Right?!
Can you imagine being an owner of a horse that collapses in the ring, and employing a trainer who would think it was fine not to tell you what happened unless compelled by the threat of a rule violation? That is wild!
7 Likes
At Saratoga last year, I believe the steward witnessed a horse collapse and I have not seen that any kind of disciplinary action was taken.
No. I actually donât think there is any mechanism within the current rules to allow the steward to individually pull a horse for extensive testing based on a visual indication, which I assume has something to do with preventing retaliation or any kind of targeting, but I think it is absolutely insane that we are spending all this budget on testing happy healthy horses for freaking zyrtec or giving the robaxin an hour too close to show time and comparatively none on testing the ones that are actually suffering.
9 Likes
Through the grapevine I have heard that witnesses changed their statements with regards to this situation leaving USEF unable to do anything. 
1 Like
Iâm still confused why the top 3 horses in every single class arenât tested. Why make it ârandomâ?
And yeah, a collapse should mandate a test. That should be a no-brainer!
4 Likes
Iâve always wondered this. I suppose some people may say the cost would be too prohibitive but I say phooey on that. if one is attending an A show, Iâm assuming they can afford an increase in drug fees. It could even be the top three in the division, not every class.
For the most part we all know who is drugging and they know they can get away with it.
12 Likes
I just donât know how itâs possible that something with that many witnesses had no one willing to say what they witnessed. I could believe that only a couple people were interviewed that day and when they werenât offering enough info it was a problem, but I have a hard time believing that whoever was investigating also reached out to the other people who likely witnessed it (the starters, the other exhibitors, the jump crewâŠ) and not a soul had anything to say. I wasnât there and am relying on a show staff memberâs description of events so donât want to repeat anything I didnât see with my eyes, but I know sheâs not someone who would likely flip under pressure.
And this is another scenario where transparency would benefit all involved. If this was investigated and it was found that, say, upon vet exam that horse had some kind of freak medical issue and no one was at fault, surely the trainers would rather have that finding published than have everyone assuming the worst. Same with a couple years back when someone was rumored to be in huge upcoming trouble due to amateur rule violations and so on. If the complaint was found baseless, I think it benefits the accused to have that finding made public. The only party protected by keeping complaints and outcomes private and only sharing sanctions is USEF, who can maintain privacy here as to why nothing was done about a publicly witnessed incident.
2 Likes
It shows that the entire culture is @#$%ed. I think weâve all worked for a place like this at some point in our lives, so you (g) know what Iâm talking about.
How to fix the culture is a better question.
11 Likes
I only wish I knew how to get people to stand up and do the right thing. It may be that the investigation yielded nothing, or that lawyers destroyed the entire case for USEF. I donât know. I only know that I was told there was ânothingâ USEF could do to get people to testify. I have been threatened with legal action for witnessing something - rolled right off me, but I can see how others would be scared off.
5 Likes
I think, in part, bc it would require way more horses to be tested than they do now and thus way more staff and logistics just to collect the samples.
Does anyone have a sense of how many samples are collected each day at a typical multi-day show? I certainly donât.
Every time Iâve been tested itâs been at least 20 minutes (more like 30 or more) from moment of initial contact to finalizing the paperwork. Even with an assistant, thatâs a lot of vet time. A recent show at the Oaks ran 50 classes on Friday, so thatâs 150 samples minus horses that were in the top three of back to back rounds. So letâs say 120 horses at 15 minutes per horse to keep the math simple: that would be thirty hours of sample collection/paperwork. And what about a horse that is in the top three of three different eq classes scattered throughout the day? Do they test them after all three classes, or at the end of the day? You could streamline things by establishing a testing barn where horses go and stay until the samples are collected but a horse might need to leave to do another class. Not saying itâs not doable, but there would likely need to be changes in order for it to happen.
9 Likes
I have wondered the same! I will say that I regularly see testers at the shows I attend. Iâve personally seen them test horses in my barn at least 3 times over the last year. They tend to hang around for quite awhile from what I observed âwaitingâ. Not 100% sure what they are always waiting for, but it doesnât seem like a super fast process, which leads me to wonder how many horses they get to on any given day 
.
