I’m glad yours didn’t need more than form for an in total turnout, but every situation is different. We proceeded according to our vet’s advice to make sure both of us were safe. 
Well, mixing Traz and Ace is not particularly safe for the horse, but I’m glad yours didn’t have any serious side effects.
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One thing you can always count on COTH for: a stranger on the internet thinking they are a better judge of a situation than the treating veterinary team
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No, and that’s my point. I’m agreeing with you that sedating to ride as part of a rehab program is very different than sedating a horse and having a kid or client jump it in a competition, which is what several posters upthread were defending as totally safe, acceptable and also not cheating if it’s at “local” shows.
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Got it, I misunderstood!
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Like the majority here, I’m not at all opposed to using an appropriate, veterinarian-prescribed dose of a sedative for rehab purposes.
I am, however, always mildly amused by these discussions. It seems to me that drugging vs. longing is always presented as the choice to be made here. A few will also throw in training to teach the horse rather than resorting to either of those options. Which is an important point.
But almost no one ever offers my preferred alternative: breed/buy horses that are sane enough and kind enough not to behave in dangerous, explosive ways. A green horse can be nervous and not try to kill itself or its rider in response to those nerves. There are many, many horses out there who would never dream of behaving that way…and they come out of the womb with that mindset. I much prefer to deal with those sorts. 
And, yes, you can get BOTH a good mind AND a talented, athletic, sensitive mount.
Take my current young horse. She has plenty of “green horse” moments and certainly isn’t immune to spooking, impatience, or tension. But she has never once offered to do anything truly dangerous, either in hand or under saddle. It’s just not her personality. In this video, she was 10 months old and experiencing her first horse show/warm-up arena, after hauling 6.5 hours the night before and staying in a stall overnight (she normally lives out 24/7): https://www.facebook.com/grey.parks/videos/10101588994594418/. Fast forward 2.5 years to her first show under saddle. First time ever being ridden in a big group of horses, and we had transportation issues that resulted in arriving at the show grounds (where she’d never been) too late to do anything more than groom, tack up, and go straight into the arena: https://www.facebook.com/grey.parks/videos/1529788194036838. And lest anyone be tricked into thinking this is just a “Quarter Horse” brain…she’s half Arabian. 
Now, I’m not saying every horse is capable of this or has to be. But I am saying that this is an alternative to a horse that needs to be sedated, longed, or desensitized to death in order to be safe in a new situation.
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Wow this thread has taken some weird twists and turns!
Just jumping on (albeit very late) to say that I can’t think of a reason to ever tranq a horse for show purposes. For rehab I have ridden one on Reserpine, and a few times on a low dose of Ace. But zero chance that I want a horse that’s having to fight through any sort of a sedative to stay on its feet (meaning, if it trips or something, is less apt to catch itself). And I agree with Montana’s Girl - why is the option being presented as “lunging to death” versus “drugging”? How about neither??
I think I fit in both of the “alluring to think about drugging” buckets - I ride/start/show young green ones and I have a young daughter. For me, I don’t want to be sitting on one that’s drugged, period. And for her, if I had a horse or pony I thought was inclined do something dangerous…it’s not the pony (or horse) for her, period. I definitely held my breath a bit the first few times she took her little old pony to shows for the walk/trot (since he had never shown before), but there was never a thought to sedate him, and I can’t imagine thinking that my child would be safer on a horse that was sedated. I have seen more unpredictability, in fact, from sedated horses - the threshold to spook might be higher, but if it does happen, it’s far worse than if the horse had its wits about it.
I can’t, with a straight face, say “never,” because we all know that the minute you proclaim something so definitively, a situation arises where suddenly it makes all sorts of sense. But I can’t understand it from my perspective right now.
I just took a 4yo to his first few shows, which got me thinking about this again. I can see the allure, as I mentioned, of doing something that makes it even a tiny bit more predictable. But I think drugging is absolutely the wrong answer. Though to that point, I also don’t typically lunge my young ones because part of my goal with a 4yo is to figure out (and help them sort out) what to do with excess energy that doesn’t involve “blowing up” (though I would definitely incorporate a quick lunge if I had one that did ‘want’ to blow up).
As for the assertion (a la Ernie Oare) that we should make it legal??? WTF? The part that gets me in that argument is that the cheaters will just up their game. There is no such thing as an even playing field when some people won’t play by the rules no matter what the rules are! Make “a small amount” legal. And suddenly the big drug barns are going to drug with “a large amount”. Whatever you make legal will shift the playing field so that the notorious offenders just do something even worse. There is no such thing as “leveling the playing field”. SMH
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Yes!! It is really sad how often one meets timid, nervous riders who are just over horsed.
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Thank you.
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Exactly. And that same person seldom realizes how much more fun (and often, more show ring success as well) they’d have with a slightly smaller, quieter, less athletic horse that is well suited to their ability level rather than the huge, reactive creature that needs multiple trainer rides per week and drugs and longeing just for them to be able to take lessons and make it around 2’6” courses.
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That describes my horse. He’s by Rotspon, who is known for producing sane minds and superb temperaments. My guy was the same at age 5 as he is now at 22. Perfect for a chicken like me!
