tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68861610965404851652024-03-17T03:14:40.551-06:00A Veterinarian's TakeThe Nature of Horses.
Equine Behavior, Horsemanship, Domestication.
Racehorse Advocacy. Racehorse management, bloodstock selection, conformation and behavioral assessments.
Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, racehorse consultant, and novelist. Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.comBlogger130125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-33247512763011986882022-11-08T10:53:00.005-07:002022-12-01T18:28:31.319-07:00Breeders' Cup Keeneland 2022 Failing the Horse <div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Breeders’ Cup Keeneland 2022, coda</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Medication remains intense--Breakdowns continue</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I attended this year’s Breeders’ Cup to celebrate the revival of the American game, to finally—after half a century of advocacy—enjoy racing where horses were not intravenously injected with furosemide prior to going to the saddling paddock. When I arrived Sunday and read the permissive medication rules still in place in the Breeders’ Cup Horsemen’s Guidebook, I could feel the trouble coming. We were all hoping for an injury free event. The Europeans came through, but the Americans did not. Two of their horses did not make it across the finish line.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIc9Mqak6W6ZEh2j5aAVlJ2nRC6V0UzhDe-yW0XY8jhy0PJWsPeCB2ogGQSzEwVWPdzssXfu0kGdTQQcM3YSxdaZ70E6pFz_J6HXzxte-3eTn3MJmbgdGXSHmE631DAJFoh_hD7q2Ed96TyDsQuPzoO9iPdfKe26U6d8pSQg0stGSysnBwUvA-E-wi/s2048/straw.JPG" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIc9Mqak6W6ZEh2j5aAVlJ2nRC6V0UzhDe-yW0XY8jhy0PJWsPeCB2ogGQSzEwVWPdzssXfu0kGdTQQcM3YSxdaZ70E6pFz_J6HXzxte-3eTn3MJmbgdGXSHmE631DAJFoh_hD7q2Ed96TyDsQuPzoO9iPdfKe26U6d8pSQg0stGSysnBwUvA-E-wi/s320/straw.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Monday morning, seeking more information, hoping to ally my fears, I accompanied a prominent Kentucky attending veterinarian as he made his rounds through the Breeders’ Cup barns. He picked me up as I was making the daybreak walk from the frontside where the media shuttle dropped us off each morning, to the stable area, a good mile hike. The Kentucky gentleman noticed my gimp, stopped his car, and took me in as he passed by on his way to work. It was Monday, so time was soft. We visited about trainers and racehorses, Europeans and Americans, the differences therein. We visited openly and extensively. Call it professional courtesy, call it ‘birds of a feather,’ we talked vet talk. We listened to each other. He, having read all of my New York Times racehorse advocacy articles, and I, knowing his honorable reputation, got on fine. We had met briefly at the Run Happy Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland in 2015. As our conversation narrowed to the horses at hand, he explicated all of the impending American medication scenarios, hiding nothing from me, knowing nothing could be hidden from my seasoned eyes:</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The majority of American Breeders’ Cup runners would be injected with Lasix 24 hours before loading into the gate. This potent diuretic alters the metabolism and pharmacodynamics of previously injected medications (masking). This is one reason the permitted 24-hour drug is given, as its ability to manage pulmonary fragility and prevent EIPH is by and large absent by race time. Lasix to flush. The good doctor noted that Mr Baffert’s recent problematic post-race positives in Kentucky from horses medicated in California took place in stakes races where raceday furosemide was not allowed. Sophisticated doping strategies falter when Lasix is no longer part of the formula.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Most of the treated American Cup horses received 10cc IV, the maximum allowable. Furosemide is showing up in the post-race blood and urine samples as you read this. Thresholds have been set somewhere, although they were notably absent from the Breeders’ Cup Horseman Guide that stated that 24-hour Lasix was permitted, while the thresholds for all the other drugs were published, an interesting omission, I thought, one still missing, I might add. If the Breeders’ Cup post-race Lasix positives are below established furosemide thresholds, nothing will be said. I personally received this information from the Breeders’ Cup and Kentucky regulatory veterinarians. After we finished our ride around the Smith barns, my attending veterinary friend introduced me to the examining veterinarians who were hard at work. In all, I visited with 11 regulatory veterinarians and 2 attending veterinarians during the week preceding Domestic Spending and Epicenter’s feature race fractures. Drugs and regulators were plentiful.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpip8S7L-ws8NytsZypWyG9WxY96BWrbACh5WuXbPssxfKCqBaYjOEfnyufx2Ula6jAuF7y72C_2r2LCcN_ibrUu9HDyYqdzpOwyJiw5-EMvnJz8fdyK7nMbgmi4NRbSu0hZNXrGJ5eli5_Aqxps4COuQpttOXRR1_BsZsqIo9d9IlD9ItfwxMJK-9/s1600/By%20and%20thru.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpip8S7L-ws8NytsZypWyG9WxY96BWrbACh5WuXbPssxfKCqBaYjOEfnyufx2Ula6jAuF7y72C_2r2LCcN_ibrUu9HDyYqdzpOwyJiw5-EMvnJz8fdyK7nMbgmi4NRbSu0hZNXrGJ5eli5_Aqxps4COuQpttOXRR1_BsZsqIo9d9IlD9ItfwxMJK-9/s320/By%20and%20thru.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ultimately, regulation failed as regulation does in permitted pre-race drug jurisdications. In the Classic, the all-time leading American trainer’s horse suffered a fetlock fracture. Out went the ambulance in the most anticipated race of the century. I watched with glasses four floors up. Epicenter faltered badly when asked to move through horses on the backstretch, nearly going down. Joel Rosario, no stranger to leg-fracture spills, kept him afoot, and pulled him up deftly and professionally, saving two lives. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The outriders and ambulance crew restrained and manhandled Epicenter to keep him upright and off the fractured canon bone. Veterinarians alongside, the uncentered horse hopped three-legged into the ambulance. He rhythmically threw his head as he moved toward the ambulance to lessen the weight bearing of his right front, that catastrophic gait that still makes me shudder. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Flightline galloped. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The ambulance sat stopped for a few minutes after Asmussen’s horse was loaded, a worrisome sign to me. I am an extensively-experienced track veterinarian who has been in ambulances with three-legged horses more than once. The impact of those experiences runs deep, especially when a jockey is being loaded into the other ambulance. The stopped ambulance likely allowed the outriders and veterinarians to suspend Epicenter in a hydraulic squeeze device—taking weight off the broken leg—where it was safe for them to draw blood, medicate pain, soothe excitement, and secure the splint. Pain managed, stability provided, the ambulance departed. Epicenter was transported to Rood and Riddle, a primary sponsor of the Breeders’ Cup, to undergo orthopedic surgery.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Epicenter’s fracture has been screwed back in place and it is said he is being syndicated to stud to perpetuate the cycle of breeding horses whose legs do not hold up to racing. Neither laws of the state nor laws of genetics nor morals nor equine welfare concerns impede American owners, breeders, and trainers. Drug free solutions as to how to prevent these tragedies were put on full display by the foreigners at this year’s Cup. Despite readily available training strategies that enhance soundness of wind and limb, Americans continue to rely on drugs to train horses. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The results of the American trainer affair with drugs are tragically apparent. Americans cannot get away from unnecessarily locking their horses down requiring a heavy dependence on medication. Overly-confined horses become fragile of limb and wind, and a perceived need for medication follows. This medication cycle exacerbates racehorse vulnerability to injury and subsequently imperils jockey safety. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Confinement and medication are the downfall of American racing. Rather than a drug-free Flightline celebration, this year’s Breeders’ Cup became a tragedy rivalling Eight Belles bilateral breakdown in the Kentucky Derby. This year’s breakdowns were made all the more tragic for me considering all the time that has passed since that first Saturday in May. Why can lessons in animal welfare not be learned by Americans? Unlike the Eight Belles breakdown—and to their credit—the Kentucky regulatory veterinarians kept all of the horses on their feet despite the fractures, thus sparing the jockeys’ injury. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Euros and Asians demonstrated how to race safely. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_s8ujehOXeNSZXvMcYx_sPcC5LMJNyQWOtyKX_H1wCeyGzAXiqc_j68agYVsu24miDDZAP5lRIytPdpClDz9IdHS9MT76BQiTrFDZQdwCf6zfX-cHA2256NqgScdcy1u7lKuvLOOrMC5EbYKrG4-ObnkqKL9NvSCyx_SIKXH4agfYFSZo_balFFN4/s1260/Horse%20Drive%207280.jpg" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1260" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_s8ujehOXeNSZXvMcYx_sPcC5LMJNyQWOtyKX_H1wCeyGzAXiqc_j68agYVsu24miDDZAP5lRIytPdpClDz9IdHS9MT76BQiTrFDZQdwCf6zfX-cHA2256NqgScdcy1u7lKuvLOOrMC5EbYKrG4-ObnkqKL9NvSCyx_SIKXH4agfYFSZo_balFFN4/s320/Horse%20Drive%207280.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Knowing better but refusing to adapt, drug-dependent US trainers continue to break down horses and unnecessarily endanger the lives of jockeys. Mr Brown’s Domestic Spending fractured his pelvis, racing from gate 14 in the BC Mile after a 440 day layoff from an injury. Chad medicated the horse and raced, two weeks earlier claiming to be omniscient regarding all of his horses’ soundness’. Domestic Spending fractures his under-conditioned pelvis, and the horse is vanned off with a major injury. At the starting gate, the horse made it clear he was not ready to race, yet they made him run. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">American trainers continue on with their medication charades that make horses vulnerable to injury, despite simple labor-intensive, medication-free solutions that fulfill and favor the racehorse. Easily-employed enrichment strategies sustain and enhance soundness of wind and limb. Medication does not. Breakdowns and bleeding are largely preventable with appropriate breeding, development, sensitivity to behavioral need, and conditioning that fulfills and enhances the horses’ long-evolved speed and strength. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The American confinement and training methods remain horse-insensitive, unprofitable, unethical, and ineffectual. The trainer is responsible for the condition of his horse. Not the attending vet, owner, or regulatory vet—the trainer. American trainers continue to send their horses to races medicated and in a condition unfit to race as Brown and Asmussen demonstrated in the Breeders’ Cup. Their horses were not ready, and as a result they were seriously injured in the running and vanned off. The Euro and Japanese horses were ready, drug-free and ready, sound of wind and limb. All of them returned sound and safe, many of them won easy.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRUgGVG50UArRmftfAooPPLIXTmVxxEs7cfFix0okFjuRgFWSGub8eu3DbPpTsK1jTXQYw0REx6_s5ljp8m_lLjiSr4j5l7uwGpDvwtjRr8pCz-C4vE9y9wr1W33qhRyjuWHuBV3HbperqdOAygINUVq8yv9SO54hhkjpFFlZW88oIj1sl23Xkmtd/s1600/Gustafson_BWphoto_Horses%20and%20Humans%20copy.jpeg" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRUgGVG50UArRmftfAooPPLIXTmVxxEs7cfFix0okFjuRgFWSGub8eu3DbPpTsK1jTXQYw0REx6_s5ljp8m_lLjiSr4j5l7uwGpDvwtjRr8pCz-C4vE9y9wr1W33qhRyjuWHuBV3HbperqdOAygINUVq8yv9SO54hhkjpFFlZW88oIj1sl23Xkmtd/s320/Gustafson_BWphoto_Horses%20and%20Humans%20copy.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Horses in America continue to break down at an unacceptable rate. Any break down in the Breeders’ Cup is disturbing, and here we had two, further reflection the American horseracing culture continues at its worst—humans failing the horse. Drugs continue to flow into inadequately stabled horses, and injuries and fatalities unnecessarily continue. When the drugs stop, the injuries will dissipate, as has been demonstrated time and again everywhere other than America.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The solution for safe flat racing has been effectively employed across continents and throughout the world by restricting drugs. The foreign horsemanship specialists not only brought their charm and beauty, they displayed sophisticated training strategies that favor the horse’s health and well-being. Holistic therapies, and keen attention to the horse’s long-evolved behavioral needs resulted in winners, winners all around wherever they finished. All made it home sounder of wind and limb than when they arrived to showcase their talent. Their trainers make stabling, training, and racing a good deal for their horses. In return, their horses make racing a good deal for them. If only Americans would embrace these winning strategies that make racing safer and horses and owners happier. All of the Euro and Asian horses returned safely. In fact, their horses returned sounder of wind and limb, a sophisticated display of preparation that Americans must soon emulate if they expect the sport to survive here, much less thrive. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Two American-trained horses sustained racing-fractures on the biggest day of racing. As well, some of the American horses bled, while the Europeans and Japanese remained sound of both wind and limb. No bleeding, no fractured bones in those horses trained and conditioned with the horses’ best interests in mind. And winners, yes, win after win.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Permitted medication perpetuates substandard horsemanship. Drug-free racing favors the horse. America has a choice. Drug-free runners win and come home sound as demonstrated by the Europeans. Look, see: Drugged racehorses are more apt to break their legs. Permitted pre-race drugs do not favor the horse. Too many medicated horses do not finish, exemplified by the American breakdown endemic still in play at the Breeders’ Cup. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">As it turns out, horses do not need drugs to race. NSAIDs and cortisone joint injections potentiate breakdowns by masking inflammation, allowing horses to race and train with pathology present. At times, trainers have had their veterinarians add local anesthetics to the cortisone injections to facilitate a good hard preparatory work. Many of these blocking agents do not test, but both Baffert and Asmussen have had local anesthetic positives in the not-so-distant past. Hall of Fame trainers. Baffert’s horse Messier bled, and Asmussen’s classic runner broke down. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">All drugs and any drug deteriorate safety when utilized to mask pain and inflammation to facilitate training when pathology is present, especially local anesthetics such as lidocaine or mepivacaine. Rest and rehab are indicated when pathology is present, rather than drugs to ease the pain so as to train. Furthermore, drugs and failure to properly develop and condition their horses likely incited the pathology that had them call for more drugs to get their horse to the next race. Claiming trainer tactics taken to the top of the game, to the Breeders’ Cup. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The American permitted pre-race drug experiment has failed. Permitted drug use led to unpermitted drug use, doping a billion dollar industry, horses the victims. Americans continue to fail their horses on the biggest stage of all. America’s horrid breakdown endemic will not stop until the drugging stops. In Europe and China, drugs are forbidden two to four weeks before horses race. Breakdowns and epistaxis are rare. Their horses fly over here and win easy, and safely.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">At Keeneland, where local horses continue to breakdown and bleed, BC runners can receive IV phenylbutazone 48 hours before loading into the gate, and, unfortunately, they can be doped with Lasix 24 hours before they race. None of the Europeans I interviewed planned to partake in the Lasix, considering it more likely to stiff the horse than help. But according to the Kentucky attending veterinarians I rode and visited with, many, if not most, of the Americans are fulfilling their racing drug addiction at the Breeders’ Cup, and having their horses injected with Lasix the day before, and IV Bute two days before. Disgraceful. Unethical. Ineffective. Heartbreaking. Leg-breaking.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I observed nearly all of the Breeders’ Cup horses in the barn area and on the training and main tracks. The differences in stabling, training, and care are significant and remarkable. The foreign horses walked, jogged, and conditioned together in herds. Miles and miles of locomotion to enhance the soundness of wind, limb, and mind. Hour upon hours of socialization. If not with other horses, with hands on grooming and grazing care. I estimate Chain of Love spent 10 hours out of her stall day in and day out, accompanied by her pony horse. I visited her most every day. Her pre and post exercise routines were well over an hour long. Rubbing and brushing before, bathing, massaging, and walking after. More massages, more walks, physical connection horses need. A typical conditioning day included two to three trips around the smaller training track with her pony horse, followed by one or two trips around the main. This was in addition to abundant walking to and from the stable, and within the isolation compound.