I had a farrier who was brilliant with difficult to shoe horses and this was what he believed - that when horses are sedated they aren’t truly absorbing and processing what’s happening to them, so a positive experience on ace or dorm doesn’t teach them much. It helps get them through the scary thing, but they’ll be just as upset about it next time it comes around - whereas if you can do the scary thing without them sedated, it might be pretty hairy the first time or two, but the horse will quickly realize nothing that bad is happening and the problem resolves.
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Agree. If people aren’t allowed to drive after being given a sedative or anesthesia for a medical procedure, how is it safe to ride a sedated horse ?
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your farrier sounds like a keeper.
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I am always curious about the lack of uproar on the 15 classes limit for the USEF and Maclay in a qualifying period - if you don’t make it by your 15, you don’t make it. I wonder if similarly local HS ASSNs would find better success limiting the number of times a certain division could be done per year. IE, Susie point chaser can do the low adults 20 times a season, but that’s her cap. She is welcome to show in any other class at 1, 5, or 20 more shows in the year but it has to be a different one. Schooling hunter! Low hunter! Pleasure hunter! Who cares! Just can’t be the one she maxed her chances in…keeps the income via class fees coming but stops the absurdity of 40 local shows in a year
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Yeah, I don’t think NOT restricting it to something reasonable is really in the best interests of the horse.
Most people wouldn’t show that much anyways, either due to finances or caring about the horse’s well being. But there are some that are in it for accolades only, and have money to burn.
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I work with a rescue and can tell you this is not generally accurate. We get in some really terrible farrier behavior cases and usually one or two good experiences with sedation is all it takes to turn them around.
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I recall that Acepromazine Maleate is legal at NCHA shows so long as a report is filed with the show office. I don’t remember what the maximum dosage is. It used to be legal at NRHA shows, but I don’t think that’s true any more. It’s been ages since I’ve shown either discipline, but you’d never, ever see horses LTD at these shows. I don’t know if the use of Ace has anything to do with that, or the fact that these horses tend to be quieter and better broke at a younger age. Honestly, even though it may be legal, I don’t think there is widespread use of Ace at these shows. Well trained horses, bred for the job, rarely need it.
I’ve seen this too, there’s many roads to Rome!
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying, but you can continue showing in Maclay classes until you qualify. The 14 classes maximum doesn’t apply if you haven’t qualified. If it takes you 20 classes to qualify, you can do 20 classes and then you have to stop. I’m not sure if its the same for the USEF.
You’re right - I misspoke! I was using it as an example that once someone does their 15 and has qualified they can’t keep doing that one class but can show in any others. So, perhaps local assns could consider something similar that once someone does a division X times in a year they cap in that class but are welcome to keep showing in others. A pipe dream, surely!
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At my barn, if you don’t clean up your crosstie area before and after lessons, it’s 10 minutes without stirrups.
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There are plenty of activities and schooling shows in many areas to take horses for exposure etc. without paying $200 to get out of the trailer.
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My experience with having both bone-on-bone arthritic knees get HA injected at the same time was totally opposite.
Topical was daubed on, but needle went in with just a barely pinprick sensation. Then nothing as the dose went in.
Whatever anaesthetic was included acted immediately, I was less gimpy right away. Walked sound out of the office.
Unfortunately, the 2nd round - 6mos later - did less good afterwards, 3rd lasted for even less time, I never got the 4th.
ETA:
Did not realize this was a revived zombie 
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This. Our local university hosts a holiday fun show each winter. $30/ride all day. Hunter classes from ground poles - 3’ and jumpers too. It’s a beautiful facility with a huge (heated!) indoor with great footing and friendly students/staff. It’s also one of the more distracting, spooky indoor facilities in our area - motorized garage doors instead of barn doors on the attached stabling, bleachers directly against the rail on one long side, far end of the arena opens into a lobby area with people coming and going all day.
This is the show I mentioned taking my green OTTB to upthread. I chose this event because I knew overnight stabling and entry would run me less than $100, whether I just schooled or rode in 5 classes. It took the pressure off. It was a good thing too, because while he schooled well Friday night and Saturday morning, he was totally overwhelmed by the full bleachers and a busy show ring. So we stood tacked and watched the activities for a while.
Even if the schooling show opportunities aren’t as accessible or affordable, keeping an eye open for random off property experiences can be super helpful too. A farm about 15 minutes from ours put on an in-hand obstacle challenge last spring. It was a very casual event with all kinds of bizarre but safe obstacles (pool noodles, tarp, balloons, water, etc.) Did I think my hopeful show hunter would ever need to deal with me shooting a water gun next to him in the real world? No, not really. But leaving home and learning that different sights and sounds weren’t going to eat him was still good education and it was $20 well spent. The goal is for careful and measured exposure to create a horse who can cope with the odd stupid or unexpected thing without needing to be drugged in the first place.
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Well, in my case, I have to pay $200 minimum to get them in the trailer. Not everyone has a truck and trailer to haul all over either, so if you have a young horse in a show barn, cheap “field trips” are not really all that common. My last one-day local show, for a new-to-me mare, cost $500 in hauling and training fees and $150 in show fees for two classes.
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Love this. Reminds me of my instructor and her strictness way back in the day when I was an arrogant kid. The more you whined, the harder it got. She was brutal when needed, and soft when needed.
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Lucky
I thought I would levitate, it hurt so much. Not the injection, the sensation of the knee/ joints being pushed apart, I guess. But I did feel quite a bit better after I walked it off
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Or…you might consider that it’s not how many shows, it’s how many classes. Many of our horses show at least twice a month. They spend 2-3 days at the show, jump a total of five o/f classes and an u/s (or two undersaddles and 4 o/f if it’s a local 3 day show) and are home the rest of the week. It’s hardly overly taxing on them.
I’d much rather than that people who go to 4 shows a year and jump a gazillion classes at each show!
Just curious: have you ever had a rehab case, freshly back and quite fit from her time in the shop, who needed short eval rides at walk and trot, but also wasn’t allowed to canter under saddle, make sharp turns, or generally be put to work in the event that airs above the ground started happening?
Because three extremely well-regarded sport horse vets plus my very experienced trainer were all unanimous that not drugging that before getting on was a great way for someone, either horse or human, to need emergent medical attention.
(I’m aware that the thread is about shows. I agree about shows. But the above post was explicitly, expressly, unilaterally universal, and I don’t agree with that… though I suppose it’s true that we can all always use more training.)
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Agree, critical and standard practice for rehabbing some horses. Coming off a suspensory innjury over here, horse off for 7 months, at a rehab swimming facility for 2, they began tack walking him and the rehab vet (and another vet), and then our own vet warned us to not, under any circumstances, walk or trot the horse under saddle unsedated for risk to him and to us. Two of us still got bucked off even while he WAS sedated (one of these riders a well-known professional). We’ve had to medicate him for the first few turn-outs and started him in a smaller paddock where he couldn’t get a good run going. One size doesn’t fit all! Now he is back in work and in his big field!
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