In this month's installment of TDN's series, 'The Road Back,' we introduce you to graduate Joshua Franks, now program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship.

When Joshua Franks speaks about horses and the impact they've had on his life, the passion reverberates through every spoken word.

But it was only a year and a half ago that Franks first laid a hand on a horse, a moment he remembers vividly.

“It was at Keeneland, in Barn 10, and the horse was Big Lake [American Pharoah]. It was like I touched a ghost. Walking up to that horse, it was just magical.”

It marked a turning point in Franks's life. A page was opening to the start of a new chapter, one driven by faith, purpose and passion, that would pave over a past marred by drug addiction and incarceration.

Taylor Made Stallion Complex sign | Sarah Andrew

“I was born in California, but my mom and dad separated at a young age and then my mom moved back to Kentucky, so I grew up in Boone County. I lived with a single mom and two younger brothers. We lived in poverty,” said Franks. “In my household, I didn't grow up with goals. My mom didn't know how to love, there wasn't a lot of love in the home, so growing up, I felt lost and alone. I got addicted to drugs at a young age and from there it spiraled out of control.”

His issues with drug use eventually led him to prison, where he served a 10-year sentence. After he was released in 2020, he entered Recovery Works, a comprehensive inpatient addiction treatment center in Georgetown, Ky. It was there that he heard about Stable Recovery and its partner, the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship.

At this point, according to Franks, God stepped in. Because though he'd fallen down a path that many don't come back from, the light that kept him going was a hope that one day he would end up working within the Thoroughbred industry in some capacity. And the inspiration behind that? It was none other than the queen herself, Zenyatta (Street Cry).

“I believe she kind of changed the whole direction of my life. I used to watch Zenyatta race and she was electric. She touched me in a way that I can't even describe. She would bring tears to my eyes. Every hair on my arm would stand up when I watched her, and when she lost her last race, it just captured my heart,” said Franks. “I always wondered how to get here, how to get to Lexington to work with horses, but I never had that outlet. I think God knew in the depths of my heart what I truly loved. He met me where I was.”

Franks came to Taylor Made to enter Stable Recovery and partake in the School of Horsemanship program in July of 2022, soaking up everything he could in the barn and on the farm, before graduating and heading out to join fellow School of Horsemanship graduate Will Walden at the track. He worked as the foreman of the young trainer's stable, a time highlighted by a first stakes victory for the Walden team when Kate's Kingdom (Animal Kingdom) took the 2022 My Charmer Stakes at Turfway Park.

Joshua Franks | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm

Though Franks did struggle with a two-day relapse while on the road, he returned to Taylor Made last December to continue to work on himself, his sobriety and his career as a horseman.

“I think God took my pain, with addiction and all of that, and gave me something that would really touch my heart. It's really special,” said Franks.

Things have come full circle for the 37-year-old, who now works full-time as the program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship.

“The biggest thing about this program is that we're trying to help people stay sober. It isn't necessarily about trying to change the horse industry, you know that comes with it along the way, but first and foremost we want to save lives,” said Franks. “The best advice I'd give people is to seek God and trust God. That's something I've done every day. I hit my knees, day and night, and throughout the day. He's developed something that's astronomical for a guy like me.”

Franks spends day in and day out with the men in the program that spans 90 days, teaching recovering individuals' life skills and employable skills through working with the horses on the farm, participating in support groups and attending 12-step meetings.

“When they come in, I try to lead them in recovery first and then into horses. I tell them all the time, 'This job will always be here.' When it comes down to it, I want them to stay sober and develop a good foundation,” said Franks.

One of the most crucial aspects of the program is instituting structure, something that a lot of the participants have never had in their lives. During the program they go to work daily, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., while also keeping up with a schedule throughout the week that includes Monday Motivation classes, School of Horsemanship meetings on Wednesdays, Community meetings on Thursdays and in-house meetings, called 'Off to the Races,' on Saturdays.

“A lot of us didn't grow up with that stuff, we didn't grow up with structure, so it's a really intense 90 days. This program is like no other. [CEO] Christian [Countzler] is very stern, he expects things to go a certain way, which I appreciate. I've been other places where as bad as it is, there's drugs filling these places, there's no accountability, while here, Christian demands that. All the outside issues, we don't have to deal with those. We're here to recover and to help each other recover,” said Franks. “It goes hand-in-hand with how detailed the horse industry is. From the way the blankets are folded, to bandages, to medical charts, to bringing your horses in in the morning and checking to make sure they're well, with no cuts or swelling. It all comes down to structure and accountability.”

As much as the program places an emphasis on the individual's well-being and progress in their journey to sobriety, it also helps them build comradery and a recovery network amongst their peers and the staff.

Joshua Franks | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm

“What I try to do in my barn is to gain momentum behind guys, find out what they're good at and team build around them, getting them pointed in the right direction. Getting them to work together, lean on each other, that's important. Sometimes throughout the day I might stop the barn, get them all together and rally them. I think momentum is key with recovery,” said Franks. “When they get out of treatment, most of them haven't seen the doctor, or maybe they have court stuff going on, so we try to get all of that taken care of in those 90 days. That way, when they gain full-time employment, they already have that foundation set.

“They come in here broken, they need to feel good about themselves, so I try to place them in good positions to help build themselves up.”

