Jackie McConnell Sentence: Probation and Fine for Tennessee Walking Horse Soring Abuse Captured on Undercover Video

Jackie McConnell was not allowed on the grounds of the 2012 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration earlier this month. This horse, Walk Time Charlie from North Carolina, was the judge's pick for World Champion. If some lawmakers have their way, he may be the last world champion to be shod this way. (Randall R. Saxton photo)

By now, everyone knows who Jackie McConnell is.

McConnell was videotaped beating a Tennessee Walking horse on an undercover video. The video portrayed McConnell as a vicious horse trainer who demonstrated many of the heinous crimes against horses that had been at the center of rumors about the treatment of Walking horses for decades.

The American public saw it for themselves when the video was shown by ABC News last spring.

A federal court in Tennessee found McConnell guilty of violating the Horse Protection Act and the trainer appeared in court today for sentencing.

While the judge could have sentenced the former trainer to five years in prison, he instead sentenced McConnell to three years' probation and a fine of $75,000. According to the Chattanoogan newspaper, the court gave McConnell nine months to raise the money to pay the fine and his horse trailer, seized during the investigation, will not be returned.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that McConnell cried as he read a statement saying that he takes responsibility for what he did. His two associates--including horseshoer Joe Abernathy--received probation terms of one year each.

Abernathy claimed that he was not involved in soring horses but was transporting horses for McConnell. He told the Chattanoogan, "I do feel remorse and this will make me a better person in the end."

The three pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act. According to the Walking Horse Report, McConnell pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Horse Protection Act. All other charges in the original 52-count indictment were dropped under the plea agreement.

Keith Dane, director of equine protection for The Humane Society of the United States, issued the following statement after the sentencing:

“Like many others in the Tennessee walking horse industry, Jackie McConnell has a long history of abusing horses for the sake of a blue ribbon and the profits that go along with it. He and his associates were caught on tape using painful chemicals on horses’ legs, and whipping, kicking and shocking them in the face—all to force them to perform the unnatural 'Big Lick' gait in competitions.

"The Humane Society of the United States is grateful that the U.S. Attorney took on this important case and sent a message that soring will not be tolerated. It was our hope that McConnell would do prison time for these terrible crimes, but there are gaps in the federal law that need to be strengthened.”

According to HSUS, McConnell and two others are also scheduled to appear in court later this month to face 31 counts of violating Tennessee’s state animal cruelty statute.

Public outrage over the McConnell video has led to renewed activism by lawmakers to strengthen the federal Horse Protection Act; the state of Tennessee has also expanded its animal welfare laws to include soring as a criminal act.

On the federal level, H.R. 6388, the Horse Protection Act Amendments of 2012, co-sponsored by Reps. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Jim Moran, D-Va., has been introduced to Congress with the aim of ending the failed system of industry self-policing, ban the use of certain devices associated with soring, strengthen penalties, and hold accountable all those involved in this cruel practice.

Thanks for great reporting to the Humane Society of the United States, The Walking Horse Report, The Tennessean, The Chattanoogan, and the Chattanooga Times Free Press from Tennessee today.

© 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.

Hoofcare History: Unravelling the Tangled Past, One Horseshoe at a Time

You'll need a half hour to watch this video. Then you might need the rest of your life to read, research and do your part in documenting the unwritten history of horseshoeing. Thanks to the University of Pennsylvania for videotaping this talk of Pat Reilly, farrier at the University's New Bolton Center.

Horseshoeing history is full of gaps, as Pat Reilly mentions again and again in this talk. It resembles nothing less than a wheel of Swiss cheese. It is full of holes. In fact, it contains more holes than cheese.

Remember that the next time you buy some cheese. Or buy into anyone else's interpretation of the history of horseshoeing.

