Titanium was one of the most impeccably turned out horses at the Wednesday jogs which stood out even more given his bright-white coat.

photo by Josh Walker at the USEA

How do they do it?! Buck Davidson’s top groom, Mackenize Booth, tells you how.

Do you ever wonder what the horses are like who put in these jaw-dropping dressage performances and near-acrobatic feats on the cross-country course? Are they sweet, grumpy, or shy?  Find out what Titanium is like around the barn…and Buck Davidson too!

In our last interview with Mackenzie she lets us in on some grooming secrets that have served her well. Find out what counts!

Thanks to Mackenzie for taking a break in her day to talk with all of us at Three Days Three Ways!

Sara Lieser of The Chronicle of the Horse joins me this week to preview the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event. Listen in.

Eventing Radio Episode 72 – Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event Preview:

• Show Hosts: Chris Stafford & Sara Lieser of The Chronicle of the Horse.
• Visit the Rolex Three Day Event website.
• Visit the Kentucky Horse Park website.
• Please visit our sponsors as they make this show possible:

_________________________________________

Listen Now, Download or Subscribe:

Kim Severson makes her debut appearance on the show to talk about Rolex preparations and the rest of her plans for the year. Max Corcoran is the co-host this week and previews some of the Rolex entries as well as offering advice on conditioning work. Listen in.

Eventing Radio Episode 70 – Kim Severson:

• Show Hosts: Chris Stafford & Max Corcoran
• Guest: Kim Severson
• News: Galway Downs, Temecula, CA results
• News: Event Rider Polly Stockton is Expecting a Baby in July.
• News: Allison Angrove Still in a Coma
• Please visit our sponsors as they make this show possible:

_________________________________________

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Q. Tell me a little bit about the work you do in eventing.

A. To develop nice events for people to compete at for all levels is my only goal. In 1995 I started assisting running a competition with my mom and Bert Wood who had helped a local hunt run a benefit competition in the late 70’s. They said, “Let’s run a horse show.” I was busy riding and doing my job, which was in finance. They started doing things and in our area we needed a level that wasn’t offered anymore. One of the organizers stopped running the version of the one star, which you had to do in order to do a two star. We started running it that week in October 1995. We developed that into a two-day event, which was a full phase: a one-star over two days. That would qualify you for a two star in the 1990’s.

photo courtesy of Robert Kellerhouse

Long story short that’s where we started and every year since then we’ve added every level that riders needed. We ran first a CCI one-star and two-star in November 1999. In 2000 we built Advanced. In 2001 we offered a CIC in the spring. In 2003 that CIC Advanced became the first World Cup qualifier in the Western US. In 2004 I started the Woodside Horse Trials and we ran our first event in May 2005 and we run three shows a year through Advanced. We run four shows a year down at Galway up through Advanced. From 2005-2007 we kept the same schedule and in 2008 we got rid of the World Cup qualifier but kept it a three-star. We added the three-day training competition and that was hugely successful. We took the team already coming for the CCI and had them run the classes for the training three-day. That’s become very popular in ’08 and ’09. We had about 50 riders.

In 2009 at Woodside I added the Preliminary Challenge class with $15,000 in cash and $15,000 in prizes. We had advanced but we ran the cash prize for the preliminary group for multiple reasons. It was an opportunity to let the adult amateurs and professionals ride against each other. It allowed the professionals to ride their young horses in restricted classes. We had about 1,000 people watching the evening show jumping. This year at Galway for November we’re hosting the first CCI three-star. It’s the first one in the Western United States. We’re doing it because our riders out here need it. And because my course designer is ready and we got a piece of property that’s suited for a CCI-length course. And we have fantastic sponsors that have stepped up. And all the rider support and we get unbelievable entry support.

We have one other huge reason that we’ve been able to keep our even successful: Trainers and riders have run a fundraiser for us. The trainers donate their time and use their professional services in clinic format. We had 150 people participating with Ian Stark as the headliner. That helps us make critical changes on cross-country and keep it fresh and interesting. You’re always trying to reinvent yourself every year. That’s been the last fifteen years of my life just chipping away.

Q. Where does your inspiration come from?

A. I like eventing. I always loved this sport even when I was a little kid. We used to spray the penalty zones around each jump. That was my job. It was always fun and the eventers were always down to earth and very normal people. I enjoyed the people and competition. I still ride and there’s something to be said for the kind of person who gets involved in the sport. It is a risk sport and it requires a certain amount of courage and skill to negotiate a cross-country course. It’s not so much about you against the person next to you. It’s about you and your horse against the element in front of you. It keeps you grounded. I just like it. It’s a great sport.

photo courtesy of Robert Kellerhouse

Q. Where are you taking the competitions?

A. It’s not any particular goal other than to continue to offer what the riders need and to keep doing a good job with that from beginner novice to the highest level. Our country deserves to have good events not just on the east coast. When I was younger I saw and stream of riders that were going to big extremes in order to be competitive. They were driving all over the place; it was ridiculous. I always thought if we had a steady group of successful events people could do it easier. We could develop our talent and keep them around. When I was competing back East in 1990 everyone said you had to go to England to be successful. Several people had training barns in Great Britain. Then when we were starting out events in the west the constant themes was, oh you gotta go to the East coast to be a good event rider. I bet you the sport is evolving more and more as we go on. That was 20 years ago and now we have Rolex doing a four-star and it’s fantastic, one of the best in the world. You’ve got this great event that gets people ready for World Games and the Olympics.