Franks, who is just days away from celebrating his one-year anniversary of sobriety on Dec. 24, admits that if he'd told his younger self that this is where he'd be at this point in his life, he would have never believed it. But when he looks back on the places he's been, a valley of lows and lower, Franks knows he has found renewed purpose and a true home in the presence of horses.

“I heard Will Walden say this and it's so true: the horse doesn't ask where I'm from or what I've done, they accept me as who I am. They are the heroes. They are the therapeutic value in this thing for guys like me,” he said. “What I've noticed is that most of your broken souls don't have any family support, just like myself when I came into this. My mother is deceased, my father is deceased, I never really had family growing up, that was nonexistent, so the horses became my friends. It was tough for me sitting here when they would have family days and I would have no one show or call, but the horses, they're the ones that were there for me.”

If you come out to Taylor Made and look around, you'll likely see someone working on the farm that is in recovery. But it's not until you've seen a man working with a horse, standing there with a glimmer of hope in his eye, that you understand the true impact of the program developed by Frank Taylor and Countzler.

A shining testament to that, Franks gives the utmost credit to the program, Taylor Made and the Thoroughbred industry as a whole for where he is today.

“Nobody could put this together but God. He takes our pain and he develops it into something magnificent,” he said. “I will say this. Though I loved her dearly, my mom and I weren't close and she didn't know how to express her love. But the only thing I knew about my mom was that her favorite animal was a horse. I'm not sure if that was passed on to me, but I do believe she looks over me every day on this farm.

“Everyone has been so supportive of Stable Recovery. This is a non-profit organization and to know that there are people around the world that care about us enough to help get us back on our feet and heading in the right direction, it's special. I'm very grateful.”

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It's not that Dawson is indecisive, it's more a matter of him reacting to what is a constantly changing situation.

“A few weeks before the sale we had made plans to ship him to Gulfstream Park to Bill Mott to prepare for racing,” Dawson said. “We decided to have him examined one more time at Rood and Riddle and have an ultrasound to play it safe. The previous ultrasound had been really good so we were confident. This ultrasound showed he had regressed in his healing of the suspensory ligament. We had almost replaced all the scar tissue and it seemed to be repaired. We canceled transportation the next morning to Florida.”

So they entered him in the Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age sale as a stallion prospect. But Dawson was able to read the room. With Rich Strike coming off dismal performances in the GI Clark S. and in the GII Alysheba, his value as a sire prospect had never been lower.

“Throughout the process and up until a couple days before the sale, the gut feeling I had so far as Rich Strike becoming a stallion at this point in his career was that I was not going to get what I was hoping for,” Dawson said.

So it was on to Plan C., try to get him back to the races after all.

Under the advice of Dr. Larry Bramlage, Rich Strike has been, since exiting the sale, undergoing stem cell treatments aimed at healing the problems he's been having all along with the suspensory ligaments in his two front legs.

“After the sale I was thinking 'what am I going to do now?'” Dawson said. “I started checking options. I started further researching other options. We visited with Dr. Bramlage at Rood and Riddle and we talked about stem cell treatment. We were so close to getting him back before. If stem cells could bring anything to the party it could really make a difference. He's not terribly injured. He just has this on-going nagging-type issue and so we thought if we could get him healed he could race again and do so at a high level and win. That would make his stallion value a lot better. It's not a matter of dollars to me. I just want to get him into a situation where he has access to really good mares and therefore get him to a level playing field to produce great offspring. If you're covering mediocre or less-than-mediocre mares your stallion career is going to be pretty short.”

So the hope is that they can get Rich Strike over his problems and then turn him over to one of the best in the business in Bill Mott.

Rich Strike | Coady

“Bill Mott believes that if we can get him back to 100%, he can return to a similar level as his Derby race, his Travers, the Lukas Classic, races where he did really well,” Dawson said. “Bill doesn't think there's anything that can prevent him from doing that and I tend to agree.

“With the stem cell treatments, I talked to one trainer and owner and they'll tell you they had little or no success with stem cell treatments. Then others tell you they had a lot of success. If I can't get him healed and back to a point where he can withstand training and racing and being safe doing so then I will retire him. As long as I feel like we're improving his health, taking our time and giving him every opportunity to heal I'm all in favor for it. We have no time clock.”

Rich Strike remains at Margaux Farm, where all he is doing is walking and is not yet back under tack. Dawson is aiming for him to join Mott in April and begin serious training. Of course, that plan could go up in smoke if the vets don't like what they see from future ultrasounds. Dawson understands this plan is no sure thing, but believes it's the best possible route to take.

“All this means is that we're going to have a year off and haven't gotten beaten up,” the owner said. “In his age group, every time I look I see that someone else has been retired. The older class just gets smaller and smaller. My hope is that when he turns five, he'll be back in great condition and he'll be in great position. He can be older, bigger and better. I feel like if we get him back well and he could win a race or two will that will not only further his resume as a race horse, but it's also going to increase his value as a stallion. The risk is worth taking.”

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Rich Strike last raced on May 5 when a distant fifth in the GII Alysheba S. at Churchill Downs. He was subsequently transferred from the barn of trainer Eric Reed to Hall of Famer Bill Mott.

