Hoof Explorer: Discover and Interact with the Horse's Foot in Three Beautiful Dimensions, Online, and For Free

Hoof Explorer is a new interactive 3-D anatomy education tool that is in four languages and has almost infinite capacity for displaying the anatomy of the distal limb. And it's free!

It's official: 2013 is the year of 3-D hoof anatomy on the web. In late October, the third of three new websites from three countries went live, and now all you have to do is bookmark these resources and learn

Goof-proof Hoofcare: “StayOns” Instant Hoof Poultice Wraps Simplify the Way You Wrap a Foot

This article is sponsored by Hamilton Biovet.

Here’s a product that is worth its weight in baby diapers.

If there was ever a contest that farriers, vet techs and veterinarians should run, it would be to see who has the fastest two hands in the world for making a duct tape bootie to attach over a hoof wrapped in a disposable baby diaper.





How many times have you wrapped a hoof in duct tape

Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital to Acquire Saratoga Equine Veterinary Service

via press release

The shareholders of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky and Dr. Bill and Diana Barnes of Saratoga Springs New York are pleased to announce that Rood and Riddle will purchase Saratoga Equine Veterinary Service in Saratoga Springs, New York.


“This is an exciting and unique opportunity for our practice and we look forward to providing outstanding care to

Medicinal Leeches: The Much-Maligned Traditional Healing Aid is Making a Comeback for Equine Lameness Therapy

In this photo from German rehabilitation therapist Martina Mäter of Kathmann Vital GbR in Vechta, you see three colorful medicinal leeches hard at work. Lower-limb lameness is a common callup for leeches in the horse world; they may soon be in wider use in the United States. (Photo © Martina Mater, used with permission)



You're in a veterinary lecture on laminitis at a major conference on

Were Ancient Horses' Fetlocks Less Susceptible to Breakdown Injury?

  
As Saturday's 2013 Grand National approaches, the possibility of some news from the University of Liverpool's vet school has been high. Each year, injured racehorses find expert care at the nearby vet hospital, and the vet school is proud of its long association with the race and its role in helping prevent and

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

Cornell Vet School Adds iPads for Portable Radiograph Display

Cornell's Dr. Cheetham shows a client his horse's radiograph right in the farrier shop!



Cornell University Hospital for Animals is excited to share that they have initiated the use of iPads in both the small and large animal hospitals to provide a convenient way to show clients high resolution medical images.

The new Retina display is very good on the iPad 3--possibly better than most of

Jack Hanna at Ohio State's Equine Lameness Lab: Running Amok Through Gait Analysis

Watch a segment of Jack Hanna's "Into the Wild" television show filmed in a lameness lab





Television wildlife promoter Jack Hanna visited The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center's Galbreath Equine Center in Columbus, Ohio in February; he was filming a segment for his television show "Into the Wild."

Hanna and crew were hosted by our friend Alicia Bertone, DVM, PhD, DACVS

FEI Veterinarian ID Card System Begins June 1, 2012; All Treating, Team and Private Equine Practitioners at Events Must Comply

The following information is posted to assist the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the worldwide governing body for horse sport. It applies to veterinarians from all countries who plan to work on horses at events in all FEI sports:

The FEI has announced the introduction of an ID card and online exam for veterinarians working at FEI events. The exam focuses on the FEI Veterinary

AVMA: Horseshoeing Is No Longer an Excluded Profession in the New Model Veterinary Practice Act (But Farriery Is)

What's in a name?

If you are a non-veterinarian who goes by any number of job titles to define your work with horses' hooves, you might start to wonder.

Perhaps you thought you were practicing blacksmithing, plating, hoof care, trimming, horseshoeing or  podiatry. While those job titles seem to evoke a definitive impression of what the person does for a job, the more archaic and woefully

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

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

Tell Us About This Shoe...

Not much information was passed along with this photo. Is this a Quix shoe? That was my first guess, what's yours? It looks like it's a big shoe on a big foot, but maybe it's a tiny foot and it's actually an Imprint and just looks yellow? Thanks for your help! (Photo courtesy of Nottingham Vet School, Great Britain)




© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing; Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a

Nicholas Frank, Noted Laminitis Researcher, Will Chair Tufts University's Cummings Vet School Department of Clinical Sciences

(Edited from press release)

Nicholas Frank, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, an equine clinician and researcher with expertise in laminitis, metabolic syndrome and endocrinology, has been named the chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

As chair of the veterinary school’s largest department, Frank will lead a group of nearly 50

Cornell Vet School Equine Herpes Virus Quarantine: Hospital and Barns Closed; Shoeing School, Farrier Shop Open

The following information is provided as a public service for horse owners and horsecare professionals.



The world-famous horseshoeing school and farrier shop at Cornell vet school is remaining open during the quarantine, according to resident farrier Steve Kraus. The shoes in the display case are part of the university's extensive collection of shoes made by Professor Henry Asmus, founder of

Arkansas Veterinary Practice Act Definitions Sought for Guiding Exclusion of Farriers, Tooth Floaters, Other Professions

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Before you click "play" on the video, please take a minute to read this text so you will know what you are watching.

It's time for the politics of horsecare again. Or is it the politics of veterinary care?

We're back in Little Rock, Arkansas, and here are the gentlemen of the House Agriculture, Forestry & Natural Resources

No Farrier, No MRI: Diagnostic Imaging Sessions Begin With Careful Un-Shoeing

If you’re a farrier or horse owner who is new to equine MRI, you might be surprised to learn that most horses couldn’t have an MRI without the help of farrier skills.

That’s because horses that are shod must have their shoes removed before the MRI process can begin. This could be done before the horse leaves home, but it is usually done at the vet clinic where the MRI will be done, since the

New Oklahoma State Board Would Make Veterinary vs Husbandry Decisions for Professional Practices

There have probably been simpler times to be in the animal care field. Now you not only have to know what you're doing, but if you can legally do it.
As states continue to grapple with definitions of what the practice of veterinary medicine actually entails compared to the routine practice of animal husbandry, national attention turns again to the state of Oklahoma, which was recently wrenched

Vet-Span: Watch an Arkansas Legislative Committee Consider a Bill to Clarify the State's Vet Practice Act

Legislative committee hearings are the first step in the life or death of a bill introduced at the state level. In the most basic process, it happens like this: a state representative or senator files a bill, it is referred to a committee, the committee approves or disproves it, and the bill either goes forward to another committee or goes to the vote of the House or Senate. If turned down