ARCHIVE - ARTICLES 2010

February 10 - Demystifiying clubfeet

February 10 - Smithing for the 'Mr Cadbury' of Japan

February 10 - Problem feet. What would you do?

February 10 - British farriery - the gold standard - Part 3. Higher qualifications

February 10 - Get Sharp and Keep Sharp

 

Archive - Forge Magazine - February 2010
Demystifying clubfeet

Tom Ryan, FWCF, pieces together the causes of clubfeet

The first clubfoot I saw perplexed me, as I didn’t understand what I was seeing. It was on a broodmare many years ago. At the time, the owners considered me too inexperienced to deal with her chronic foot problem when it became infected (Fig 1), but since then I have taken a keen interest in clubfeet, and have gradually pieced together what lead the mare to have this condition which left her vulnerable to infection.
Clubfeet are seen in adult horses, the hoof being upright and boxy; some clubfeet are also laminitic and others land with a heavy first footfall on the lateral side.
Case histories
Having studied cases with complete histories, and spoken with their owners and breeders, it seems the seeds are sown for this condition in the first weeks of life when some foals develop a condition called flexural deformity of the distal interphalangeal joint. It is the consequences of this that lead to a clubfoot several years later. Inexperienced owners are unaware of the profound consequences that an odd looking foot will have in the long term.
The main symptom of a flexural deformity is an upright posture of one or more feet (Fig 2), which in the severest cases, lifts the heels off the ground. The term ‘ballerina syndrome’ is commonly used to describe the posture when both forelimbs are affected. It is important to realise that the posture of the foot is a symptom of an abnormality higher up the limb.
Flexural deformities are well documented and relatively common. They present in two forms, either at birth or between the ages of three and six months of age. Seen at birth, it is termed as being congenital, and when it develops later it is termed as acquired. There is uncertainty as to what causes it to develop. The congenital form responds well to an injection of oxytetracycline antibiotic, which seems to act as a muscle relaxant for this form of the condition, and young foals often show improvement in the foot posture soon after it is administered.

Fig 1. Clubfoot after abscess has been located and drained
Fig 2. Acquired flexural deformity in a foal or ‘ballerina syndrome’
Diagram 1. The accessory ligament combined with the deep digital flexor tendon could be considered as one structure with a fixed length

The acquired form is strongly linked with the active period of bone growth in the epiphyseal plates of the distal limb, as the appearance of this condition coincides with the active growth period, (when the bony column outgrows the distal section of the deep digital flexor tendon, and its accessory ligament [diagram 1]). So, there may be two conditions presenting with similar signs - one associated with muscle tension, and the other associated with rapid bone growth. Much has been written about the treatment options and techniques used to restore the foal’s limb and foot to a normal posture, but this article is about what can happen next in the less fortunate animal, when the condition persists into maturity as an unresolved flexural deformity.
The mature horse’s boxy foot is often considered to be the result of lack of frog pressure or poor grazing posture, which always has the boxy foot placed back, while the normal foot is extended forward. The heels are often lowered to increase frog pressure in the hope that the foot will expand, but this action seems to be ineffective. In my experience, raising the heels allows the hoof to expand and I certainly don’t know how one would persuade a horse to change its grazing posture!
While the foal’s heels are not in contact with the ground, the foot loses medial/lateral stability and the foot will often roll to one side of the toe while the foal is walking. This unstable foot permits the growth plates to set without regard to how the foot makes ground contact or how it will ultimately bear weight, as presently the heels don’t even touch the ground. By the time the foal reaches maturity, it can have developed a severe one-sided footfall, which is virtually impossible to correct.
It is definitely good practice to lower the heels of a foal with an acquired flexural deformity together with dietary controls to slow the rapid growth but if the condition persists after the first year then it’s fair to say that heel lowering has not worked and it’s time to accept the foot is going to be more upright than normal (Fig. 4), as persisting with heel lowering will ultimately damage the foot.
If the animal is for sale, heel lowering may be adopted in an effort to make the feet into a ‘cosmetic pair’, particularly for the yearling sales. The new owner and farrier may be oblivious to the presence of the condition.
In feet with the same hoof angle, identifying a mild flexural deformity is going to be difficult as there are only subtle hints pointing toward its existence. Characteristics I have come to associate with the condition include:
◗ Greater than normal shoe wear at the toe;
◗ Slightly stretched laminae at the toe;
◗ Seedy toe (Fig. 4);
◗ Slight lameness after shoeing,
◗ ‘Hammer shyness’

