Never proven, according to the New York Times article.
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Didnāt something happen to the autopsy results? That was so tragic for Humble and the kid who was supposed to show him at Devon. Wonder if she continued riding?
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Remember the list of medications that small pony received before showing?! I would bet it was the magnesium administered by EM that stopped his little pony heart. I think I recall she fled the scene after.
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The list of medications was super crazy. I think they showed it to a race track vet who was flabbergasted by it.
And I think youāre right about fleeing the scene.
There is a picture of the list of meds in the Times article. Itās interesting to read the whole thing now, 12 years later almost to the day. There have been some things that have changed since then.
But unfortunately there are still people who are more interested in winning ribbons than in good horsemanship or good sportsmanship.
Gift link:
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Iām going to say maybe? Thereās a USEF member by that name who looks to be about the right age who was showing in the adults a few years ago.
Or it could be a different person with the same name. Who knows.
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Spending five seconds looking at a bit is so much less time consuming than getting into it with someone about the label on their meds. Call me cynical but I just donāt see the USEF doing much of anything with this new rule except using it as a backstop when they catch someone doing something hinky and need something to pin them with.
Letās say they ask to see your meds and you have a bottle labeled for āBlaze.ā How do they know the horse with you at the show isnāt Blaze. You donāt have to put barn names on entry blanks. And I really doubt they have the time and energy to go actively digging through someoneās tack trunk looking for hidden unlabeled meds. What if you put some pills in an unexpected place like a little Tupperware or hidden in a ziplock baggie inside the pocket of a coat. You really think USEF is going to have someone opening containers?
Bit checks are different. Every horse has to wear one and itās in their mouth/on the bridle and very quick to check. It would take forever for an official to actually unpack and search someoneās trailer tack room and thereās no way theyāre doing that just to do it.
Kill a horse in the cross ties at Devon and maybe now they can ask to see your āAdequan.ā But I doubt itās going much further than that.
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I was talking to someone who is far more accomplished and intimately familiar with the top hunter trainers and learned that the latest drug du jour is the euthanasia solution?? But only a little. I brought up insurance concerns, since it would surely show up on a toxicology report, and she laughed and said the people buying million dollar junior hunters for their kids arenāt concerned about recovering the insurance money. I give upā¦
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Someone else mentioned this up thread, but I didnāt see anywhere in the rule that the bottle has to be labeled for the horse youāre using it on.
Iām the one who said it. Thereās literally no way for random spot checks under this rule to do much of anything. The rule is pretty toothless unless they catch you doing something weird and then demanding to know whatās in the syringe might give USEF reason to do something about the shady nonsense.
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Agreed. Not that that the rule is written this way, but they could say that the prescription has to match the horseās USEF name.
Honestly itās kind of silly. Put the meds in your purse and carry it on your person. You really think theyāre going to go through peopleās bags? This is truly just USEF being reactive to what they know members are doing but not in a way that actually cracks down on the problem.
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The ends some hunter trainers go to are horrific. As in why are you even in this sport anymore horrific. As in how can you sleep at night horrific.
Did anyone on this thread read Kathy Serioās post on Facebook about the latest method of magnesium administration? Someone on the backside, maybe a braider, said that they are now putting a PVC pipe in the rectum and dumping the magnesium there. I guess the thought is that it gets absorbed faster and less easily detected than the IV line. The potential for a horrific death if you injure the rectum is mind boggling.
Euthanasia solution isnāt new; it has been around a long time. I remember hearing about the use of blood pressure meds, too,
Very famous trainer packed his bags and left Harrisburg after the model. Rumor was that it was the implementation of security cameras in the stabling area that caused his abrupt exit.
Lots of dex out there still. If you file a medication report the steward should be able to pay you a visit and ask to see the Rx for the horse for allergies. Any med that requires a report should have an accompanying Rx for a specific horse for a specific condition. Maybe this will raise awareness in some clients about what Dobbin is getting or enduring.
Happy to hear that the use of Regumate in stallions and geldings has been banned. I wonder how many stallions will end up gelded.
I donāt know the complete answer but this is a start. I do think USEF should up the ante and identify which atrocities will result in permanent suspension.
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I vote for pentobarbital to kick off that lifetime ban.
I wonder if some of these drugs have a short detection time in the blood stream making it hard to test for even if USEF is already aware itās being abused? That seems to be the only reason I can see for banning the possession of these drugs by anyone other than a licensed veterinarian. Otherwise you would just add it to the list and let everyone know you are testing retroactively to boot (which would be immensely satisfying).
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I am so with you on this.
Good lord. These human ghouls have detached themselves from caring one scintilla for equine welfare. Theyāve cast it aside in pursuit of a ribbon and a brief, fleeting moment of adulation.
I wonder if it happened in one giant leap into a dark abyss. Or did they creep over, one chemical trick at a time, found it paid off and that reward somehow justified acquiring an arsenal of potentially deadly concoctions?
And then thereās this:
Essentially a crude enema. Wait until one of these nimrods tears the gastrointestinal lining or worse, punctures it.
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I call BS on the PVC pipe aspect. Itās not like you canāt get polyvinyl soft tubing (like an NG tube) on Amazon for a few bucks. Not to mention the whole mechanics of an enema involves the insertion of whatever to be higher than the end of the tube. That wonāt happen with a PVC pipe. Plus it just sounds shockingly stupid.
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It does sound shockingly stupid, however so much of this seems lacking in intelligence and critical thinking.
How are they pushing or propelling the magnesium forward, anyway? Or maybe thatās something I donāt want to know.
Given that it is a DEA scheduled drug, I heartily agree.
There is absolutely no, none, nada reason for an owner or trainer to have that anywhere near a competition horse.
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That was the report but certainly possible that the person was mistaken about the implement. However, pliable tubing is not that easy to insert (ask any repo vet) so may require using a hand. My repo vet was very careful to keep her fingernails short even wearing a glove because itās really not that had to damage the gastrointestinal wall.
Given the amount of anatomy/physiology knowledge displayed itās amazing that they attempt any sort of procedure that vets spend a lot of time and money to learn how to do.
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In reining you drop the bit for the steward right outside the ring to show is legal, then bridle again.
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I think the point of this rule is that if someone is caught using something like pentobarbitol, there IS a rule that they are breaking, so the USEF has some cause to ban a person, rather than them being able to say āyou canāt ban me, it wasnāt in the rules,ā and it turning into a messy and expensive legal battle. Itās got nothing to do with rummaging through my tack trunk at a show.
In that light, I can understand the requirement for drugs to be properly labeled. Frankly thatās laughably easy to get around, but it gives them at least some teeth.
Should they have to do it? No. But people suck.
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