FEI Rollkur Roundtable Resolution: Aggressive force unacceptable, LDR still acceptable

by Fran Jurga | 9 February 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

(following is the exact text of a press release received from the FEI today)

Following constructive debate at the FEI round-table conference at the IOC Headquarters in Lausanne today (9 February), the consensus of the group was that any head and neck position achieved through aggressive force is not acceptable. The group redefined hyperflexion/Rollkur as flexion of the horse’s neck achieved through aggressive force, which is therefore unacceptable. The technique known as Low, Deep and Round (LDR), which achieves flexion without undue force, is acceptable.

The group unanimously agreed that any form of aggressive riding must be sanctioned. The FEI will establish a working group, headed by Dressage Committee Chair Frank Kemperman, to expand the current guidelines for stewards to facilitate the implementation of this policy. The group agreed that no changes are required to the current FEI Rules.

The FEI Management is currently studying a range of additional measures, including the use of closed circuit television for warm-up arenas at selected shows.

The group also emphasised that the main responsibility for the welfare of the horse rests with the rider.

The FEI President HRH Princess Haya accepted a petition of 41,000 signatories against Rollkur presented by Dr Gerd Heuschman.

The participants in the FEI round-table conference were:

HRH Princess Haya, FEI President

Alex McLin, FEI Secretary General

Margit Otto-Crépin, International Dressage Riders Club Representative

Linda Keenan, International Dressage Trainers Club Representative

Sjef Janssen, Dressage Representative

Frank Kemperman, Chairman, FEI Dressage Committee (by conference call)

François Mathy, International Jumping Riders Club Representative

David Broome, Jumping Representative

Jonathan Chapman, Eventing Representative

Roly Owers, World Horse Welfare Representative

Tony Tyler, World Horse Welfare Representative

Ulf Helgstrand, President, Danish Equestrian Federation

John McEwen, Chairman, FEI Veterinary Committee

Dr Sue Dyson, Veterinary Representative

Dr Gerd Heuschman, Veterinary Representative

Prof. René van Weeren, Veterinary Representative

Jacques van Daele, FEI Honorary Steward General Dressage

Graeme Cooke, FEI Veterinary Director

Trond Asmyr, FEI Director Dressage and Para-Equestrian Dressage

John Roche, FEI Director Jumping and Stewarding

Catrin Norinder, FEI Director Eventing

Carsten Couchouron, FEI Executive Director Commercial

Richard Johnson, FEI Communications Director

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Heavy-Duty Dressage: The Ground Will Shake at Aachen CHIO

by Fran Jurga | 8 February 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Max the logging horse is dreaming of dressage this winter.
And his dreams may come true...on the international stage.

This post sounds like the prelude to a children's book. There's that one about the Viennese cart horse that gets to stand in with the Spanish Riding School's Lipizzaners. And the one about the rundown London wagon horse that is called into service and hitched to the Lord Mayor's float to lead the annual parade. James Herriot's Bonny's Big Day is about a retired Shire who's pulled out of the field to win best pet at the local fair with as much fanfare as if she'd won Horse of the Year.

Now we can add Max the Logging Horse, who is practicing his heavy-hooved piaffe in the forest this winter, in preparation for his debut at the world's premier outdoor dressage show, the CHIO Aachen's World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany.

On Friday, July 16th, under the motto “The heavy brigade is on its way”, about 70 draft horses (called "cart horses" in Europe) as well as carriages and working teams are expected to compete in the “1st North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) Cart Horse Day” at the Aachen show.

Working teams from the city and the countryside will be presented as well as impressive four-in-hand and even ten-in-hand teams. Cart horse dressage will be demonstrated and the strong horses will also be performing a quadrille. The prestigious champion mare will also be crowned.

“We are looking forward to a magnificent program for the whole family; cart horses are impressive animals with top characters,” commented Frank Kemperman, Chairman of the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein e.V. (ALRV), the organizers of the CHIO.

