Rhode Island Governor Admits He Was an Illegal Immigrant Horseshoer at Canadian Racetracks

The Honorable Governor of the State of Rhode Island was once apprehended for being in Canada illegally to shoe horses. He says that gives him a unique perspective on the issue of illegal immigration and how apprehended aliens should be treated.


You have to admit that he's honest. Or was it perhaps a touch of nostalgia for his past life?

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee admitted today in

Laminitis In Action: Coffin Bone Rotation Time Lapse Video (International Laminitis Conference Preview)

Laminitis, caught in the act: The foot of a horse suffering from Potomac Horse Fever is recorded as it goes through two processes subsequent to the damage in the foot caused by the disease: the coffin bone appears to be rotating away from the hoof wall at the toe and down at its tip; it is also "sinking" within the foot. These two processes are called rotation and sinking, or sinker

Friends at Work: Will Hellyer Shoes a Real Shire for Virtual Farmers

Shoeing a Shire horse isn't easy. Neither is describing the process in a little more than a minute but The Farm's "Head Girl" Emma Warner did it.

Yesterday The Hoof Blog commiserated with a researcher who had to explain insulin resistance and its role in equine laminitis in less than three minutes.  Who knew an academic could avoid all the big words and cut to the chase?

Today I was

Insulin Resistance and Equine Laminitis Research: Australia's Melody De Laat's Academic Elevator Video

Imagine the challenge laid down by the University of Queensland to its graduate researchers: give a three-minute presentation encapsulating your doctoral work. Tell an audience of everyday people from all walks of life why it matters, what it's all about. But keep it short. Can an Australian laminitis researcher describe equine metabolic syndrome in that short amount of time--using only one

Heart-Bars in Heaven: George Platt DVM Has Died

Heart-bars in heaven: George Platt DVM and farrier Burney Chapman waged war against laminitis from one end of the United States to the other. Credit for their remarkable success rate was always modestly given to the only physical symbol of their treatment, the heart-bar shoe. The shoe inadvertently became a talisman of good or evil, depending on where you stood, and evidence to insurers that

Hoofcare Product Development: For Want of A (Glue-On) Shoe, A Horse Is Scratched

The process of modifying prototypes is complicated when even a small change requires creating a new mold, but that is the reality of designing with plastic. But horseshoe entrepreneurs may spend as much time with lawyers, patent drawings and getting approval from show organizations and track officials as they do around horses. (© Garrett Ford photo) 




The Hoof Blog's ongoing series of

Farrier Travis Burns Promoted at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

Travis Burns

Farrier Travis Burns recently received a promotion to faculty level at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. Travis is now "lecturer and college farrier" at the Blacksburg, Virginia campus.

From the Hoof Prints newsletter of the veterinary college's Equine Field Service: "Travis Burns, hospital farrier, was recently promoted to faculty status in recognition

Standing In A Giant's Hoofprints: Bob McCarthy's Anvil Dedication Saturday

There's a saying that gets tossed around a lot in leadership-by-design books. It's often spouted from the stage by commencement speakers. The words, attributed to Sir Issac Newton, appear on the edge of every British two-pound coin. Newton is said to have said, "If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

I'm sure you understand precisely what this saying

Rood + Riddle Official Vets (and Farriers) for Alltech National Horse Show

The Alltech National Horse Show’s press release was just full of news.

First of all, the parapetetic National Horse Show has moved again. After 100 or so years in the middle of Manhattan and the most glamorous setting imaginable, the show picked up stakes from Madison Square Garden and moved first across the Hudson River to the Meadowlands in New Jersey and then to Florida for a run, then

Urban Search and Rescue Dogs: Barefoot or Booted, They Did Their Job and Lived to See Their Story Told

Watch me first.

Some of the most unforgettable photos from the rescue effort at the World Trade Center in New York showed the hardworking urban search and rescue dogs at work...or in this case, temporarily at rest. Photo courtesy of US Navy, taken by Journalist 1st Class Preston Keres.


Dogs at Ground Zero: No, we'll never forget. Especially with images like this one to remind us of the

Cornell Vet School Honors Steve Kraus With Permanent Appointment as Resident Farrier and Lecturer

Steve Kraus has officially been named to the permanent position of head farrier and lecturer in the faculty of Large Animal Surgery in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the College of Veterinary Medicine, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

According to Cornell, as head farrier Kraus is responsible for teaching and recruiting farrier students. His position also supports patient

Clinic at Oakencroft 6th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium with Rood and Riddle's Scott Morrison DVM Announced for October 14-15, 2011 in New York

Who: Farriers and veterinarians

What: 6th Annual Farrier/Podiatry Symposium

When: October 14-15, 2011 (Friday and Saturday)

Where: South Bethlehem/Selkirk, New York (near Albany)

Presented by The Clinic at Oakencroft / Greene County Horseshoe Supply



A Hoofcare + Lameness Annually Recommended Event








 The Conference:

World Horse Welfare Launches Inaugural Farriery Education Program in Saudi Arabia

The King Abdul Aziz Arabian Horse Centre, where the first World Horse Welfare farrier training program in Saudi Arabia will take place (photo courtesy of the charity)

The British-based charity World Horse Welfare has been called upon to share its expertise in farriery and hoof care for the first time in Saudi Arabia.

Two British farrier representatives, Tom Burch and Mark Watson, have been

New Bolton Center: "The Rest of the Story" with Radio Legend Paul Harvey

The University of Pennsylvania built a world-class equine hospital and research center outside Philadelphia in the 1950s. So what else is new? New Bolton Center is a household word to Hoofcare and Lameness readers, but it was Big News when the clinic opened back then. It was such big news that legendary radio commentator Paul Harvey had to tell America "the