You’ve got a reason to keep the riders East and hopeful you’ll be able to keep them West. The biggest example is Gina Miles who took her horse start to finish out West and would travel for four stars, that’s it. She knocked out a silver medal in the process. It’s unbelievable: us having a silver medalist from California. And two years our Area 6 Young Rider won silver and gold. It’s been a lot of fun watching these guys do their thing. And our teams won. Amy Tryon went back to Burghley and did a fantastic job on her young horse. In 2009 she spent her whole spring in California instead of North Carolina and she did well so I was happy about that. Then we’ve got Derek Di Grazia doing courses at Woodside. It’s a tricky piece of property and he knows it like the back of his hand. We have Ian Stark at Galway who is fast becoming a very popular course designer in eventing. He’s doing his first CCI three-star at Bramham, in England. It’s their big CCI three-star in England. He was named course designer of the Year by USEA, which was a lot of fun. At the time he got named that he was only designing Galway. He takes his job, as does Derek, very seriously. Which is what makes them both such good course designers. We have a fantastic crew. We fly in guys from England and Canada. They’re all helping to make our events really good. And of course our scorers, our volunteers. We have an unbelievable group of volunteers and coordinators at Galway and Woodside. You get this gigantic team together and there’s nothing more cool to do than organize and event when you have that.

photo courtesy of Robert Kellerhouse

Q. How do you come up with these ideas? What’s your process?

A. People come to me with them. The Preliminary Challenge was Chris Shaw who wanted to sponsor a class with his riding apparel company. He owned a tack shop in Northern California and he wanted to sponsor a class and appeal to the masses. The calendar at Woodside, it’s worth running Advanced for sure but it’s not the best spot for the horses that will go back to Rolex or Bromont or Jersey Fresh because it’s in May and August. The August show is a fantastic event for it but it’s run concurrent to hunter jumper show that’s Penlow’s Circus Club Charity Horse Show. By process of elimination we placed it on Memorial Day weekend that was screaming for something special. We wanted to give them something to hang their hat on. Equine Insurance, Mushroom Matrix, CWD Saddlery, Sonoma Saddle Shop, and Custom Saddlery all sponsored. All these guys stepped forward and said we’ll help you do it. We never really had anything for adult amateurs. The reality is that preliminary is their Olympics. And it should be. Anyone who does prelim and does it well is a damn good horseman. That idea came from Chris like the idea for fundraiser clinic. $150,000 towards cross-country and that idea came from the trainers. They approached me and Bert, my course builder, and said, “How can we help?” Bringing Ian Stark in was Burt’s idea. Our clinic doubled in size.

These ideas evolved from having a bunch of people who are into the sport sitting around talking about it. My job is to try and implement it and not be scared. It’s always expensive to implement. Even the fundraiser, if it was a bust, would have cost me 7,000. I don’t want to do something once that is a waste of time. To be able to repeat it is the only way to go. If I can’t sustain it I won’t do it. There’s too many variables; the last thing you need is something that can’t repeat itself. We have land use issues and threats from the sport that happen so the number one thing you have to rely on is that it will work. We’ve been fortunate in making it happen.

Q. What do you think about when implementing your ideas?

A. I think about:

1) Will the riders receive it? Will you get an entry for it?

2) Can we run it without making the rest of the classes not as good? Will we make one class great and everything else suffer? That can never happen.

3) Can I pay for it? Can it support itself? That’s huge. There’s no doubt I’ve covered some big shortfalls from some shows that are still running. You can’t pretend that everything will pay for itself all the time. Some shows are money losers but you can’t just call it a day. You have to keep moving forward. If I feel like I can pay for it and the riders are motivated then we do it.

photo courtesy of Robert Kellerhouse

Q. Are there any successes that stick out in your mind in particular?

A. Even watching my wife’s own business flourish and watching her clients enjoy going to my shows. That’s gratifying. The shows that are successful. The staff and the volunteers. I like working with all of them honestly or I wouldn’t work with them. That’s the most rewarding thing. The consistent group of great people you run into in eventing. The one thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve been able to keep it going in a positive direction for so many years. That stands out in my mind. When you look back and how many ways I’ve been doing this. I had a normal job before I started doing events. 2004 was a big year. I got married. Woodside was coming down the road. Galway was going through a bankruptcy (the property not the competition). Do I keep doing the finance thing? But that’s boring. I may have made more money but it was not as fun. 2004 was a pivotal year for me. I’ve been fortunate to be able to go all in and have it work.