Fig 3. Mature horse with an upright boxy foot, the upright foot has never caused problems

Fig 4. Seedy toe, a symptom of stress in the dorsal hoof wall
Fig 5. An advanced and chronic clubfoot
Fig 6. Radiograph of a misaligned distal phalanx as a result of a flexural deformity, where the distal phalanx has separated from the dorsal hoof wall. Looks similar to rotation in laminitis

Because these symptoms are subtle, it is hard to be certain that an unresolved flexural deformity lies behind them, but most of these symptoms can be associated with tension within the deep digital flexor tendon and its accessory ligament. Navicular disease has not been associated with the condition but there could be a link.
If the farrier is unaware of the existence of the condition, maintaining the hoof at what is considered a normal angle will actually be excessively loading the deep digital tendon and its accessory ligament. The same applies to the dorsal wall and the laminal bond, which are also vulnerable to overloading under these conditions. There has always been a tendency to just trim a ‘little bit’ off the heels of upright feet, but the adverse consequences may not become visible for many months. The heel lowering, which took place six months before, may not be associated with the problems seen today.
Abnormal loading
The distance from where the accessory ligament arises just below the carpus to where the deep digital flexor tendon inserts into the distal phalanx is a fixed length, it cannot change [diagram 1]. It is the foot angle via the depth of the heels that influences the tension within these structures. If the heels are lowered the tension increases, while raising the heels will reduce the tension. In the unshod youngster, the foot soon corrects itself when the heels are lowered, as the toe wears and the heels don’t, until they are both back to an angle where they can make equal contact with the ground and the tension in the deep digital tendon normalises. Once the foot is shod the ability to normalise when the heels are lowered is lost and the abnormal loading persists, the laminal bond at the toe will show the first signs of stress in the form of distended laminae and seedy toe. In the worst cases, some feet become gradually laminitic. The foot is now viewed in a new light, that of a laminitic foot. Radiographs will undoubtedly show the distal phalanx to be misaligned with the proximal and middle phalanx, as it always has been (Fig 6). Heel lowering is now pursued with new vigour, this time to de-rotate the distal phalanx. With the underlying unresolved flexural deformity, the distal phalanx is incapable of being de-rotated and a downward cycle is perpetuated and the foot’s condition gradually deteriorates still further.
Now the foot shows all the characteristics associated with clubfoot, a very upright and boxy foot with contracted heels often with chronic laminitis (Fig. 5).
Correcting clubfeet is virtually impossible
Correcting clubfeet is virtually impossible in my experience. As heel lowering induced the condition, restoring a more upright posture will reduce the excessive tension in the deep digital tendon and its accessory ligament. If the foot is laminitic, raising the heels may seem counter intuitive, but is the only option and must be combined with support padding for the distal phalanx.
By linking the foal condition of flexural deformity to clubfoot in adult horse and understanding that the process of heel lowering has led to the foot becoming a clubfoot, it shows us that it would have been better to accept a foot as being upright from the very beginning. The naturally upright foot functions well, is not painful to the horse but looks aesthetically wrong, but when all the options are considered having an upright functional hoof is a far better option for both horse and owner.