The Coast Guard employed plenty of
farriers during World War II when US
beaches were patrolled on horseback;
they were looking for German
U-boats. (© US Coast Guard image) 

Part of the problem, of course, is that once you start reading it, you realize that it was written by outsiders looking in. Veterinarians who had a theory to prove, or a position to defend. Intellectuals who considered themselves horsemen, and wrote opinionated tomes on hoof theory that, when read today, invariably get lumped together with legitimate volumes of valuable hoof knowledge.

How many people stop to actually read the old books? Most are satisfied with the drawings and plates, and never read the text. Much of the "wisdom" we quote today was not written by farriers at all, but by commercial promoters or agricultural societies bent on improving horse husbandry by advancing farriery...sometimes without ever consulting a farrier.

Pat Reilly lumps together the history of farriers and the history of horseshoeing and while it seems that the two are flip sides of the same coin, they are both huge and separate subjects. The history of farriers is a metaphor for the history of human labor, and can demonstrate all the industrial phases of mechanization of labor, the social and political side of Labor, and the role and status of the specialized laborer within the military of various nations.

Possibly the first non-military
farrier schools in America
were the "Indian
Schools" like this one in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. These
Sioux boys were shipped east to
learn to be horseshoers.

The history of horseshoeing, on the other hand, is one and the same as the history of horses and their domestication, and the farrier's status in the horse world mirrors the waxing and waning and ultimate re-invention of the horse's role in western life.

People have poked at building a better horseshoe with the same interest as the cliche of building a better mousetrap: if it could just be done, life would be easier, and the animal would benefit from a kinder device.

But here we are, more than 2000 years from those ancient first horseshoes dug up in Europe, and we're still at it, trying to get to the root of hoof problems in horses.

No archeologist has ever jumped for joy at discovering an ancient mousetrap. But the evolution of the horseshoe is a way of documenting progress across centuries.

We can't see where we're going if we can't see where we have been.

I know a lot of people are interested in farrier history, but yet there are not enough of them. Of you. Of me. If you have read this far, you must be interested.

It's not enough to be interested, you have to have a plan.

Old farrier books are great, but you
need to research the credentials of 
the authors. Figuring out why a book 
was written can be an education 
in itself.

I would caution people not to be like me and charge headlong into trying to learn everything about everything. The holes in the cheese will swallow you up. The files and boxes and notes will pile up in your life and mock you when you look across the room. "You'll never get to the bottom of this," is their taunt. "No one ever has."

So you want to learn about farrier history? Have at it. Pick a hole in the past--any hole, on any continent, in any period of history, in any language--and start researching. Stay in that hole until you fill it in, then move on to another one. But when you fill it in, stop and share it with the rest of us.

Why doesn't anyone know
or care who Jack Mac
Allan was? Where did
his shoes go? Michigan
State doesn't even know
it ever had a farrier
school,or that its Scottish-
import farrier was the
first US shoeing champion. 

There are plenty of holes to go around.

Farriery has no headquarters. It has no library building with ivy-covered walls. The answers we need are not in books, however. The farrier books are just soldiers at the gate.

The answers are buried in the books of military, social and labor history. They're in the patent office records. They are in the town and state historical museums where old blacksmith shops and horse nail and shoe manufacturers' records are watched over by amateur historians who don't even understand what was manufactured in their own towns.

The answers are buried in footnotes and appendices and boxes of clutter marked "unreferenced manuscripts"--boxes that no one has ever asked to open.

I've always wanted to start a Horseshoeing History Society, but feared it would disband before it even started, out of the sheer weight of the mission, or be dismissed by academic historians who purport that there is no way to validate the lost "history" that farriery lacks, just as we are finding it so difficult to come to grips with the oxymoron of "evidence-based farriery".

Why did the World's Fair in
St. Louis have this building
with a horseshoe theme?

But if each of us identified a specific hole and spent time trying to research it and fill it in, we might move forward. It sounds like Pat Reilly has; the fact that he singlehandedly resurrected the  Podological Museum for the University of Pennsylvania is reason to celebrate.

 If academic historians knew about the gaping cheese holes, they might send graduate students our way. And perhaps, one day, farriery might be freed from the curse of cyclically repeating--or prolonging--its past.

If you're with me, claim your hole in the cheese wheel and climb in. Surround yourself. Nourish yourself by studying the solid cheese that does exist. Then jump off the cliff. Pick a date on the calendar and pledge to report back on what you find. You might come back defeated, you might come back haunted by ghosts, you might come back cynical and confused.

Then again, it just might change your life.

No one--and no profession--moves forward without coming to grips with the past. Remember this, too: It's entirely possible that farriery needs to turn its back on the past, to hold a funeral and declare itself once and for all defunct, so that the real future can begin. If that is so, the past might tell us where to go from here.

Click to order now for immediate shipping; it will look great on your wall!

© 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 mailto: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.

Hoof Casting Tape: A Shoe By Another Name? Non-Farrier Hoofcare Practitioner Pleads Guilty to Illegal Farriery in Great Britain

A press release (see below) has been issued by the Farriers Registration Council in Great Britain. 

In that country, farriery is a tightly regulated profession with a definition provided by national law. The Farriers Registration Council is the national office charged with defending the law and protecting horses from "illegal" farriers.

In Britain, anyone who shoes a horse must complete a long apprenticeship, college training and pass an examination administered by the Worshipful Company of Farriers. While standards for barefoot hoof trimming have been proposed, a gray area between shoeing and trimming is emerging as more "trimmers" add an arsenal of hoof support products to their supply list. The use of hoof tape appears to be controversial, as this article indicates. How do you define a horseshoe?

Thomas Bowyer is a hoofcare educator who teaches "podiatry and behavior" in Great Britain and abroad under the business name of Courses4Horses. His credentials are provided by the Institute for Applied Equine Podiatry (IAEP), which is an established outgrowth of the education efforts of American K.C. La Pierre.

IAEP and/or K.C. La Pierre have been involved with the development of what they call "Hoof Wear" materials, which most people might call "hoof casting tape". I interviewed K. C. La Pierre about his new product line in 2009. The products, and others like it, are routinely used by and sold to hoof trimmers, farriers and veterinarians in the United States.

The press release documents that a prosecution took place based on the  law as it currently stands in Great Britain but also brings in the welfare implications in this particular case. What is not clear is exactly what the two charges were: was it one count each for applying something to the bottom of the foot and for using screws? Or was it for applying the tape on two different occasions? It appears the charge is limited to the application of a shoe-like device and not the welfare of the horse as described by the veterinarian.

Would there be a story if the tape had not been on the bottom of the hoof?

Begin press release provided by the Farriers Registration Council:

2010 vehicle sticker issued by the FRC

On 3 September 2012, the Welshpool Magistrates’ Court found Mr Thomas Bowyer of 6 the Courtyard, Lower Trewylan, Llansantffraid, Powys, SY22 6TJ, guilty of having carried out unlawful farriery.

Under the Farriers (Registration) Act 1975 it is a criminal offence for anyone other than a Registered Farrier, approved farriery apprentice or veterinary surgeon to shoe a horse, or otherwise carry out farriery. The Register of Farriers is administered by the Farriers Registration Council and it is Council policy to pursue a private prosecution when sufficient evidence is available.

To qualify for registration as a farrier, which is a highly skilled profession, persons must, amongst other things complete a four year and two month apprenticeship with an Approved Training Farrier and pass the Diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers Examination. Mr T Bowyer is neither a Registered Farrier, an Approved Farriery Apprentice nor a Registered Veterinary Surgeon. The Farriers Registration Act therefore prohibits him from undertaking farriery.

The allegations against Mr Bowyer were that on 1 November 2011 and on 8 December 2011 he undertook farriery on a Welsh Cob Cross Irish horse (“Ronnie”) belonging to Mrs Susan Stafford-Tolley of Brecon, Powys. On both occasions he applied “equine hoof wraps” to Ronnie’s front hooves. Ronnie had been having some problems, and Mr Bowyer an “equine podiatrist” had advised the owner that the wraps would protect Ronnie’s hooves.