Q. What kind of people do you enjoy working with?

A. People that are into the sport. That’s the biggest thing. We work with all kinds of personalities, believe me. Everyone involved has a passion for the sport. That’s the number one thing. They could be someone who’s really mellow or stressed or whatever but as long as they have passion for the sport and they follow through on the things they say they’re going to do they usually work well with the group. Following through with the things they say they’re going to do is a huge one! That separates the people who like to talk about it and the ones who do it. There are a lot of doers in our group.

Q. Anything else?

A. I look forward to seeing riders come out to events and kick some butt at the World Equestrian Games in the US!

Robert Kellerhouse’s Galway Downs is coming right up this March 26-28^th. If you’re a West Coaster I bet you’re already going. If you’re not, you should! And if you’re not riding why not go and check it out first hand? This is a competition of the highest caliber and creativity. Hey, maybe you could even lend a hand and be part of that incredible volunteer group!

photo courtesy of Sean and Shannon Crocker

Left to Right: Shannon, Brodie, and Sean Crocker. A 3-Day Eventing Family!

Q. What don’t people think about when they think of your work? What would surprise people?

A. One thing that’s kind of interesting is it’s not always a good thing to have to teach the horse ground manners on top of shoeing the horse. That’s something horse owners could pay attention to. It’s hard enough to shoe the horse, let alone worrying about the ground manners not being so great. It makes our job more difficult. Think about what we’re doing to their feet and the skill and the accuracy that you need when you’re driving in a nail. Fortunately you do enough of those types of horses that you get really good at it. You gain experience from it. It’s another thing horse owners could probably help their farrier in.

Q. What’s the most challenging foot to shoe?

A. Traditionally your ex-racehorses, your thoroughbreds off-the-track, have the poorest quality of foot. It’s difficult for nailing shoes on the thinner wall since there’s more likelihood of quicking the horse. But nowadays you have technology for horses off-the-track and horses with poor quality hooves: you can put them in glue-ons. That buys enough time for the hoof wall thickness to come back. It’s significantly different than foxhunters or draft horses who have good quality hooves.

Q. What’s your take on horses?

A. I’ve been so involved with horses for so long-there’s nothing more humbling on the planet than horses.

photo courtesy of Sean and Shannon Crocker

Sean jumping Waylon in the heart of horse country: Middleburg, VA

Q. What’s it like to be so closely involved with the upper-level eventing?

A. It’s nice to shoe for upper level event riders. I get to live vicariously through them. I can really appreciate and understand their triumph and heart breaks more than most farriers. There are parts of it I miss. I miss the competing part. I don’t miss the 7-day week /24-hour day part of it. I’m still such a fan. Going to 3-Days at some of these major competitions is really exhilarating. We try to make it rewarding too. When you’re at these major three-day events and you see the support that’s being given to riders and horses by vets and farriers at all hours it’s nice to see it come to a good result at the end of it. You feel like you’re part of the team.

Thanks for reading Three Days Thee Ways! Friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter too. Please do leave thoughts, questions, or comments below for me, your fellow readers, or for Sean. Thanks!

Q. What’s it really like behind the scenes at an event?

A. It varies from event to event but, I’ll take Rolex as an example. This will be my fourth or fifth year. Every year it gets better and better because you start to know everyone. You see Buck Davidson and Karen O’Connor and they say hi and know who you are. Not to sound star struck but it’s nice to go as a part of the sport that they are the top of. You’re helping progress the sport that they are reining over-so to speak. That’s one of the exciting parts of being behind the scenes at an event.

photo courtesy of Josh Walker

Then you interview people like Buck who’s been winning nonstop. You start to build a repore. It’s nice to have a conversation that turns into an interview and you get to share that with people. I was in Ocala filming for the Young Event Horse stuff and Karen O’Connor was there; she’s a legend, but she’s so nice. I was watching the dressage and she just walked up and sat down next to me and started talking. It’s cool. There are so few sports in the world where that would happen. It’s a very unique community. As far as the atmosphere for Rolex: exciting. For AEC [American Eventing Championships] I would say: so busy. You’re going in twenty different directions at one time. So many horses and riders and things that need to be done. Being a part of the staff you’re a part of everything. You’re not just taking pictures. If you need to unpack or organize merchandize you do it. Everyone is a master of many trades and you do what needs to be done and have your specialty that you’re really good at.

