Just Wait Til Next Year: Shoes Off, On, and Off Again as Shoeless Senior Racehorse Tahoe Warrior is Claimed and Re-Claimed

Some older horses race once or twice a year. It's a big deal when they run. Tahoe Warrior started 11 times between April and September in his 11th year. 


Once upon a time there was a barefoot racehorse.  Now, that's interesting.


Once upon a time there was an 11-year-old racehorse who started 11 times in his 11th year.  Now, that's interesting, too.


What's even more interesting is that

No Vacation for Laminitis: Brazilian Champion Bal a Bali Fights Disease in Florida

Just as the August "supermoon" was getting ready to rise on Sunday night, Fox Hill Farm sent out a chilling tweet. It said simply: "Bal a Bali fighting laminitis".


The Brazilian champion racehorse Bal a Bali was recently purchased by Americans and shipped from South America to Florida on July 31, where he was to undergo quarantine, according to a report in The Blood-Horse.   The colt was

Morrison: Utilize Support during Stall Time to Prevent Capsular Distortion in the Thoroughbred Racehorse's Foot

The following advice is provided by Scott E. Morrison, DVM of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky:

Foot problems can commonly cause horses to be scratched from a race, lose training days, overload other structures and have shortened careers.
Functionally adapted for speed and efficient use of energy, the Thoroughbred foot is light and lacks the mass for protection commonly

Derby Day Videos: Health and Safety Updates from Churchill Downs and Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation

The Grayson-Jockey Club Foundation funds equine research like the surgery at Rood and RIddle Equine Hospital described in this video; its Welfare and Safety of the Racehorsee programs work to keep racehorses safer and healthier during their competitive careers.

It's Derby Day!

It takes a lot of effort and skill to get a horse to the level of racing in the Kentucky Derby. There's luck

Farrier Photography: Matthew Wright Exhibit Shows Andy Eadie Shoeing on England's Lambourn Downs

Photographer Matthew P. Wright followed farrier Andy Edie around the Lambourn Downs area of England. The result is a photography exhibit that has been made into a book, which can be previewed here.





Let's face it, there just aren't very many art exhibits dedicated to photography of farriers or horse hooves. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was invited to one.

Not long ago, if I

Christmas with Laminitis Video: St Nicholas Abbey Five-Month Update from Coolmore in Ireland

St Nicholas Abbey - Five months on from Coolmore Stud on Vimeo.


This video is shown on The Hoof Blog with permission of Coolmore Stud. Click the "play" icon to begin the video.

It's Christmas Eve and you can count your blessings. Count your blessings especially if you are a horse that doesn't have laminitis.





We have an update from Ireland, where a Breeders Cup Turf winner won't be

Shoeless and Ageless, Tahoe Warrior Wins at Keeneland

Keeneeland Racecourse in Kentucky has a Polytrack all-weather surface that has been used by trainers as a test for a few horses each week to run without shoes. 

It was the last race of the day. Maybe no one will remember it, except it’s not every day that a horse pays $40 on a $2 bet. It’s not every day that a ten-year-old gelding with no less than 84 starts under his girth wins one. It’s not

St Nicholas Abbey Update: Healing Leg Fracture and the Origin of His Name

Champion racehorse St Nicholas Abbey in his stall at the Fethard Equine Hospital in Ireland, where he is recovering from a fractured pastern suffered while training at the nearby Ballydoyle training center of Coolmore's racing division head trainer Aidan O'Brien.

Today Coolmore Stud released an update on injured racehorse St Nicholas Abbey:

"While still having a guarded prognosis St Nicholas

Shoeless Thoroughbred Wins at Keeneland; Track Lists Barefoot Entries as Trainers Experiment with Polytrack Surface Effects on Hoof Slide

The racing surface known as "Polytrack" is one of several artificial surfaces that have been installed at racetracks in North America to improve safety and help cope with bad weather. But it also changes the way the hoof interacts with the surface. The characteristic slide that horses experience on dirt can be "sticky" for some horses. Experimenting with and without shoes during training and

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

Paynter in his stall at a vet hospital near Saratoga. (Zayat Twitter photo)


You could hear a collective moan rise from the world of Thoroughbred racing today.



Paynter has laminitis.



For the past month, the racing press has been reporting on the condition of top three-year-old colt Paynter, trained by California's Bob Baffert. Paynter is owned by Zayat Racing Stable.



After winning the

Hoofcare University: Biomechanics of Racehorses' Lower Limbs and Track Surface Interface Video Lectures with the University of Guelph's Dr Jeff Thomason

Dr Jeff Thomason

Go get a cup of coffee or a sandwich or start popping the corn. Hoofcare + Lameness is happy to share a new video series with you from the University of Guelph's Jeff Thomason BA, MSc, PhD, professor of biomedical sciences at Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College.

Dr Thomason is widely known for his research, which currently looks both at the biomechanics of the horse's foot

Inside the Thoroughbred Racehorse: Just Watch This!

Of course you have never taken the Thoroughbred athlete for granted, but after watching this 48-minute documentary, you'll be in even more awe of the complex biomechanics and physiology of the running Thoroughbred. Anyone who's squeamish in a dissection might want to skip over this, but you'll miss a lot!

This documentary, part of the multiple award-winning Inside Nature's Giants series

Travers: Shackleford Sticks with Glue-on Shoes for Summer's Biggest Thoroughbred Race; Horseshoe Technology Exciting Area of Track Safety, Health Innovation

The feet of a survivor: Shackleford ran in all three Triple Crown races in 2011, and provided some exciting memories. He won the Preakness in May wearing polyurethane glue-on Polyflex shoes, thus becoming the first Triple Crown winner to cross the finish line first in non-metal glue-shoes. The shoes appear rather amber-colored in this photo taken by Sarah K. Andrew (Rock n Racehorses) last week

The Unshod Racehorse: Racing Commissioners Table Model Rule on Barefoot Racehorses

When the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI) met at the Holiday Inn in Saratoga Springs, New York on Tuesday, the state regulators had Lasix on their minds. But after lunch, the meeting turned to the model rules that had been proposed for 2011. 

Model Rule 5 proposed allowing horses to race without shoes. It has a proviso attached to it, however: a horse that runs in a race

Racehorse Fetlock Screening Via Standing MRI Could Identify Horses at Risk for Condylar Fractures of the Fetlock

If there is one thing that we all learned by watching the Kentucky Derby this year, it was the term "condylar fracture". Watching first Battle of Hastings and then Archarcharch load into the horse ambulance was the low point of the day.

Are you one of the people who just shrugs and says, "That's racing!" or are you one of the people who asks, "Why? Why? Why?"

Maybe this article will raise

Laminitis-Survivor Overdose Wins in Germany, Sets New Course Record

Overdose, the Hungrian wonder horse who survived a long layoff for what was described as laminitis, broke a track record in Germany yesterday. (Photo via Flickr.com's Gabor Dvornik)

Some quick good news for a Sunday afternoon: Hungarian wonder-horse Overdose is back to his winning ways. Once undefeated, the horse went into an extended layup when he was suffering from some form of laminitis,

Necropsy Report: British Horses Died of Cardiac Arrest; Signs Consistent with Electrical Shock from Leaking Cable Under Paddock

The British Horseracing Authority has provided a summary statement following the completion of necropsy studies on the bodies of two horses that died at Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire, England on Saturday. The horses collapsed and died as the jockeys were preparing to mount; two other horses fell but were able to recover.

Professor Tim Morris, Director of Equine Science and Welfare for the

Aluminum Shoes May Have Saved Two Horses' Lives as Two Steel-Shod Horses Die in Possible Electrocution at British Racecourse

Video by ITN.
The worlds of both sport and horses were rocked today when news came from England that four horses had become agitated for no obvious reason in the paddock before the first race at Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire. The horses began rearing and falling as the jockeys were mounting. Within minutes two horses had died while two others rose back to their feet. 

The rest of the horses