FEI Grant Funds World Horse Welfare's Cambodian Farrier Education

British farrier Tom Burch (far left, kneeling)


With the Olympics looming on the calendar, the FEI is prominent in the news. But today's story is not about dressage star Totilas or Kiwi eventers or even showjumpers in Rome. The FEI is entering the international horse welfare arena with a farrier education project.



World Horse Welfare (WHW) reports that the organization will be working in

Memorial Day: Boston's Historic Horseman and His Men

A brief excerpt from a PBS documentary on the sculptor Saint-Gaudens, who created the Shaw Memorial on Boston Common. We take it for granted 364 days a year but Memorial Day seemed like a good time to stop and take a closer look. What memorials are in your town?

It's Memorial Day--a day to remember the war dead. I've been to the cemetery, seen the flags planted among the old and new graves.

British Farrier Banned for 90 Days for Damaging Former Client's Horses

A farrier in England has faced two prosecutions for professional misconduct after he was found to have crudely remove one front shoe from each of two event horses owned by a former client.



In court for criminal damages, the farrier "was convicted of cutting the shoes off both animals other than in the ordinary course of farriery, which damaged them" according to a local newspaper account,

Black Walnut Shavings and Laminitis Subject of Texas Court Case

Owners who bed their horses on shavings or sawdust need to have a trusting relationship with their suppliers. Occasionally, black walnut shavings find their way into the supply line. While this might not bother the guinea pig or the rabbit in their cages, it's a potential crisis at a horse barn. The latest case is in Texas, where a single horse was stricken with laminitis which was believed to

Acute Laminitis Medication Available to Field Case(s) for Testing

SPONSORED HOOF BLOG POST





WANTED: YOUR NEXT ACUTE LAMINITIS CASE
MAY 18, 2012--Hoofcare Publishing is asking the blog readership for assistance. The developer of a promising medication to improve the prognosis of acute laminitis cases is seeking a collaborator in the field who has a case that has just been diagnosed.

The medication is a mast cell inhibitor (stabilizer) that has been

ABC News / HSUS Tennessee Walking Horse Expose Brings Soring Case to National Attention

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

ABC News broadcast a hidden-camera video this week, exposing the at-home training techniques of well-known Tennessee Walking horse trainer Jackie McConnell of Collierville, Tennessee.

According to the ABC web site, the video was part of a recent Grand Jury indictment of McConnell and was shot by someone working on the trainer's

Polydactyl Jackpot: Seven-hooved Foal Born in Belgium

In Nordic mythology, the famous Sleipner was the eight-legged horse ridden by arch-hero Odin. Alexander the Great's Bucephalus was allegedly a polydactyl as well, and Julius Caesar is said to have preferred to ride a horse with extra hooves.


Hold on to your hoof picks, the owner of this foal might need to borrow them.

A mare at a petting zoo in Belgium has given birth to a foal with seven

Calgary Stampede: AAPF Member Farriers Will Receive CE Credit for Competing or Spectating at 2012 World Championship Blacksmiths' Competition

The following text was received today in the form of an announcement from the American Association of Professional Farriers and is re-published as received: 



In recognition of the American Association of Professional Farriers (AAPF) commitment to the farrier industry, the Calgary Stampede’s World Championship Blacksmiths’ Competition (WCBC) has named the AAPF as the permanent sponsor for the

Rock Star Riders: Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos on NBC's Rock Center

Maybe this has nothing to do with hoofcare or lameness, but it has everything to do with the business we're in, the people we work with or for, and the horses in our care.

International readers may not know who Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos are (yet) but I hope everyone in the hoof world will take a few minutes to watch this video and get to know them.

Not since Zenyatta was on 60

Kentucky Derby: Jim Jimenez Shod Winner I'll Have Another

2 0 1 2   K E N T U C K Y  D E R B Y  W I N N E R
I'll Have Another is shod by Santa Anita horseshoer Jim Jimenez


Congratulations to horseshoer Jim Jimenez and the entire I'll Have Another crew. Dan Burke of FPD took this photo of Jim with the horse at Churchill Downs after the race. I'll Have Another ships to Baltimore's Pimlico Racetrack today to prepare for the next leg of the Triple

Scott Simpson Memorial Service Planned

 J.  S C O T T  S I M P S O N   1933-2012


A memorial service or gathering in memory of Scott Simpson is being planned for Saturday, May 26th, at 2:00 p.m., at the beautifully-restored Ellen Theatre in Bozeman, Montana.

Scott Simpson was a very special horseshoer, educator, entertainer, horseman, author and many other things, including a father. He died on March 1, 2012 after finishing a

Kentucky Derby 2012: Famous (and Fast) Thoroughbred Feet from Churchill Downs

The biggest day of the year is here. What's going on behind the scenes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky? The Hoof Blog has assembled a gallery of images for you that you probably won't see anywhere else. Thanks to Dan Burke of Farrier Product Distribution for his shots of horses being shod this morning. Place your bets, sip your julip and take an intimate look at a few hooves!

Kentucky Oaks: Famous Fillies' Foot Fashions at Louisville's Churchill Downs

 For old times' sake: The Louisville Courier-Journal asked horseshoer Steve Norman 

what he thought about toe grabs a few years ago. This is what they heard.


It's Derby Week!  But before Churchill Downs rolls out the red-rose carpet for the Kentucky Derby, the track hosts the very special Oaks Day, an impressive card of stakes races topped by the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.

The

Derby Day: Thoroughbreds Start Running Toward the Roses From the Day They Are Born--If They Can, That Is

The foals in this video from Juan Carlos Blazquez, farrier at the University of Madrid 

in Spain, may not be American Thoroughbreds but that hardly matters. "JC" is
someone who obviously enjoys the challenge of helping foals in need--and the reward 

they give him when they respond to treatment.


It happens every year: thousands of Thoroughbred colts and fillies hit the straw bedding of