photo courtesy of Josh Walker

Q. What are you thinking about when you take pictures?

A. Gosh, it all kind of comes second nature now. I guess mood. It’s really one of the biggest things I try to focus on: to capture the mood. Taking into consideration the lighting, what’s the background, the angle it will capture. There are good angles but there are angles that are unflattering to a horse and rider. I like it when they’re looking in my direction. When they’re looking away I feel like viewers will lose the connection. It has a whole different dimension when you can see their eyes and the emotion and the horse really doing it’s job. When you find your angle you have to look at the sky and make sure you’re not shooting directly into a low sun. Sometimes it works but mostly you get a muddy backlit photograph. Usually it’s not as appealing as side light. I really like sidelight because it reveals texture-you can see all the muscles and veins in the horse. If it’s behind my back it’s flatly lit; I like to give it a little more dimension.

photo courtesy of Josh Walker

Once I’ve got my angle and light I have to look at the background and make sure it’s mostly neutral and not distracting. Second, that it’s far enough away to get that separation and keep horse and rider nice and sharp but the background blurred out to give it that nice soft quality that is unique to a photograph. After that it’s having the horse come through and getting the timing right. That just comes with practice. Another thing is how many jumps can you get, you know? It’s really hard to get more than one jump with trees. Or if it’s winding you can get only one or two fences. Where at Rolex you can get six or seven efforts in one short distance and you have a variety of pictures. One of the main differences between the way I shoot and a photographer that’s selling to the riders is that I try to get as many different angles and as many different jumps on the course since I’m trying to give an overall feel of the whole venue. It’s second nature after a while and the main thing is finding a rhythm. When I’m out there the first few horses I’m still trying to find a rhythm and where I’m supposed to be and capture this horse coming through. Once I’m in a good spot—it’s kind of like listening to a good album. When the horses come through you’re listening to the song. The horse goes by and it’s the break before the next song. Okay now here it comes again. That rhythm goes through wherever I am. You have to find that complex’s rhythm and stick with it.

photo courtesy of Josh Walker

Q. What photographers do you look up to?

A. Richard Avedon was my biggest influence. He did a lot of portraits of regular people on a stark white background. I did a project to mimic that. I had people hold their dogs up in front of a white background. There’s nothing to focus on so you really start looking at the subject. In the horse world I worked with Shannon Brinkman all last year in 2008. As far as capturing the mood and the beauty and the power and everything that makes eventing what it is-she was the person that revealed how to do that. She’s been doing that for 25 years and is one of the best in my opinion. Amy Dragoo, also. I love her work. She’s up in the Pennsylvania area. Also Amy McCool—on the West Coast and very artistic the way she captures it. Charlie Mann does different horse sports and sports in general.

from ‘Dogs and Their People’ series. That’s love.

photo courtesy of Josh Walker

Q. Where do you want this to go?

A. This is where I want to be. I watch football on tv and other mainstream sports and I always admire the guys on the sideline but at the same time, I feel like there aren’t any other sports that are as unique or have that special mood and feel that eventing and horse sports do. There’s no other sport like it. I feel like it’s a pretty special niche to be in. I like where I am now. The only other sport I would go back to would be surfing. But it’s so hard to get into that. I’m lucky to get into this industry the way I did. I’ll stick around for a while.

I love the Brady Bunch look!

photo courtesy of Josh Walker

Q. What about when you’re not behind a camera?

I sit around and putter with my guitar and piano and record stuff on my computer. As far as type of music I like-lots. I tend to listen to things that you don’t often hear on the radio. I like to scan internet radio to hear independent artists, alternative rock, and movie soundtracks—scores. Those inspire me, I like that they’re so powerful. If you think about it if you watch a movie without the music it’s not as powerful without the music. If you took the music out it wouldn’t work. When you put the music behind it, it works. Long story short, I like the emotion in the music. I’ll seek out some of my favorite Hollywood composers—Hans Zimmer, James Horner, John Newton Howard.

Q. Anything else?

A. Literally and figuratively I wouldn’t be here without Emily. I got into the horse world with hard work. But she has been the number one inspiration to me in advancing so quickly as I feel I have.

Q. Where do you live?

A. Well, I just recently moved to Kearneysville, West Virginia on the border of West Virginia and Northern Virginia. It’s nice; it’s about ten minutes away from where Sharon White lives and we have four acres and four ponies on those four acres. It’s a little farmette and the previous owners had it ready made for us. It was turn key, we’re just doing one thing at a time to make improvements: footing in the ring, extend the pastures. I’ve moved around a lot in the past few years and I’ve finally found a place I want to be for an extended amount of time.

Q. Are you in a relationship?

A. Emily Daily is my fiancé. I met her at the Chronicle of the Horse, I worked there about two years. In the Fall of 2006 she was the intern there. We worked together, she was on my editorial staff, we hung out outside of work as well and started to get to know each and we just kind of clicked. Horses are always something I’ve wanted to do and it’s something she’s always done her whole life. What she knows is such an attraction to me. She’s also very creative and is a great writer with a great sense of humor. It all came together and one thing led to another and we decided, hey, let’s do this for the long haul. There’s very few people that I can spend 24/7 with and not get sick of. We live together, work together, ride together. And I have yet to want to strangle her or anything.

Above: Remember how I said I fell in love with several images? This was one of them. It makes me want to gallop across a wide-open field and hear nothing but wind and my horse’s breath. Copyright Josh Walker.

Q. Who are your pets?

A. We have two dogs. A Jack Russel and a Corgi. The jack is called Samson and the Corgi is Bailey. They’re interesting. Samson is a very focused dog, let’s just put it that way. If you have a ball or stick, nothing else matters. You can hold it in your hand and he’ll stare at it until you throw it. He’s a ball of energy. Bailey, you could say the same thing about him but with food. True story: he has eaten an entire leather belt. His main goal in life is to eat more. He spends most of his day lounging around until it’s time to eat again. But they’re good boys. They have been my photo subject a number of times. We have a cat, an ancient cat. Emily had her years ago before I even knew her. Her name is Wookie and she’s is a Himalayan without teeth or claws and she’s senile. But we love her anyway.

Above: Samson and his unyielding focus. Copyright Josh Walker.

Q. When did you start taking photographs?

A. To be honest I didn’t really pick up a camera until late in high school. I’ve always been into visuals and arts. I’d flip through a magazine to look at the advertisements. I always wanted to communicate visually. I grew up in Carlsbad, San Diego and at the end of high school I grabbed my parent’s camera. My friends were like let’s go surf so I took the camera and after surfing I started taking pictures and thought how cool it was to freeze that moment in time forever. It hit me then.

Above: A classic surfing shot. Copyright Josh Walker

After high school I knew I wanted to do something with visuals and photography. In college I found a neat program for photography and graphic design at California State University, San Marcos. So while I was there I met a lot of people who rode. Hunter Jumpers and eventers and I started becoming a part of that crowd. I hadn’t ridden up until this point. Every time I’d go out to ride I’d bring my camera and take pictures and go to shows and take pictures. When I did that I got the same feeling I got when I took pictures surfing—freezing time. I spent a year in Australia studying abroad. That’s where I studied photojournalism and how the whole industry works. I came back to California after that and had one more semester and graduated and found an internship at the Chronicle which is a funny story in itself since I had only been riding two or three years. Getting in there-some of the editors are A pony clubbers and had been on horses their whole lives-I don’t know how I made it through the interview process. I promised I would learn as fast as I could. I sent them pictures and a writing sample and they said we’ll give you a shot.

Q. Where all do you travel for work? What is your schedule like?

A. Last year I went to 15 or 16 different events which is a fair amount. That’s about two events a month and that ranges from local things in Area II all the way out to California and Galway Downs. It’s busy. It’s crazy. But it’s fun. I definitely enjoy it. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it. I do cherish my home time and my solitude but when I go out there I remember why I do it. It’s such a unique sport and capturing the unique feel, the power, the beauty is something I’ve always loved to do and now having an outlet to share that makes it all worthwhile.

Above: Of my initial favorites this was the very first. Love at first Connemara. I think it almost looks like an oil painting. Copyright Josh Walker.

Q. What’s your schedule like when you’re at a competition?

A. I’ll give you an example. The AEC [American Eventing Championships] is probably one of the busiest events that we do. A typical morning will start by getting out of bed at 5:30 or 6:00am and get enough coffee in us. I’ll hit the ring or the field at the first horse and pretty much be out there until the last horse goes. That’s half the day. Then I’ll go back to the hotel or stick around for the competitor’s party and take more pictures there. Talk to people, get quotes, take everything back to the hotel and plug in the computer and order room service or pizza. Then I’m up until 2:00am editing video and putting it on the website and doing interviews. You finally get to bed at 3:00am and get up at 5:30am to do it all over again. It’s an intense weekend. One thing that keeps me doing it is being out there and doing those interviews and capturing these pictures of people who are so happy to be there and loving their horses. It makes it all worth it to me. Not all events are like that. At some smaller events you get out there at 8am and last horse at 3pm you go back to the hotel get the pictures processed and done with work at 6:00 or 7:00pm and you get a regular bedtime. I appreciate those too!

Copyright Josh Walker

I invite you to browse Josh Walker’s photography and get lost like I did. Or check back here for part II of Josh Walker and some more of his unique work.

Above: Sean Crocker rocks it at Blenheim.

Note: This picture hangs in the Crocker’s kitchen. How many people can claim a family picture like that?!

Photo courtesy of Sean.

