With reference to the Ned Bonnie article; this drug problem has been around for 40+ years now?? Anything short of a lifetime suspension for repeats like LG is just not going to work.
Peggy, he was also in Colo and New Mexico when married to Trudy Glefke.
New or old News??
True Colors And Vanderloo
A Virginia horse trainer is taking a forced vacation from rated horse shows after two of his training horses tested positive for GABA.
US Equestrian, the new face of USEF, suspended Chad Keenum for 6-months for two GABA violations.
The Hearing Committee states Keenum exhibited True Colors after the horse was given GABA. It happened during the Brandywine Valley Summer Series Horse Show. The Devon, PA show was from June 23-25, 2015.
The Committee also found that Keenum gave GABA to the horse Vanderloo the week prior during the Loudon Benefit Horse Show.
The panel said it recognizes the “performance enhancing effects of GABA including calming and quieting a horse without the necessity of lunging. GABA can be administered shortly before competing but still allow[s] the horse to jump or compete effectively.”
Keenum appeared for the hearing, but “did not testify to any efforts that he would make in the future to safeguard his horses,” according to the suspension notice.
US Equestrian banned gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, in 2012. The Federation said after its in-house research and administration trials involving “Carolina Gold,” containing GABA, that “many adverse reactions were documented”.
If ever there was a good example of why we need a way to check major, repeat disciplinary actions over an appropriately long enough period of time to show a pattern? This would be it.
Talking major, repeat actions, for blatant use of forbidden substances and various forms of fraud, not slightly over permitted and declared substances once 5 years ago.
F8, this is an excellent point. While as someone mentioned above, the suspended persons list does seem a little easier to navigate, it doesn’t appear to have historic suspensions on it, nor does it list/link to the cause of the suspension, so you have to go digging for that. I also think there should be some kind of “X strikes and you’re out” policy for banned substances, and there doesn’t appear to be a publicly accessible way to see that kind of pattern.
IMO, there’s also a big difference in being dinged for, say, a bute overage on a short stirrup pony, and having a derby horse come up positive for GABA or magnesium or whatever the weird drug du jour is. There should be an easy way to see that, because one would dissuade me from doing business from a person while the other might raise a caution flag but not be greatly troubling.
If USEF wants drug violations to be taken seriously, they need to institute a three-strikes rule on both owners and trainers. It’s unbelievable that people can be set down multiple times for drug violations over the span of decades without ever being banned. Since the only lifetime bans most of us can name are Ward and Valliere, the stance of the federation appears to be that the ONLY thing that will get you a lifetime ban is killing a horse for insurance money. Accidentally killing a horse, or being suspended over and over again, or being so well-known for drugging and shadiness that even random lowly amateurs like myself know about it? No problem.
And as much as I understand USEF wanting to increase membership numbers, suspensions should not be behind a paywall and suspension histories should be posted on the site. Your entire suspension history, easily Googled and tied to your USEF number, might slow the roll of trainers who disappear and pop up in a new corner of the country every 5 years. A separate page with the names of those who have lifetime bans would take about 20 minutes to set up.
why not suspend the horse as well. seems to me, that would hurt the most.
What dnv said… I believe in Canada we still suspend both horse and rider/person responsible for care of horse!
I also would like to see the notices of penalty added to a searchable archive. The newest search tools are very good and they wouldn’t even have to go into a database necessarily.
However. One hopes and assumes that they already have this information in a database for their own Hearing Committee and membership needs.
[QUOTE=judybigredpony;9009618]
New or old News??
True Colors And Vanderloo
A Virginia horse trainer is taking a forced vacation from rated horse shows after two of his training horses tested positive for GABA.
US Equestrian, the new face of USEF, suspended Chad Keenum for 6-months for two GABA violations.
The Hearing Committee states Keenum exhibited True Colors after the horse was given GABA. It happened during the Brandywine Valley Summer Series Horse Show. The Devon, PA show was from June 23-25, 2015.
The Committee also found that Keenum gave GABA to the horse Vanderloo the week prior during the Loudon Benefit Horse Show.
The panel said it recognizes the “performance enhancing effects of GABA including calming and quieting a horse without the necessity of lunging. GABA can be administered shortly before competing but still allow[s] the horse to jump or compete effectively.”
Keenum appeared for the hearing, but “did not testify to any efforts that he would make in the future to safeguard his horses,” according to the suspension notice.
US Equestrian banned gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, in 2012. The Federation said after its in-house research and administration trials involving “Carolina Gold,” containing GABA, that “many adverse reactions were documented”.[/QUOTE]
Can we highlight this??? I thought the USEF said GABA was a minimum 1 year suspension?? And Chad got 6 months for 2 horses at 2 separate shows.
Isn’t Chad often named as a go-to person for sales horses on this forum…?
[QUOTE=mortgagemyhorse;9009871]
Isn’t Chad often named as a go-to person for sales horses on this forum…?[/QUOTE]
Yes.
[QUOTE=mortgagemyhorse;9009871]
Isn’t Chad often named as a go-to person for sales horses on this forum…?[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately…Like Larry a huge part of his business is sales and imports.
With a few exceptions, none of the big players buy from Chad. Most are very wary of his tricks and tactics.
