Https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/usef-targets-misuse-of-deadly-substances-with-rule-change-proposal/

[atr]

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 “you can’t ban me, it wasn’t in the rules,” and it turning into a messy and expensive legal battle. It’s 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 that’s laughably easy to get around, but it gives them at least some teeth.

Should they have to do it? No. But people suck.

[Trekkie]

@atr

Should they have to do it? No. But people suck.

So here is an interesting article written in 2006 about how the culture of cheating in the US is growing (and I am sure it is worse now) and the parts of our culture that encourage it. It talks also about sleeping or nonexistent watchdogs that allow cheaters to go without consequences and that perpetuates the cheating culture. Worth a read.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/plag/5240451.0001.004/--on-campus-author-discusses-the-cheating-culture-with-college?rgn=main;view=fulltext

[MHM]

@atr

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 “you can’t ban me, it wasn’t in the rules,” and it turning into a messy and expensive legal battle.

I have probably said this before on other threads regarding rules. But my mother showed a million years ago, and at that point, the rulebook was tiny. Hardly more than a pamphlet.

As the years went by, they had to keep adding more and more rules as people came up with new and different ways to find loopholes.

So now we have the document that was like getting a four pound salt block delivered to your mailbox every year when the print version came out.

[DMK]

It has always been explicitly understood that the drug doesn’t need to be specifically named (the list specifically says it isn’t comprehensive the last time I checked). The list that IS definitive is those drugs that are allowed (bute, etc). Even the drugs that are not on that list but are commonly used therapeutic drugs that show specific withdrawal times are again, only guidelines. If your horse metabolizes them slower than the guidelines, too bad, so sad but it’s still a positive test for you. There’s absolutely nothing about the usef (or fei) rules that limits itself to a prohibited drugs list so I just don’t think that is the reasoning.

[jvanrens]

@Bluey

In reining you drop the bit for the steward right outside the ring to show is legal, then bridle again.

I’ve seen random bit checks done after a Western Pleasure class. One of the riders didn’t even dismount, just leaned forward and pulled her horse’s bridle off and rode out of the class after the placings were called with a rein around the horse’s neck.

[Bluey]

@jvanrens

I’ve seen random bit checks done after a Western Pleasure class. One of the riders didn’t even dismount, just leaned forward and pulled her horse’s bridle off and rode out of the class after the placings were called with a rein around the horse’s neck.

We were always warned never show off, always be super professional and be as safe as possible.
Sure, we could walk off without putting the bridle back on, but if a loud noise scared all horses and some got loose, you better be sure it was not yours because you were hotdogging it, if walking/riding without something on the horse’s head.

Same at the track, you didn’t have a chain shank because you had a puppy dog colt, if something happened and you lost control when you could have had if a chain was on hand, it was your fault for not being as careful as possible, which you should and should demand of underlings if you are a professional.

[Tackpud]

@atr

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 “you can’t ban me, it wasn’t in the rules,” and it turning into a messy and expensive legal battle. It’s got nothing to do with rummaging through my tack trunk at a show.

This.

[EmilyM]

The drug does not need to be on any list for it to be considered performance enhancing and therefore disallowed or requiring a med report. I found out the hard way with respect to Metformin. There is a rule that just states blanketly that no performance enhancing drugs are allowed. They do not have to be on a schedule. If you give your horse metformin they consider it performance enhancing, and it requires 24 hour withdrawal and a med report. Neither my vet nor I knew that, and I was notified by USEF that I violated the drug rules when my IR horse was tested. 15k in legal fees later they let me off with a warning.

[Ghazzu]

The cheating issue on the college level has only gotten worse since COVID and the proliferation of AI.

[IPEsq]

Performance enhancing isn’t quite the right wording in this case. Most performance enhancing medications are totally banned, unless on the specific permitted list with time windows. But any medication that has a legitimate therapeutic purpose that isn’t specifically banned or on the permitted with med report list is usually treated the same as the permitted with med report rules. I asked USEF about this when my horse was taking one of the -gliflozins (another drug for insulin regulation), and that’s the answer they gave me based on my explanation of its therapeutic purpose (managing IR/ID)—withdraw at least 24 hours and submit med report.

[EmilyM]

Well the hotline told my vet they consider it performance enhancing when she called for more information. I forget the wording of my sanction and don’t care to look it up at the moment.