“The bigger races we are pointing toward would include the Pegasus,” Dawson said. “That would be the first Grade I race we might go after, but he could race before that in a less-competitive race.”

Dawson said that shortly after the Alysheba, Rich Strike was sent to the Rood and Riddle clinic as a precautionary measure and it was then that it was discovered that he was suffering from problems with his tendons in both front legs.

“He's rehabbing from some issues he had with his front tendons, left front and right front,” Dawson said. “Both have recovered extremely well. Dr. Bramlage at Rood and Riddle did all the work. He's had ultrasounds, X-rays, etc. and he is doing really well. At times, his front suspensory tendons would get inflamed and get slightly damaged. They never tore but scar tissue built up in both legs. There was scar tissue where tendon fibers should have been. Through his treatment and exercise, certain feed, etc., that scar tissue started to reverse itself. It's been a long process but, basically, the tendons were able to get back to normal. We are very fortunate that he did not tear a tendon while training or running. I'm extremely happy that this was caught back in May.”

Rich Strike is currently under light training at Margaux Farm in Midway, Kentucky.

“He is jogging one day, galloping the next,” Dawson said. “We'll be there for another few weeks and at that point Bill Mott and I will discuss where we go from there. Due to his lengthy rehab and our choice to be very conservative and take our time with him so he could get back on track and so that we can give him every opportunity to come back at his best, we are looking at sometime in November for him to begin more serious training with Bill. Maybe we can catch a race in late December.”

It's been a rough go for Rich Strike since he won the 2022 Derby. He's gone 0-for-6 since and in his last two starts, the Alysheba and the GI Clark S., he was beaten a combined 25 lengths. But Dawson remains hopeful that Rich Strike can get back to the form that carried him to a shocking win in the Derby at odds of 80-1.

“We won't know more until we get him back in real training,” he said. “I'll trust Bill to inform me so far as where his skill level is. If he can return to that skill level he showed when winning the Derby, that would be fantastic. We'll see how he does and let him tell us what is next. If he can continue to run at a high level, we will continue to race him. If not, he'll retire and go to the breeding shed.”

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Rivelli added that Two Phil's showed no sign of injury until Sunday morning, when pressure was detected in his right front ankle.

“It probably puts him out for the rest of the year,” Rivelli said. “We're sick.”

Rivelli said stallion farms have shown interest in acquiring Two Phil's, and it's not out of the question that the colt won't run again.

“He doesn't owe us anything. In my experience, they aren't usually the same horse after something like this. We don't know the extent of it all yet. The amount of time off he'll need still is to be determined,” Rivelli said.

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“Racehorses are so good because they produce their skeleton based upon what they do,” Bramlage begins. “They're not born with it. Their skeleton is the minimum weight that they can produce and still carry them around the racetrack. So they have a big engine, but their undercarriage is no heavier than it needs to be. And that's why they're fast.”

That's true, in some evolutionary measure, of all horses–and other animals, too, people included.

“The skeleton is different than hearts and lungs and muscles,” Bramlage explains. “Those train to a volume of work that you're doing. Skeleton trains to the level of work that you do.”

He recalls a series of experiments conducted on turkeys some years ago, where one wing was restricted and the fowls learned to flap the other to get food. The idea was to establish how many cycles of this activity were required to stimulate bone.

“Well, it's interesting,” Bramlage says. “Because when you reach 36 cycles in a day, that's the maximum the bone will respond to. You can go to 2,000 and it won't get any stronger than in those 36. And that's what makes a trainer's job tough. Because they have to push the horses hard enough, that they get strong enough to carry themselves around the racetrack. But if you do too much, then those extra cycles begin to be destructive.”

Those 36 cycles, for our purposes, apparently equate to about a furlong. Which, Bramlage explains, means that your fastest eighth will be the level for which your horse produces bone. Obviously that doesn't happen overnight, albeit bone is far more dynamic than most laymen assume.

“But the stimulus is there that it'll try to reach that next level before the exercise does,” Bramlage explains. “And then you repeat that over and over, and eventually the skeleton gets appropriate enough that you don't acquire any damage during those 36 cycles. So while there's some always ongoing wear-and-tear, the most important part of making a racehorse is usually up to four or five races. Once they get there, their skeleton is virtually made.”

The living nature of bone, however, does mean that the “made” skeleton can regress once taken out of training. But Bramlage is keen to address a misapprehension, which took root maybe a decade ago, that persistently galloping a young horse creates the foundation for a strong skeleton.

“Galloping a horse a lot helps the heart and lungs–but once you go past those 36 cycles in a day, the rest of them are just wear-and-tear,” he explains. “A lot of horses were actually harmed by excess galloping.”

Previously there had also been the attempt to extrapolate the principles of interval training, in human athletes. “I knew a couple of people who, as runners themselves, were going to interval train and beat everybody,” he recalls. “And they ended up with 4-year-old maidens with splints on their hind legs. Because the skeleton just can't take that that many fast intervals. In people, the limiting system is the heart and lungs, not the skeleton. Horses have such great heart and lungs that, unless they're bleeders, they virtually never limit. The horse's heart and lungs can respond to anything you throw at them. But the skeleton has to do it in little stair steps. And that's how, in young horses especially, the heart and lungs often get ahead of the skeleton.”