[QUOTE=DrBeckett;9009384]
I’m pretty sure if my horse was tested I would be checking the results. False positives do happen, and I’d want to make sure I wasn’t one of those.[/QUOTE]
Last time one of my horses was tested, the vet gave me the slip and said that I could check the results in x time, but that if no one contacted me (via certified letter), it meant that nothing had turned up positive.
I was going to check for curiosity’s sake, but then lost the slip. My guess is a lot of people who are certain their horses have not been drugged don’t bother to check, relying on the letter if their horse were to turn up a false positive, then they can ask for the B sample to be tested.
Since the only lifetime bans most of us can name are Ward and Valliere, the stance of the federation appears to be that the ONLY thing that will get you a lifetime ban is killing a horse for insurance money.
Apparently killing horses for insurance money won’t get you a lifetime ban, either. Paul Valliere is still on indefinite suspension, but he is not banned. The ONLY person banned from the association is Randall Cates.
This is official notice of actions taken by the United States Equestrian Federation, Inc. Hearing
Committee on April 30, 2015.
RANDALL S. CATES, of Edmond, OK, violated Chapter 7, GR702.1n; GR702.1d and the Athlete Protection Policy of the Federation’s Safe Sport Policy Handbook, in that as a result of witness testimony, a recorded conversation, text message transcripts from 2012, 2013, and 2014, and other relevant materials, as an active Federation member and Licensed Official he groomed a minor student which ultimately resulted in a sexual relationship between the two. In addition, while in a position of power and trust over the minor student, he abused the imbalance of power and engaged in voluminous sexualized text messages with the minor in violation of the Athlete Protection Policy. Finally, Mr. Cates refused to cooperate with the investigation of this matter, which the Federation notified him about in October, 2014.
The Federation conducted a two day hearing at which Mr. Cates chose not to testify but was represented by legal counsel. As a result of the evidence presented at the hearing and for these violations of the rules and the Athlete Protection Policy in the Safe Sport Policy Handbook, the Hearing Committee members present unanimously ruled that effective immediately, RANDALL S. CATES be permanently expelled from membership with the Federation and be denied all the privileges of membership including the ability to hold or exercise office in the Federation, attend or participate in Federation meetings, hold license(s) as a USEF or FEI official, or compete in international competitions pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1f. Mr. Cates is also permanently suspended from competing or taking any part whatsoever in Licensed Competitions as an exhibitor, participant or spectator pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 7, GR703.1b, and any horse or horses, completely or in part owned, leased, or of any partnership, corporation or stable of his, or shown in his name or for his reputation, whether such interest was held at the time of the alleged violation or acquired thereafter, is also permanently suspended pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 7, GR703.1c.
The Hearing Committee has not previously imposed a lifetime ban on a member. But given the serious nature of the violation, Mr. Cates’s stature at the time as a trainer of many minor athletes, his systematic and insidious grooming of the minor victim over a multi-year period for his sexual benefit, and his consummation of sexual relations with the victim while she was a minor, the Hearing Committee determined that a lifetime ban is appropriate here for Mr. Cates’s violations of the Athlete Protection Policy in the Federation’s Safe Sport Policy.
As far as everyone that keeps saying “the horse will suffer” if it is suspended, the is complete and total BS. Not ONE of these horses wakes up and says “Man, I need to put in perfect trips. I’m close to qualifying for the indoors.” Instead, they think about their next meal. It truly will not hurt their feelings to sit out for a year or two. In fact, most of these horses would benefit from some time off being hauled all over God’s creation.
If the USEF truly, truly wants to make a statement, the suspension should begin as close to a time as the horse tests possible that they can get. Effective immediately, the horse may not be shown at an USEF show. It may not be transferred into someone else’s name with the USEF. Basically, you take away the horse’s value for a year or two (however long the trainer is suspended). You hold the trainer responsible. Any horse listed in their name with the USEF beginning on the date of their suspension becomes ineligible to be shown at any USEF event during the time the trainer is suspended. THEN, the owner of the horse is set down. A freeze will also be placed on any horse in their name with the USEF for the duration of their suspension. So then they will be unable to sell or lease them during the suspension.
Surprise, clients will be terrified of being sat down and will opt to send their horses to “clean” trainers. The trainers that are subject to infractions will basically see their business crumble around them. Within six months, the USEF will see a huge reduction of drugging instances. For the time being, they are still “playing nice”. It seems to me they are doing the bare minimum to appease the masses.
While I agree with you, LockeMeadows, that the horse doesn’t care if it’s showing or not (though, in fact, I have one that gets unhappy if he stays home too long), I think the problem with setting the horse down as you describe is that the owner (especially if they were complicit in the drugging) may not be as willing to support the horse while it’s on its break, or at least not in an appropriate manner. Not all horses are ok if you just throw them out in the back 40 for a year, and precious few owners have that back 40…
Just saying. Setting a horse down for a significant amount of time may well, in fact, negatively affect its future.
I noticed on Facebook, a lot of people are showing Chad support. Tori’s mom for one.
I’m curious about the support for Chad too. Did he admit his wrongdoing? If that’s the case its refreshing to see someone taking responsibility for their actions, instead of these pros cough Kelley, Larry, Archie cough acting like GABA fell out of the sky and magically hit their horses.
It doesn’t make the doping any better, but seemingly the best of the worst I guess.
I’m curious about the support for Chad too. Did he admit his wrongdoing?
Only thing I saw is that he posted a meme that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. :no:
