment here! Just click on the word "comments" at the bottom of the post and a window will open up. You can use your real name (preferred) or just call yourself "anonymous."

I think the concept is terrific; it reminds me of Jean-Marie Denoix's work to identify surfaces for rehabbing horses to bolster their proprioception after layup. Denoix built a track of alternating surfaces, hard and soft, granular and solid, for the horses to trot across.

This video also makes me glad I live close enough to the ocean to ride in the real thing; one of the "surfaces" available is cold salt water.

The next question, of course, is: given the new applications of cryotherapy for laminitis prevention and/or recovery, might these spa walkers spawn a new subset of clinical mini-spas? If so, what might the optimum temperatute be? What are your thoughts?

If that screen doesn't work, try this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-224429933619918434&q=equine&pr=goog-sl

Note: I don't think you can download this video, you have to go to google's video site to do that, and even then you have to download the google video player. It's best just to watch it here, if you can, or there, if you can't.

World Cup Freestyle B Won by...a Lusitano!

Consider this: the world turned upside down today in Las Vegas, where at the FEI World Cup Dressage Finals, the Freesyle B was won by the Portuguese rider Daniel Pinto, riding a Lusitano horse of his native land. How about that!

In the picture above, from warmup day, you see Isabell Werth of Germany in the foreground, with Daniel in the back. Observers said they did an impromptu pas de deux while schooling; now each has won his or her event.

Obviously the Portuguese are breeding and conditioning a larger, more extended version of the classical breed, but when you think of the classical orgins of dressage and how it was dominated in the 20th century by northern European warmbloods at the international level, this is news. Granted, he won at freestyle, which means designing a program that spotlights the horse's strengths, while the Grand Prix tests all the gaits and speeds, but...good for Portugal. Perhaps this will be the dawn of the legitimate specialist dressage horse for musical freestyle.

Hopefully Kit will have a good closeup photo of the horse in action tomorrow.

(Photo courtesy of Kit Houghton and Rolex.)

Tildren: Denoix Study Shows Drug Helps Horses with Back Pain

Michael Davis, DVM, MS, of New England
Equine Medical Center. Fran Jurga photo.

Hoofcare and Lameness Journal first reported on the clinical trials of the drug tiludronate ("Tildren") about five years ago, when it was first tested on horses with navicular disease under the supervision of one of consulting editors, Jean Marie Denoix, DVM, PhD, Agrege, of France.

Dr. Denoix's team recently tested Tildren on 29 horses with back pain caused by lesions in the vertebrae, as documented in radiographs. Such lesions are common in many horses.

Fifteen horses were given Tildren and 14 horses received a control substance, and the horses were monitored for 120 days. This was a similar protocol to the navicular disease study. The horses given Tildren were significantly improved after 60 days.

The study was published in the March 2007 edition of the American Journal of Veterinary Research.

Tildren is currently not sold in the United States but is being used by some veterinarians in trial situations within FDA guidelines. Fortunately, the drug is being tested near here at the New England Equine Medical Center, by Dr. Michael Davis, and I've been able to follow its progress. So far, all the news is good...except for the price, of course!

Tildren has been used successfully for navicular bone lesions and hock spavin. Hopes have been high for its use in demineralization of the coffin bone but I don't think there is any documentation of tests for that problem.

Denoix's new study opens up the area of the back and makes one wonder about using it for neck and sacroiliac pain...but I'm sure he's working on that!

Photo: Michael Davis DVM MS of New England Equine Medical and Surgical Center has been using Tildren on carefully-screened US horses.