Though the tibia also registers trouble here–it absorbs a lot of force, in locking the reciprocal motion of stifle and hock–the most familiar symptom is shin trouble.

“You go too fast, the wear-and-tear begins to exceed the response and you get bucked shins,” Bramlage continues. “Shins have to triple in size. The front cortex of a cannon bone in a 'made' racehorse is three times thicker than in the yearling that started training.”

So how does this translate, ideally, into building up a young horse towards a race? Bramlage suggests a pretty familiar scenario: one or two furlongs at a rather higher level than the rest of the exercise, in effect showing the skeleton where it's going to be asked to go in three days' time. The real skill, in training, is monitoring attitude.

“People ask, what makes a good trainer?” he says. “For me, it's an easy question. It's being able to understand when the horse is happy and when he's not. When horses are adapting well, they're happy to train. When a horse starts not wanting to go to the track in the morning, not wanting to load in the gate, those are the kind of things you need to look out for. It's a real art for trainers to understand when to push a horse and when to back off.”

Obviously you would hope that trial and error, over the generations, should have brought horsemen's intuitions pretty close to where they might land through learned science.

“If you go back to when Aiken, South Carolina, was the winter training center–because that's how far the railroad went south–they would have the Aiken trials and those 2-year-olds, early on, would be breezing an eighth,” Bramlage says. “Those short breezes were actually very useful to the horses. Especially when you're making the horse, it's a matter of trying to train heart and lungs–because you have to do that–without overtraining the skeleton.”

When a horse is past that stage, but has to be laid off training, the skeleton will not lose much strength through the first month but the situation will change pretty rapidly after two months. And a more significant spell, say four months, notoriously invites humeral or tibial stress fractures in a small number of horses: again, because heart and lungs train back so much faster than the skeleton.

Needless to say, by the time a horse is sent into the clinic, they have typically signaled a loss of form.

“If a horse has swelling in a knee or ankle, those guys at the racetrack pick it up,” Bramlage says. “These horses [sent into the clinic] don't have any obvious pain, heat or swelling, but their form has gone down. And a lot of times they have either bilateral lameness–two fronts or two hinds, sometimes all four–or they're just early wear-and-tear injuries. I think most of the really successful trainers today understand better than they did 10 years ago that the horse is subject to that wear-and-tear; and that whenever a horse is not giving you what it can, then you need to start looking.”

Parallel advances have been made in imaging technology. It is barely 30 years since radiographs were still processed on celluloid. Digital radiographs have themselves improved dramatically, and now scanning in three dimensions via CAT and MRI and ultimately PET is available.

“Nuclear imaging was a huge tool because those scans allowed us to look for stress fractures that didn't have any outward clinical signs,” Bramlage says. “But whenever regulators think in terms of needing a PET scan to monitor horses at the racetrack, that's not really true. You need to look at them and identify the horse that needs to be looked at, not scan them all. Most of those can be unraveled using all the tools we currently have. It's just a matter of knowing when you need to look. And so more than we need more equipment, we just need to look more often.”

The role of regulatory veterinarian is a contentious and evolving one. The process is being aided, however, by a growing injury database to succeed anecdotal assumption. Already Bramlage can see where this might take the profession.

“It may not hit during my lifetime, but I think the next really exciting revolution, which is going to totally change our care of racehorses, is digital timing,” he says. “It just makes sense that it will eventually move away from clockers and all be done passively, automatically, by the equipment. Well, when you have that data, it's not a real hard step to write an algorithm that identifies [problems that may be brewing].

“You could look at a horse's exercise fingerprint because stride length and stride cycle is pretty stable for individual horses. When the length begins to shorten, he's protecting something. And so each horse will have his own digital fingerprint, and this will be automatically recorded every time a horse works, every time they race. And all of a sudden you can say, 'This horse is getting into trouble.'”

Some early research has detected patterns that might anticipate injury as many as three races ahead. Bramlage can see a future where every horse will transmit data to central monitoring for red flags. For now, until the necessary technology is available, it falls to people like Bramlage to determine the level of risk that warrants its prohibitive cost.

“But I think that in the next generation beyond me, that will become automated,” he predicts. “And that will revolutionize the prevention of injuries. It'll be the best thing that ever happened.”

And that's one of the things that maintains such youthful enthusiasm in a septuagenarian who has already witnessed such transformation in the tools of his trade: the curve is only going to steepen.

Aside from digital radiography, the biggest leaps forward have been internal screws and plates; plus arthroscopy and its adaptation from diagnosis to treatment. For internal fixation, the initial debt was apparently to a Swiss cost-benefit analysis of chronic disagreement between tibias and ski-boots. Of arthroscopy, meanwhile, Bramlage muses: “Surgery never used to happen until there wasn't anything else you could do. Then with the arthroscope it became easier, quicker, better. And so now that is the first line of defense. The horse gets a chip fracture, they take it out right away. The joint doesn't degenerate, they go back to normal.”

Horsemen nowadays have gained faith that condylar fractures can be routinely secured. One of Bramlage's most celebrated patients, Personal Ensign, went a long way to changing perceptions. Nowadays you'll find many a Breeders' Cup winner with a screw lurking somewhere in its skeleton. It's a very different world from when Bramlage started out, and yet he feels we have barely started.

