Not sure if this is the right thread to post it in but it’s the most current one regarding drug-related issues in the forum. I just saw this link shared on Facebook:
I am, once again, speechless. Get it together USEF :mad:
http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/…e-in-gaba-case
USEF announced that it has resolved the litigation with Kelley Farmer and Larry Glefke for their alleged July 2016 GABA violation.
USEF is voiding the proceeding from the outset and vacating all penalties and suspensions, thereby restoring Farmer and Glefke to active membership effective July 1, 2017. They are free to enjoy all privileges of membership including participation in competition.
In January, Farmer and Glefke were suspended and fined after Farmer’s Unexpected tested positive for GABA at the Kentucky Summer Horse Show in a pre-green hunter 3’3″ class on July 28, 2016. Glefke was identified on Unexpected’s entry blank as the trainer. Farmer was identified as Unexpected’s owner and rider. Larry Glefke received a 24-month suspension and a $24,000 fine; Farmer received a 12-month suspension and $12,000 fine.
Farmer and Glefke filed a complaint with the U.S. Olympic Committee, which was later dismissed. Then, on Jan. 4, the USEF lifted the suspensions pending further arbitration.
“The USEF must always treat its members fairly,” said USEF President Murray S. Kessler. "Late in the arbitration discovery process, the legal teams for USEF and Ms. Farmer and Mr. Glefke learned about errors in the laboratory’s handling of the blood sample in this case, that the USEF hearing committee was unaware of. Simply said, these errors were serious enough that we no longer can rely on the validity of the test and therefore, regret any negative impact that this had on Ms. Farmer and Mr. Glefke. All our members must be treated fairly.
“Accordingly, we are setting aside the suspensions as the USEF’s procedural integrity must be pristine in order to fairly protect our competitors. I have ordered a thorough compliance audit of the laboratory to ensure that what occurred in this case never happens again and that the proper procedures and checks are in place to be certain of that. I can assure our membership that any necessary corrective action will be taken.”
Farmer still faces a two-month suspension, due to begin on Feb. 1, 2019, for a positive drug test forbenzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester, the metabolites of cocaine, in Kodachrome, a horse under her care.
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I’m dying to see those arbitration transcripts! USEF just looks like a bunch of clowns right now.
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The other party having better lawyers is certainly not something those who craft the USE rules can really foresee or prevent. Violent felons get off technicalities, white collar con men can BS their way out if it, why should we expect different.
Like to think this will inspire them to clean up their act…but I know better.
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Any information on what the errors were, specifically? I’ve been looking around but haven’t found any details. I realize the discrepancy between the samples was the main issue but it sounded like other irregularities were discovered.
I posted this back on page 4, probably got missed.
So the answer according to the paper below is it doesn’t take a whole lot of cocaine to make a horse test positive. Granted, the paper is 11/12 years old…but it says that a 1mg dose has the potential to give a positive result. The threshold for metabolites is set higher than that detection limit (at least in racing at the time of publication). I read another paper that said they were able to get performance enhancement with 50-100mg doses (IV) in racehorses, which is all I can find that’s been studied. Another article did say that in order to get the desired high-then-crash effect, the does would need to be much larger. (I have no idea how much larger…I don’t know that it’s been studied…or at least published.) I can’t find anywhere the levels of metabolites benzoylecgonine (BZE) and ecgonine methyl ester (EME) found in KF’s horse…but I imagine those numbers would be telling in the environmental contaminant (which is a thing) vs doped horse question.
http://www.thomastobin.com/archive/2…ifications.pdf
Caveat being, in the study they used pure cocaine…street cocaine is obviously cut with a variety of other (cheap) white powders, so how many grams of regular powder cocaine you’d have to administer would vary from batch to batch. And there’s also never going to be a study giving an answer to this question, no IRB/IACUC would find it ethical. I’m assuming they’re not cooking it down and injecting it, but at this point, who the hell knows.