4 Likes
Given the shortage of veterinarians, I wonder how many will give up time to do this. There are just no easy answersâŠ
Actually the easy answer is people need to not cheat.
For my horse who gets Zyrtec, I suppose being able to breathe is performance enhancing. But it obviously doesnât make all horses breathe better, only ones with allergy induced equine asthma. For other horses, maybe it keeps them from rubbing their hair out or getting sores. Itâs all over the place, and certainly more of a quality of life treatment than a horse show enhancement.
For the metabolic drugs, studies have reported they can make horses perkier and sometimes a bit wild. These horses in the studies also had foot pain before being medicated for their high insulin, and it helped to treat that (independent of NSAIDs which shouldnât be given at the same time as some of these meds), which would make a horse more happy to move. I think in general, we want to avoid laminitis and obesity in these IR easy keeper horses, and those meds are meant to be given every single day. And sure, theyâd be sounder and be more likely to continue a performance career than without meds.
Both of these examples, I canât think of any reason to give them to a normal horse without those chronic conditions for performance enhancement purposes, and metabolic horse treatments could have negative effects on horses without those issues.
I also donât know of any masking properties. Some of the IR meds arenât even on the listâŠI guess because some of them are new and are currently experimental uses of human drugs. But USEF told me that the same withdrawal and report rules would apply based on my description of the therapeutic use of the drugs. If they were known masking agents, theyâd for sure be on some lists and more likely the totally banned list, Iâd think.
1 Like
I think part of the problem was that if the class was supposed to go at say 1 pm it was moved to a different ring at 11 am. There goes your clearance time on Robaxin even on the name brand or generic pills.
I dabble in eventing. I love the scheduled times. No ring holds for a long time due to trainer conflicts. In my humble opinion the trainer needs to hire quality assistant trainers to be ringside when the trainer cannot be there.
I personally found it stressful to wait for my trainer to coach me from the hunter sidelines while the ring steward is having to harass everyone to come in the ring to keep things moving . Half the trip I canât hear her anyway.
No I am not a brave eventer rider. I am a better xc than in the ring with related distances.
8 Likes
Agree with that as well, though just the top three could miss someone trying the potion du jour and their horse that couldnât get around finally placed 4th. 
1 Like
Given the shortage of vets, there is no way to accomplish this.
2 Likes
There is generally a testing vet, who draws blood, which is a pretty quick process, and then several techs working with them, who are the ones who are usually waiting around, hoping for a urine sample. Thatâs the part of the process that takes some waiting.
5 Likes
So, hypothetically 4 techs to test ~120 horses in a day. Thatâs 30 horses per day or one every 20 minutes in a 10-hour day.
If one vet, ~120 horses over ten hours is 12 per hour or one every 5 minutes.
More staff would be needed.
1 Like
So maybe, just maybe, we shouldnât be competing metabolic horses or those that have chronic conditions at the USEF/USHJA level?
5 Likes
Iâve had that thought as well. I wonder if the horses in some of the weeks/months long âcircuitsâ have metabolic issues due to over feeding and stalling during those shows.
A small paddock really doesnât count as turnout where fat horses are concerned, and there are some obviously overweight horses competing, especially in the H/J and Dressage disciplines.
Horses that have metabolic issues at a young age, even if they donât present as fat, I agree, should probably not be show horses. Perhaps they can do a different job, or show at local shows, where medications can keep them comfortable without violating USEF or FEI rules.
2 Likes
The root of the problem seems to be that in the US, when a show horse is broken it is drugged so as to continue in work. In the rest of the world (FEI) if a horse is broken it generally stops working and is first given time before reaching for long term medication. I find the uniquely American phrase âserviceably soundâ really distressing. The ways a horse tells you of its pain is either by how it moves or by how it behaves and yet people habitually use medication to disguise both, to cover up the symptoms, and call it âgood managementâ.
Equating pain meds for people with pain meds for horses misses the point that humans have agency and a voice but horses can not say âNoâ.
5 Likes