 

Archive - Forge Magazine - February 2010
British Farriery - the gold standard. Part 3. Higher qualifications

By Reg Howe, Master of the Worshipful Company of Farriers and former chairman of the Farriery CPD Steering Group

British farriery – the gold standard
Part 3. Higher qualifications
In this third and final article, Master of the Worshipful Company of Farriers, Reg Howe sets out the levels of attainment open to farriers.
The first article took you through the training process for farrier apprentices. Achievement of the Diploma means that newly qualified farriers have their feet firmly placed on the first rung of the farriery ladder. They have been judged by an eminent panel of examiners as competent to prepare a foot and, if required, to apply a shoe. It’s worth noting here that not every horse is shod. For example, retired horses or brood mares may only need their feet trimmed; and some riders prefer to work their horses without shoes. So, whether it’s for a trim or the application of a shoe, the best qualified person to do the work is the farrier. The most critical aspect of farriery is preparing the hoof and Approved Training Farriers spend a great deal of time teaching apprentices how to assess a horse’s feet, and how to trim correctly.
Associateship
The next level of attainment is the Associateship of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (AWCF) and is particularly concerned with corrective farriery. There are currently 183 Associates in the UK. To attain the AWCF, candidates sit a written exam and also undergo three oral examinations, a practical test (requiring the fabrication of a shoe from plain steel) and the correct fitting of two corrective shoes; plus a test in the use of modern materials (for example, using acrylics to repair a damaged hoof).
The examination sets out to test forging and practical skills to the highest level. As there is no equivalent exam in any other country, it is quite common for farriers from abroad to attempt the AWCF. The WCF often runs courses for Diploma holders to prepare them for the Associateship – an essential component of CPD.
Fellowship
The highest level of qualification is the Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (FWCF). This denotes a very high level of achievement and the relatively small number of Fellows – 31 – is testament to this. The candidate must prepare a written original thesis for consideration by a panel of senior WCF examiners. If the thesis is accepted, the candidate must then deliver a lecture to the examiners on a subject of their choosing with only 60 minutes preparation time. The examiners also require the forging of a corrective shoe from plain steel.
Foundation degree in farriery
It is important also to mention the new Foundation Degree in Farriery. This enables working farriers to improve their knowledge and ability via part-time attendance at Myerscough College over a three-year period culminating in the award FdSc. The College and the Worshipful Company of Farriers have created the opportunity for the farriery profession to be given a vehicle for CPD and demonstrates that both institutions are moving with the times in terms of providing access to educational awards; a university degree gives farriers further currency to trade in an increasingly technical and education based world, enabling them to contribute to the furthering of education, research and development within the profession and the industry.
It is good to report that a number of qualified farriers have grasped the opportunity provided by the CPD syllabus to prepare for higher examinations and we can see a steady increase in the number of AWCFs and FWCFs. Successful Fellowship candidates may, in due course, be invited to become members of the WCF Examinations Board thus maintaining the high standards set by the Company and keeping British Farriery at the forefront of the profession to the point where highly qualified British farriers are often invited to other countries to help elevate standards.
A charge laid against British farriery is that we are not good at telling the horse owning public about the profession and its structure so I do hope that these articles on gold standard British farriery will encourage you to promote your achievements for the welfare of the horse.
Some useful websites
◗ Worshipful Company of Farriers - www.wcf.org.uk
◗ Farriers Registration Council - www.farrier-reg.gov.uk
◗ National Farriery Training Agency - www.farrierytraining.co.uk
◗ National Association of Farriers, Blacksmiths & Agricultural Engineers - www.nafbae.org
◗ Know Foot Know Horse - www.knowfootknowhorse.com
A final thought – why not remind your clients how lucky their horses are to have their trimming and shoeing looked after by a British trained farrier – the best there is.

Acknowledgements
Richard Stephenson BVMS CertVR CertEP MRCVS, WCF examiner
Felicity Heather, Registrar, Farriers Registration Council
Peter Ablett, Chief Executive, National Farrier Training Agency
David Goodall, Registrar and Craft Secretary, Worshipful Company of Farriers
Simon Curtis FWCF HonAssoc RCVS

 

Archive - Forge Magazine - February 2010
Smithing for the 'Mr Cadbury' of Japan

Exporting manufactured product to the Far East is not the easiest hoop to jump through – but a Warwickshire businessman who has been doing it successfully for two decades has just completed a £70,000 deal with a wealthy business magnate they call the Mr Cadbury of Japan. In Japan there is special value in having decorative cast iron fencing, gates and ornamental bridges made by English blacksmiths – and that’s where Cotswold Decorative Ironworkers spotted a niche in the export market.

