https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/234949/stonestreet-to-offer-blood-test-records-on-sale-horses
It sounds expensive.
Expensive, probably very much so. But trust from buyers is everything and that is how you build and maintain a customer-base. Nice to see a breeder doing right by the horses they bring into this world and ensure they are off to their new homes on the right foot. It’s sad that this is what it has come to. But its the right thing to do.
It sounds like a marketing tactic to me. Like Perdue or Tyson advertising “hormone free chicken!” when really all broiler chickens are raised without growth hormones.
I haven’t been in the sale prep business for 6 or 7 years, but I doubt things have really turned THAT bad to make drug testing mandatory. For quite some time, buyers have been allowed to test for anabolic steroids and return the horse if positive. I can’t remember that ever happening. I know for certain the 35 yearlings in my care (prepping for a top-3 consignor) could have shown under FEI rules. They ate good feed, good grass, good hay, and were supplemented with Body Builder, fish oil, flax seed, and Lubrysin. No steroids, ever. No drugs unless medically necessary (pasture injury, etc). They were tranq’ed the first day on the walker, and to ship to the sale if needed for safe loading. They had massage and chiro as needed.
Preliminary xrays are done in early spring. If a horse had operable chip or OCD it was surgically removed (and would be noted in the repository). Those with inoperable issues may have been treated with PRP, or just managed carefully (limited circles, for example-- ponied instead of going on the walker).
Those yearlings looked good because of good nutrition, grooming, and many, many hours of walking. Walking on the eurociser 2x and hand walking 3x a week, for four months. There was never a thought, or any need, of shortcuts to get a good yearling to the sale.
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Good points AJ. It’s been a while since I worked sales, but back then I never saw a vet in the barn and none of the ones I worked with got drugs. The outfits I am familiar with now would never consider using biophosphonates either. Especially breeders - they only make money if the youngsters they sell have good careers so the breeders can sell related youngsters for lots of money. A horse that doesn’t make it to the races is usually not good news for the breeder.
It seems to me to be an expensive solution to a fairly non-existent problem. The breeders, if there are any, that would use biophosphonates would most likely be the ones that can’t afford the massive testing and sample storage costs.
The nature of the drug makes testing much more difficult than testing for steroids.
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Yep. We’re prepping one now for the sales. I just received the first bill on the sales prep yesterday. Unless someone is donating the cost of all these supplements to me (and why would they do that because they are not selling the horse), the bill is pretty plain vanilla. No steroids or anything else that would test.
Pretty typical IME. This feels like marketing to me too.
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Pronzini… or as I like to think about it… a solution in search of a problem :lol:
