So anyone else conserned about getting to summit because of the weather?

One of my travel mates backed out.... making me a bit nervous.

I am about 2 1/2 hours straight west of Cincinnati. We have the possibility of getting up to an inch of ice and then snow on top of that tommorrow and weds. Last time I went to the summit we had a terrible snow storm it took 9 hrs to get there from my house.

Oh yeah I forgot, we have a sheet of ice on almost everything right now and it is worse to the north.

I guess that means your not going.
**** I talked to someone who is there and he says all is clear right now, and they are not expecting the storm till tomorrow afternoon.

Do you guys not salt the roads down there?

Alicia,

We're getting a mix of sleet and rain. Predictions are for a possible bit of ice by morning then turning to full rain throughout the day. Salt trucks have already been out all evening and will continue through the night.

Weather forecasts are a bit variable in the region but generally agree that it isn't going to be that big a deal.

If it should happen to get bad, we'll all meet at my place, ruin some otherwise perfectly good barstock and catch up on some of my wife's horses. She's been complaining that she can't get a farrier to show up around here.

I have to admit... lately she's been right!

Cheers,
Mark

thanks for the update Mark. i am enroute. will be there in five hours. check in early and have time for a nap before the disection. whoo hooo see ya soon.

There will be three of us heading over tomorrow from East Central Illinois. Normally its about a 4-4 1/2 hour run. No telling what it will be tomorrow. Travel safely everyone and we'll see you there.

Are you all Safe ???

Ray_Knightley wrote:
Weather cleared up for the most part on day one. A bit of rain but no serious weather concerns outside of being cold. The worst of the expected storm passed to the north of this area so, to my knowledge, anyone making the trip here seemed to get along fine.

Attendance may have been down a bit compared to the last couple years but it was still a good crowd and all seemed to enjoy from what I could gather.

The presentations this year were exceptionally good. Research and information offered by Simon Curtis, Dr. Donald Walsh, Dr. Amy Rucker and David Nicholls were particularly interesting. Chris Gregory's discussion of "Leverage versus Support" was also very good. All the speakers did a great job and had a lot to offer. It was time well invested by anyone who chose to attend.

Cheers,
Mark

Yup I am alive, missed the weather thankfully. The people who backed out on me texted me all week, and were kicking themselves pretty hard for not coming with me. lol

One texted me at least 50 times wanting a play by play. Knowledge is addictive.

Jeff Riley's class on cushings horses was fabulous especially the revelation of winter neuritis that presents as laminitis without the digital pulse due to damaged nerves reacting to the cold in previously foundered horses.

I worked on one the week before summit and couldn't figure it out so that was a nice mystery solved.

Loved it! Oh and kinda cool I bought my stud punch directly from Roy Bloom... well he walked it over to Stockoffs' for me hopefully some of his skill attached itself to the handle. ;D

Mark_Gough wrote:
Mark,
Can you summarize for us?

Jay Mickle wrote:
Jay, I could hardly do justice to Chris' presentation, whether in summary or full context, but I'll share a few highlights.

His intent was to get farriers thinking more about what that extra steel we get under the foot is really doing. He provided discussion examples of reducing pressure under areas of trauma, distributing weight over larger surface areas and generally tried to differentiate between those aspects of a shoe that provide direct support and those that create leverage.

Are we moving pressure away from trauma areas or working to distribute weight over a larger surface area? Are we creating needed support of weak structures or increasing force by creating leverage? Can we do one without the other? Bottom line, there's often a price to be paid anytime a fulcrum is involved.

He made a good point regarding extended heels, eggbars, patton bars, etc. While they will assist resolving/supporting short term soft tissue problems, the leverage inherent to these devices come at the cost of increased force on the structures that are in direct contact with the device. That eggbar may help a horse that needs the extra support higher in the limb, but after a reset we may also notice that the heels are paying the price for that support. Protocols that are supportive are also usually levers of force in other areas of the foot. Length of exposure to those lever forces is a consideration when employing these protocols.

Chris provided a lot of photo examples to demonstrate each point. He tied those points together in a well thought out presentation that left us with a lot to think about.

As a sidenote, he also announced that his new textbook on farriery will be released in March of this year. I believe this text will compete directly with Doug Butlers "Principles of Horseshoeing", providing us with additional insight and certainly acting as a good alternative for the student farrier. Chris shared that the new text would retail for $140 USD.

Cheers,
Mark

Hey Mark thanks for the synopsis. I had to leave before his lecture unfortunately and was really bummed.

The thing you mentioned about the hoof matter in direct contact with the extra force paying the price for the support higher up kind of echos... I think it was Mark Caldwell discussing the damage to the white line in the heel to the toe quarter when an extra wide branch is applied to one side.

The area with more surface area is taking more force so after a few resets will be stressed. He wasn't saying not to use them just that there were trade offs like most things in farriery.

I forget who was it that stated the wide web shoes caused a faster stop in deep footing so actually place more strain on the soft tissue??

So much still to process.

mybluedanube wrote:
Greater load percentage but less pressure per unit area of measure.

Chris had a great story that went along with those thoughts.

Apparently he asked another farrier about the use of wider-webbed or larger shoes and effect on load bearing. The farrier responded that the larger surface area "reduced weight".

Chris said, "If that were true, women on a weight watchers program would wear snow shoes every time they stepped on a scale!".

Cheers,
Mark