Q. Where did you grow up?

A. Massachusetts. We moved to the Cape when I was seven. My parents built a house on the Cape and my Dad was into horses. He was on mounted police. We had an eight-stall barn and four acres. A lot of land for Cape Cod. The lady across street had horses and I would sneak off across the street to ride them. I was nagging her everyday. I started in show hunters and with summer camps then started going to unrecognized events and got totally hooked after doing cross-country. When you did jumping you got judged for clearing jump, not how pretty you looked. In show hunters if your horse touched a rail you got penalty; you have to look really pretty and have good equitation, which I never really had. My first major three-day event trainer was Mike Plumb; he was in Dover, MA. Then after that I worked with Jimmy Wofford and that’s when I moved here. From Jimmy’s I went to Southern California and worked for a wonderful family out there. They had a farm in the middle of suburban Los Angeles. The father was a landscape designer and architect. They got a lot of horses off the track and were into racing for some time. They were a big influence on my life as far as getting me exposure in eventing and experience riding and training a lot of young, green horses; or trying to train them!

I got to a certain age and I thought it’s hard to make a decent level trying to be an upper level event rider. At that time I was living in Pennsylvania, which is probably the most competitive event trainer area. Phillip Dutton and Bruce Davidson are both there. A great vet friend of mine put me in touch with a guy (who’s actually Phillip’s farrier) to apprentice with him. I did that for three years and then moved down here. I met Shannon before I started my apprenticeship in the winter of ’03. She was wintering in Florida with the O’Connors, which I think she had done two or three times. I apprenticed in Pennsylvania with a guy named Dave Kumpf. It’s very similar to this area with lots of sport and performance horses. A lot of really good farriers. too. There’s a world reknowned farrier school at the University of Pennsylvania at the New Bolton Center that started in the mid to late 60’s or early 70’s. A lot of really good farriers came out of that program and Dave was one of them.

I apprenticed with Dave up in Pennsylvania and when I moved here I apprenticed with two local farriers. The more you work with the more you learn. It’s kind of like riding and being a competitor: The more people you clinic with the better rider you’ll become. There are plenty of ways to skin a cat, so to speak.

Q. What do you learn when you apprentice?

A. It depends on what farrier you apprentice with. I was fortunate enough to apprentice with mostly event horse farriers. It gave me knowledge on how they should be shod. There is definitely a difference between disciplines on how you shoe them. You have to fit eventers that are constantly going over all kinds of terrain differently than, say, a dressage horse, who will be ridden in a dressage ring. With event horses you want to keep the toes a little shorter, keep the break-over further back since they’re traveling at higher rates of speed. At the same time leaving plenty of heel support because of going through mud and sometimes rocky terrain. It varies so much. You can actually get away with shoeing a horse of a professional a little differently than the horse of someone with a little less experience. You know, the professional is riding the horse always in balance and well put together. Being in balance allows you to fit the horses a little bit fuller, which means putting them in a little bit bigger shoe. You’re always striving to get the feet bigger and want to allow for expansion of the hoof capsule, which helps them with soundness and movement.

Q. What’s a journeyman?

A. Journeymen is a certification program through the American Farrier’s Association (AFA). It’s an examination with a pretty detailed written and forging part where you have to make certain types of shoes and traction devices. It’s not an easy examination. I’d like to do it at some point. They have also a plain certification where you shoe a horse up front or behind and they judge you on trimming foot, the balance of the foot, shoe shape, shoe fit, and you have to do it within certain amount of time. Journeymen have to shoe a horse all the way around and make all four shoes from straight steel. The shaping is actually really good practice and experience because you’re not surprised very often because there’s thousands of different shaped feet and sizes.

Q. What do clients need to know?

A. What sticks out, and it’s one of the simplest things on the planet and I was brought up with, is I’m amazed at how many people don’t pick out their horses feet. It does help tremendously. All that mud gets caked up in their foot; it can dry out the hoof capsules. It’s such a simple thing that people seem to have forgotten. Pick out their feet when they come in from field. I always joke around: The horse’s feet get picked out once a month– when I come!

The Crocker Family from left to right: Shannon, Brodie, Sean

Also, a lot of people tend to bathe excessively. I know it’s hard not to do especially not in Northern Virginia in the summertime. One of most important things for feet is controlling moisture–as far as having too much moisture in the feet in the summertime. Combine the hard ground with humidity and their feet will practically disintegrate, and that makes it hard for shoes to stay on. Also making sure that there’s enough moisture in their feet in

the wintertime when everything gets so dry. I remind people that it’s like taking care of your hands-moisturize in the winter. I tell people to use Cornucrescine. It’s like a paste that you rub or brush on at the coronary band. That seems to help keeping their feet moist in the wintertime. In the summer I discourage people from doing that. When their feet get really soft it’s the difference between driving a nail into an oak board versus corkboard, or balsa wood. That’s pretty difficult to deal with as a farrier. It goes back to the shoeing and making sure the fit is pretty precise. When their feet are that moist if they’re going to pull a shoe off they’ll take ton of foot with it. I think this is by far the hardest area to shoe horses mostly because of the climate. Virginia is unique. There’s even a huge difference between Virginia and Pennsylvania. There the soil is more loam-based: a sandier soil. The feet will hold up better in an area only three hours north. Red clay becomes pretty much concrete.

