I know personally that he is in the area monthly or sometimes weekly. He is no longer affiliated with UCD but he is still in the region often. Many H/J folks in this area still use him for lameness and sporthorse work.
I can’t speak to direct knowledge of who exactly they use for what procedures, but it’s been my understanding from friends of mine who know the parties involved that he has been their sporthorse vet for a long time.
Sent you a PM.
Because the owner signed a release that magically says the team
Can do whatever it wants to the horse whether she likes it or not and they don’t have to consult with or even tell her or anyone else. Thats how and why
Wasn’t the owner there for the World Cup final?
If so, any idea that she was unreachable by phone because of the time difference or anything like that would go right out the window.
Thanks.
It’s very curious.
Clearly Pepe was concerned about proposed treatment of Chromatic.
He knows the horse and care protocol.
So it’s interesting what transpired to cause that treatment to actually go ahead.
She was present on the scene minutes after the injection was given. So definitely present in Riyadh. Not sure why they didn’t call her about the post ride medication choices. Neither article yesterday got comments from the key vets involved. So it seems there are still unanswered aspects of the situation.
Pepe sounds like an incredible and devoted caretaker of this horse. Absolutely tragic situation.
In terms of the loan agreement and how it affects riding for the team, my question this whole time was if Kent or Mclain’s (if he had been there- so at other major shows) horses are getting taken to the treatment stall without any communication/planning between team vet, their personal vet, rider, and head groom? Lee Mckeever is most definitely not getting bullied into doing whatever the team vet says if he doesn’t think its right for the horse. So I would bet not.
Unfortunately I think a lack of experience at that level played a huge role in how this all played out
That is also an excellent point.
Read the article and many of your questions will be answered.
Pepe questioned it
He called the owner:
“About an hour and a half after the last of the awards ceremony, about two hours after the class, I get a call from [Chromatic’s longtime groom Pepe Rodriguez],” …
“He was worried and upset that they were asking him to bring the horse to the vet station. We had been very clear earlier in the week nothing be done to him without [permission from] me personally or my veterinarian, who was not in Riyadh but available by phone. He was concerned because I hadn’t told him the horse was getting a shot.”
Branscomb said she was not consulted before her horse received the injection,…
As soon as Branscomb received Rodriguez’s phone call, she headed to the barn, she said. She arrived just after Chromatic had received the injection and been walked from the veterinary station to the crossties, where Rodriguez started wrapping him. As she fed him carrots there, Chromatic suddenly screamed and collapsed, then began seizing, she …"
I’m curious what happened next, between Pepe’s call to her and her arrival.
Did she have Pepe put the vet on the phone and tell the vet to wait til she got there?
Good question.
Also… what about the veterinarian at home who was consulting via phone on issues? Did that veterinarian give the go ahead to inject the horse with whatever they did right before its death, but the owner and groom weren’t aware of that phone call between the two vets?
Those details are still unclear in public reports and comments on the situation.
The articles don’t say if the vet that did the injections bothered to call the vet at home. Since they didn’t bother to talk to the owner before going ahead, I doubt they called the vet.
Exactly. Or vice versa. Maybe the vet onsite called the vet at home. Who knows what was happening with calls though between vets. The article didn’t speak to that issue.
If they were going to give the horse Legend, Adequan and Arnica prior to his final jumping rounds, there are time considerations for the medication to be legal. So maybe vets were in a hurry? Hard to know. The articles didn’t go into that detail either.
ETA - another poster said on another thread the FEI rule is no injections within 12 hours of competing.
I understand that, and to no fault of his own, he still took the horse to the treatment stall because of coercion. My point being if Pepe had been Lee and Mclain was to question it like Chromatics owner was, the horse probably wouldnt have gotten treated until the whole team had agreed on a plan.
Being a new comer to the fei scene is hard, you want to think the fei vets and rules have the best interest for the horses in mind but sometimes that has to be learned the hard way to look out for the horses yourself.
I give my horse legend/adequan in FEI and have given traumeel when needed if they make a huge effort or maybe were doing two weeks of fei in a row and after the GP week 1 to help recover for week 2. Does it make him sounder/mask anything? Absolutely not. But I do believe it helps as I take traumeel myself since I can’t have NSAIDS and notice a difference if I take it vs the nights I don’t.
But a phone call is a seconds long thing.
That’s the thing. Pepe can make all the calls he wants and she can do all the asking to wait etc she wants but under the release SHE signed they don’t have to do jack. They don’t have to cal the owner, the regular vet , the man in the moon or anyone else. And what Pepe does or did isn’t relevant to any of it .
The “team ” and their vets had authority via a signed release from the owner of that horse to do whatever they wanted to with that horse whenever they wanted to do it.
We don’t know that.
Maybe the owner said go ahead?
Honestly, I’m not sure we even know Pepe took him to the vet stall.
He was with him at the xties getting ready to wrap him when owner arrived.
That doesn’t mean he took him.
Based on all of the responses and non responses, I’d say this is unlikely.
This is a direct quote from KC Branscomb, the owner
“About an hour and a half after the last of the awards ceremony, about two hours after the class, I get a call from [Chromatic’s longtime groom Pepe Rodriguez],” Branscomb, Half Moon Bay, California, said. “He was worried and upset that they were asking him to bring the horse to the vet station. We had been very clear earlier in the week nothing be done to him without [permission from] me personally or my veterinarian, who was not in Riyadh but available by phone. He was concerned because I hadn’t told him the horse was getting a shot.”
Edited to add: they said they took him to the crossties to wrap him AFTER the shot, which is when the owner arrived. And then he dropped while she was feeding him treats.
Also edited to add: in no way whatsoever am
i placing blame on Pepe, I am only comparing it to the other top rider’s grooms, and making an educated guess that if Mclain/Laura/Kent’s groom had a funny feeling about the horse getting a shot per team orders, the horse probably wouldnt get the shot until all involved were on the same page.
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