[NaturallyHappy]

@EmilyM

The drug does not need to be on any list for it to be considered performance enhancing and therefore disallowed or requiring a med report. I found out the hard way with respect to Metformin. There is a rule that just states blanketly that no performance enhancing drugs are allowed. They do not have to be on a schedule. If you give your horse metformin they consider it performance enhancing, and it requires 24 hour withdrawal and a med report. Neither my vet nor I knew that, and I was notified by USEF that I violated the drug rules when my IR horse was tested. 15k in legal fees later they let me off with a warning.

Holy smoke!!! Unbelievable this happened to you!!! I’m so sorry and in a million years would never have been concerned about metformin. Or stelgatro.

[DMK]

I guess I wouldn’t have thought it performance enhancing, but I’ve been so aware of the nature of the rule that not for a moment would I have thought it was allowed if it wasn’t listed as allowed. But I was a lot closer to the vet side of things and I was at WEF during the 2nd reserpine scandal some 30 years ago, so we all got educated back then although some education was more expensive than others.

Still, I can see where a lot of people just wouldn’t think it was an issue. @EmilyM I’m sorry you had to go through that. My own reality check was me checking FEI/WADA for my own drugs. I’m to the place where gabapentin is a nightly requirement, especially if I’m driving long hours to a competition (and I do), and somewhat after the fact it thought I should check that out. Nope, gabapentin is just fine. Only after that did I think to check my other scrips. Fun fact, one of my hypertension meds (hcl) is on the list as needing a medical exception (TUE). I never even dreamed that would be on the list since it’s an incredibly common rx. But it’s a diuretic, so potential masking agent. Sigh…

[ComingAttraction]

Not so sure about that. There are many at our unrated yet very competitive local shows that inject the crap out of their horses and it’s not regulated. It’s a very competitive local circuit. I’ve witnessed so many injecting and it’s hard to miss the blood on the neck on some. Now, could it be something legal, sure but the wagging willies usually give it up.

[bamboopole]

Just curious, Metformin used for what diagnosis?

[Tackpud]

@ComingAttraction

Not so sure about that. There are many at our unrated yet very competitive local shows that inject the crap out of their horses and it’s not regulated. It’s a very competitive local circuit. I’ve witnessed so many injecting and it’s hard to miss the blood on the neck on some. Now, could it be something legal, sure but the wagging willies usually give it up.

The local folks are giving Ace to take the edge off. Not something that might kill a horse.

[luvmyhackney]

It said in the post for an IR horse. It’s used to control high insulin levels in horses.

[DMK]

True, because in their world they can give ace. But I’ve never seen a local show where it’s legal. All of ours follow USEF rules, they just have no ability to enforce them, hence ace.

Some people give it to a “first time at a show” horse to make sure it and everyone else has a safe experience and generally use it once, mostly not when showing never mind winning.

But there’s a group of people who give it to make sure their clients have the best chance of winning. So because of circumstances they can go with something that probably won’t damage the horse (aside from the inherent risk of giving ace to a male horse) and their clients have a lot better chance than the person who showed up with the horse that woke up on the wrong side of the stall so to speak, and just had to ride it out.

At the risk of stating the obvious, using chemicals that beat the local show’s enforcement standards doesn’t make them saints or even worth defending on a BB. That puts them on the same plane of opportunistic assholery as a trainer in usef who chooses chemicals that beat enforcement standards.

[Tackpud]

And I’m in total agreement that drugging to win at local shows is cheating. I’m against any kind of performance enhancing medication/drug/supplement. But at least those at the local shows are using a known drug that does not have long term side effects or has been proven to kill horses. The cheating at the recognized shows is off the charts in terms of possible side effects or death.

[DMK]

@Paint_Party

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?

The above musing on human nature stuck with me…

I don’t disagree that some drugs have worse side effects than others but we’ve found the subset of people willing to risk the health of the horse (and rider) in order to win. You are just debating where the line is. I can’t defend the idea that local shows are somehow better because… ace. I’m thinking local shows are equally likely to contain the same subset of morally deficit people (minus ANY enforcement) so I’m not going to glorify them just because they haven’t had to find another option. There’s a group of people at those shows that absolutely would if they had to, or they found something that worked better. They’re also not unfamiliar with giving horses magnesium either.