“Yeah, we were dipping X-rays in chemical solutions when I was a student,” he reflects. “But the young veterinarians right now will probably see the same explosion. Probably in the biologic areas: the understanding of cell biology, and cell communication, is doing the same ramp up. The ability to treat is going to be much more pointed and effective than now.”

Bramlage is acutely aware of our industry's exposure to an ever more urban society that professes ever fiercer vigilance on behalf of animals with which it typically has little interaction, certainly compared with generations past. In that respect, veterinary regulation manifestly has a front-line role. He's excited, then, that a digital fingerprint might give mute animals a new way of telling doctor what's wrong.

Even with the advent of such tools, however, Bramlage believes that the essential mystique of the Thoroughbred will endure. We might be able to explain how everything fits together, and learn how to put things back together, but the key to performance will remain elusive.

“And actually I hope we never do get to that point where we understand everything about a horse,” he admits. “Because I think that's what's intriguing to people. You can improve your odds by improving your breeding. You can keep the horse healthy, you can have a trainer that's capable to that level. You can do all those things, but you still can't just go buy a Derby winner.

“Every horse is a product of a dip out of the gene pool. It's not a one-to-one combination of the mare and the stallion. There are all sorts of units. Like you've got four genes that cause eye color in people. There are all those different combinations of things. So to combine whatever comes out of that gene pool with the mental capacity, to train hard enough and compete hard enough, you never know which horse is going to have it.”

He chuckles, and asks whether you ever heard of a racing mule named Black Ruby?

“Well, she was on the California fair circuit for about 10 years and there was only one other mule could occasionally beat her,” he explains. “But they cloned her several times, and none of them could beat me. They had the exact same genetic makeup, but none of them would run like that. So that elusive factor, I think, is what keeps people intrigued. And I hope we never identify that.”

Even his exceptionally intimate professional relationship with horses, ranging from Personal Ensign to claimers at Ellis Park, has only marginally clarified the enigma.

“I don't know that there's any one thing,” he says with a shrug. “Good horses are always physically attractive, well balanced. They're almost always smart, they're very intelligent, very adaptable.”

Does that make better horses better patients, too?

“Absolutely,” he replies. “But racehorses are the best patients anyway, in my opinion. The worst patient is the 4H horse that's never felt anything but a rub rag, because when they have to deal with pain, you never know how they're going to handle it. But racehorses are just like people who train hard: you're stiff and sore next day and then it goes away and you feel better than you did before you started. They have better survival instinct.”

And while recruitment to equine practice is becoming harder, given the reduced social exposure nowadays between young people and horses, Bramlage guarantees endless fascination to the next generation. The measure of your work, he says, is so much more gratifying than in small animal practice.

“I think equine practitioners tend to practice a lot longer because there's another level of assessment,” he says. “Your horses have to go back and run. They have to win barrel races. They have to win ribbons, if they're a backyard horse they have to trail-ride. There's a couple of books I read, discussing why do armies fight? It's mostly not for abstract ideals. They fight for the people next to them, the people they trained with, the things they know and the fear of failure. And I think this level of assessment, with the possibility that you'll fail, but the rewards when you succeed, it's higher in horses.”

And there are literally hundreds of horsemen in the Bluegrass who will be relieved to hear him say that. “I could easily be retired,” he says. “At some point, physically it's not going to be possible to continue. But I think that's why people stick around. I mean, when the success barometer is the dog being able to get up on the sofa? That's not quite as intriguing!”

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The sole is a keratinized structure similar to the wall, growing at the same rate as the horn and designed to resist wear with a primary function of protecting the bottom of the coffin bone. The sole's flexibility and thickness vary, often effected by environmental conditions (wet or dry), hoof morphology, pathology, and a host of other factors (breed, size, stabling, turnout, etc.), all which may affect its makeup. The sole's design is to flake away or exfoliate over time, however, flaking or exfoliation is again dependent upon a number of factors including those previously listed, all affecting its composition. Horses can have thick, thin, or false soles. The ability to identify the type of sole, and how much can be removed, requires experience.

To properly 'read' a foot for trimming, balancing, or shoeing, farriers with their hoof knife in hand remove varying amounts of sole and the practice differs within the industry. The amount of sole and from where it is pared is an often-argued conversation amongst farriers, old and new, in journals and trade publications. Everyone has a theory and everyone has an opinion.

Is there a point where sole paring goes too far?

Many years ago, in seemingly another lifetime, I had the good fortune to meet and apprentice for the late James Cahill of Lamberville, N.J. Cahill, a Vietnam veteran returned from his service, trained Thoroughbreds for his then-father-in-law in the New England area. Cahill recounted to me how he was fascinated by shoeing and somehow the need arose for him to learn how to shoe, most likely a need to tack a shoe [this story is sounding familiar to me, as I had a similar experience]. He would always laughingly describe how he remembered paying his plater to teach him and at some point, later while still in the midst of learning, recognized that he was still paying his plater to watch him while he shod his own horses. Cahill later transitioned from training to shoeing full time which segued to shoeing riding horses.

