Secretariat's Nail Head Cast in Silver to Raise Laminitis Research Funds

Secretariat.com has announced a commemorative line of jewelry designed and cast from an original nail from one of the shoes worn by Himself in his superlative 1973 Belmont Stakes performance.

Sales from this jewelry line are earmarked to benefit continued research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center towards finding a cure for laminitis, the debilitating and deadly disease that cut short the lives of both Secretariat and 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Each piece in the Belmont Nail Jewelry Series is cast in solid sterling silver from an officially authenticated shoe nail worn by Secretariat during his record breaking 31 length victory to claim the Triple Crown. The nail head sports what I believe is the Izumi starburst pattern, unless there were other nails in 1973 that had star logos on the head.

The original nail - obtained when the champion was re-shod two weeks after the Belmont - was carefully catalogued and preserved until retrieved for casting. The nail jewelry is available in either a satin (shown) or polished finish measuring just over 1.15" in length and comes with a certificate card in its own embossed packaging.

While the original nail was recently valued at more than $6000 (wouldn't you love to know who the appraiser was?), the Belmont Nail Jewelry Series affords racing fans and collectors alike the chance to pay tribute to Secretariat and his historic legacy while combining horse fashion with charitable efforts that can make a difference in the equine world.

View all the many designs sporting the nail fragment at http://secretariatcom.stores.yahoo.net/benaje.html

Now if we could just see the shoes...

Street Sense Won't Run in the Belmont

There will be no third jewel of the Triple Crown for James Tafel's Street Sense after trainer Carl Nafzger announced today that the winner of the Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands and runner-up in the Preakness would skip the June 9 Belmont Stakes to focus on a fall campaign.

"I gave Mr. Tafel all of my reasons for going, and all my reasons for not going," said Nafzger. "The Triple Crown is out - Curlin took us out. We're not going to the Belmont. We have set goals for this horse - we want the Travers and we want the Breeders' Cup Classic. If we can be the first horse to win the [Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup] Juvenile, the Derby, the Travers and the Classic, then Mr. Tafel said these are worthy goals, let's go after it."

Nafzger said that the entire Street Sense camp was "really deflated" after Curlin rallied to edge the Kentucky Derby winner in the memorable Preakness finish. He said that, as sportsmen, both Tafel and he wanted another shot at Curlin in the Belmont - but with no Triple Crown on the line, the option of a fall campaign became more attractive.

"Let's don't chase spilled water," Nafzger said. "We spilled water in the Preakness - we spilled it. We got beat and we got outran. So that's behind us, and our decision now is to regroup."

Nafzger said that Street Sense would remain in "light training" at Churchill Downs before he gears up for the fall campaign, and that the $1 million Haskell Invitational on August 5 at Monmouth Park or the $500,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga would be used as a prep for the Travers later in August in Saratoga. There would be one more prep for the Classic, but Nafzger said "there's a million races for us to choose from" to use as a final prep for the 1 1/4-mile Classic.

(Received via NTRA press release)

UMaine Professor Puts Track Surfaces to the Test

An article in our local Boston Globe newspaper yesterday has been picked up by Associated Press and is seeing ink across the country and over the web. The article profiles University of Maine soil scientist Dr. Mick Peterson and his special studies of racetrack surfaces. Dr. Peterson has a mechanical hoof impact machine and travels to racetracks who suspect changes or defects in the surfaces of racetracks.

New Educational Opportunity for Career-Motivated Farriers at Forging Ahead

One of North America's innovative multi-farrier practices has just announced an unusual program for farriers seeking to build a career in professional farriery. Forging Ahead in Round Hill, Virginia is a partnership of several leading farriers who are responsible for the hoofcare of many of the top sport horses in the USA. Forging Ahead also operates a busy haul-in farrier clinic and provides the farrier services at Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in nearby Leesburg, Virginia, where the farriers participate in research and treatment programs at the hospital.

