3 high level riders that are eventers were suspended for about a year for doing some sort of drug a couple of years ago.
2 Likes
Adderall (they said they needed it for a medical reason, but hadn’t obtained an exemption).
2 Likes
In addition, Canada did not qualify a show jumping team for Tokyo because the team earned a qualifying medal at the Pan Ams but one of the riders was disqualified for a positive drug test. She had had difficulty with altitude sickness and used the local remedy, coca tea. The alkaloid coca is the basis for cocaine.
I’ve longed myself to death before a horse show back in my track and cross country days 
but I have never understood why anyone would want to jump around with their senses impaired. There are more effective ways to test the limits of your health insurance coverage, and the other ones don’t get an animal hurt.
4 Likes
Thank you, I was busy all day but this is what I was going to write in response.
1 Like
Yabbut there’s another problem: Show managers have made it really expensive to teach a young horse how to go to horse shows.
My very favorite way (in yestercentury) was to bring a project horse of mine along with me while I groomed for a pro. I’d say “Hey, just add one stall for me on the end to your row, ok?” and that was that. I didn’t enter any classes, I didn’t pay any fees. I’m not sure the show office even knew my horse was there.
And then before and after my day, I’d get my horse out. That horse got the chance to see the chaos and retreat to his/her stall, then do the whole thing again and again for 5 days in a row. By Sunday morning, the horse was making much better decisions than he/she did on Tuesday evening.
Today, it would cost you a whole lot more to bring that horse along for the ride and give him a chance to learn how to go to a horse show before someone was going to pay their money and try to compete.
FWIW, I don’t think a one-day show gives as good training to the young horse as does the multi-day show where they have a many chances to see and learn to cope with chaos, and where they get the chance to get tired such that “Meh… I think I’ll just keep my feet on the ground this time. Freaking out seems like a lot of work” can happen at last.
But my point is that horses need to be given a chance to learn, and the modern industry isn’t affording them that.
13 Likes
I’m rather new to the world of AQHA and Paint shows. @Peggy mentioned that the state of Calif. provides drug testers who may or may not appear at any show, but that’s not how it is in most states, and definitely not here in Arizona. Granted, if it’s a major, high profile show, then everyone is put on notice that there will be testing. Yet that still means that state breed club shows, and local schooling series, are kind of a lawless land when it comes to drugging.
When I took my young Paint to his first schooling show, I was tacking him up at the trailer and I could clearly overhear a little girl from the walk-jog division call out to her mom that her horse was behaving much better because the trainer had given him some “happy juice.” Beyond the obvious ethical concerns, WTF is that teaching this little girl? When things aren’t going your way, the answer is to reach for chemicals? 
11 Likes
Right. We’ve all seen the zombies cantering around with their chins to their chests, usually in draw reins, every morning. Don’t know how people justify (or conveniently ignore) that, but they do.
(And to be 100% clear, my horses get zero prep. The baby green horse gets hacked in the ring the first morning for about 20 minutes and that’s it.)
7 Likes
They are not allowed, but it still happens. There have been several eventers who appeared in the “back of the magazine” because their horses tested positive for something banned.
Also, at unrecognized/schooling Horse Trials, there are no provisions for drug testing, so who knows what is going on.
(I’m a licensed Eventing TD)
12 Likes
What “olden” days were those? People did drug, especially with ace and Bute, back in the day, even at the larger rated shows. Things like “polling” were also allowed and very common.
1 Like
This is something that has always intrigued me. I’ve heard that dressage and eventing competitions don’t allow any drugs, even at the sub-FEI levels, but I’ve never found any rule that separates the non-FEI dressage and eventing competitions from any other USEF division with respect to drug rules. Which would seem to imply that drugs are allowed to the same extent as the other divisions. Finally, I have someone who can answer this for me, at least with respect to eventing. Any clarification would be appreciated. Thanks.
Based on my experience in HJ land over the decades plus eventing experience 20+ years ago, and dressage experience 15+ years ago, I would say that the use of behavior-modifying drugs is way more common in hunters/eq than in eventing or dressage. As in I never saw any use of such drugs in any barn I rode with or was stabled adjacent to in dressage or eventing. Notice that I’ve separated out hunters/eq. Other than anti-inflammatories, I haven’t seen much, if any, drug use in the jumper crowd.
5 Likes
Interestingly, rodeos are excluded from the California drug rules, as are gymkhana-only competitions.
Reference - https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/AHFSS/Animal_Health/EMMP/
Saddlebreds and Arabians should fall under USEF as those are USEF disciplines.