“Hoof wraps” consist of a length of bandage like material which is impregnated with a synthetic, fibreglass-like resin substance which is soft when applied. They are soaked in water before application and within hours, dry, forming a rigid, solid structure around the hoof. In this case they were wrapped around and partially underneath Ronnie’s hooves. The Defendant also screwed the wraps into the horse’s hooves with two screws per hoof.

The Council’s case was that by 13 November 2011 Ronnie had become severely lame on his left fore; and that a veterinary surgeon had confirmed this. The Council’s case was that the veterinary surgeon had removed the wrap using hoof nippers and noted bruising and an impending abscess caused by a loose screw between the sole and the wrap.

On 8 December Mr Bowyer returned to remove the remaining wrap and convinced the owner’s husband that it would be in the horse’s best interests to re-apply the wraps. It was the Council’s case that on 17 December Ronnie was lame again and a veterinary surgeon had attended who removed one wrap with the use of hoof nippers, to find his foot to be very tender which she attributed to pressure from the encircling wrap. On 18 December a Registered Farrier attended to remove the remaining wrap and fit a pair of deep-seated heart-bar shoes.

The Council’s case was that these wraps amounted to “shoes” because they were clearly intended to give protection to the hooves by providing a solid structure between the hoof and the ground, they were left in a place for a number of weeks and were firmly affixed. Once dried out they became solid and immoveable and needed tools to remove them.

Mr Bowyer pleaded guilty to both charges against him and the Magistrates Court imposed a £450 fine per offence, a victim surcharge of £15 and ordered Mr Bowyer to make a contribution towards prosecution costs of £1,000.

It was the Council’s case that Mr Bowyer’s actions had caused harm to Ronnie. Mr Bowyer denied that they had done so. The Court decided not to hear oral evidence or make findings on the issue of whether harm had been caused to Ronnie as a result of the unlawful farriery to which Mr Bowyer had pleaded guilty.

The Council takes out prosecutions against persons who undertake farriery illegally when the evidence is sufficient to do so and considers the application of “hoof wraps”, as described above, amounts to farriery, or shoeing, for the purposes of the Farriers Registration Act. It strongly advises that such products should only applied be Registered Farriers or Veterinary Surgeons.

K C La Pierre with the "hoof wear" products he developed in 2009. Use of the products is apparently legal by non-farriers and non-vets in the United States, but that may not be the case in other countries. (Hoofcare Publishing archives)

Additional notes of this case also provided by the FRC:

If any further information is required in relation on this matter any enquiry can be made to the Solicitors to the Council, Ms N Curtis (Partner (Barrister)), Penningtons solicitors, of Abacus House, 33 Gutter Lane, London, EC2V 8AR, telephone: 0207 457 3000.

“Farriery” is defined in section 18 of the Act as “any work in connection with the preparation or treatment of the foot of a horse for the immediate reception of a shoe thereon, the fitting by nailing or otherwise of a shoe to the foot or the finishing off of such work to the foot. ”Shoeing” has the same meaning as farriery.

The product used should not be confused with a simple equine bandage or wrap used to protect a horse’s leg or keep a poultice in place. These products are impregnated with a resin type substance which sets hard, like a caste, following the application of water.

Unregistered persons engaging in farriery are breaking the law. Any horse owner choosing to use an unregistered person may compromise the welfare of their horse, could incur additional shoeing bills to correct the effects of poor workmanship and may invalidate their insurance if their horse is lamed or injured.

The FRC maintains the Register of Farriers and all Registered Farriers are issued with their own annual Registration Card and Car Window Sticker. If an owner wishes to check the credentials of their farrier he/she can ask to see the card, check the Council’s website (www.farrier-reg.gov.uk) or telephone the office on 01733 319911.

Resources from the Hoof Blog:

British Government Seeks to Count, Quantify Hoof Trimming in Lead Up to Regulation of New Paraprofessional Group

British Government: "Barefoot Trimmer" Doesn't Describe the Job 

British National Occupational Standards for Barefoot Hoofcare (2010) (pdf download)

Farrier Registration Council: Farriery and the Law web site section

© 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.