The new program is described as an "internship". Two interns per year will be selected from applicants. Interns will be paid and housing will be provided. While Forging Ahead has offered apprenticeships in the past, and trained many top farriers from the beginner level, this program is designed for farriers who have already attained a level of competence and wish to be exposed to a huge caseload of sport-horse and lameness work.

Forging Ahead is currently headed by Paul Goodness, one of the leading behind-the-scenes masterminds of Hoofcare and Lameness Journal (it's not his fault when it's late) and a highly respected, though somewhat reclusive expert in high-tech farriery and lameness mechanics. Paul is also active in product development in the farrier industry and received the CJF designation from the American Farrier's Association.

Senior partner with Paul is sport-horse specialist Randy Pawlak; current full-time farriers are Matt Hatcher, Scott Sellers, Amy Sidwar, and Zeb Foltz. The practice has long-time affiliations with horses and riders representing the USET, and other nations' teams; Paul was USET's official farrier in the 1990s and the firm's resume is outstanding for work in both competition horse and veterinary work. He's the only American farrier ever to win the "Best Shod Horse" Award when his work was judged against top British farriers at the Badminton Horse Trials in England.

Paul is a graduate of the unique but now defunct New Bolton Center (University of Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Medicine) advanced farrier residency program that flourished in the 1980s and produced many of the East Coast's leading farriers, including Rob Sigafoos. The program ended 20 years ago, but there has been talk in several circles recently about the value of such a program.

Cornell vet school's informal program with Michael Wildenstein also offers farriers advanced specialized training on an intensive on-the-job level with a full load of cases, but farriers are not paid or housed while they learn at Cornell and the program is currently not offered on a long-term basis, although Cornell may have plans that have not been announced yet (scroll down for news from the Cornell program).

Forging Ahead will be looking for motivated, focused farriers with preference given to farriers who have experience with horses as well as with shoeing. There has been a void in advanced farrier education opportunities for years, and this program certainly can't fill it alone. The hope is that other group practices or solo senior farriers will begin similar programs so that legitimate speciality training can be a reality for those who seek it. Eventually, college credit may be possible, but this is a working, "hands on" program rather than an academic or research pursuit.
Forging Ahead has published a summary of their program description and application form at http://www.forgingaheadva.blogspot.com/

Please contact Amy Sidwar at Forging Ahead for more information. And please leave comments here to share your opinions about how farriers should or could receive advanced training. Just click on the word "comments" to open a box and leave your message. You may leave the message anonymously or sign your name.

This is a tremendous opportunity. Thanks to Forging Ahead for living up to their name, once again!

Photo of Paul Goodness in a low-tech, traditional environment courtesy of Forging Ahead.

Cornell Vet School Appoints Wildenstein to Faculty Position

Cornell University Resident Farrier Michael Wildenstein CJF, FWCF (Hons) has officially been promoted to the position of Adjunct Associate Professor of Farrier Medicine and Surgery in The Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University.

The university is also announcing plans to enlarge the farrier shop and to expand the student enrollment to four per semester. This includes farrier students and veterinarians who wish to serve a podiatry internship at Cornell with Mike.

In 2008, Cornell will also be hiring another farrier to work with Mike for six months of the year, and Mike will be encouraged to lecture and teach outside of Cornell.

Michael Wildenstein CJF FWCF (Hons) has served as Cornell’s resident farrier for more than 15 years. Over that period he set goals for his career and exceeded them, culminating with the award of a Fellowship with Honors from the Worshipful Company of Farriers in England. Only three other farriers can boast of that degree with honors; the fellowship alone is akin to a PhD in farrier science. Having the fellowship awarded "With Honors" is the ultimate recognition.

Along the way, Wildenstein authored a book, hosted conferences, lectured around the world, was inducted into the horseshoers’ hall of fame—while somehow managing to train farriers in the farrier school and tend to all the hoof-related medical and surgical support needs of the vet school. He also serves as a consulting editor to our own Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. One of his H&L articles, on deep sulcus thrush, was the first place award winner in the category of "horse care education" in the American Horse Publications awards in 2006.