The dressage riders and show jumpers will need to keep a tight rein on their mounts when these fellows rumble by. The refined warmbloods will be face-to-face with their cold-blooded root-stock. And they'd better watch out that the big boys don't steal their show, or at least inspire a children's book or two.


Photo of Max by Andreas Herrmann, thanks to Niels Knieppertz of the World Equestrian Festival.


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Mark Todd May Run, Not Ride in Top USA Sporting Event THis Fall

by Fran Jurga | 6 February 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com




American equestrian fans would love to see Mark Todd compete at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in September. But take away the horse; will New Yorkers hand the Kiwi a glass of Gatorade as he passes on foot?

New Zealand Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Todd (left) is among a group of 20 runners from his country who are entered in November's New York Marathon. They will be among the expected 36,000 runners to attempt the grueling but celebrated race that winds through all five of the Big Apple's boroughs before ending in Manhattan's Central Park.

Todd and his mates are running in support of the CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust of New Zealand. Catriona Williams, the quadriplegic founder of the CatWalk trust, was seriously injured in a riding accident in 2002 and formed a trust to fund spinal cord research, which receives no federal funding in her country. Originally, the Trust was formed to support her, but she has turned it into a fundraising effort for spinal injury research. Every five days, someone in New Zealand suffers a spinal cord injury, usually as a result of a sporting mishap.

"This is a great opportunity to do something positive to help this cause," Todd remarked in a press release from the charity. "The equestrian world is extremely conscious of the spinal cord injuries resulting from the sport. I am thrilled to be able to make a difference."

Also among CatWalk's patrons are champion jockey Lance O'Sullivan and eventing champion Zara Phillips of Great Britain.

Williams (shown, right, in her competition days) will be in the race too, attempting to make the distance with a hand-powered cycle. She was formerly one of New Zealand's leading equestrians until she was left a C6-7 tetraplegic after a shattering fall while competing in show jumping.

Video by ING New York Marathon.

Note: Mark Todd was recently named to a squad of 11 New Zealand riders from whom will be chosen that nation's team for the 2012 Olympics in London. Todd is currently living in Britain and has six horses in training. In December he lost his top horse, Gandalf, when the horse was euthanized after being diagnosed with a neurological condition. Will Todd ride in Lexington in September? Never rule him out!

London would be Mark Todd's seventh Olympics; he will be 54 years old. He won individual and gold medals in Los Angeles, team bronze in Seoul, and individual bronze in Sydney. Other accomplishments are two world team champions, three Badminton wins, and five Burghley wins. Todd returned to eventing for the 2008 Olympics after a brief career as a racehorse trainer.

While it is true that Mark Todd was not named to the New Zealand eventing team that will be sent to Kentucky for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games this year, hopefully he will participate in some way.


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New York Horse Assassin Sentenced to Prison in Hoosick Falls Justice Twist

by Fran Jurga | 4 February 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

News film embedded from WNYT, Channel 13, in Albany, New York.

When you cross into New York state from Bennington, Vermont, the fields look bigger, the tractors look bigger. You are rhythmically driving from village to village, with lots of horses in between. Maybe Norman Rockwell lived back there in Arlington, Vermont but it looks like he could have painted in Renssalaer County, New York.

Hoosick Falls, New York is halfway between Bennington and Saratoga Springs, New York. Its center is in the National Register of Historic Places. The French drove the English settlers out of town in the 1750s but they came back. A blacksmith named Walter Wood put the town on the map with his plow manufactory in the 1800s, until another local blacksmith, John Deere, began to dominate the trade.

Hoosick Falls was also the home of the famous American primitive painter Grandma Moses. But Wood and Moses are no longer the most famous residents of the town. It's now known as the home of a horse killer.

Today, equine assassin Michael Lohnes received a prison sentence. He is known far and wide for the deliberate and calculated murder of a horse he knew nothing about and had to reason to harm.

Her name was Skye, but he never even knew that. He pleaded guilty to her murder, but that's not why he was standing before a judge today, really.