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How is one supposed to compete and be successful within the rules, when a cheater always wins?
I’m so disappointed in the USEF.
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They can claim inconsistencies in the testing or levels or whatever but…what was their excuse for all tne previous violations? Feel differently if this was their first go around instead of another chapter in a thick book.
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Looks like the CoTH Cabal isn’t going to get its lynching. 
On the bright side, those of you who actually compete should thank LG and KF for putting up the brass and the gold to challenge the USEF outside of its own sandbox. The ongoing scrutiny into what happened will undoubtably result in better and fairer enforcement procedures for the rest of us competitors.
“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” – William Blackstone
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And they said the cocaine suspension and fine were lenient because of all the previous penalties, what a joke USEF is. It really makes you furious considering all the money we throw at them.
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I think the point half this thread is making is that given the continuous history of drug-related suspensions for both parties, these people aren’t innocents. The actual innocents, the horses, are suffering by the guilty parties escaping.
If USEF was so ready to set an example that they ignored bad science to do it, that’s on them, but it will make it more difficult for them to have their suspensions stick next time they’re ready to throw the book at someone who deserves it. Potentially these same people.
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Once again I will state how glad I am that I no longer show, pay for USEF membership. How can any honest person stomach walking into an arena to compete against these dirt bags. How can owners stomach putting horses in their barns knowing what they are subjecting the horse to. I feel like the good, honest and caring horse lovers are no longer a part of the show world. It has come down to how can you drug your horse to get the perfect round and get away with it. Perfect Prep, GABA, Cocaine; what’s next?
The USEF is paid hundreds of thousands, if not millions in membership and fees yearly and yet their enforcement is beyond despicable.
This is beyond unacceptable. And yet they have the nerve to slap a lenient suspension and fine on this duo for COCAINE given to an animal because the USEF royally F’d up their previous charges?? What is this world coming to. Suspend them for 10 years of life and perhaps heads will roll and people will start to get the point.
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You missed the point then.
And now they can drug as much as they please. Their go to defense will be that they are being targeted because of this case and the USEF will back down every time. What a joke.
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USEF has lost any and all credibility as a governing body and the cheaters continue on as if nothing has ever happened. What a shame. So happy that I did not renew my membership for 2018.
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USEF should make it a policy that someone with previous serious drug infractions (like Cocaine) or unethical behavior (like presenting wrong Horse for drug tester) should automatically have their test samples divided into four samples and two get sent to the Jockey Club for testing or some other respected lab. That way, it is not all on USEF.
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What else did Kelley get set down for besides the upcoming Cocaine positive? I know Larry was set down for Ace and swapping horses for the drug test.
I do not want to see innocent people who have not caused suffering in innocent horses to suffer by being framed, effectively, due to errors in testing. Period.
I do think USEF shot itself in the foot by being outstandingly aggressive and open about a test whose results could have been obtained in error. Period.
I think this entire situation is a cluster caused by USEF’s aggressive pursuit of this particular case in order to make a point, which creates an opening for other well-heeled folks who have the funds for a lawyer to pursue overturning suspensions based on results from the same lab. It also opens the door for Lane Change to cry persecution/retribution the next time they’re set down, making the process of setting them down a legal maze. Which, history predicts, will happen again.
I’m disgusted that we have to have this whole conversation because people think they need to artificially influence their horses’ biochemistry for the sake of performance and are more interested in getting around the rules and using substances that cause horses to suffer than they are in the welfare of the horse.
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And the cycle will continue against LG/KF, and others, until all the kinks in the USEF’s drug enforcement procedures and policies are resolved. Which is ultimately good for the …
Period.
I will NEVER thank LG and KF for anything. They may have taken USEF to the wall, but they didn’t deny drugging the horse. Their numerous offenses damage the integrity of the sport, cost their fellow USEF members money by way of litigation, and most importantly, do absolutely nothing for horse welfare.
Thanked ??? They should be barred from USEF for repeated unsportsmanlike conduct.
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