I do not believe that every horse was getting a cocktail of bute, banamine and dex 24 hours out back in the 60s (especially since we didn’t even have banamine then).
In my opinion there are fewer top trainers who care deeply about the welfare of the horses in their charge.
I said when I started which was nowhere near the 60’s. I obviously can’t speak about what it was like before I was born.
Yes. Well, even if it was worse several years ago than it is now, it’s still pretty darned bad.
I’m appalled at the whole idea of giving horses prescription drugs just because it might enhance speed.
A rule against any prescription drug without a diagnosis would go a long way to preventing horses from getting thyroid supplements they don’t need and that might indeed harm them.
I had an old time trainer complain to me recently that back in the day the trainers called the shots, but now it’s the vets running the show.
That’s bad in so many ways.
How on earth could the vets run the show?
Because owners listen to them more than to the trainers…the reason I was told is that people respect someone with an advanced degreeore.
My owner’s never once spoke to the vet. They wouldn’t know who they were if they were standing in front of them. Many owners need to have their horse pointed out to them. I had a few owners that I trained for for years that I never met in person. They certainly weren’t being swayed by my vet! Zayat said he didn’t know there was anything wrong with Nehro’s feet. Think the vet told him they were fine or he didn’t ever talk to the vet?
I think there are plenty of owners who do.
I think you are either being misinformed or talked to one person and assume it is like that for the whole industry. Either way, I disagree. There are no vets that are calling owners on the phone and telling them to do this or that to the horse without the trainer’s consent. Not one.
I agree with Laurie. I’ve owned racehorses with three different trainers since 2008. I’ve never once talked to a vet (except to say hello when I happened to be there for the Lasix shot). It’s not part of the culture.
That said, I reviewed the bills before I paid them and went over treatment with the trainers. Oddly enough, the only time I hadn’t pre approved treatment was with a sport horse trainer who had my horse’s hocks injected and I didn’t know about it until I got the bill. He called it “maintenance” and got quite affronted because I was a little put out. Never happened with the racehorses,
Clearly, without a poll of owners, this is something we’ll never know for sure.
I will say that the person who told me this is someone who is familiar with how the industry currently is functioning.
You can take it or leave it.
But it made perfect sense to me as it echoed what I’ve heard from certain segments of the show world where vets are known to walk from barn to barn offering trainers the latest pharmaceutical aid to performance.
I do find it hard to believe that owners, who are the ones footing the bill for all these meds, don’t know exactly what’s happening to their horses.
I am leaving it.
All I will say is that when I worked at a very prominent equine hospital in Lexington, many racehorse owners did not want to be bothered with updates on their horses. They wanted all communication to go through there farm managers or trainer. Not all…but a VAST majority.
Ive had a lot of owners over the years, and have never ever had one talk to a vet. I even asked them if they would like a vet to explain a procedure to them, they said no, if you think it needs to be done, just do it.
[QUOTE=SportArab;7500376]
Clearly, without a poll of owners, this is something we’ll never know for sure.
I will say that the person who told me this is someone who is familiar with how the industry currently is functioning.
You can take it or leave it.
But it made perfect sense to me as it echoed what I’ve heard from certain segments of the show world where vets are known to walk from barn to barn offering trainers the latest pharmaceutical aid to performance.[/QUOTE]
You said vets were calling the shots. They are not. Now what you mentioned in the show world happens every single day. Vets talk to trainers, trainers talk to vets. Everybody is looking for an edge. The owners just sit back and pay the bills.
Well, are any of you folks who are answering this giving your horses pharmaceuticals for no other reason than with the wish to improve performance?
I thought the sanctions for being caught with a battery anytime (Am/PM) were always very severe? (And of course that does not include the risk that a horse can react very badly to it hurting all involved?)
I can remember in the ancient times the TRPB seemed to be a presence on the backstretch in the AM?
No, I didn’t say it happens every day in the show world. But I’ve heard of it happening at national level shows.
Regardless of whether the owners are demanding it, there’s still the problem of pharmaceuticals being over used in race horses - as you say, “to get an edge.”
Without rules outlawing this racing will continue to have a tarnished image in the public eye. And it will be vulnerable to exactly the kind of report PETA got the Times to publicize.
[QUOTE=Laurierace;7500406]
You said vets were calling the shots. They are not. Now what you mentioned in the show world happens every single day. Vets talk to trainers, trainers talk to vets. Everybody is looking for an edge. The owners just sit back and pay the bills.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=SportArab;7500446]
Well, are any of you folks who are answering this giving your horses pharmaceuticals for no other reason than with the wish to improve performance?[/QUOTE]
Absolutely. My 26 year old gets a shot of Pentosan every Wednesday. He gets a previcox pill after a jumping lesson. He gets his feet packed with magic cushion after every ride too but that isn’t really a pharmaceutical. It is all performance enhancing though and he looks and feels like a ten year old.
There is nothing wrong with taking care of an animal so they look and perform their best. Some of that entails medications.
Speaking as an outsider, I think the horse-racing world could learn something from the experience of Lance Armstrong and bicycle racing.
Armstrong spent much of his career excoriating those who accused him of doping. He called the competence of drug-testing (and the people doing the testing) into question, he lambasted former teammates who claimed to have seen him injecting performance enhancing substances into himself (basically suggesting that they were jealous of his achievements) and, apparently, he justified his use of drugs by stating that “everyone did it.”
He and the other cyclists who doped called the banned substances by various pseudonyms, as well as stating that they were vitamin supplements, etc. to deflect criticism and detection.
When he finally had to admit that he had in fact been doping, it not only destroyed his career, it tore the sport (and its fans) apart.
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