How much do clients need to know? What resources are useful?

The American Farrier’s Journal is a pretty good resource. It’s hard, you want them to be educated but you don’t want them to recite articles off the internet about what needs to be done with their horses feet. There’s a time when they need to know what’s going on but then step back and realize that you’re the professional and need to do your job. To allow me to do what I need to do to help the horse.

I’d love to know your thoughts, ideas, whims, and whimsies so feel free to comment below. Also, this interview first appeared in The Chronicle of the Horse so check them out too!

Welcome back to Dr. Schramme’s interview for Three Days Three Ways. Read on for vet issues at the 2008 Olympics, those specific to eventers, and how event horses are so special.

Q. What kinds of issues did you see while there?

A. The first issue was about climatological conditions. The heat and humidity. There was enormous attention paid to making sure horses were hydrated and cooled. Every stable had air conditioning and misting fans attached to cooling tanks. That was the first big issue. On the whole we were lucky with the weather. For instance, with cross-country, there was a light drizzle. The sun never really came through very harshly and it rained slightly throughout. So it was the perfect climate for horses. Even for the finals of showjumping there was a typhoon announced. Since it was windy it cooled a bit and the typhoon didn’t come till then next morning. But that was a bit of chaos since the airport closed–but for the horses it cooled things a bit for the evening of the showjumping final.

The other thing you come across with competition horses, from my point of view, is mainly tendon and ligament concerns. We did more ultrasound examinations than radiographs. Horses would come up inexplicably lame the day before the competition and that kind of stuff. Tendon and ligaments are the main issue at that level.

Another problem if you travel these long distances is called “shipping fever”. It’s basically pneumonia. We want to make sure they don’t contract something like that.

Then there was the odd sick horse or horses not doing quite right.

Q. What was the most serious injury that you dealt with?

A. One of the eventing horses finished a course but had fracture a proximal phalanx. So that horse had to be transported back to the clinic with a splint. I think it had four screws put in then it was recovered in a cast and went home to Sweden.

Q. Was the smog a problem or concern or was it just a story?

A. No, not nearly as bad as in Beijing.

Q. Did you have a good time?

A. Absolutely, fantastic. I made some good friends from the vet team. I met some people from different countries that you usually don’t meet. There’s a lot of bonding that goes on. We were working towards a common goal and all the eating and sleeping is all pretty much done together. It was a good experience.

Q. What did you and the other vets do when you weren’t working?

A. I left this out conveniently! There were provisions for some time off. So we’d go shopping in Hong Kong. What else do you do in Hong Kong? We went shopping. You explore, go visit things. My family was out there too so we visited some sights and saw some places. We didn’t quite go to Disney Land with the kids but we saw some other things.

Q. Are there specific veterinary issues that you find specific to eventers?

Ligaments, tendons and heat stress since those [eventers] are the ones that go the hardest. Showjumpers and dressage horses don’t perform at the maximum level of exertion. But eventers have to be concerned about heat stress and that’s where climate comes in again. And since they go at top speed they get more tendon and ligament issues.

Q. What can eventers do to keep their horses sound and healthy?

A. One of the things these teams do is that they have very regular vet check ups. There’s no way of predicting when a horse will injure itself. But one of the advantages to this close monitoring is early intervention. That’s often the key. Not just from a fitness point of view but also from an injury point of view.

One thing I noticed it’s a different type [of horse]– a different group of horses. These horses are better able to deal with chronic, low-grade, niggling injuries. You wonder why these horses aren’t more lame with the injury? Whether it’s a mental ability to discard pain or a love for the job. But you kind of have to throw out the rulebook in assessing injuries and whether a horse can perform with that injury. You think the average day-to-day patients will need two months off. But a lot of these [event] horses will keep going–and keep going well. The term the riders use is that the horses have a big heart. There’s a huge mental part of it. It’s not just physical. It’s how do they deal with an injury or niggling pain that would put another horse out of action. It’s not just a question of keeping a champion healthy. It’s how big is the horse’s heart as far as wanting to perform and enjoying the job? That’s a big difference from every-day vet practice that you have to get used to.

Even though sometimes have to protect horses against themselves you can’t just always stay on the safe side of the fence and say there’s a risk that this may effect the horses performance when the horse is able to continue to. Also, there are things the riders know better than you do as a specialist. You can’t just come in and make decisions. To be honest, the rider and the vet know more about the horse and how best to deal with it. So you give advice and you try and help them with things like should the horse continue or does it need to go for long-term rest? You can’t just make those decisions on a strictly textbook basis.