I had forgotten. ONCE, since 2004 when I moved back here, I saw testers show up to a B/C rated show. Once. A whole MESS of people scratched, immediately packed up, and left. So ONCE I have seen testers at a local level B/C show in almost 18 years. I’m not saying they haven’t been to other shows here and there-- but it’s REALLY infrequent.
3 Likes
I was replying to arlomine’s comment about the “olden days,” which were apparently better because people trained instead of drugging. My comment was exactly what yours is, which is that they drugged quite a bit!
1 Like
I’ve become less and less of a fan of drugging for behavior modification, even the dex used by some hunter/eq barns bc it’s supposed to make the horse calmer. And the dex is legal within limits for USEF (and California).
I had a hard horse. Spooky to the jumps. An ugly buck and spin. I trail rode. I rode in community rings to get him used to stuff. And I took him to what seemed like a million one-day shows to do 2-3 rounds first thing in the morning. I was lucky that I could ride to some of those venues; others I had to trailer to. All of this would probably be out of my price range now, or at least out of the price range for someone in the situation I was in 30 years ago. I never did get that sucker to be reliable to the jumps, so I converted him to a dressage horse. But all that desensitization helped and he was pretty darn reliable as a dressage horse, with little to no lunging. There was one notable exception when I got bucked off showing at third level.
Current horse is now doing the jumpers, in part because I think it’s easier and more natural to get to the ring. The day we get to the show, I groom, get on, and ride. No lunge. No prep. No ear plugs. Some of this is who he is. But some is the mileage he got, starting when he was 3-4, from his breeder. He didn’t always show, or show much. But he went.
2 Likes
Not just poling, but we warmed up in the barn aisles. They set up these metal contraptions and hung strips of jump rail rests in them.
1 Like
The USEF drug rules are the same across all the disciplines. It’s hard to really say for sure whether rule breaking is more or less prevalent in any one discipline, but IME in eventing. dressage, and jumpers, tranquilizer use outside of rehab situations is not really openly accepted/ admitted to the way it is in hunters. I’m sure it still happens to some extent, but I haven’t really seen it.
5 Likes
Wat?!
My show horses have all been No Prep Wonders, but that’s a totally normal regular schooling workload for a fit horse. I do 30-40 min of trot and canter with 20 minutes of walking sprinkled in All. The time.
(I also run 1.8 miles to the gym and 3.5 miles back 3x per week so going on a 30 or 40 minute run myself regularly is also no problem. Not asking the horses to do anything I can’t do myself, here.)
How long do people ride for if 30-40 minutes of actually working is considered inhumane??
23 Likes
Maaaayyyybbeeeee if we told Suzie “Look, you aren’t putting the work in to get strong and fit and balanced, so you won’t be able to show TopHunterAlways because he’s too advanced for you. Put the work in, and in a couple months we will revisit the topic. Today your ride is on SteadyEddie because he’s what you can handle” … then drugging at a show wouldn’t be so tempting.
I get that that ^ is a hard conversation to have, when the trainer down the road will say “SURE! You can ride TopHunterAlways!” while sliding the needle in the vein. But it’s a conversation that has to be had.
Lots and lots of riders need to work on their fitness. Need to drop those stirrups for 10 minutes EVERY ride. Need to go around in two point for 5 minutes EVERY ride. But they don’t and they won’t. They take the word “hobby” very seriously, and the barn is more of a social thing than a hard sport. WHICH IS FINE - but they need to stay on SteadyEddie, or stay out of the show ring.
And, as I stated in another thread, if the fear of getting hurt or falling off or the horse spooking is THAT crippling, you seriously need to find another sport. It doesn’t matter what horse it is, it could be SteadyEddie to the MAX, he could still trip and fall. Falling off a horse, or a horse spooking, is 100% not an if in this sport but rather a WHEN, and if you aren’t comfortable with that, get a dirtbike.
14 Likes
“Post two, sit one” explains it.
3 Likes
In my area there are several barns who are known to drug at shows. And of course they win. I know that one of them even drugs their ponies for lessons. They also do a lot of lunging and the ponies are subjected to very long canters first thing in the morning with pony squashers. I’m wondering if they realize that all that cantering just increases the ponies’ fitness!
One kiddo that moved barns to be with a very very BTN was told that horse could not be drugged and they’d have to learn how to ride the horse without the help of drugs. She did.
I believe that the crux of the issue is that parents who may or may not be aware of the drugging or the ethics behind it expect little Susie to get in the ring with Pooky and win immediately. Parents are paying big bucks for the ponies and horses and don’t want to wait a couple of seasons until Susie learns to ride the spook or whatever an issue may be. They want return on their investment, bragging rights, and great photos!
At shows I lunge only on days off. Maybe 20 minutes of trot in just his bridle so that himself can stretch and move how he wants. I also do a lot of hand grazing.
1 Like