This story has been in the news for two years and it will never really go away but Mr. Lohnes will. It may be as long as seven years before he sets foot in Hoosick Falls again, if he ever dares go back to his home town.

But what won't go away with him is the pain of the dead horse's owner, and the discomfort and disbelief of local people--and animal lovers everywhere--over such a violent, unprevoked crime against an innocent animal.

A few miles to the west of Skye's Hill Road barn, some of the most valuable horses in the world race each August, or are sold at the Saratoga yearling sales. A few miles to the east you'll find the Vermont Summer Festival hunter/jumper series, the largest AA-rated USEF series in New England. But in this town, a horse wasn't even safe in its own barn.

All are as vulnerable as Skye was, because the state of New York, like most states, has light charges for crimes against horses.

But there's a small bright light, to the south of Hoosick Falls. It's on in the state capitol at Albany. New York State Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco is working to adapt the state's "Buster's Law" against animal cruelty to include horses. According to Tedisco, because horses in New York are classified as livestock instead of companion animals, violent and deliberate slaughtering of them is considering a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

The bulk of Lohnes's sentence is to be served because he committed burglary while in the barn, not because he murdered the horse, stabbing her over and over again and leaving her to die.

There's irony, there's justice, and there's ironic justice, since some of New York's prisons use caring for retired Thoroughbreds as a rehabilitation program for inmates.

Something tells me Lohnes will be sitting that one out. The people back home in Hoosick Falls would definitely not approve.

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Video: Nevada Wild Horse Roundup Protest Continues, Mustang Death Toll Rises

by Fran Jurga | 30 January 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

One of the Calico mustangs in a holding pen. BLM web site photo.

Just when I thought it was time to update blog readers on the Calico roundup being conducted by the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, ABC News's Good Morning America provides a nice little video capsule from today's show. The Department of Interior's agency responsible for the wild horses running on public lands in the US west has been conducting a major clearance of horses from an area near Gerlach, Nevada for the past month.


All the protests of celebrities, billionaires, activists and letter-writers haven't drowned out the whapping of the roundup contractors' helicopters, although the cause is finding plenty of air time, bandwidth and ink in the media. Perhaps the horse roundups are a nice rotation between Haiti, the Afghan/Iraqi wars and Washington politics. But they are still covered as a curiosity, with little depth. The roundups go on. And on.

No matter which side of the very high mustang-proof fence you're on, you were probably shocked, as I was, to learn this morning that still more horses have died either during the gather or at the holding facility, bringing the total deaths to 23, according to most reports. An Associated Press story has different numbers; they give the death toll as 26 in today's Seattle Times, with 25 horses under veterinary care for injuries or health problems.

A report in today's New York Times does the math: The death toll stands at 1.7 percent, meaning that for every 1000 horses gathered, 17 have died. The normal death toll for the BLM during roundups is .5 percent. That's quite a difference: more than three times as many horses have died during this roundup than would normally die during a BLM roundup. According to the BLM's web site this morning, another horse has died as well.

To be clear, the BLM is closely observing the horses and separating out horses that appear to be in danger. Some of the horses died while others were euthanized on humane grounds by the BLM.

The BLM keeps a daily log about the mortality and general health statistics of the gather. When a horse dies, there is usually a vet report or a paraphrasing of an necropsy, if not an actual vet's report. Many of the deaths are attributed to poor condition, especially of pregnant mares with foals at their sides.

The BLM also reported that there have been 20 "miscarriages" (their word) in the 659 mares being held from this gather. In equine medicine, abortion is the term used to define the expulsion of a fetus before 300 days of pregnancy. The BLM attributed the abortions to the poor condition of the mares, not to the stress of the roundup. There is no mention that any post-mortem examination of the fetuses was conducted.

Dr. Al Kane of the BLM has a necropsy report online of a foal who died during the gather. He found the foal to have died from a congenital heart disorder; it had been observed falling down during the drive and the BLM veterinarian went back to find its body and conduct the investigation into its death. This is very sad, and probably the kind of detail that you don't hear about BLM staff following up on, although they do.

