This is a completely different situation than drugging for a horse show, which is what the thread is about…
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It’s not about cheating to me. It’s unethical in that you’re using your horse as a machine and a means to be successful in your chosen sport. Why not ride dirt bikes instead?
It feels wrong to me to use medication to alter your horse’s behaviour and instinct in order to win ribbons. Maybe riding is not for you if your horses need to be doped up in order to be ridden.
I’m all for using sedation when hand walking a stall bound horse, or even to take the edge off when first rehabbing from injury. Those are safety issues in extenuating circumstances where it’s in the horse’s best interest to avoid further injury.
I’m actually quite disgusted that so many fellow COTHers find this practice acceptable. I generally feel that most of us are educated, kind horse lovers who want what’s best for our animals. This thread shows otherwise.
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Do you find lunging to also be unethical? If no, why?
Also, please know that I’m asking these questions from a place of honest curiosity. If I’m coming across as too direct, I don’t mean it. 
Edit to add a tag for @glitterless as it doesn’t look like this post was linked to their response.
justpeeping again for a question-what do other disciplines do? Do barrel racers drug? How about saddlebreds? Arabians? Quarter horses? Endurance? Is this just something that affects hunters?
Sorry! I didn’t mean to attack you, @drop_shot.
To answer your question, I don’t think that I would necessarily use the word “cheating,” but I would agree that excessive lunging is a poor substitute for hours of time spent in the saddle and quality training. Not to mention the strain put on the horse’s joints. Definitely not a practice that I would ever condone.
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I consider more than a little lunging inhumane. I think lunging is for getting the sharpest edge off. However, you can make your horse lame with the alternatives, by excessive cantering with a rider, common with hunters in my experience. A prep for a top hunter could be something like: 10 minutes lunging, 30-40 minutes trot/cantering with rider, 10 minute hack with ammy and some warm up jumps. Not condoning this, just a data point.
Thanks for bringing this up… I was about to link to this thread. Clearly there’s quite a bit of debate in H/J land about when and how sedatives should be used.
And then there’s NRHA… “sure, go ahead and drug ‘em. You just can’t use more than X, and you’ve gotta tell us you did it.”
Mind boggling.
NRHA doesn’t have to play by USEF rules. USHJA does.
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If we (general) are going to make statements like this then we might as well simply jump to the theory that riding horses is just bad and no one should be doing it.
I can watch my horses out in the pasture all day and their behavior and instinct does not ever involve anything I have ever done at a hunter show or any other show for all that matters. Lots of grazing, lots of napping in the sun, no perfect circles, no jumping down lines of fences, etc.
There are people that drug in every discipline. This is not just the hunters. Their are threads about drugging in many disciplines.
Disclaimer - I am not in any way saying I think drugging is the answer.
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I never said anything about NRHA being expected to follow another governing body’s rules. I just can’t wrap my head around allowing use of sedation like that in any discipline.
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Sorry. My statement was a general one. Not meant as a reply to you.
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That’s not what I’m saying at all. I ride. I don’t consider it wrong or inhumane. Adding drugs to the mix is not the same as riding a horse who has been taught to be ridden willingly.
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I have peripherally noticed that drugging is a serious issue in barrel racing and reining. There was a kerfluffle uproar a few weeks ago because reining wanted to (or did?) legalize sedatives DURING competition. Using much of the same justification as here… “better for the horses physically” etc etc. I have some acquaintances who barrel race and they’ve told me-- outside of perhaps the NFR in Vegas-- that there is NO testing whatsoever at barrel events. It is a literal free for all… bute, lasix, corticosteroids, clenbuterol, steroids, everything you can’t give racehorses, plus caffeine, and other stronger stimulants. Drugs to mask pain; things to make them go fast even if they ARE in pain; drugs to make them not freak out in the chute; drugs to make them breathe better. If it can give a competitive advantage, a barrel racer has probably tried it (if they can afford it). Many of them train ethically, the same as any other sport; but there are always those who cross a line.
Back to the OP:
When I was a barn rat at a h/j barn in the 90s, it was well known that Adult Ammy “Susan” would only compete in the B shows. Because at the B shows, her horse could get his ace and pack her around safely. The trainer openly said, “I doubt the horse needs it now, but Susan thinks he does, and so we don’t show him without it. So she only goes to B shows where they don’t test.” I remember being gobsmacked as a 12yo… people would SHOW on drugs?!! Ah, so young and naïve.
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I think one of the points being made here (there are obviously many!) is that there are horses that are willing and very much trained to canter around a little course at a local show who would be more humanely prepared with a little sedative rather than being lunged and ridden to lameness.
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Agreed! That feels like a pretty typical day for a show horse during a show week.
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Well, the bottom line here is it seems a whole lot of us “horse lovers” do a lot of things to the horses we claim to love for our own ego gratification, “safety” or comfort level. Perhaps many of us should return to spectating or putting the quarter in the steel pony at the supermarket for our fix. But that does not seem to be the way of the current culture, where we are entitled to ribbons and trophies and accolades even if we earn them by nefarious or shady circumstances. It is a cultural problem, and I don’t see it changing any time soon, sadly.
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I would counter that if a horse needs a sedative to do its assigned job, then it’s neither trained nor willing.
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While I wouldn’t do that much every day forever, I actually don’t think it’s necessarily excessive for a fit healthy horse that’s not getting turned out, especially if it’s spaced out a bit over the course of the day. I am an eventer and it would certainly be less than even many lower level event horses do in a day.
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I feel attacked 
Carry on 
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