The horse lost 300lbs and you let things go on?
If they lose 75-100 you should have addressed it, and probably moved barns. You are the owner, you must be the number one advocate for your horse
How did this horse not die?
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I agree with you about not taking horses to trainers that have been caught, but there are a lot of trainers that haven’t been caught. That have bottles of ace and dorm on their desks along with a box of syringes and needles, but are the nicest, most caring, unassuming people you’ve met. I was a professional and didn’t even see it until I was asked to give the drugs.
Owner education is critical.
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I said I was not able to be in Florida during the winter circuit as my husband was being tested for ALS due to foot drop and neuro issues going on. So please be just a bit more sensitive.
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Im sorry you are going through this.
Was there no one in FLA who could have helped you out here? I’m not accusing, just asking. I would be livid if this were me, and no one stepped up and said something to me. I would have made sure that others were keeping an eye on my horse, as my proxy. We, as horse people have to advocate for the animals
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I did have a friend that wasn’t associated with the barn who saw the mare in the warm up ring and called me very concerned. I shipped the horse home immediately. I will send you before and after photos to you directly as I don’t feel comfortable posting here. It was unfathomable 
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I’m sorry you had to deal with all this, and as someone who also trusted a horse with people who did very wrong by her, I have so much empathy for you.
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$100,000 in vet bills?
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In rehab and vet bills yes. She was also injured physically in addition to all the other health issues. She lived at the rehab attached to the clinic for about a year.
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I bet it was from the ACTH dex combo that is so rampant (or was, I’ve been away from hunters for years). The horses that came off that cycle had the most f*cked up immune systemic issues imaginable. Obviously when your cortisol levels get jacked around like that this isn’t much of a surprise.
But as long as people have been doing that, and it was fairly widespread at one point, kind of like stacking nsaids was common before it was prohibited, I can’t recall an ACTH positive. So it may be anecdotal, but it certainly was true they weren’t testing for it or didn’t have a test for it at one point in time.
Which makes sense since ACTH is always present, right? So you have to do the research/spend the money to find the acceptable range allowable. But the way it was abused with dex has always made me believe it should be a target for testing, and if I know it’s being abused, I know USEF does too.
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A lot of time horse getting acth/dex look pretty darn good until they stop getting the combo, then things go to hell pretty quickly.
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Honest question: Oxytocin, Thiamine and ACTH are all normal biological molecules. Does testing allow for a certain “normal” range and outside of the normal range would be a positive test?
Otherwise - this thread makes me a bit ill. Gasoline in the water? Formaldehyde? (which is a PHS - a Particularly Hazardous Substance) Holy He!!.
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I’m so sorry
yup. hair falls out, they founder, colic, pretty much every nightmare we can think of
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It’s surprising that people entered lame horses in rated shows without being called out. There’s no excuse for it, and it’s good to see that changing.
Then, there are the truly ignorant, who don’t know what they don’t know.
Along with the very accomplished amateurs and professionals here, there are people on the COTH forums who have posited themselves as professionals,who honestly don’t know what they don’t know and have posted videos of themselves riding lame horses while at the same time complaining about horse welfare in USEF shows.
I have hope as well. Noticing that a horse is lame is the least we can expect from rated judges.
Thankfully, people here do notice (if not always call out) “trainers” who don’t know what they don’t know, and who post videos of their poor riding on lame horses, and truly believe that people here are too inexperienced not to know what a professional rider, or a lame horse looks like when they see one.
People who are new to horses or are inexperienced may not notice that a horse is lame but there’s an issue if their instructor doesn’t notice either. It’s good that USEF has rules for soundness in place and judges are enforcing them.
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Since ACTH stimulates release of hydrocortisone, the way it is typically tested for is to look at hydrocortisone levels, for which normal baselines have been determined.
And yes, use was rampant for quite awhile.
I remember before dex was regulated, the labs were testing levels for informational purposes, and when the data accumulated on the ubiquitous presence, most sane DVMs were appalled.
.
And Mother Nature isn’t pleasant when you arbitrarily mess with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, so horses coming off it (ACTH) did crash and burn.
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I’ll have to go to my PC book to see. It’s a good skill to learn and taught by vets. I’m not talking joint injections, just injections JIC the horse is in need and the vet can’t come out. Maybe that’s why there is oral medicines for pain
And to the poster who said Damn it Jim… KAHN! 
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I’m talking about their own horses, not a lease or a friend’s horse.
AMEN, sister! Preach!!!
Isn’t the lack of self awareness, on the part of some, absolutely horrendous?
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I vaguely remember that a judge in some discipline did not place a horse because of lameness. He/she was then sued by the exhibitor under the premise that the judge was not a veterinarian and therefore could not make a valid determination of lameness. As a result, judges in that discipline just placed horses regardless of any degree of lameness shown.
Am I imagining this? Guess I’d better go google, but it sure would explain the number of lame/off horses I see at shows, in multiple breeds/disciplines.
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I mentioned earlier that my childhood pony club actually had an injection clinic given by a vet back in the 90’s. The focus was in giving an IM injections. Most of us went from that clinic, and worked with our own vet to practice on our own horses when routine opportunities arose to do so, such as vaccinations. Or adequan.
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