Equally compelling, or even moreso, is the report from Dr Richard Sanford of a nine-month-old foal euthanized at the holding facility after sloughing its hind hooves. This death was directly attributed to the stress of the gather. Once again, BLM veterinarians tried to medicate the foal, separated it from the herd, and kept it under observation.

Filmmaker Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation has written an essay imagining the final days and death of the foal with sloughed feet.

The BLM does have a policy about how euthanasia is conducted. According to their documents, at the holding facility a horse is euthanized by AVMA protocol, using an injection. During the gather drives, an emergency euthanasia is conducted by gunshot.

Today is a public observation day at the BLM's wild horse holding facilities in Nevada.

You can follow the BLM's version of what is going on in Nevada at their Winnemuca station web site.

National Geographic had a very good and balanced background article about wild horses in the American west in the February 2009 issue, which you can read online. PBS has also made available the Cloud series of documentaries from its Nature series for free online viewing.

Advocacy groups and web sites include MadeleinePickens.com and CloudFoundation.org.

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Temple Grandin Docudrama Airs on HBO February 6th

by Fran Jurga | 30 January 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com



Mark your calendar: Saturday, February 6, 8 p.m. on the east coast; check your local listings.

If you don't know who Temple Grandin is, don't worry: you will. Publicity for the February 6th airing of HBO's original dramatization of Dr. Grandin's college days is sure to initiate a blitz of publicity and media stereotyping. But don't let that put you off.

Even if this film comes off badly, which I don't think it will, it's based on the true and amazing story of one of the leading figures in the American livestock academic community.

But just how many people in the USA does HBO think are going to stay home on a Saturday night to watch a film about a graduate student in animal science?

Plenty, HBO is betting. Because, unlike most graduate and post-graduate students in animal science, Temple Grandin was and is autistic. And there's no bigger buzzword in America right now. Yes, people will watch. People who have never seen a feedlot or a slaughterhouse are about to get quite an education.

It's true, most people will be interested in this film because Dr. Grandin is autistic but it is her relationship with animals, her astute observations of their behavior and her motivation to help them--often to help them meet a more humane end on their way in the otherwise grisly world of meat processing--that will draw you and me in and keep us watching, in the event that the autism card is poorly played.

Do your homework between now and the airing of this movie. Check out some of the books that Dr. Grandin has written as well or read a list of her papers on aspects of horse welfare and behavior. Just don't have any preconceived notions, because you might be surprised at some of her stances.

Don't miss it. Or should I say, to be safe: Don't miss her.


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Dressage Sensation Blue Hors Matine Is Dead

by Fran Jurga | 25 January 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Blue Hors Matine

A Fairy Tale Dressage Star

Tragic news rocketed through the horse world this morning from Denmark, where the sensational dressage mare Blue Hors Matine was euthanized following a freak paddock accident at Blue Hors Stud. I spoke with Karsten Petersen this afternoon, but he was hesitant to give many details, although he assured me that she really was dead.

According to an announcement from the stud, Matine was turned out with another former Danish dressage superstar, the gelded Blue Hors Cavan. A passerby noticed that something was wrong with the mare and notified stud staff in the riding hall.

Stud director Esben Moller said that the vet reported that Matine's leg was broken below the knee and that she could not be saved, so she was euthanized.

At age 13, Matine was either about to give birth to a foal or to be bred; the translation of the press release is tricky.

This video of the late Blue Hors Matine's world-beating debut at the 2006 World Equestrian Games has been viewed (as of January 25, 2010) 9,357,873 times on YouTube. Let's see if we can get it to a nice round 10 million as we say good-bye to this incredible horse.

Matine's fairy tale is synonymous with the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. She seemed to appear out of nowhere and, under rider Andreas Helgstrand, won the Grand Prix for Denmark, along with silver in the Freestyle (kur), although 9 million YouTube viewers would probably have placed her first.

Matine's performance in the USA for the 2007 FEI Dressage World Cup was highly anticipated but a mishap occurred during transport or on arrival, causing injury, and she did not compete. The mare apparently never completely regained her full athletic soundness and was retired from training in 2009.