Irish Super-Star Thoroughbred Camelot and His American Farrier Jeff Henderson Are Two-Thirds of the Way to Winning the British Triple Crown

Jeff Henderson shoeing Camelot today at Ballydoyle Training Center in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. Camelot will attempt to win the British Triple Crown on Saturday, September 15.

Time flies: Just 90 days ago, racing fans in the United States were on the edges of their seats. It was time for the Belmont Stakes, the third leg in the Triple Crown. I'll Have Another had won the first two legs.

Would we finally have a Triple Crown winner? No horse has won the American Triple Crown since 1978. It's been a long 34-year drought.

As we all know, it wasn't meant to be. The afternoon before the race, I'll Have Another was scratched and retired. He's now hard at work as a breeding stallion in Japan.

But hang on a minute. We might have a Triple Crown winner, after all. 

This video documenting Camelot's rise to superstardom is 18 minutes long. A highlight is when Aidan O'Brien nonchalantly describes Camelot's movement: "He moved more like a dressage horse than a racehorse, which was very unique. Usually horses that move like that are too good-looking to be true."

Spin the globe halfway around. Drop a map tack on Doncaster, England. That's the place to be on Saturday, September 15, 2012.

Perhaps no horse has won the USA's Triple Crown since 1978 but consider this: no horse has won the British Triple Crown in 42 years. The last winner was the great Nijinsky in 1970.

This third leg of England's Triple Crown is the St Leger, at slightly longer than 1 3/4 miles. Like most European races, it's on the grass.

And the horse with two-thirds of the Triple Crown already on his resume is named Camelot. 

He might be the horse to re-write the record books.

Jeff Henderson in Camelot's stall at Ballydoyle with the handsome champion colt.

Jeff Henderson, staff farrier at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital's Podiatry Center in Lexington, Kentucky was in Ireland this week with Camelot, as part of his consulting service for Coolmore trainer Aidan O'Brien, and will travel with the colt to England for Saturday's race.

Jeff shod Camelot on Friday at Coolmore's Ballydoyle training center outside Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland. Here's what he had to say:

Hoof Blog: Tell us about this horse!

Jeff Henderson: Camelot is shod and ready to run, his feet look good and he nails up well. I just shoe him with Kerckhaert raceplates and he gets nothing special. 

Hoof Blog: He's shod the day before the race?

Jeff Henderson: I try to keep it business as usual and just shoe him the same as any other time, so we do not get caught up in the hype.

Hoof Blog: What's the extent of your consultancy for Aidan O'Brien?

Jeff Henderson: I look after 20 to 30 horses in Ballydoyle and during racing season they are shod every 21 days. I spend 2 weeks at home and 1 week in Ireland from about March through November. I have to give a lot of credit to my wife for putting up with the schedule and handling everything at home while I am away. 

Hoof Blog: It must take a tribe of farriers to shoe all the horses at a center like Ballydoyle.

Jeff Henderson: There are two full-time farriers who work at Ballydoyle. I work closely with them when I am here and they deal with lost shoes and basically hold it together while I am gone. I have all the tools and gear here and can fly with just a carry-on bag and do all I need.

Hoof Blog: Possibly American readers don't know the type of operation you're describing. There's nothing like it in America. How do you get a contract like that?

Jeff Henderson: It is quite a privilege to get to work on a horse of this caliber. This is my third racing season shoeing for Ballydoyle. Dr. (Scott) Morrison and I came over three years ago for two days to do some consulting and I ended up staying for a week. 

Hoof Blog: How does it feel to be on the verge of making history with this horse?

Jeff Henderson: It is great to be part of a historic event and I hope for a fast and safe trip for all the horses in the race.