Hughie Powell, of Marsh Farm at Stourton, near Shipston-on-Stour, has completed a deal to provide Isao Ishimizu, owner of one of Japan’s most famous chocolate brands, with 110 metres of decorative cast iron fencing and an intricately designed pair of 25 feet wide gates. The gates are the biggest set CDI have ever produced.
“Isao wanted something different, so we used a lot of hand-made scroll work made by our young blacksmiths and a selection of antique castings which I have in stock to use as patterns.
“If a customer like Isao wants something unusual we can recast from old castings in stock making any alterations in length, size or height. It means we can give the customer exactly what he is looking for. We think it’s important to get to know our customers well; to know what they like.
“All the drawing and plans were done here in the office, which we prefer because we can build things to our own drawings better than an architect’s drawing that might call for difficult measurements or sizes and materials that don’t exist.”
The original contract with Ishiya Co 15 years ago was for 150 metres of heavy decorative gold leaf fencing - a bigger job than the whole of the rest of CDI’s turnover at the time.
Since then, every two to three years Mr Ishimizu has come back to CDI with another project. The company, which is famous for its Shiroi Koibito white chocolate biscuits, is based at Sapporo on the mountainous and often snow-bound island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan.
“Isao Ishimizu has a passion for English craftsmanship. The projects we do for him are always interesting and Ishiya Co has become one of our best and most loyal customers.
“Most of our ironwork is displayed in Isao’s public theme park, which is his pride and joy, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.”
Shiroi Koibito Park is a tourist attraction, which consists of Disneyland style buildings and electronic fairy-tale displays, museum, shops and a café. It has a replicas of the leaning tower of Pisa, Big Ben, a red brick Victorian warehouse/factory building from the north of England (which was re-built in Japan) and a range of mock Tudor and other European timber-framed buildings.
Parts of the chocolate factory are open to the public, and visitors can observe the production of the chocolate cookies. Each zone has a dedicated theme including a confectionery kitchen where youngsters can try making their own confectionary. There is a zone dedicated to the history of chocolate, including a large display of fine china cups used for drinking chocolate and a toy museum. Chocolate flavoured foods dominate the menu at a 19th century English pub, where one of the highlights is a juke box that plays Beatle songs on a 45rpm recording, reflecting the Japanese obsession with the Liverpool group.
Cotswold Decorative Ironworkers has been responsible for all the intricate cast iron metalwork on the theme park.
“Isao usually wants very decorative work ranging from intricate fencing - costing up to £500 a metre - to cast iron gates and bridges and other ornamental features such as sundials and rose arches. Two cast iron columns we made were more than one metre in diameter and four metres tall, each weighing one ton. They were used in some way for his TV and magazine advertising campaigns.
“We also built Isao his idea of a replication of the Iron Bridge Gorge in Shropshire. Our fencing is now all around the front of the theme park.
“Isao is passionate about football. He owns Consadole Sapporo, one of Japan’s top professional football clubs which is based at the Sapporo Dome and around which we erected elaborate decorative gates and cast iron fencing.”
As a result of the initial work for Ishiya Co in 1995, CDI has gone on to work for several different companies in Japan.
“These tend to be decorative gates and fencing for museums and institutional buildings. We completed one contract just outside Tokyo, for fencing and gates to a building where wedding ceremonies are conducted.
“Another rather exotic contract involved making two pairs of large showpiece gates and brick pillars which were part of a private £250 million museum which is surrounded by golf courses.
“They are at the centre of what is a huge private complex and the gates are never closed – they were installed to be showpiece of English craftsmanship in metalwork for traffic passing through to admire.
“Our business in Japan has slowed up because of the recession and the exchange rates, but whenever there is work we tend to be at the head of the list for forthcoming projects. The margins are good but you have to be able to fully understand the Japanese mindset if you are going to be able to work for them.
“They are meticulous on quality and do not tolerate any kind of cost-cutting. We enjoy working for them because, like us, they understand quality, and we have now had a successful relationship with them since the mid-1990s.
“It’s been a successful relationship for both of us,” said Hughie, whose company is a recognised supplier of fencing, gates and ornamental bridges to the National Trust and other institutions and estates where knowledge of accurate historical replication is paramount.

