I’ve done that especially for dressage shows with ride times. But Zyrtec is often better dosed 2x a day. And then if you are doing a 2 day rated show, either dressage or a h/j show with a division over at least 2 days, your second ride is now totally without meds.
It looks like the proposal to extend the time to 48 hours is not on the list of upcoming approved rule changes at least. But a very ambiguous set of rules about horse collapse is moving forward.
Hmm…I haven’t tried once a day dosing. That’s something I’ll have to check next spring. Thankfully we seem to be in the clear for this year as of last week. Certainly dressage makes it easier to do the withdrawal, since our classes are well scheduled!
The horse collapse rules are just…weird. I’m guessing it’s a response to a very specific incident that I am not aware of? Was this a big issue of horses collapsing and not being withdrawn from competition? And why would anyone even want to get up on a horse that has recently collapsed before a vet has cleared it?
There was a collapse at a H/J show last year that caused controversy. I only saw the online discussion after the fact but I believe it happened by the rings and there were accusations about the actions of the trainer involved in getting the horse back on its feet. I’m guessing this is one of those areas where they may have looked into discipline/disqualification from further competition as a result and found nothing in the rulebook to address the situation.
I would be quite surprised if they are not.
There have been quite a few reports of horses collapsing but it not being reported to the correct officials within a short enough time period for the show vets to draw correct blood panels. People also don’t report what they see due to fear of retribution. If it’s not reported it didn’t happen.
And why would anyone want to ride a horse that’s collapsed? Let’s just say they’re probably quiet at that point… and if the owner doesn’t know, there are no consequences.
The issues I have with the recent emails and new wording of the rules is nothing addressed the horse that trips in the footing and stumbles along on its knees for a few steps. Or the horse that bucks and farts on the longe line and then slips and falls down. Those can be seen as unintentional if you read the rule at face value. Neither meets the true definition of a collapse that I think is trying to be addressed.
And what about the requirement of the horse to leave the show grounds? I understand withdrawing the horse from competition, but what happens if you’re in Lake Placid for 2 weeks and on day three a horse stumbles to its knees then gets up? The hired shipper isn’t returning for 11 more days and there is no place to board the horse off show grounds and no one to care for it. Or the horse that is on trial with someone and they don’t have a way to ship it until the trial is done? There are so many issues that are not being addressed just because USEF wants to be seen as “doing something”.
I’ve heard of at least several incidents of horses collapsing and subesquently showing, even on the same day.
You’ll excuse me if I am jaded enough to suspect there was a chemical reason for the collapse in at least some of the incidents.
The medication in humans lasts over 24h; as far as I know there’s been no studies in horses to see if that’s similar. 3 of my horses get Zyrtec. For 2 of them the 24h dosing works great. My third one, I can see it starts to wear off as we get closer to 24h, but she also only takes it for being allergic to bugs and at shows there’s (hopefully) less bugs so it works out.
[quote=“Tackpud, post:206, topic:805771, full:true”]
Last winter at WEC I saw a horse SO EXCITED to graze that it tripped going down a little hill, faceplanted, went on its shoulder, and then stood back up. The whole time eagerly grabbing as much grass as it could shove into its mouth. According to the new rules that horse now must leave the show.
Also, some show grounds have their lunging on grass and anyone who has lunged a baby horse on grass has seen it try to turn too fast at the canter and sit down on its butt. Horse is no worse for wear. But now; it must leave.
I hope they amend the rule to at least state ‘while under saddle’. Because technically any horse who rolls while being handwalked has now collapsed.
Collapses not under saddle are concerning. Such as standing next to the ring waiting to go. Obviously exceptions need to be carved out for rolling and tripping such as you describe.
I’m not trying to imply they aren’t; but if USEF is going to stick with this wording for the rule at the very least they need to specify when it doesn’t apply.
The whole point is to stop the people giving shots that cause a horse to collapse in the stall, in the wash rack, in the cross ties, standing at the ring. So limiting it to under saddle would negate the whole idea. I believe the word “unintentional” removes those horses who roll while grazing or hand walking from being caught in this rule. But now we’re going to hear of lots of horses “rolling” ringside…
I’m all in favor of trying to make it harder for people to abuse their horses to fit a stupid (in my opinion) ideal, and I guess I would hope that the rule will be applied with discretion.
I do jumpers and neither of mine need to be any quieter- they are fairly lazy, actually. Regardless, I’ve never drugged a horse at a competition in my life. At a show last year I was standing ringside holding my younger horse forever due to a very long and very annoying ring conflict when he got bored and decided rolling was a good idea. Since he was wearing his new custom saddle at the time and we were right.next to the ring, I vigorously discouraged him from going down; luckily I succeeded!
I wonder if this bizarre incident would be flagged by this rule? I worried for a few minutes that my guy was actually colicking but I think he was just bored and fed up with standing around waiting. [Same, Gogo. Same.]
I completely understand the reasoning, but I am quite grateful that this rule did not happen when I was showing my narcoleptic (sleep deprived, wouldn’t lie down) Hunter. He would often fall forward to his knees standing by the ring waiting for the jog.
Poor guy.
Initially I had similar concerns, but the rule limits it to “unintentionally”. Rolling? That’s intentional. Sooooo intentional.
Now stupid horse tricks on the lunge line? That’s another issue, although I would hope that any Steward that saw a horse take off on the line and wipe out would see that wasn’t an issue and err on the side of common sense.
But I am fairly certain that someone is going to find themselves on the bad side of this rule without good cause. And you know why? Because of the bad actors in this sport. So if you’ve got an example of better wording that makes sure the bad actors get nailed and the good ones don’t, I suspect USEF would love it (but I’ve thought about it a bit and this seems like the only way to get at the bad actors). But I can see why the pendulum is swinging the other way, hard.
Tldr? This is why hj peeps can’t have nice things
This was interesting - begs the question of whether people will be more sensitive to where they’re buying horses. I am not sure how many of these substances there are that should never ever be in a horse, so it sounds pretty targeted.
According to USEF rules Pergolide can be used with no withdrawal required if a TUE is applied for and granted.
PPID horses/ponies can be shown, just not at the FEI level (they have no TUE for Pergolide.)
A horse with Cushings was the top placed american at the Maryland 5* a couple of years ago and the rider mentioned him being on medication in several interviews so I’m not sure that’s entirely correct. They clearly can compete under some conditions.
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