Wildenstein announced his resignation from Cornell this winter when it looked like he had hit the ceiling for his job description. Offers were coming in from other schools and private industry, so he submitted his resignation and looked around the world to see what might be out there. Now, he’s looking at new opportunities within Cornell.

In Cornell’s early years, farrier Henry Asmus was assistant professor of surgery at the vet school. Henry was a German immigrant and protege of the great farrier Anton Lungwitz in Dresden, Germany, as was John W. Adams, the farrier lecturer and professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania who translated Lungwitz’s “Textbook of Horseshoeing” into English. (It’s still in print!)

While Adams migrated into medicine, Asmus put Cornell on the world map of horseshoeing by making a mission of educating rural blacksmiths and farmers and by authoring papers filled with progressive and innovative solutions to hoof problems. He established the farrier school at Cornell, which is still operating and is the oldest school in the USA, and wrote pamphlets for the US Government on shoeing and farm horse care. Until the 1930s, Cornell vet students were required to study farriery and one of their "lab" hours was time spent working in the forge with Professor Asmus.

Henry left a legacy at Cornell for leadership in the farrier profession. The legacy was at times endangered, and Asmus’s faculty position disappeared after his retirement. Later farrier instructors--legendary farriers Eugene Layton, Harold Mowers and Buster Conklin--held staff positions and upheld the school’s reputation for excellence. Cornell has always educated farriers from within the vet school and has continuously offered a conference open to all farriers for the past 24 years.

So Mike Wildenstein’s new position at Cornell is nothing new in the rich historical annals of the esteemed university. But in our changing times, when farriers are working so hard to contribute to the welfare of horses, the fact that one university is reopening the faculty to a farrier is a meaningful milestone to thousands of farriers who spend their days crouched under horses, studying the hooves in their hands with equal intensity to any scholar in a laboratory.

As an added boost, Mike's appointment received a vote of confidence from the polling of the entire Cornell vet school faculty.

Hoofcare & Lameness sends warm congratulations to both Mike and Cornell. As a post script, I can tell you that Mike did not attain his advanced degrees with the goal of this recognition and a promotion on the job. He did it because he wanted to be the very best at farrier that he could be. That will always be the best formula for success, in any job, in any life. The rest, if Mike's experience is any proof, will follow.

Photo courtesy of Cornell University. Please link to this blog or share this post with people in the horse world who should know this great news. Click on the envelope icon below to email this post to others. You may also leave comments here, which will be shared with Mike. Just click on the word "comments" below to leave a comment or read comments left by other readers.

American Farrier's Association's Executive Committee to Meet in Nashville, Tennessee in June

(May 24, 2007) Lexington, Kentucky--In an effort to reach out to the AFA members and chapters and increase input to the organization, the American Farrier's Association's Executive Committee has decided to take it‚s five annual face-to-face meetings on the road. Traditionally, these meetings have taken place at the association's headquarters at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

"After the first face-to-face in Lexington, it was decided that we should use these meetings as an opportunity to reach out to our membership in each of the new regions as we conduct business on their behalf," said Dick Fanguy, AFA Vice President. "The meetings will take place over two days with one being a Œtown hall‚ style where we can answer any questions members might have and hear first hand what each of our members expects from our association and officers."

In Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by Music City Horseshoers Association, the EC will hold its executive meeting all day Thursday, June 7 and will host a Town Hall meeting on Friday, June 8 along with a clinic for all interested farriers and enthusiasts alike.

The venue for the meeting will be Saddle Up Therapeutic Riding Center in Franklin, TN. Meetings are slated for 9am-5pm. All farriers are encouraged to attend, regardless of their affiliation with the AFA. The clinic is free of charge. Locally, contact Steve Davis at 615-945-9575.

(This post is edited from a press release.)