Q. Is there anything else you want to add?

A. One thing that was really outstanding was the organization provided by The Hong Kong Jockey Club. Their logistics team was outstanding. Nothing was left to chance. There was a contingency plan for everything from bad weather to terrorism. Sometimes it was hard on us have to be there so early! It was remarkable and very well prepared. I’m sure Olympic horses have never had this kind of care and attention that they received there. Everything was purpose built. Everything was brand new. It was a privilege to be a part of it.

Q. What made you want to become a vet?

A. So many things involved. The main thing was a love for animals and nature in general. We always had animals at home in Belgium. I preferred the animal side to the human side. Something incredibly popular when I was teenager were the books by James Harriot, All Creatures Great and Small. My generation was influenced by those books and the wonderful BBC series. It certainly provided a strong background to persevere with one’s choice if one was so inclined. The other thing was how did you end up working with horses and that in itself was almost process of elimination. Once you get into vet school, in my time, it becomes clear that my female colleagues aspired to the small animal side and my male colleagues were more inclined towards the large animal side. I was always interested in surgery and though surgery for cattle is well developed, economically it’s less and less viable and

realistic. Surgery in horses is much more advanced and sophisticated. So you kind of drift into horses if you’re interested in surgery. Small animal surgery is a lot more sophisticated and advanced but horses are defining species for large animal procedures.

Q. Why did you decide to specialize in Equine Orthopedics?

A. That probably had to do with mentorship. My mentor was one of the pioneers of equine radiology at vet school in Europe. It’s something I hold dear. I was doing a lot of colic surgery and soft tissue surgery. As you move through your career it’s about finding a niche without even looking for it. When you work with competition horses the problem you will find is lameness. Inevitably you’re spending your time doing that and you want to get better at it.

Q. How did it come about that you went to Hong Kong in 2008?

A. When I was a resident at the Royal Veterinarian College in London a friend of mine was doing his PhD in fractures, etc. He became the Veterinary Services Manager for the Hong Kong Jockey Club. That was Dr. Riggs. [Before the Olympics ] it became clear it would not be practical to bring horses into China. Until Hong Kong stepped up they almost gave up on the Equine Olympics. Then Hong Kong stepped up with ability to deal with importing and quarantine and deal with infectious diseases. They held the Equine Olympics there because of the association with international racing for hundreds of years. The Hong Kong Jockey Club used to be British. Because of the British tradition in racing they are well equipped to deal with imports and exports of high performance horses. Dr. Riggs was approached to be the Veterinary Service Manager for the Olympics. He put together a team of international experts to provide on-site vet care. So that team was not associated with any national teams but with the FEI Team of Treating Veterinarians. Australia, USA, UK, Germany, China were all involved. There were about fifteen of us. I was invited as one of those fifteen. Three were board certified surgeons, of which I was one as well. There were also three board certified internal medicine specialists. There was also a whole team of vets dealing with doping control, quarantine and those kinds of things. They were separate from us.

Hong Kong Billboard for the Olympics

photo by Bibash Chaudhuri

Q. How long were you there?

A. For somewhere between 5 and 6 weeks. We had to be there before the first horse arrived by air convoy. And because we had to be there when the horses arrived and accompany them by convoy to the venue. We stayed until the last horse went home. With the exception of a few horses from Australia that had additional quarantine regulations.

Q. Where did you live while you were there?

A. We lived in an FEI hotel by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sha Tin Race Course. They had built the venue there for dressage and show jumping and there were two hotels close by for competitors and stewards. There was another venue at Beas River Country Club for cross-country. All the event horses had to travel there in convoy and back. There were complicated logistics involved with that. All the horses had to be there at the same time and then come back after cross-country. The convoy consisted of, if I remember correctly, 12 transport vans, which was enough to take 2/3 of the horses. So it had to go twice to take them out there and bring them back.

Q. What did your days look like while you were there?

A. They had a pretty organized system. Dr. Riggs was the Service Manager and had a roster together for us. At any given time there were four different slots to fill. So there was one team of two for flight duty. They would travel to the airport and back with the horses. One vet was on emergency clinical cover 24 hours around the clock. Then there was the routine clinic cover and the clinic reception and office as well as being available for specific team veterinarians. Then there was the surgery and medical cover from 7am to 8pm. There were two surgery vets and two internal vets. So there were five slots to fill with one or two people in each. There was a rotation drawn up between those different things.

In addition to that, whenever competition necessitated, we had two vets ringside and one vet with the ambulance. During cross-country we all went to the venue. We arrived at 4am and manned all the stations and made sure radio contact was provided. There were different stations out on course, in the stables, the ten-minute box and the finish lines. You know how it goes. We stayed out there and the first half came back with the first convoy and the second came back with second convoy.

Q. What kinds of issues did you see while there?

Find out what kinds of veterinary issues Dr. Schramme saw while at the 2008 Olympics in the next post……