• • • • • • • • • •

Camelot's trainer, Ireland's Aidan O'Brien, can't say enough good things about this horse: “He looks different; everything about him is different. He’s flesh and blood, but there’s a vibe around this horse. There’s a bigger aura around him, and there has been from Day One,” he said today in an interview with Jennie Rees of the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier Journal.

He'll be ridden by the trainer's son, Joseph O'Brien. He's been trained at the same center as Nijinsky. He has a Japanese exercise rider. And an American farrier will be at--and on--his side on Saturday.

TO LEARN MORE:

Camelot's Epsom Derby Victory Footnote: American Farrier Jeff Henderson on The Hoof Blog

Is Camelot enchanted? British Triple Crown would make his case by Jennie Rees for the Louisville Courier-Journal

Overlooking Camelot In Britain's Glorious Summer Of Sport by Teresa Genaro on Forbes.com

The race will be broadcast by HRTV and TVG racing networks on cable television in the USA beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday.

Story and photos protected by copyright; no use without permission. Photos courtesy of Jeff Henderson.

Click to order this usual and beautiful reference poster.

© 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.

Paynter Laminitis Watch: Podiatry-Vet Fraley Amazed at Progress Since Hoof Casts Applied

Paynter's Hoof-Specialist Veterinarian Fraley "Amazed At His Progress"

Paynter models his hoof casts: The colt is almost as big a star on Twitter as he was on the racetrack. This photo was tweeted by owner Justin Zayat yesterday and shows the three-year-old Thoroughbred colt outside the Upstate Equine Medical Center in Schuylerville, New York where he has been a patient since late August. He is wearing hoof casts to stabilize his feet after being diagnosed with laminitis in three of four hooves. (Justin Zayat Twitter image)

The Thoroughbred world has been enraptured by the cryptic Twitter messages chronicling the condition of 2012 Haskell Invitational winner Paynter. The three-year-old colt is recovering from colitis at the Upstate Equine Medical Center in Schuylerville, New York after becoming ill while training at nearby Saratoga Racecourse.

Colitis is an acute inflammation of the bowel and/or gastrointestinal tract, generally associated with a bacterial infection. According to Robinson's Current Therapies in Equine Medicine (2009), 90 percent of horses stricken by colitis will die if they are not treated.

Each Twitter message is like a cyber-message in a bottle. The air inside the bottle has inflated and deflated as the horse's illness waxed and waned. Hundreds of tweets and re-tweets punctuated with the hashtag "#Poweruppaynter" flooded Twitter over Labor Day weekend.

Unfortunately, the aftermath of colitis is often laminitis, and Paynter's case was no exception. The diagnosis tweeted by the owner stated that the horse had laminitis in three legs. The Twitterverse shuddered.

Bryan Fraley DVM

Kentucky veterinarian Bryan Fraley is serving as equine podiatry consultant on the case and attended to the colt, including applying casts to the affected hooves. Fraley heads a consulting equine podiatry practice in Lexington, Kentucky; his firm is an affiliate of Hagyard Equine Medical Center there.

Within a few days, optimistic reports started to chirp out of the owner's Twitter account. Apparently, Paynter liked the hoof casts.

Zayat posted--in short bursts via Twitter--that he had sent Paynter's radiographs to Dr. Larry Bramlage at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky for a second opinion.

"He confirmed to us what other vets have told us," Zayat tweeted. "That he believed, based on what he saw, that if the colt continues to improve, there is no reason why he shouldn't return to a full recovery as a racehorse...in his opinion that he has all chances to race again at top notch level."

Zayat's quote sent a surge of enthusiastic rapture through his fans. But if you've ever danced with the dreaded disease of laminitis, you know that the song is far from over yet.

Sometimes, life imitates Twitter. Dr. Fraley attempted to report on the horse's condition, but had to make three or four calls. His report is scattered across phone message sheets on the desk, much as the owner's tweets break each report into short bursts.

A blog post to follow will explain more about this type of laminitis, but first, the good news.

Dr. Fraley on September 12: "The colt’s out grazing in hand this morning...He continues to do well and (has) overcome some pretty amazing obstacles recently...

"From a foot standpoint, he appears to be quite stable at this moment. He is due for a foot cast change at the end of next week and I’ll have another report for you then.

"We’re just continuing to be amazed at his progress and hope for the best."

Note to readers: Dr. Fraley will be the featured speaker at a full-day "Standards of Hoofcare" seminar co-hosted by the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the Southern New England Farriers Association on Sunday, November 18, 2012 in North Grafton, Massachusetts. His scheduled topics include his work on laminitis.

To learn more:

Paynter Watch: Top Thoroughbred Colt Diagnosed with Post-Colitis Laminitis in New York

Fraley Equine Podiatry web site

How to apply a (plaster) cast in case of acute laminitis by Hans Castelijn

Click this text to access full ordering information; in stock, immediate shipping

© 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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Horse Protection Act Amendment Proposed: Bans Action Devices on Tennessee Walking Horses

Tennessee Walking Horse show regulation changes proposed
in Congressional amendment to the Horse Protection Act

The following document was received from Representative Whitfield's office this afternoon and is reprinted in its entirety without editing. 

For the purposes of this document, the amendment has been reviewed. The text defines action devices as: "any boot, collar, chain, roller, or other device that encircles or is placed upon the lower extremity of the leg of a horse in such a manner that it can—(A) rotate around the leg or slide up and down the leg, so as to cause friction; or (B) strike the hoof, coronet band, fetlock joint, or pastern of the horse."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield (KY-01), and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), today introduced H.R. 6388, the Horse Protection Act Amendments of 2012. The Amendment will make changes to the Horse Protection Act of 1970, to provide additional protection to prohibit the soring of horses, an abusive practice used by some horse trainers in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. 

“Far too often, those involved in showing the Tennessee Walking Horse have turned a blind eye to abusive trainers, or when they do take action, the penalties are so minor, it does nothing to prevent these barbaric acts,” Whitfield said. “This amendment does not cost the federal government any additional money and is essential in helping to put an end to the practice of soring Tennessee Walking Horses by abusive trainers.”

Rep. Cohen said, “In Tennessee, soring horses is illegal and unacceptable. Those responsible for abusing these horses should be punished severely and banned from the sport.  How we treat animals is a direct reflection of our character, both as individuals and a nation.  There is no ribbon, no prize nor championship worth the price of one’s humanity.”

The proposed amendment will accomplish three major goals. First, it eliminates self-policing by requiring the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to assign a licensed inspector if a Tennessee Walking Horse show management indicates its intent to hire one.  The hiring of a licensed inspector is voluntary and not a mandate.  The incentive for show management is to ensure an honest and fair show, and protect itself from liability if soring is found at the show by a USDA spot inspection.   

Second, it adds a prohibition on the use of action devices on the horse breeds that have been the victims of soring.  Action devices, such as chains that rub up and down an already-sore leg, intensify the horse’s pain when it moves, so that the horse quickly jolts up its leg.   

Lastly, the amendment increases the penalties on an individual caught soring a horse.

Horses in the Tennessee Walking Industry are known for possessing a smooth, natural gait, but in order to be successful in competitions their natural gait is often artificially exaggerated to ensure an extreme, high-stepping gait. 

Some horse exhibitors, owners, and trainers use abusive and inhumane training methods to produce the higher gait.  The abusive practices are called “soring,” which is accomplished by irritating or blistering a horse’s forelegs through the application of caustic chemicals such as mustard oil, cutting the horse’s hoof painfully short, or the use of mechanical devices to inflict pain, so that it hurts the horse to step down. 

The USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit of the Horse Protection Act Program, finding that trainers in the industry often go to great lengths to evade detection rather than comply with federal law and train horses using humane methods.

The OIG made several recommendations, including stiffer penalties and abolishing the self-policing practices currently allowed under regulations, where the Horse Industry Organizations (HIOs) are able to assign their own inspectors to horse shows.

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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.