The horseman's style was to repeatedly pare the sole; his knife was always unbelievably sharp. I recall him pressing with his thumb, paring, and pressing again while sometimes going a little too far and finding what farriers refer to as 'bottom'–or even farther with the infrequent droplet of blood. Obviously, being a good apprentice and direction follower, I copied my teacher with his sole paring style. I later learned when I went on to work for legendary USET and Hall of Fame farrier Seamus Brady that this practice of sole paring was not going to fly with him. I recall on my first day when I started paring out the sole of the horse that I was working on, Brady apoplectic, bellowing in his Irish accent, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell are you doing? We don't do that in this world.” He later explained after I was stopped in my frenzied sole-removing tracks, that the horse needs as much protection as it can get and removing the sole was essentially removing protection, an argument supported by Dr. Scott Morrison, partner and founder of the Podiatry Center at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington.

Dr. Scott Morrison, DVM | Courtesy Rood & Riddle

I was grateful to catch a moment with Morrison in between his in-demand, reported seven-day-a-week schedule as he agreed to share his thoughts on this topic. As with all things sole (soul) related, the conversation pivoted and delved deeper into some issues the industry continues to face.

Having had some overlap with Morrison over the years, I recently worked closely with him on a new account that I was enlisted to take over and he was recruited by the owner to consult. Humble is an understatement describing Morrison. In an industry where ego and chest beating are the drivers, humility and a willingness to share knowledge is refreshing. Brady exhibited similar traits. Morrison's demeanor, approach, and professionalism is almost surprising considering his influence in the industry, following other veterinary podiatrists, who Morrison labels 'pioneers,' like Dr.'s Ric Redden and Steve O'Grady.

Ninety percent of Morrison's practice consists of the podiatric care of Thoroughbreds, from corrective work on foals, to racing athletes, to the geriatric horses found at breeding facilities. The complaints range from knee deviations in foals commonly known as carpus valgus or varus, to thin soles, chronic heel pain, negative palmar angles, and–normally found in geriatric breeding mares and stallions–chronic low-grade laminitis.

When asked specifically about the sole and the varying farrier practices in the amount of sole that is pared out, Morrison shared that he, as well as other members of Rood & Riddle's practice, “leave as much sole as they can.”

“It still is commonly done, perhaps a little too much,” Morrison added in reference to the common practice of paring significant amounts of sole at the track. I was always under the impression that what may be considered extreme paring was an effort to create a 'cup' for traction, or to achieve the 'shortest' foot possible to relieve sole pressure under the shoe. However, Morrison thinks there may be other simpler motivations at work.

“People [farriers] like seeing a nice, cleanly pared-out foot. It looks nice. However, carving out the sole propagates flares, thinner soles, and this compromises the foot. The sole holds the foot together and a natural arch exists, a natural cup. The arch is really strong, we see it in design and architecture. [Farriers] continually weaken that dome causing the soles to collapse by removing some thickness, which changes the contours of the foot, creates flares, and the common issue: flat feet, where the arch is lost at the back half of the foot. The sole and lack of it in the back half of the foot is a very common complaint.”

An example of Morrison's frog support | Courtesy Dr. Scott Morrison

Morrison underscored that much of his time is spent restoring that natural arch and trying 'fix' its collapse by “leaving in the bars” [in certain instances dependent upon the foot] and as much sole as possible. He shoes with as much support as necessary, always trying to “mimic the barefoot condition” with the use of heartbar shoe, pads, and frog support while recognizing the realities of the horse's tolerances relating to frog and sole pressure. He also stressed there is a right and wrong way to apply these interventions as “not all bar shoes are equal.” However, Morrison highlighting some of the issues may lie with trainers and their tendency to want to see a 'normal' shoe even when “heels are crushed and the frog is dropping out of the bottom.” Morrison labeled it at times as a “battle” to get frog support or in other instances when a farrier must “do what is needed for the horse.”

Asked if this resistance by some trainers to see a properly applied shoe with frog and/or heel support may be the result of a perceived negative effect on performance he said, “I don't think so. You can train him in a bar shoe, or heartbar, and pull it off for race day,” when opting for regular shoes.

While not entirely buying into the argument that breeding may perpetuate some of these foot issues in Thoroughbreds, he did not completely discount breeding's role, however, he admitted that he has witnessed things turn around in horses where the feet “became pretty good.”

Effectively, the greater issues that Morrison highlights are the realities of continuous training.

“There is no time off,” he said. “Pulling shoes is so important because feet need to be let down. The result, to some degree [the feet] will normalize.”

It's All About Sole…and Then Some…

So where is the industry going? Where should it go? Will things ever become standardized?

Morrison, who was likely driving to his next appointment while facing the barrage of questions that I lobbed at him like hand grenades, chuckled a few times at some of my more loaded questions. I knew the answers would be good.

“There are different camps of thought [relating to industry practices]. I don't really see things changing in the near future,” he admitted.

Firmly believing that the current reality perpetuates good farriers continuing to acquire top clients, Morrison explained that their good methods will most likely be passed along to future apprentices and helpers, as has always been the tradition.

“Some disciplines may trend to doing things more uniformly,” he said.

Morrison segued into some failures on the part of the Thoroughbred industry to promote continuing education for farriers at racetracks which he labels a “big need.” He highlighted farriers in other disciplines [riding horses] tending to actively read trade magazines and attend conferences, while “platers are less represented.”

He added, “It would be nice to see a big shoe company or big owner” sponsor and promote some continuing education programs for farriers at the racetracks.

I agree.

