Honestly, take the advice given here. At this point you are more hindrance than help when it comes to cleaning up the sport.
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The horse is still showing somewhat successfully so I doubt it was physical.
Lasix can dilute the urine which makes the concentrations of drug metabolites go down or disappear. Thus, it affects the testing outcome. You take blood as a verification at that point. But testing costs go way up. It is not a simple CSI Miami TV show method. There are specific sample prep protocols for mass spec based on different tissues (urine, blood, muscle, bone, etc.) and each has a significant effect on the measurement of what is there.
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With this - another idea is to have any competitor/owner, juniors, parents, amateurs, etc have to do a mandatory online educational bit on acceptable vs unacceptable practices with their USEF or USHJA registration. If the horse show world is serious about stomping out abuse, they need these eyes to be educated. Juniors, their parents, and amateurs, have the power of the purse and are usually well intentioned but often totally oblivious or purposely left under-educated. If we can add universal and mandatory education it will increase eyes and ears on the ground and hold bad actors accountable to their clients.
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good lord, that’s scary! Running over the bit and unable to escape is a bad fall waiting to happen
I’ve had a couple of those super quiet horses in my lifetime too.
Another thing I wanted to mention, is that I’ve had the testers tell me that their instructions are to pull as many samples as possible at a show. The approach as many horses coming out of the show ring as they can on the day or days they are there. They aren’t looking specifically for a type or a way of going. They pull the hot ones, the dead one, sound ones, lame looking ones, perfect gentlemanly ones. It’s random. And I for one, appreciate it
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I believe you, I’m a horse trainer, dammit, not a scientist!
That was just my experience. Lasix for pee, along with a blood draw
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Yeah was kind of terrifying. Literally had to take a horse who had done through 3rd level dressage in europe, then 3’ and 3’3 greens and here, and start her totally over from scratch.
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I think with the number of people here making up rules out of thin air you can really see that letting the general public police others isn’t always the best idea. There have been multiple posts of gross misunderstanding of the USEF rules.
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Say it louder for the people in the back!
Maybe a training module wouldn’t be a bad idea. I hate how awful most training modules are but if there’s THIS much confusion and misinformation just on this forum, I can’t imagine how bad it is in the general horse showing public.
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He didn’t get there long- she jumped up his neck for a long distance and he went- umm ok?. Of course people gasped. Lack of self preservation and not chipping or stopping doesn’t mean he’s drugged. As far as looking around- the horse is looking for every jump in the ring, flicks his ears around, listens to his rider. It is abhorrent that the video was posted with claims of drugging because of a bad distance. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t but go ahead and dig in your proverbial heels. Unsubstantiated claims is a problem. As is stories of “a groom worked for a long time and gave 60 cc of some unknown drug that caused horses to XYZ”. Ummm- ok. You know what our show groom would do if the trainer said- give 60 ccs of unknown drug and yeah it’s going to seizure ? Walk the eff away. So that right there is also part of the problem, if the story is to be believed.
People need to grow an effing backbone and if they see it happening- hey don’t participate and let someone know.
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Woah, I said he walked away from working as a show groom which he was third generation because he didn’t agree with it. The fact it’s happening and owners aren’t aware at all is scary. Like he told me, he couldn’t say anything to the clients because he would be fearful of what the trainer/s would do as retribution. You obviously want to fight with everyone here which certainly isn’t going to solve any problems. I don’t think calling people out by name is correct, I think my solution of not supporting usef until there’s change is the best way I know to go about this but I’m certainly not telling others to do that. Until usef if held accountable nothing will change. Hopefully the laundry list of drugs they’re asking to have banned from allowing to be carried by whomever actually goes through. That’s one step.
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You are delusional if you think an accurate multidrug screening test could be done on site, even if money weren’t an object.
Drug screens involve a number of pieces of very expensive, very delicate pieces of equipment that are not easily portable.
Stuff like gas and liquid chromatograpy and mass spectrometry.
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I think a preliminary can and the blood and urine is then sent off for full testing.
Not everyone will consent to the furosemide administration.
Personally, I wouldn’t.
Simply because there is no medical indication for its adminstration in that case–just a matter of convenience.
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Which then becomes simply a waste of money if the samples are still being sent out for full testing.
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If you are going to do a snap test it is going to cost no small amount of money to develop said test, and then what are you going to test? Urine? Blood? Same resources, why not send it off for testing?
But number one with a bullet is that rapid tests do not test for multiple things. They test for ONE thing. So either you have hundreds of rapid tests (millions of dollars in development fees) or you test for one thing. Five minutes after THAT test is developed anyone using that substance will have moved on to plan b.
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They do a rapid blood test at my vet clinic which pulls all different levels, but I will ask more next time I see my vet. I’m not an expert on this or anything by any means, I just was making a suggestion of something that may be able to help. I do think more can be done onsite in a mobile unit than is currently being done.
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If that was possible with any sort of accuracy don’t you think every racetrack would be doing it?
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Well the racetrack doesn’t allow injectable drugs or syringes from my understanding. But I hear you.
No they don’t, but that doesn’t necessarily stop people, but at every track we’ve raced at, the winner and normally one random entry is tested after every race. Tests (normally urine, blood is only drawn if a horse won’t pee within a prescribed time frame) are all shipped to a lab for testing.
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