For some reason, it has always been difficult to get clear information about the mare's status, so I have perhaps written less about her over the years than I would have otherwise, in order to avoid making errors. That is also why I called the stud as soon as I heard the news.

The first time I saw that YouTube video I thought that she was just too good to be true. The thought of one of those legs breaking is incomprehensible. This mare will dance on for eternity on YouTube and I'll never forget the utter disbelief I felt the first time I watched her. What a gift she had, and what a gift she gave all of us.

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Past and Present Coincide: Can You Tell What Century It Is by Looking at This Photo?

by Fran Jurga | 24 January 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Eight young Lipizzaner stallions arrived this week in Vienna, Austria to enter training in the Spanish Riding School.

They call them the "young savages", the "wild ones". And every January for the past few hundred years, they have invaded Vienna, Austria with a kick of the heels and a toss of the mane. This year, they did it in the snow. It looks like Dr. Zhivago will pull up in his sleigh any minute.

One of the great traditions of Vienna is the arrival of a truck carrying a group of young Lipizzaner stallions. Born in the winter of 2006 on the famed stud farm at Piber in South Austria, a selection of the most suitable candidates for training at the famed
Spanish Riding School boarded a truck and left the idyllic countryside behind. They'll be city boys, perhaps for most of the rest of their lives.

But for now they are rough, uneducated country bumpkins with no idea what's going on!

This year, eight were chosen, and you see them here being paraded in the courtyard before the stables, displaying the variety of shapes and tones of gray and grayish brown typical of young Lipizzaners. Lipizzaners are born very dark in color, and look almost black. They gradually turn gray and, eventually, most will be snow white.

Odd as it may seem, Lipizzaner foals are born dark brown; they look black, especially standing next to their mothers! I often wonder how the farm tells the foals apart!

At Piber, about 20 foals are born each winter, and the foals grow up together as a group. The young stallions are turned out in a vast high mountain meadow together for the entire spring and summer, and are never apart.

When two of the youngsters colicked during the preparation for the transfer to Vienna this year, they were not left behind; the entire group waited for them to recover. When they were ready, the group was ready, and the trip could begin. Vienna would just have to wait for her new stars.

It's probably just as well. Snow blanketed the city and the highways across Europe. And when the youngsters stepped into the snow-covered courtyard and the cameras started clicking, the images like this one are a reminder that some traditions are worth their weight in priceless horseflesh and that sometimes Mother Nature can paint a canvas in the middle of the city on a January day that is as magnificent as any that hangs in the royal museum next door.

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Equine Exercise Physiology Will Put New Treadmill to the Test at Oregon State's Vet School

by Fran Jurga | 23 January 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Diagnosing muscle diseases or respiratory ailments in horses is not always a simple task for even the most skilled veterinarians, and measuring the animals’ responses to drug therapy or a new diet regime can add to the difficulty.

But a new high-speed equine treadmill like the one at Oregon State University (OSU) allows clinicians and researchers to examine, treat and conduct research on horses – and other large animals – in ways rarely if ever seen in the past.

OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine has installed a Sato-1 treadmill that will allow a 1,200-pound horse to gallop at speeds of 25 miles-an-hour or greater, while being monitored with instrumentation that can measure heart rate, blood flow, respiration and other responses to exercise.

The $170,000 treadmill project was installed in late fall and the first horses have begun to trot, canter and gallop on the apparatus under the direction of Erica McKenzie, an assistant professor in the college who specializes in large animal exercise physiology and nutrition.

“It takes two or three days for a horse to get up to full speed on the treadmill, but after some initial hesitation, they love it,” McKenzie said. “When you bring them out of the barn, they start prancing and head right for the facility where the treadmill is located.”

“Horses don’t have the ability to describe the nature of their injuries and some of them aren’t apparent until the animal is at full speed,” she said. “Then you might notice, for example, abnormal noises coming from the horse’s airway. Additionally, you can evaluate lameness at a controlled gait that the treadmill can provide, which is particularly useful for trotting or pacing horses that can work on the treadmill wearing their racing harness to emulate racing conditions.

“It also will allow us to better gauge how horses respond to certain treatments, diets and drug therapies,” she added.

Monitoring performance horses can be difficult, but the new treadmill will allow researchers and clinicians to evaluate upper airway problems by inserting a camera into the horse’s nose and monitoring the airway as the horse runs at full speed.

"From a research perspective, the treadmill is an incredibly vital piece of equipment that can facilitate a variety of studies, from the impact of diets and drugs on muscular function, to behavior and exercise responses,” McKenzie said. “Treadmill training and exercise has been the foundation of most studies of muscular disease in horses.”

The treadmill may have other functions, McKenzie pointed out. “It will be used primarily for horses, but it can be adapted to other species including dogs, pigs, emus and camels,” she said. “In Saudi Arabia, for example, they use treadmills to train racing camels.”

The treadmill can reach a maximum speed of 35 miles an hour and be inclined to a slope of 10 percent. Horses wear protective boots and wraps when exercising on the machine.

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Picaro Is Picking Up: Gunshot Wound Horse Survives Second Surgery at Tufts University Cummings Hospital

by Fran Jurga | 22 January 2010 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Tufts created an animation of Picaro's CT scan so you can see where his jaw was shattered by a bullet.

“Picaro,” the horse brought last week to the Tufts University's Cummings School’s Hospital for Large Animals with gunshot wounds, is “bright and alert” today following a second surgery Wednesday in which veterinarians stabilized his jaw and removed fragments of his hyoid. The hyoid is a cluster of bones forming a horseshoe-shaped apparatus that supports the tongue and vocal chords in a horse.

Picaro on his back, viewed through the CT scanner.

Using the Cummings School’s new 16-slice computerized tomography scanner, equine and diagnostic imaging personnel were able to characterize with a high degree of accuracy the path of the bullets that wounded Picaro last Thursday.

The horse was then transferred into surgery, whereupon Drs. Carl A. Kirker-Head and Jose M. Gacia-Lopez, assisted by resident Dr. Diego Quinteros, used Picaro’s intact left jawbone as an anchor for stabilizing the badly damaged right jawbone. They also removed bits of his shattered hyoid apparatus.

Tufts Senior Technician Lyn Schad takes Picaro for a walk down the hospital aisle.

Today (Friday, January 22), Picaro is alert and beginning to eat his liquefied diet. He is receiving a great deal of attention and around-the-clock care at the hospital from his team of caregivers, including his fourth-year veterinary student Jared Ravich, faculty veterinarians, interns, residents, and technicians. He took exercise, walking along the hospital’s long central corridor, several times Friday, guided by a student and a resident.

“He’s in good spirits, and we hope he continues on this path of improvement,” said Carl A. Kirker-Head, MA, Vet MB, the associate professor of surgery in charge of the horse’s care at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. “He’s increasingly comfortable, thanks to two successful surgeries thus far, as well as pain medication that he’s tolerating well.”

Despite the improving indicators of health, Picaro’s progress remains day-to-day, and he faces a number of hurdles along road of recovery, Dr. Kirker-Head said today. The gray Paso Fino stallion was brought to the Hospital for Large Animals with bullet wounds last Thursday by Carol Gaucher of Spencer (Massachusetts) Animal Control and walked in under his own power.

Cummings School officials are working with the horse’s custodian, Kelley Small of West Boylston, Mass., to make medical decisions and find a loving home for Picaro should he recover as anticipated.

Cummings School officials have received more than $1,000 in donations in Picaro’s honor thus far. Bills for the horse’s care have surpassed the $10,000 mark. Members of the community interested in making donations to the Cumming School’s Hospital for Large Animals in honor of Picaro may send checks made out to “Trustees of Tufts College” and mail them to: Office of Development & Alumni Relations, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536. For links to online giving, please visit www.tufts.edu/vet/giving.

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