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Thank you, PNWjumper- your post is spot-on.
I think one other thing to consider is that there is a large range of tolerances for horse behavior. What one person considers nutty might not ring those alarms for someone else, who might just see it as “horse needs to get out the fidgets” or whatever.
There is a person in my barn who only sees horses through a single lens: as either dead quiet and bomb-proof, or as monsters waiting to do something crazy to their poor riders. She was on the hunt for a new horse for over a year, and it had to be dead, dead, dead, so she was having trouble finding this robot. She would go around asking every single person she came across whether or not their horse was spooky. I was on my jumper one day and she asked if I would describe him as spooky. I said no, so she said, “Oh, then he never does anything unexpected? He’s bomb-proof?” Me: “Um…no? Because he’s a horse?”
I mean, my boy is pretty mellow but he’s a very powerful, big-framed guy and when he chooses to freak out it’s pretty spectacular! It feels like you are sitting on a bomb that may or may not go off.
I just got a new young jumper who is very looky and much less mellow than my other guy, which is understandable since his life has been very unsettled in the last month! This other person asked how I was liking him, and when I gushed about what an amazing horse he is she said: So, he isn’t spooky? WTF, lady??? Yes, he IS spooky! He is a young, green horse! He just moved here after a really long trip! If he wasn’t a bit looky I’d wonder what was going on! Sheesh…
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I think part of why its presented as lunging vs drugging is because are not talking about our own personal decisions, but rather what we assume others will do.
I may choose (and did choose) to give my very quiet and sane gelding many off-property adventures prior to asking him to compete somewhere. No drugs or lunging involved.
But I also know that there are some local trainers who take clients to schooling shows overmounted because they still want to collect the show fees. I can make different choices - like better training or choosing a sane mount - but I can’t make that choice for others.
If I accept there are trainers out there going to schooling shows who are still going to let/encourage those clients to show unsuitable horses, and then you ask me would you prefer the horse get lunged for an hour and then its mouth death-gripped in every class or get a little ace to prevent it from taking out everyone in the schooling ring or launching Susie Q into the rafters - I’m not sure what my answer is. I think its all terrible horsemanship, but the question to me is which is cumulatively less bad for the horse at the end of the day.
Of course the real answer is better training, not showing yet, finding a more suitable mount. But realistically, if a trainer is already in the position of needing drugs/an hour lunge to keep a client safe, they probably are not the trainer who is going to take that route.
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I’ll make two points here.
Count me as another who rode an aced horse (in rehab) once and will never do it again. It felt like being in the passenger seat with a drunk driver.
Also, upset horses blow through tranqs so I don’t see why doping scared or upset horses at shows would seem like a good or effective idea (not to mention the fact that it’s cheating and putting ribbons above horse welfare).
My vet and I have used dormosedan once for one of my girls who decided that she wasn’t having a teeth float that day, period. She looked completely drugged until the vet pulled out the mouth-cranker-opener (whatever it’s called), and suddenly she was wide awake and ready to fight. We rescheduled the appointment. 
And as far as using it to reduce trauma memories, my vet came out and tranquilized my horse as as yearling when I had her shipped to my new house across the country. She loaded fine in a step-up or ramp trailer, but when the big tractor trailer with the steep ramp showed up, there were problems. She stepped onto the ramp, but it bounced, and she was terrified after that. My vet, who was standing by just in case there were problems, gave her a hefty dose of sedative, but again, her adrenaline burned right through it. We never got her loaded that night.
I had to leave her behind with my trainer, who built a steep ramp and worked with her for a month until the shipper could come back. That time she loaded easily with no drugs.
Speculum
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That term popped in my mind immediately, but then my brain said, no, that’s what the gynecologist uses to torture his/her patients!
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Wait, was your vet thinking of doing a float without sedation? I don’t know that I’ve seen just dorm done for that, it’s some sort of more-intense cocktail.
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None of mine have ever needed sedation for floating (except for Rosie exercising her chestnut mare rights to be difficult that one time). The speculum (thanks @trubandloki!) goes on and they stand calmly for the process (minus the occasional head toss). Of course, if they objected, the vet is always ready to tranq them. It may be because I used an old dentist who traveled from Ny for years in PA who had a gift for floating without a speculum at all, and keeping the horses so calm and comfortable that they never even tried to move their heads away. He was so good and in demand that you had to schedule a year in advance.
Rosie may have been sedated to remove her wolf teeth, but I can’t remember that far back (she’ll be 23 in January).
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My Old Man doesn’t need sedation as he will stand for anything, but I figured that no matter how gentle the practitioner it’s got to be a pretty unpleasant experience so I ask for them to gently sedate and add more if needed.
I wish I could have sedation for my dental visits!
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I hear you on human sedation.
I’d love to have a cannula of nitrous for my dentist visits! 
But many years ago (1990s, pre-powerfloat) my vet did manual floats sans speculum & no sedation.
On my TB & DH’s TWH.
No one died 
Now my vet has Dental Days where you can haul in for an equine dentist.
She does powerfloats w/sedation (& speculum) at my farm.
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