 

Archive - Forge Magazine - February 2010
Problem feet. What would you do?

Gary Burton describes one particular case of crumbly feet in a horse he has been shoeing for around three years and where he, and the horse’s previous farrier, have tried everything to improve the condition of the feet. Here, he asks what you would do? Have you come across similar footed horses?
Have you developed techniques, or established ideas on feeding and bedding that improves these types of feet? Is there anything else that can be done? Ideally the owner would like to do more with this horse than enjoy an occasional gentle hack.

 

Standing around 14.2 hands high, this horse is almost 15 years old and fairly robust weight-wise; the feet are 4¾ to 5 inches (ish) in size, depending on how hard they are dressed or how broken they have become between shoeings. Unlike the pictures above, I have got these feet to a stage of being fairly neat, that is the horn is almost complete from coronet to ground (except at the toe). This state has only been achieved because of a combination of scrupulous stable management, regular careful shoeing and gentle exercise.
What’s been tried
Her previous farrier had apparently tried ‘everything’ too. He had used all kinds of rebuild materials; pads with filler; conventional shoes (hard to nail and often came loose shortly after shoeing). I took this case on when the owner moved the horse home and out of his area.
To add further complication to the challenge, I am sure that what I am dealing with here is a chronic laminitic, where the pedal bone appears to have sunk slightly, rather than rotated. I have assumed this because of the appearance of the sole, not through radiographic evidence; the bottom of the foot is dead flat and the sole is prominent. There is almost no heel, and the wall (at the toe) grows forward, not down at the same angle as the heels. If you applied a steel shoe, you would have to shoe on the sole around the toe because once dressed, there is no wall from medial toe, nail position 2 to lateral toe, nail position 2.
In the early days I tried light heart bar shoes but abandoned these because the growth rate was so slow, and the foot became so small and weak that I was in real danger of causing some serious nail binding or worse.
Next I tried glue on shoes, which were more successful thanks to the lack of nails and the weight of the shoe. Glue on shoes remained in place for four to five, sometimes as much as six weeks, but exercise had to be kept to a minimum. The problem in applying these was that I didn’t feel I could remove all of the infected horn. Neither was I was confident that the foot I had left would hold the shoe, nor was I confident that the remaining horn would take the horse’s weight without further sinking within the foot. And, once the shoe was glued in place, it wasn’t possible to apply topical antibacterial products.
A first
I have never come across feet as weak as these, I can only compare the horn texture to flaky pastry. It was like trying to nail into the end of a plywood sheet where the layers have got damp and have come unglued. Most of the whole lower half of the wall seemed to have a sort of seedy toe/white line disease fungal type problem, the wall peeled off in layers like peeling an onion and the horn between the layers turned powdery. When stabled, this horn readily soaked up urine, making it wet and turning it brown, yet frequent attention to the bedding made little difference.
Eventually, it was decided to leave the shoes off, to allow the horse to go barefoot for as long as it took to grow out the lower margin of the hoof wall, or at least until there was enough sound foot to work with. This took six months or so, and since then I have managed to keep the horse shod with quarter-clipped front shoes and light(ish) steel shoes on the hinds, using only four nails per shoe.
Husbandry
We have tried different types of bedding including rubber. Any bedding that does not drain is useless as urine gathers in pools and the feet bathe in it. The horse now stands on a ‘chocolate bar’-type floor with fairly deep dry shavings on top. Wet bedding is removed as frequently as possible. The horse has been offered a variety of feeds, after taking advice from feed companies, nutritionists and so on, and several hoof growth promoting supplements have been used, but all with limited results.