Jude Florio, who has served as a professional farrier for over 20 years, earned a graduate diploma from the University of London's Royal Veterinary College in Applied Equine Locomotor Research. He is among the current MSc Equine Science cohorts studying at the University of Edinburgh, Royal 'Dick' School of Veterinary Studies (June 2023).

The post It’s All about Sole appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The “Beyond the Call” Award is named in honor of its first recipient, the late Wayne O. “Sage” Kester, DVM, and recognizes a current or former AAEP member who has made significant and long-lasting contributions to equine veterinary medicine and the community. Dr. Bramlage received the award during the December 7 President's Luncheon at the AAEP's 67th Annual Convention in Nashville, Tenn.

A partner at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., Dr. Bramlage has advanced the diagnostics and treatment options for horses with orthopedic disease and injury through groundbreaking research and application into clinical practice. He has shared his extensive knowledge and expertise through numerous peer-reviewed publications, provision of continuing education for veterinary surgeons and other practitioners, and training and mentorship of countless students, interns and residents.

His four decades of distinguished service to the AAEP include a term as president in 2004; participation on 28 different councils, committees and task forces, including chair of the Educational Program Committee in the mid-1990s; and establishment of the popular Kester News Hour session at the annual convention. In 2014, the AAEP presented its Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Bramlage and fellow orthopedic surgeon Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith for their pivotal contributions over 23 years to the development and growth of the AAEP's award-winning “On Call” program that provides veterinary expertise in support of televised horseracing broadcasts.

Beyond the AAEP, Dr. Bramlage has been active in the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, serving as president in 2007 and on the board of regents and other committees. He also serves on the board of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and is a past chair of its Research Advisory Committee. Elected to membership in The Jockey Club in 2002, Dr. Bramlage currently serves as a steward of the organization and member of its Thoroughbred Safety Committee.

Among his many honors are the 1994 Jockey Club Medal for his contributions to Thoroughbred racing; the 1997 Tierklink Hochmoor Prize for his pioneering work concerning internal fixation of fractures; the British Equine Veterinary Association Special Award of Merit in 2000; AAEP Distinguished Life Member recognition in 2008; and the 2010 American College of Veterinary Surgeons Foundation Legends Award for his development of the fetlock arthrodesis procedure for horses.

A 1975 graduate of Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Bramlage served as an associate professor of equine surgery at The Ohio State University prior to joining Rood & Riddle in 1989. In addition to his considerable industry contributions, Dr. Bramlage is a strong advocate for the needs of neglected and abused children through his support of CASA of Lexington; and he has served on many committees within his church and helped establish its stewardship mission.

Read more here.

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Question: Why are broodmares so prone to colic, and what colic causes are most common for them?

Dr. Katy Dern, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital: According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1.4 percent of human delivery hospitalizations in the United States in the year 2014 developed what are characterized as severe maternal morbidities. This means that, even in closely supervised and intensively managed births, 1.4 in every 100 women developed potentially life-threatening complications. Parturition (birth) has potential consequences for the mother, and broodmares are no exception to this biologic reality.

Dr. Kathryn Dern

When we discuss colic (abdominal pain) in the broodmare, the cause of the pain can be broadly divided into two categories: pain originating from the gastrointestinal tract and pain originating from the reproductive tract.

Colic signs attributable to the gastrointestinal tract are a common phenomenon in the broodmare, and can be further subdivided into those conditions seen prior to foaling and those seen in the post-parturient time period (after foaling). Prior to foaling, causes of colic include mild discomfort due to expanding uterine size and fetal movements, as well as displacements or abnormal motility of the large colon, cecum, or small intestine. Mares exhibiting colic secondary to fetal movements or impingement of the gravid uterus on the gastrointestinal tract will usually not have dramatic changes in their vital parameters (heart rate, respiratory rate, mucous membrane color), and will respond to analgesics (pain management). If the mare's colic signs do not respond to pain management or increase in severity, she may have a gastrointestinal issue which can be life threatening to her and/or the foal. In either case, veterinary evaluation is important to differentiate between mild and more severe forms of colic, and to ensure that more aggressive medical and surgical interventions can be instituted if necessary.

Although our research has clearly shown that post-foaling broodmares are likely to develop large colon volvulus, we unfortunately have not yet determined exactly why they are prone to this disease. Common sense dictates that the presence of additional “room” in the abdomen post foaling must play a role, but this unfortunately does not account for the LCV cases we see in geldings, show horses, or preparturient [pregnant] mares.

Recent investigations into the role of intestinal microbiota in the development of colic suggest that significant changes in the fecal microbiota precede the development of colic. The changes in the bacterial population observed in the fecal samples of mares that developed colic are consistent with changes seen in both dysbiosis (imbalance in gastrointestinal bacteria) and inflammatory intestinal disease in other species, including humans. Further investigation into the role of intestinal microbiota in the development of large colon volvulus will hopefully allow us to not only fully characterize the disease process, but eventually identify at-risk mares and intervene prior to development of colonic displacement or volvulus.

Reproductive causes of colic are also common in the broodmare, and determining whether colic signs are gastrointestinal or reproductive in nature is one of the primary goals of the colic exam. In the pregnant mare, colic signs attributable to the reproductive tract can range from mild, medically manageable colics due to fetal shifting and increased fetal size, or abdominal discomfort can be a sign of more life threatening conditions such as uterine torsion or preparturient uterine artery hemorrhage. As with all signs of colic, evaluation by your veterinarian is indicated if your mare's colic signs do not resolve or increase in severity.  On the farm, your veterinarian may perform a physical, rectal, and/or ultrasonographic exam to determine if referral is indicated.

In the post foaling broodmare, causes of colic signs attributable to the reproductive tract include mild colic signs due to normal uterine contraction and involution, or more severe colic signs secondary to uterine artery rupture, uterine tears, invagination of a uterine horn or uterine prolapse. In the case of uterine artery rupture, the mare will often show signs of abdominal pain if the hemorrhage is limited to the broad ligament (soft tissue structure which suspends the uterus within the abdomen), as the hematoma dissects through the ligament itself. If she is bleeding freely into her abdomen however, she may not show signs of colic, rather exhibiting a high heart rate, anxiety, and increased respiratory rate consistent with blood loss. In these cases, a thorough physical exam, rectal palpation, abdominal ultrasonography, and abdominocentesis (analysis of a sample of the abdominal fluid) can be critical in determining whether or not the mare is actively hemorrhaging.

Lacerating or tearing the cervix during foaling is usually not painful and is commonly found later when the mare is spec'ed or when she is cultured. Manual examination of the cervix is required to definitively diagnose a cervical tear, which are usually repaired after the initial swelling from foaling has subsided (approximately three weeks after parturition).

It is important to note that just because a mare had an uneventful foaling does not mean that the foal didn't damage segments of the reproductive or gastrointestinal tract during parturition. In all cases of broodmare colic, evaluation by a veterinarian experienced in broodmare disorders and timely referral, if necessary, are critical to survival of both mare and foal.

Dr. Katy Dern is originally from Colorado and Montana. She attended Washington State University for her undergraduate work, and Colorado State University for her veterinary degree. Following graduation from CSU in 2012, she completed an internship at Peterson and Smith Equine Hospital in Ocala, followed by an internship at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital. After her internships, Dr. Dern completed a three-year surgical residency at The Ohio State University, while also earning a Master's of Science Degree. She became board certified in equine surgery in 2018 and has been the surgeon at Rood and Riddle's Saratoga hospital since 2017. 

The post Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: Why Are Broodmares So Prone To Colic? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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In its 36th year, the Rood & Riddle Client Education Seminar will continue with the question-and-answer format.

Questions submitted by clients and veterinarians before the seminar are assigned to one of the experts at Rood & Riddle to answer. This year's panel will include:

• A surgeon
• An internal medicine expert
• A reproduction specialist
• A breeding farm practitioner

This year we will also have Dr. Lutz Goehring, who is the Warren Wright, Sr. – Lucille Wright Markey Endowed Chair in Equine Infectious Diseases at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center. Goehring's background is in research, scholarly journals, refereed book chapters, advising, mentoring, and service. His research expertise has been on equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV1). He is a specialist in equine internal medicine and a member of the European College of Equine Internal medicine.

“Rood & Riddle is pleased to sponsor once again a continuing education program for our many interested clients and friends,” said Dr. Tom Riddle of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital. “The question-and-answer format has been extremely successful, so we are excited to continue with that this year.”

In addition to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital and Rood & Riddle Veterinary Pharmacy, this year's sponsors will include Boehringer Ingelheim, Hallway Feeds, Neogen, Platinum Performance, and Zoetis. There will also be tables for questions for the University of Kentucky Pasture Management program, the Kentucky Horse Council, and Blue Grass Farms Charities.

Refreshments will be served from 5 to 6 p.m. in the spacious lower atrium, followed by the question-and-answer session running from 6 to 8 p.m. RSVPs to the event (not required, but helpful) by Monday, October 11, 2021, at 3 p.m. to wfields@roodandriddle.com or via phone to (859) 280-3316. For more information, click here.

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Hubbell told The Horse that the sedatives in use today include xylazine, acepromazine, detomidine, romifidine, and butorphanol, which were developed between the 1970s and 1990s. Prior to the introduction of these drugs, physical restraints were often used in many medical procedures. 

Hubbell reported that the sedatives used today take effect within three to five minutes. Adult horses often remain standing, even when heavily sedated. 

With today's lessened reliance on physical restraints, the safety of the horse and the people surrounding him is heightened. 

Though anesthesia is the safest it's ever been, there are still risks associated with laying the horse down on its side. Horses that are older (over 17 to 20 years old), those that are large, and those that aren't used to being handled are at the greatest risk of anesthesia complications. Horses in the last two categories, especially, can be difficult to help stand after anesthesia. 

Hubbell said procedures that use short-term anesthesia, where the horse is recumbent for 20 to 30 minutes, do not present as many potential issues as procedures which require horses to be under anesthesia for more than 90 minutes. 

There are no breed-specific dosing protocols, but Hubbell has found that American Saddlebreds and draft horses often need smaller doses of detomidine or xylazine as compared to Appaloosas, Arabians and Mustangs. 

Hubbell has also found that the atmosphere in which he's performing the procedure will affect how much sedation is required. He noted that horses which have been handled regularly and that are taught to behave often require smaller doses of sedative.

Read more at The Horse. 

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