Serapin doesn’t test.
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A lot of people block horses feet with Serapin especially during indoors. A lot of vets are complicit with cheating.
ETA: I had a discussion w a BNT who was trying to tell me that blocking feet at indoors was a kindness because of how they pounded on them to prep them. I disagree because if their feet are that sore you are creating an issue that could have a long term consequence. But a lot of people believe what her line of thinking is.
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Good god.
I was thinking about showing recognized next year, but every thread that comes out with this kind of stuff makes me want to puke. What’s the point of the drug fee if this stuff is ok, even in competitor’s minds? I don’t want to be associated with it, at all…
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The vets who are complicit in this should have their licenses revoked.
It’s absolutely disgusting what some people will do to win.
If this is a known thing, why doesn’t USEF send its whole enforcement team to indoors and monitor the barns?
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Poor sleep can be a side effect of metformin. Metformin can be used to help with insulin reuptake in insulin-resistant horses. At a very quick glance, I do not see metformin in the prohibited substances or “permissible with TUE” list in the 2022 D&M brochure. Which of course does not mean that it’s legal if used as described.
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This discussion brings to mind the hornet’s nest Olivia Champ stirred up eight years ago by speaking out for the eq horses’ welfare.
I wonder if eq horses are particularly battered because it seems like the big barns which are virtually required for a rider to ride with to win rent these horses out for that purpose. If horses were limited to how many finals they could be ridden at, or how many classes a year, it’s interesting to see how that would affect results. Despite in theory it’s just the rider being judged, obviously people wouldn’t be paying big bucks if that was really the case.
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It seems like equitation is particularly hard on the horses because of the ridiculous prep that goes into it: lunging, 5am lessons, another lunge and ride before the class, and the finals courses themselves. I thought this Maclay course was more humane in that it tested the rider’s precision more than the scope and step of the horse. Some of the previous courses were absurd and honestly required a very solid 1.3m horse with a very. large, huge or giant step to be successful. This not only eliminates a ton of kids from possibility being competitive, it puts tremendous strain on horses not qualified for the courses. Sure, we can say that the kids just shouldn’t show unless they have a 500k horse to ride, but what kind of equity is that? The courses have to be controlled. The indoors hunter season is also very hard on horses because of the prep, but at least the courses and obstacles are more reasonable. I personally have never heard of blocking the feet (definitely the shoe removal for the hacks is unfortunately standard).
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I was saying to somebody yesterday that in a class with 220 in it, I believe only two kids fell off on Sunday, which is a very low percentage compared to some previous years.
But there were plenty of mistakes, big and small, and that way the cream was able to rise to the top. So that means the course was separating them without overfacing a huge number of them.
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Yeah, just going to echo this … even if that’s truly what Bobby7 saw (which I kind of doubt, no offense intended to the poster, but for a number of reasons, I think that’s extremely unlikely), there’s less than 0 reason to do that for an equitation horse.
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There are other substances out there that don’t test. Some of them you can just purchase, so no vet needed. However, I don’t know why anyone would pull shoes and block. The possibility of it wearing off before the round started should be enough to discourage that.
Mostly I hear of people blocking (usually above the hock) when they want to improve dressage movement.
Particularly because, as we saw, you can go in the eq riding a horse that’s 3-4/5 lame and that doesn’t affect how you’re judged at all. 
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I deleted my post. I think it was inappropriate.
I was there all week, it was when the hunters were going earlier. I know what I saw, this trainer was a friend of my trainer, I was watching the vet do it. It was Serapin.
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Okay, so to be clear, it sounds like you were at the NHS and you saw a trainer do this before a hunter under saddle class. Is that right? The phrasing of your first post made it sound like this was done at the Maclay finals prior to the flat phase of the class.
This doesn’t make it right. I don’t like pulling shoes for the flat at all, never mind blocking their feet (!!) but I’m asking for clarification because the class where you saw this happen is germane to the topic of the thread.
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If USEF would even just monitor barn aisles before big classes and enforce the 12 hour injection rule, the playing field would be different. Tons of horses get tryptophan to the vein before going to the ring. Or thiamine. No test for these as they are naturally occurring. Not sure if they can develop it like they did GABA. Maybe they are not the majority but a meaningful percentage.
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I’ve heard of feeding tryptophan…how in the world does one inject it??
I’d find a new trainer if they were ok with their trainer friends doing this.
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You need a script, but my vet prescribed it when my pony had stall rest for injury. Ace was too strong for him but he needed something.
He was super chill on it and he is normally a busy body.
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And needing a script and injecting it before the class are not mutually exclusive. People order it from the vet and give it to the horse at the show. Like banamine 