 

 

Archive - Forge Magazine - February 2010
Get Sharp and Keep Sharp

By Huw Dyer AWCF

Many, if not most, farriers if asked how sharp their knives and rasps are, may well say, ‘I‘m going to sharpen them tomorrow!’, although they know have been working with blunt tools for weeks. As farriers, we know that a blunt knife is an accident waiting to happen, and when tools are less keen than they should be, it means that we are working with our backs bent for longer than necessary. Why do we let this happen? Perhaps we are not skilled at sharpening or it seems to take too long when we are busy, or we just keep forgetting?
We all need to sharpen our own tools
Most tools in the farriers’ kit can be sharpened or honed using special equipment. It is unsurpassed at quickly achieving a perfect edge on tools. The polishing wheels and compounds hone and de-burr knives with very little effort. A blunt and rusty tool can be restored by following the correct sequence of sharpening, honing and polishing. Rasps can be kept sharp in seconds.
Once sharpening and honing skills have been learned, it only takes a few seconds each day to maintain knives. It pays to develop good habits and become disciplined to giving your knives and rasps daily attention. This is an investment in time, which reaps huge rewards in effort and money saved.
As the ideal angle of the edge of a farrier’s knife is 7º to 11º and it is not always possible to check this with a protractor, we need to develop our ‘eye and feel’ for the perfect edge. Most new knives will be fairly sharp, but they can often be improved with honing and polishing. A good way of learning the correct angle of the edge is to hone or strop a perfectly sharpened new tool at a slightly less acute an angle, this further sharpens the edge and, more importantly, it lasts longer as it rounds the microscopic tip of the edge slightly, making it stronger as well as bringing it to a finer point.
A small magnifying glass or jewellers eyeglass is invaluable in helping us to see and assess an edge. Once honed and polished, a high-quality edge should not be touched with steel or stone but re-honed with wheel and compound. The knife will last much longer and a few seconds regular honing or stropping is all that is needed to keep it sharp at all times. If they don’t get blunt then they never need aggressive sharpening which wears them away quickly.
Farrier’s hook bladed knives are sharpened on one edge and are de-burred and polished on the other in order to become sharp. It is the hook that needs to be the sharpest. Loop knives are usually sharpened on the inside edge only and de-burred and polished on the outside. Much skill and technology has been used to develop knives with hard durable blades, which will hold a good edge. Lesser quality knives are softer and can be sharpened easily but soon become dull.
Traditional hand sharpeners that are normally used are steels, those which are coated with industrial diamond grit, tungsten steels and files. Fine diamond-coated needle sharpeners are favoured for loop knives.
Hand sharpeners will produce a fairly good edge, although it takes a lot of effort to hand sharpen a hard tempered knife, a softer blade will quickly wear away leaving a thick edged blade of the wrong angle. An old worn knife will need thinning for it to cut effortlessly. The volume of work that a knife will hold its edge for depends upon the hardness of the blade and its thickness. If it has become too thin (too acute an angle) it will chip and be blunted, if it is too thick (not acute enough) it will not cut easily.
Sharpening angles:
✔ 7 to 11° for hoof knives and searchers
✔ 15° for filleting and boning knives
✔ 20° for kitchen and camping knives
✔ 22° for cleavers and axes
How to ‘see’ the sharpness
Look straight at the cutting edge, with magnification if necessary. If the edge is the slightest bit dull, there will be a glint of reflected light showing the flat edge, where the edge is perfectly sharp there will be no glint, even in a strong light.

 

Captions from left to right, top to bottom:
Sharpening hook of the knife; Checking correct angle; Honing and polishing the blade;
Londonderry Forge knife, rasp and tool sharpening equipment; Sharpening a rasp; Honing nippers