RzB, I’m with you. I personally don’t feel one bit disadvantaged because others choose to use performance enhancing drugs. Now, let me clarify this by stating that I only feel this way in terms of actual performance in the showring. I am not referring to the morality of drugging, or it’s horrible effects on horse’s health, or in deceiving people into buying a horse with tempramental deficiencies. Those are the reasons I don’t ever give such drugs to my horses at shows.
The reason that trainers are tempted to give performance enhancing (a misnomer if there ever was one) drugs to their horses is that they can process so many more horses and clients through their business, and thus make a ton more money. Also, Dex is very cheap to buy, and they can make a fortune by giving it to the horses and charging the owners 100 times what they paid for the little vial. Another reason is it takes a huge number of grooms, assistants, helpers, riders and other “gofers” to manage a stable of 50 horses “in training”, and one would need hundreds of acres to provide the turn-out pastures that are so good for horses. Imagine the cost of the land for such a farm in places like the San Francisco Bay Area, or Los Angeles, or New York Metropolitan Area, or Washington D.C. …you get my drift! 
If the BNT had to actually train horses, there would be no way he/she could make the kind of money that some trainers are making today. Now some of these “trainers” couldn’t train a horse if their lives depended on it, and others are, in fact, very good horsemen, but the bottom line is that they use the designer drugs to provide efficiency. The horses wouldn’t need them if they led more reasonable lives, and compassionate handling.
What that means for you and me, is that if we strive to ride well and to become good horsemen in our care and management programs, and we are astute about the quality of the horses we choose to show, we can compete on equal terms with anyone…drugged or not. The good judges aren’t stupid, nor are they “political”. And much of the time, we (I judge)can tell if a horse is “enhanced”. The problem is that so many “trainers” think they haveto give their horses something, or are too busy to prepare them properly. When most of the class looks “enhanced”, and the others are ridden badly, or jump badly, judges have to pin what goes before them, and reward the best performances that they see. I truly believe that if the designer drugs vanished from the face of the earth, and everyone had to show without such aids, with few exceptions, the same people and horses would win anyway. Good jumping and quality horses are what a judge looks for in a hunter…and a round where all the fences look the same and the performance looks smooth and effortless…that takes good riding. If you can produce that without drugs, and it can be done, you’ll do just fine. And your horses will be much better off and happier too.
(I have a former jumper who loses most of her hunter style after the first roll back) In any case, all sections of juniors at AA (and A?) shows have to have one handy hunter class. There is also a handy for both sections of amateurs every week in FL and KY. The workings rarely have them, but they can be found at Devon and WIHS.
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