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Likewise, the Euros provided their horses with abundant daily locomotion and socialization. They successfully re-created natural for their horses, rewarded by how safely and successfully they raced, and how happily they returned. Limb health, lung health, metabolic health, hoof health, digestive health, and mental health are all dependent on miles and miles of daily walking. It was a joy to see trainers putting the horse first, a joy to witness the happy horses loving their track lives. If only the Americans could learn to appreciate the happiness and soundness appropriate husbandry brings. If they do not learn, and learn soon, the American game will continue its decline.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">As the Euro horses walked, jogged, galloped through the morning, the American horses were back in their stalls by 9am. Many remained there the rest of the day, Tyler’s Tribe among them as far as I could tell, their lungs withering, legs weakening, veterinary drugs flowing into them, and Lasix flowing them out. Meanwhile, Chain of Love walks clean. Mishriff jogs clean. The Appleby herd whinny together as one.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Beyond the USDA quarantine, I observe the covey of attending veterinarians go from American barn to American barn medicating horses all afternoon, every afternoon during the days preceding the Breeders’ Cup. As counterbalance, the examining veterinarians examine. I witness all of this. I have an eye for medicating-veterinarians and medicated horses. I, too, was once an attending veterinarian. I know their game. From a distance, I watch the horsedoctors carefully select and load the medications, syringe after syringe. They color the fluids with vitamins and whatever else they can sneak in that will slip by the testing lab. Off they march with their tray of medications into the shuttered stalls. Two days before, the day before. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">As the Friday races went off, the veterinarians with horses in Saturday went to work. The Saturday runners received their intravenous Lasix, urinating the weight away, flushing other drugs along. Lasix imbalances equid electrolytes, drawing the horse up, pulling calcium out of bone. At one stable, I observed the water buckets set out Friday evening, seemingly withholding water, I am not sure. In the quarantine barn, the lads were changing water, cleaning pails, rubbing their horses, walking in communal circles, providing abundant locomotion in the most restricted spaces.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The untoward injuries on Saturday were reflective of the inappropriate American veterinary approach of medicating horses to race rather than walking them. Meanwhile, the drug-free hydrated, enriched and fulfilled Euros ran to win. You’d think winning would be enough incentive for Americans to do right by the horse, but our culture has not yet embraced the welfare of the horse like it needs to. I am sorry to report that as long as the drugs are permitted, American racehorse drugging will continue along with the substandard horsemanship the drugs facilitate. Bleeding and breakdowns will follow at unacceptable rates, and the game will fade away, or be forced to stop. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If and when all of the medications to race are restricted as they are in Europe and Asia where happy racehorses graze, walk, socialize, and race together, Horseracing in America will have a chance, a last chance to help the horses prevail in fashions that favor the horse, rather than fail her. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-46457773246045050432022-11-03T11:09:00.025-06:002022-11-19T07:50:29.297-07:00Keeneland Equine Welfare Concerns<div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Keeneland Yearling Sale: equine welfare concerns<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Keeneland in September is the home of horses and money, where yearling thoroughbreds preside: Bidabidabidabidabidamoneymoneymoneymoneymoney, 950, now 1 million it is, do I hear 1 million fifty, bida bida bida bida bida, now one million one hundred thousand, bidabidabidamoneymoneymoneymoneymoney, 1.1, now 2, one hundred more, 1.2 now 3, here we go, moneymoneymoneymoneymoney, 4 bidabida now 5, …and thus goes the auctioneer selling each horse swiftly. Going once, twice, thrice, gone… sold $1.6 million. Men in green, Keeneland green. The blood; blue, the money; green. Out steps 1.6, handed to his groom in waiting at the exit to a strange new world and on the other side of the ring, in steps the next blueblood, this prize, a filly led in by her groom, handed to the ringmaster with shiny black shoes. A brief intro, sire, mare, family money-winning accomplishments, bold-type ancestors noted, half-sibling accomplishments, a smooth-talking personality presenting brief avails, and again, here we go, people sifting about in the hallway that encircles the seats that encircle the elevated ring, many of the inadequately prepared yearlings are fearful. The sales ring setting is poorly designed, the gauntlet to get there is a disgrace, and does not favor the horse. Sedation and chains are prevalent, their vibrissae are clipped, terrifying the youngsters. Temple Grandin would cry for the horses; Here now sir, what do you want to give for this fine filly? bidabidabidabidayomoneymoneymoney 10, now 20, 50 now 75, 100,000 dollars, now 125 bidabidabidabidabidupsomemoremoneynowifyouwantthis runner…</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhedyrQXz-jatM15wnmJI8cnEzOtsdY3s3Qs72PlTEcFElndQKVE743wwqse_vwC1LFEeOHOpmJuzTqHCOm97iq8yOlmrsZ8ZU65XgQnXOZqw7xA2uts7FepmAxkB71zsd2sPX3vOvC5LG49D-H8agaqRVhzoXnvfLwCJqyi-I2_aMQPwSzyhFAMwkN/s4032/IMG_4215.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhedyrQXz-jatM15wnmJI8cnEzOtsdY3s3Qs72PlTEcFElndQKVE743wwqse_vwC1LFEeOHOpmJuzTqHCOm97iq8yOlmrsZ8ZU65XgQnXOZqw7xA2uts7FepmAxkB71zsd2sPX3vOvC5LG49D-H8agaqRVhzoXnvfLwCJqyi-I2_aMQPwSzyhFAMwkN/s320/IMG_4215.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">A man’s world, a game painted money green, a dozen or so yearlings going for over a million in session one, more million-dollar blueblood babes to follow. Historically, a quarter of the $1 million horses will never make it to the track, nearly a third will never win a race. How many yearlings are mishandled at this fragile formative age is part of the reason so many fail to ever win a race. The sale process takes the heart out of some of them at their formative stage of racehorse life; no heart, no running by and through horses at speed in tight company. Keeneland green. A horse mill. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Beyond pedigree, conformation is important, anatomical maintenance of soundness. Bloodstock agents appreciate conformation conducive to durability, trainers look for bone. Most seek trending blood, looks and behavior aside, thus the low success percentages. I can see the horses who have been whip broke, and those that have not. One wants the have nots, as the chain-broke are unlikely to prevail. You can see some are broken by the look in their eye. More than a few are sedated, a tolerated practice.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I watch, beautiful horses all, but so many unnecessarily troubled. Unprepared, lip-chain broke and drugged as a shortcut for half-baked Kentucky horsemanship. In Ireland, the horses come through the ring relaxed and prepared, whiskered, softly handled to display their true grace. Halters without chains, soft eyes, beautiful vibrissae with a high potential to become willing partners, unlike most American sales candidates. More troubled horses than not at Keeneland, Kentucky. Their dignity dishonored with the vibrissae clipping and chained restraint. Drugs to sedate, the doping starts when they are a year old. This tolerated medication carries with them to the track, and the drugging needs to stop here, as the American medication mentality needs nipped in the bud.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">After a horse passes the content eye, and soft ear criteria suggesting a willing partnership, I scrutinize bone and throat. I seek short thick canons for my clients, a body-balanced hip, with an extended gaskin, thick hocks... true-angled pasterns resting on big hooves, supple coat and not heavy, yet none of these charms matter if the mind is not willing. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I seek horses grown up with a well-tended mind, a mind of flight with an eager tendency to willingly join the herd of man, behaviorist me. I want a horseshoe is taught by other horses how to be a horse, herd-raised stock, yearlings taught the confidence to run by and through horses running at speed by running with horses at speed in tight company. I look for vibrissae, and so many have been savaged. I eye their ears and eyes, their carriage, the ease or unease of their relationship with their handler. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I watch for cooperative gestures. Relaxed by observant, attached to their handler, but free to express their state of mind. I seek potential willing partners, horses brought up surrounded by nature, nurtured in herd settings. Only other horses can teach a horse to win. Humans are simply passengers in this game, needing to re-create natural for the growing runners. It is the mare who provides the winning foundation, the mare and her herd, the cohort foals and yearlings, the huge rolling pastures. Horses teach young horses to run, and they teach them well. Lead changes become automatic, communication with others in the herd is intense and constant.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Watch that yearling walk, watch her perceive her new world. If the money talks and she walks on to a new life, will she be willing to listen, to prevail, to stay sound and healthy under duress, to run by and through horses at speed with confidence and finesse? Not an exact science, but it is clear some of yearlings fighting lip chains and shown into the ring reluctantly chained and medicated are unlikely to be winners. Fillies handled roughly often bail on everything, refusing to fall in and train after feeling what the humans may do to them. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Back in the day, horsemanship and the art of handling youngsters prevailed at sales, today it is face shaving, chains and drugs. Already horseracing is in public disfavor for substandard welfare, and its presence at Keeneland is disturbing to equine behaviorists.. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Amateur horsemen have prepared most of these young thoroughbreds. Nearly all of the yearlings’ faces have been clipped clean, much like many the American Breeders’ Cup runners faces. The Jockey Club breeders and Breeders Cup trainers remain a bastion of amateur horsemanship, some of the sorriest on the planet, I am sorry to report. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Clipping vibrissae is abusive, inhumane, unnecessary, and counterproductive. It is contrary to the development of a willing partnership. The Keeneland sale was a display of horsefolk diminishing the dignity of the horse. </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", Arial, "ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3", "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", メイリオ, Meiryo, "MS Pゴシック", "MS PGothic"" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(56, 68, 77); color: #38444d; font-size: 17.999941px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"In addition to the harm that a lack of vibrissae can bring about; the act of removing them is not done with complicity and adds unnecessary stress to the animal." Here is the scientific research:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02213989">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02213989</a> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_mE345g8OV0jR-kG2tP-0R9idgcZfwOIK9iR7bPVOJGo2ySWQQ1OoltBQaua3oNZFRDJkcDVoIcD_hveh9_HbqlV3VuK6G9WHRstggsZmOcOiit1zv_2-6rkNRfX2BAlZj_8MK6icXBt8gYlbMloKM2lV1bpJGxC3RVQpaTzF60bEr6zoHKFScV9m/s1080/Fh2tsXiWIAEiaf8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_mE345g8OV0jR-kG2tP-0R9idgcZfwOIK9iR7bPVOJGo2ySWQQ1OoltBQaua3oNZFRDJkcDVoIcD_hveh9_HbqlV3VuK6G9WHRstggsZmOcOiit1zv_2-6rkNRfX2BAlZj_8MK6icXBt8gYlbMloKM2lV1bpJGxC3RVQpaTzF60bEr6zoHKFScV9m/s320/Fh2tsXiWIAEiaf8.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pharmaceutical sedation of the yearlings remains prevalent, drugs continuing to replace horsemanship in the racing industry. Disappointingly, the public drugging begins at the yearling sales, prevalent and tolerated by the sale managers, obvious but unnecessary had proper horsemanship preparation been in place. A third, or so, of the yearlings express postures and behaviors suggestive of tranquilization, droopy glazed eyes, sagging lower lip, dropped penises. Inattentive. I know sedation when I see it. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">When questioned, some of the breeders admitted to tranquilization use, "a shot of ace in the oats this morning." Injections, 'yeah, doc stopped by early and popped 'em with the stuff that lasts all day.’ Others were in denial. Most didn’t have much to say when confronted about the abusive practice of clipping vibrissae. 9 of 10 facial lacerations I have sewn up through time were on horses with clipped vibrissae. The percentage of yearlings at Keeneland with facial trauma was significant, one after the other with beat up heads because the vibrissae are clipped, their monitors to avoid head trauma when locked in tight places. Vibrissae are utilized for spatial safety. A horse uses her wiskers to protect her eyes, face, and nostrils. With these sensory structures removed, the yearlings are bashing their heads about in the stalls because they have been abusively deprived of sensation by Jockey Club Breeders.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">After having their vibrissae clipped, many stalled horses stop drinking and eating, sometimes for days. This leads to colic and sometimes death due to deprivation of the most important horse nutrient, water, because the sensory structures to assess the water have been amputated by the Jockey club breeder. Clipping vibrissae and poor horsemanship are the primary cause of facial trauma in Keeneland yearlings. You should have seen all the banged-up heads, and those were the ones that made it through the trauma inspections. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndlLM9UWYWZj06g3A4M-F9jbwVDecRq4v4DrmHKn4_zXVq1vrlwSAmEOz6TltiVBzKOHgSRtkDRoG_zwH9WCUTr3e7CgZatQW9ZWppdroNAA6H7WPOdsrO0iN_LhcNFaADsha9Il-M4i1tYu3zHH-QLkOGYMaB0Gubaw-w-1yYhjPDtX7Zns-Asl6/s4032/IMG_5232.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndlLM9UWYWZj06g3A4M-F9jbwVDecRq4v4DrmHKn4_zXVq1vrlwSAmEOz6TltiVBzKOHgSRtkDRoG_zwH9WCUTr3e7CgZatQW9ZWppdroNAA6H7WPOdsrO0iN_LhcNFaADsha9Il-M4i1tYu3zHH-QLkOGYMaB0Gubaw-w-1yYhjPDtX7Zns-Asl6/s320/IMG_5232.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">By my estimate, 98% of the horses has their vibrissae clipped, with men doing 98% of the bidding on the naked-faced babies. A covey of male auctioneers sell the horses, prompted by green-suited bid spotters, all men. Men, men, men in green, money money money, green money, old money, plenty of money, SOLD. Whiskerless thoroughbreds, confused and dismayed at being whiskerless, abusively chain-shanked and drugged. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">“<b>A number of international equestrian organisations have banned the trimming of a horse's whiskers</b>. Since 1st July 2021, horses are prohibited from competing in any FEI competitions internationally if their “sensory hairs have been clipped and/or shaven or in any other way removed”. Keeneland needs to follow suit, and now. The United States Equestrian Foundation has banned the disrespectful practice. Kentucky horsemen appear to be the most horse-disrespectful horsemen around. Vibrissae clipping is punishable by law in France, Germany, Switzerland, and some of the Nordic countries.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Perhaps this excerpt will help the Kentucky breeders understand the horse, and their role with horses.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">Dignity is each animal’s inherent worth that humans must uphold in their relationships with that animal. This means that we must respect each animal for himself or herself (including individual particularities, behaviours, and prefer- ences). We must therefore take that unique worth into account and hold each animal in high moral regard, independent of our own impressions, opinions, and experiences. As such, animals’ inherent worth should not be tied to their instrumental usefulness, nor to their sentimental, heritage, or market value. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">Strain is a physical or psychological action by a human being to impose a benefit. In extreme cases, the term also includes any violence applied to animals to force them to do something against their will or to prevent them from doing what they want. The definition also covers the negative consequences of such actions. Strain always affects dignity. Dignity is only comprised, however, if overriding interests cannot justify it. This is the case, for example, when animals are subjected to pain, suffering, or harm, or exposed to anxiety or humiliation, or undergo interventions that profoundly alter their appearance or abilities, or are excessively objectified as instruments, also known as instrumentalization (Art. 3 AniWA). </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">The AniWA (art. 4) prohibits the unjustified </span><span style="font-family: ArialMT, serif; position: relative; top: -3pt;">1</span><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">and unnecessary imposition of strains on animals (injury, pain, stress, restriction of freedom, violation of dignity, overwork, etc.). Implicit in this standard is the need to weigh the different interests of the parties involved (humans, animals, and the environment) to determine whether the strain is justified. If its impact on the horse outweighs the interests of the other parties, the strain in question is abusive and amounts to a contempt of dignity. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">The concepts of pain, suffering, and harm are not easy to distinguish, but understanding them helps to clarify any impairments to welfare. Pain is characterised by an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with real or suspected tissue damage (lameness, colic). It is noted that donkeys do not show pain as blatantly as horses do; they remain more stoic. Animals experience suffering as negative emotions that affect their quality of life and impair their welfare. Suffering is expressed through abnormal behaviour and body language (facial expressions, ear position, postures, etc.). Harm is manifested by loss of functionality or behavioural disorders, such as limited responsiveness to stimuli. It appears when animals are pushed to extreme levels of adaptation."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">from </span><a href="https://www.cofichev.ch/Htdocs/Files/v/6125.pdf/Publications-cofichev/COFiCHEV_Ethique_Resume_EN_DEF_20220427.pdf" style="caret-color: rgb(38, 40, 42); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">https://www.cofichev.ch/Htdocs/Files/v/6125.pdf/Publications-cofichev/COFiCHEV_Ethique_Resume_EN_DEF_20220427.pdf</a></p><div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiGnGaqfeShA-1ToySgoVxNxu5_ff8K-8Dfup01AxnbixokYnKPxYtUdvCYk7kl1-9a9pI4Bvo0Nqm8aIPzz28dvfk5OMANHitNkdea3o2AnOVdf9iRwYZJ-nZgU2OoDFL4YhNIjUTmpT7WSwfz7cROwnamsaClw0t-Oqub30a55N63lZUzHHE9Oe-/s860/BorntograzeHorse%20Eye.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="860" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiGnGaqfeShA-1ToySgoVxNxu5_ff8K-8Dfup01AxnbixokYnKPxYtUdvCYk7kl1-9a9pI4Bvo0Nqm8aIPzz28dvfk5OMANHitNkdea3o2AnOVdf9iRwYZJ-nZgU2OoDFL4YhNIjUTmpT7WSwfz7cROwnamsaClw0t-Oqub30a55N63lZUzHHE9Oe-/s320/BorntograzeHorse%20Eye.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Nearly every face laceration and eye injury I have sutured and treated was on a stalled horse with recently clipped vibrissae. i have treated many colics that occurred subsequent to vibrissae clipping, as the whiskers are essential eating and drinking organs, leave the vibrissae alone.<br /><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Through the ring the yearlings go, chained and shanked, vibrissae abusively shorn, a sorry affair altogether when viewed from the horse’s perspective, and mine, but few others. In addition to inadequate preparation, much of the unwelcome behaviors when being handled are due to the sensory deprivation. Horses with clipped whiskers become confused and frustrated, they bash their heads into the stall walls and thresholds as evidenced by all the apparent head trauma on many of them, all unnecessary, all due to the deplorable amateur Kentucky brand of sensory deprivation followed by forceful horsemanship. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span face="Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span face="Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><span face="Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-size: 20px;">Vibrissae are essential sensory structures that allow horses to race safely at speed in close company, spatial locators of not only their position, but other horses’ shifting spatial positions surroudning them. Their whiskers can feel the rail, sense the going, know the acceleration of others approaching or departing, and so much more that we do not know. The amount of brain tissue to which vibrissae deliver information is considerable, informing neurologists of the critical survival and protection functions of horses’ treasured facial hairs.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Banning the vibrissae-clipping practice would save the sale breeders millions of dollars and alleviate some the public concern with horse abuse in the racing industry, yet the incompetent breeders continue abusing the horses so they look clean. The horses may look clean, but they are confused without the full array of sensory organs. And if I am not able to put a stop to the yearling-abusive practice, you know who will be swooping in next, and that will be another black eye for the industry and game, more lost millions if not billions because of a lack of integrity of the breeders. The Keeneland breeders are doping with sedatives, clipping vibrissae to serious detrimental psychological and physical affect, and then lead their horses to the ring with their horses abusive chain shanked. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUVBxXWBYJSxA-aZp2iNF53QSXaBRRTx9dzOQD2zvL6C9pPpTLzY9Hcn1rxjnj611qLrAkEoL8I32ZIhVWBUu_InOs02kL8lRLZBSuVFjkdrOwGZvBDLMAl6eV_6n7hxmxBquHjU-p8UQh4WBr_DYwiUCl5u67y1tI091hwIYvW015xwX_--eraqD/s4032/vibrissae%20gainesborough.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUVBxXWBYJSxA-aZp2iNF53QSXaBRRTx9dzOQD2zvL6C9pPpTLzY9Hcn1rxjnj611qLrAkEoL8I32ZIhVWBUu_InOs02kL8lRLZBSuVFjkdrOwGZvBDLMAl6eV_6n7hxmxBquHjU-p8UQh4WBr_DYwiUCl5u67y1tI091hwIYvW015xwX_--eraqD/s320/vibrissae%20gainesborough.jpeg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">To be fair, a few of the yearlings had vibrissae intact, and notably, they had no obvious head injuries like too many of the whiskerless. As well, at least one of the ring handlers is female, beautiful hair flowing down her back, pinned down so as not be grabbed a hold of easily by a frustrated sales candidate. Perhaps a thir of the incoming grooms with the horse’s last day at hand, are women with hair tied up. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">The auctioneer drone is incessant, sales wear on, thousands of horses, thousands of chain shanks, bidda, biddahererightnow, bidda here, twenty thousand, now 30... lots of withdrawals due to injury and infirmity. Relatives win big races, and value skyrockets. The full sibling to Authentic sells, or was it to Audible? Blue blood, and thick. Money, money, the tempo unfading, stock moving through, live stock, an introduction for each yearling, most unnamed, known by their sire, and dam’s sire, pedigreed bloodstock, bluebloods going for green, flesh disguised as money. Walking money, walk that talk, Mr Auctioneer, Yes, sir. What’ll you give for this fine filly, sir, 50,000? 50,000 is it, now 100, one now two, 300,000, now 350, forty, and a bidabidabidabidabidabida … money flying off chins, fingers, ear taps, computer clicks, cap tips, eyeglass cues, and nods… sweeps of paper, high-handed salutes bidabida, half the action online, it seems. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Chains, the yearlings are brought in seized with lip chains and nose chains, shanks and rubbers, nerve lines and war bridles of all sorts. Despicable handling, and at a critical behavioral development phase. The sales trauma ruins many minds. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Kentucky horsemanship is not dead altogether, but if things don't change soon, it will be. A few arrive with the kinder European style bitted halters, which are preferable, effective, and less harsh. Some horses travel through the ring adequately prepared, much like nearly every yearling at Tattersalls across the pond, all of them whiskered, no obvious sedation, and no harsh shank handling. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Let me make it clear it should not be about effective restraint, but effective preparation, the horses should be prepared for behavioral contemned in hand, rather than fear of punishment. Where sedation is prevalent, amateur horsemanship both precedes and follows the sale. The less prepared, the more chains and drugs, the less likely the yearling is to train up willingly. Keeneland: Shaved whiskers, chains, and sedatives—a poor reflection on the human/animal bond in Kentucky. An ineffectual way to win any future race at all.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Inadequate horsemanship remains perseverant at Keeneland, tolerated and accepted, bidabidamoneymoneynow 50, 100, 150-2, now 250—3. Bida bidabidabidaabidaba 4 resonates, ringing loud as I arrive to restructure the thoroughbred culture conscience, to menace their abuse. Here we go, yet again, first racing drugs, now sales drugs, a lot of pharmaceutically-sedated yearlings. Keeneland sale drug-use of behavior modification drugs goes on without apparent restriction. The post sale drug tests do not offer sedation testing. The yearlings can also be treated before the sale with NSAIDs, masking injury and lameness. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">I have a veterinary eye for pharmaceutically-induced behaviors. It is disappointing to see that a significant percentage of the Keeneland yearlings are doped, sedated to manage their lack of appropriate preparation. The clipped vibrissae create varying levels of distress, inciting the perceived need for sedation by so many of the breeders. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Of course, as my readers and students and teachers know, my horse-care criticisms are unbounded. The most significant issue this time is the shaving and clipping of vibrissae, removing the facial whiskers with malice aforethought, amputation of essential sensory organs, which elicits much of the perceived need to sedate and shank the young-minded yearlings, ruining many of them.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> The vibrissae clipping must stop, such an egregious outright abuse of yearling thoroughbreds by Kentuckians who should know better. More criticism will follow if it not restricted. Such a simple thing not to do. Behavior would be much more manageable if the vibrissae were present. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Now that we have raceday Lasix use restricted, a practice which engendered and normalized drug use at every stage. Just as horses can be adequately prepared to minimize EIPH incidence, the yearlings could be adequately prepared to avoid undignified drugs and painful chains. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Equine behaviorists are insisting the vibrissae remain intact all through a horse's life. I aim to make the world a better place for horses, the yearlings in particular. The vibrissae clipping, drugging, and chaining of the Keeneland yearlings must be regulated for their sake, and I'd be happy to be the regulator via education of breeders and trainers on the nature and needs of the horse.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Sid Gustafson DVM <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Below are the supporting and referenced scientific articles and recommended reading.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7509108/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7509108/</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><a href="https://drdavidmarlin.com/fei-moves-to-ban-clipping-shaving-of-sensory-hairs/">https://drdavidmarlin.com/fei-moves-to-ban-clipping-shaving-of-sensory-hairs/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02213989" style="text-indent: 28.799999px;">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02213989</a><span style="text-indent: 28.799999px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 28.799999px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><a href="https://www.animallaw.info/statute/germany-cruelty-german-animal-welfare-act">https://www.animallaw.info/statute/germany-cruelty-german-animal-welfare-act</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 18pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><br /></p><div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="text-indent: 28.799999px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnzT0BHxfhMxzjoNf-2noTToyqvfYzz9r6DqUjvVo6yp3Y_Ioq2qIkzKO0EgVOOGWcv0eEKMh4qm8N3PL6nebtNYdrun0pw9rbraP7q3e8b1xFEtVWUQPOK0tA0RDMeEMyRxnbii6zbe6EcrOQzn9DWjqbqMuKlGeQ09QhwfjsfsH1rVlg3kiMx2m0/s4032/IMG_5220.jpeg" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-indent: 28.799999px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnzT0BHxfhMxzjoNf-2noTToyqvfYzz9r6DqUjvVo6yp3Y_Ioq2qIkzKO0EgVOOGWcv0eEKMh4qm8N3PL6nebtNYdrun0pw9rbraP7q3e8b1xFEtVWUQPOK0tA0RDMeEMyRxnbii6zbe6EcrOQzn9DWjqbqMuKlGeQ09QhwfjsfsH1rVlg3kiMx2m0/s320/IMG_5220.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">More reference links and suggested reading</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://horsesport.com/magazine/behaviour/ethics-legalities-trimming-horses-whiskers/">https://horsesport.com/magazine/behaviour/ethics-legalities-trimming-horses-whiskers/</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.animallaw.info/statute/germany-cruelty-german-animal-welfare-act">https://www.animallaw.info/statute/germany-cruelty-german-animal-welfare-act</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p><span style="color: #7f6000;"> </span></o:p><a href="https://www.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/lralvol9_p159.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="caret-color: rgb(38, 40, 42); color: purple; font-family: sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #954f72; font-family: serif;">https://www.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/lralvol9_p159.pdf</span></a></span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(38, 40, 42); color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p class="yiv9088222832ydpf59acf94msonormal11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #505050;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></p><p class="yiv9088222832ydpf59acf94msonormal11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span face="sans-serif"><a href="https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1751731107000420?token=EBB76F6043F8D3736383A3AB92554CF524CB7132DFC5142D0A335483298E12370EDFA06629CF45E2F85EF111F03BAD31&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20221006021939" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="color: purple;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #954f72; font-family: serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1751731107000420?token=EBB76F6043F8D3736383A3AB92554CF524CB7132DFC5142D0A335483298E12370EDFA06629CF45E2F85EF111F03BAD31&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20221006021939</span></span></a></span></p><p class="yiv9088222832ydpf59acf94msonormal11" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #505050;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></p><div><p class="yiv9088222832msonormal71" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #505050;">“ </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751731107000420" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" style="color: purple;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #954f72; font-family: serif;">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751731107000420</span></a></span></p></div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(38, 40, 42); color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><p class="yiv9088222832msonormal71" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"> </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">Dignity is each animal’s inherent worth that humans must uphold in their relationships with that animal. This means that we must respect each animal for himself or herself (including individual particularities, behaviours, and prefer- ences). We must therefore take that unique worth into account and hold each animal in high moral regard, independent of our own impressions, opinions, and experiences. As such, animals’ inherent worth should not be tied to their instrumental usefulness, nor to their sentimental, heritage, or market value. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">Strain is a physical or psychological action by a human being to impose a benefit. In extreme cases, the term also includes any violence applied to animals to force them to do something against their will or to prevent them from doing what they want. The definition also covers the negative consequences of such actions. Strain always affects dignity. Dignity is only comprised, however, if overriding interests cannot justify it. This is the case, for example, when animals are subjected to pain, suffering, or harm, or exposed to anxiety or humiliation, or undergo interventions that profoundly alter their appearance or abilities, or are excessively objectified as instruments, also known as instrumentalization (Art. 3 AniWA). </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">The AniWA (art. 4) prohibits the unjustified </span><span style="font-family: ArialMT, serif; position: relative; top: -3pt;">1</span><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">and unnecessary imposition of strains on animals (injury, pain, stress, restriction of freedom, violation of dignity, overwork, etc.). Implicit in this standard is the need to weigh the different interests of the parties involved (humans, animals, and the environment) to determine whether the strain is justified. If its impact on the horse outweighs the interests of the other parties, the strain in question is abusive and amounts to a contempt of dignity. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">The concepts of pain, suffering, and harm are not easy to distinguish, but understanding them helps to clarify any impairments to welfare. Pain is characterised by an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with real or suspected tissue damage (lameness, colic). It is noted that donkeys do not show pain as blatantly as horses do; they remain more stoic. Animals experience suffering as negative emotions that affect their quality of life and impair their welfare. Suffering is expressed through abnormal behaviour and body language (facial expressions, ear position, postures, etc.). Harm is manifested by loss of functionality or behavioural disorders, such as limited responsiveness to stimuli. It appears when animals are pushed to extreme levels of adaptation."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">from </span><a href="https://www.cofichev.ch/Htdocs/Files/v/6125.pdf/Publications-cofichev/COFiCHEV_Ethique_Resume_EN_DEF_20220427.pdf" style="caret-color: rgb(38, 40, 42); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">https://www.cofichev.ch/Htdocs/Files/v/6125.pdf/Publications-cofichev/COFiCHEV_Ethique_Resume_EN_DEF_20220427.pdf</a></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: ArialNovaCond, serif;">British law forbidding tail docking from 1949:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/70" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/12-13-14/70</a><o:p></o:p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div><div><span style="color: #7f6000; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-2294475156641512772022-08-09T16:21:00.013-06:002022-08-27T08:21:33.184-06:00Horsemanship Bloodstock, Sid Gustafson DVM<div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">Horsemanship Bloodstock<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Sid Gustafson DVM</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Equine Behaviorist</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Racehorse Welfare</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />I secure yearlings sound of wind and limb, captivated with the behavioral essence to prevail.</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />I help develop the willing partnerships between horses and humans, keeping your horses sound, happy, and healthy. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> <img alt="Bird_suspension.jpg" height="272" src="https://www.sidgustafson.com/images/Bird-suspension.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="404" /></p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />I offer purchasing and management services. Once your ideal horse is purchased, I guide your horse to the most appropriate farm, barn, or stable, one with knowing and sensitive human hands. Based on the horse's development and physical maturity, the most behaviorally positive training situations are found. Once placed, I monitor the stabling and training on your horse's behalf. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">I represent the health and welfare and drug-free training of your horse. In addition to monitoring the training, racing, and conditioning protocols, I monitor your horse's contentment, nutrition, socialization, daily locomotion, and happiness. My behavioral fulfillment strategies are designed and implemented to enhance your horse's potential to train and win. Nurturing a willing partnership between horse and trainer/rider is essential to racehorse success, soundness, safety, and longevity. I promote drug-free racing, and educate and guide trainers with strategies to prevent injuries and bleeding issues.</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> <img alt="Blame.jpg" height="318" src="https://www.sidgustafson.com/images/Blame.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="480" /></p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">To blend with caretakers and riders as herd is key to horse happiness. Each horse must be stabled, trained, and managed in a fashion that fulfills both their individual and herd behavioral needs. Abundant daily locomotion is essential for soundness. Grazing and communing with other horses is essential for welfare. Miles and miles of daily walking and jogging together are essential for digestive, hoof, joint, bone, muscle, pulmonary, metabolic and mental health. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">I ensure that all horses under my management are stabled in a fashion that re-creates natural. Progressive racehorse management ensures behavioral health. Healthy horses become willing partners. Those who please racehorses, develop racehorses who please their owners, riders, and guardians. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Natural behaviors must be re-created in the training and stable setting. Near-constant movement and foraging, along with abundant daily socialization with other horses creates winners. A naturally fulfilled and behaviorally enriched racehorse is a willing partner, happy to train and win. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> <img alt="Sid_and_Tiny.jpeg" height="767" src="https://www.sidgustafson.com/images/Sid-and-Tiny.jpeg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="1280" /></p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Utilizing sophisticated training-monitoring technology is now a premier strategy to ewin races. Additionally, monitoring assures owners that their racehorse is being trained properly. Welfare and health are easily tracked, reported, and monitored. Conditioning and stabling protocols are accurately adjusted. Problems are detected before they appear.</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">EKG, GPS, and stride length are monitored. Conditioning and distance preferences are determined for each horse. Soundness is maintained, both mental and physical, for each individual. This scientific monitoring enhances each trainer's ability to train, place, and condition horses to sustain a long and safe career. Breakdowns are prevented. Welfare is monitored, along with medication use. Dr Gustafson reviews all suggested medication protocols. Horses under Dr Gustafson's management are trained without medication, or with minimal medication. Never is medication allowed to facilitate training or racing by suppressing a problem or reducing pathological inflammation. Physical therapy, rubbing, swimming, walking, lounging, grazing, and socialization with other horses are the soundness-maintaining strategies that enhance endurance and longevity.</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Rocky_Mt_Front_12114.jpg" height="660" src="https://www.sidgustafson.com/images/Rocky-Mt-Front-12114.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="960" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />My experience as an attending veterinarian, regulatory veterinarian, and equine behaviorist supports my seasoned ability as a bloodstock agent and racehorse manager. I secure sound horses with animated movement. I find horses with the mental aptitude to readily blend with humans to condition, stable, and race successfully. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Pedigree is but half the equation. Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains moving and grazing together nearly 2/3 of the time in natural settings. Abundant daily locomotion is essential to maintain soundness, pulmonary, digestive, metabolic, and behavioral health. Dental health in growing horses requires daily attention and care. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />The Language of Horsemanship.Racehorse Advocacy. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Native Bloodstock. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Racehorse selection, acquisition, and welfare management.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Securing yearlings sound of wind and limb with the behavioral essence to train up and prevail. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Progressive racehorse monitoring utilizing sophisticated EKG and GPS motion monitoring technology. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Enhancing welfare to maintain the soundness of wind and limb, while developing the will and stamina to prevail. Medication-free training and racing enhances welfare.</p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;">Dr Gustafson is a thoroughbred bloodstock agent and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. The application of behavioral science to the development of racehorses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, training, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of competition horses. Sid develops racehorses in deference to the horse's perspective, achieving willing and winning equine partnerships with humans. </p><p class="from_wysiwyg" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lora, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.02em; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0px;"> </p></div>Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-49112427671866487962020-12-16T18:22:00.003-07:002021-02-28T17:53:59.595-07:00Horseracing in America, a novel: Book Review<div><h2 class="node-title" style="caret-color: rgb(57, 57, 57); color: #393939; font-family: Georgia; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em;">HorseRacing in America, a novel: reviewed by Corey Hockett</h2><div class="content" style="caret-color: rgb(57, 57, 57); color: #393939; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, "dejavu sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 1em 0px 0px;"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even field-item-0" property="content:encoded"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;">Sid Gustafson offers us a powerful glimpse into a unique and unfamiliar world in his new novel, <span style="color: #3366ff;"><strong><em><a href="http://www.sidgustafson.com/" style="color: #393939; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3366ff;">Horseracing in America</span></a> </em></strong></span>(Sleipnir Publishing, $17). Seen through the eyes of a female Native American woman, the reader is taken on a behind-the-scenes journey into the scandalous realm of horseracing. Laced with themes of bribery and corruption, Gustafson unveils the not-so-glamorous side of a widely popular pastime. From the mistreatment of animals, to the injustice of the American political system, Gustafson grapples with concepts that apprise readers to check their moral compass. Expressively written, with exciting dialogue and compelling character development, <em>Horseracing in America </em>brings into question our society’s ethical animal principles, and is nothing short of an eloquent call to action. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPj6d2dkPZUhhyphenhyphenlwCIk_e7hyL2mA7mv7AznbpvqpXfi4jJK-vUTQLb4fWwD8BmTtTwAc7guxWqyUrqcfoCa_H1cgng52EhGytnBTxzMBtZ-WuyReZDJgsVq3_QCFdZz8GRPmBMGc1xMU/s320/horseracing+in+america+2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="214" height="20" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqPj6d2dkPZUhhyphenhyphenlwCIk_e7hyL2mA7mv7AznbpvqpXfi4jJK-vUTQLb4fWwD8BmTtTwAc7guxWqyUrqcfoCa_H1cgng52EhGytnBTxzMBtZ-WuyReZDJgsVq3_QCFdZz8GRPmBMGc1xMU/w214-h20/horseracing+in+america+2.jpeg" width="214" /></a></div><br /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="http://www.outsidebozeman.com/magazine/archives/winter-2020-21/book-review-horseracing-america" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Book Review: Horseracing in America</a><br /></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-13333855434217665512019-12-07T06:18:00.000-07:002019-12-08T17:32:35.334-07:00Competition Horse Medication Ethics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-transform: uppercase;">COMPETITION HORSE MEDICATION ETHICS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gustafson S, DVM</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Appreciation of the evolved nature and behavior of horses provides the foundation for the ethical veterinary care of equine athletes. The establishment of a veterinary patient client relationship (VCPR) is instrumental in providing ethical care for the competition horse. Ethical veterinary practice supports the horse’s long-term health and welfare interests while avoiding pharmaceutical intervention in the days and weeks before competition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Horses evolved as </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">social</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> grazers of the plains, moving and grazing in a </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">mutually</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> connected and constantly communicative fashion on a near-constant basis. Contemproary equine health and prosperity remains dependent on providing an acceptable degree of this near-constant movement, foraging, and socialization. When horses are confined to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">fulfill</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> convenience and performance interests, the horse’s natural preferences need be re-created to a suitable degree to avoid exceeding the adaptability of the horse. As the adaptability of the horse is exceeded, welfare is dimished and the need for medical intervention to remedy behavioral, health, and soundness deficiencies is intensified. Contemporary practices regularly exceed the competition horse’s adaptability, resulting in the need for extensive veterinary intervention to sustain health and remedy training and competition injuries.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The more medical care and pharmaceutical intervention required to sustain any population of animals the lower the population’s welfare.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></span></a> Ethical veterinary care supports the horse’s best welfare interests, as well as the safety of the horse’s riders and drivers. Medical intervention of the equine athlete should be avoided in the weeks, days, and hours before competition, as pre-competition medication is associated with increased catastrophic injury vulnerability as a result of the diminished welfare it perpetuates.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[3]</span></span></span></a> To properly support the health and welfare of equine athletes, the practitioner must be familiar with their patients both inherently and individually. Socialization, constant foraging, and abundant daily locomotion are the long-evolved requirements to promote and sustain optimal soundness, behavioural health, performance, and healing in competition horses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Healthy horses function and perform more consistently and predicatbly in an unmedicated state. Contemporary pre-competition medication practices remove the horse’s ability to protect their health and sustain soundness by masking pain and suppressing symptomology. Horses who require medication to alleviate medical conditions in order to compete are rendered vulnerable to injury and physical and behavioural dysfunction imperiling the safety of both horse and horseperson. Horses requiring medication to compete are not fit to compete safely. Horses and horsefolk are best served to compete free of short-term pre-competition pharmaceutical influence. Infirmities require appropriate medical care and rehabilition before competition is considered and resumed, rather than pre-competition medication to allay active medical problems. The equine practitioner should focus on post-performance evaluations and necessary therapies to sustain horse health on a </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">enduring </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">basis. An emphasis on fulfilling the medical, physical, and behavioural needs of the horse to prepare for the future competitions is the essence of ethical veterinary care of the competition horse. Pre-competition medication practices that replace or supplant appropriate health care are not in accord AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[4]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">For human entertainment, convenience, and revenue, horses are bred, isolated, stabled, conditioned and medicated to perform competitively. Comtemporary pre-competition medication practices are often at the expense of the horse’s health, safety, and welfare. Many current medication practices violate the AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics, specifically the clause that states a</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> veterinarian shall provide veterinary medical care under the terms of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics state that it is unethical for veterinarians to medicate horses without a VCPR. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pre-competition pharmaceutical interventions to remedy insufficient attention and preparation for the horse’s long-evolved health requirements are seldom in the best interest of the horse. The medical and pharmaceutical practices which support equine competitive pursuits should be designed to enhance the health and soundness of the horse on a long term basis and should not be intended to enhance performance or permit training on infirm legs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pre-competition pharmaceutical intervention has been demonstrated to have an overall negative affect on the health and welfare of competitive horse populations. Where horses are allowed to be permissevely medicated with and without a VCPR, injuries and catastrophic injuries are more prevalent, as are jockey injuries. Horses are best served to be properly prepared to compete in a natural non-medicated state. Pharmaceutical intervention of the equine athlete should be avoided during training and in the weeks before competition, as pharmaceutical intervention impairs the innate pain barrier while increasing musculoskeletal fragility. Intense and widespread pre-competition medication practices correlate with catstrophic injury vulnerability and diminished welfare.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[5]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Equine athletic pursuits have historicaly been designed to measure the natural abililty of horses and the trainer’s ability to bring out the horses’ natural ability. Performance enhancing drugs devalue and debase competetive achievements. Equine competition was designed to measure the natural abilities of horses, with trainers and riders honing those natural abilitities. Hoseracing was never intended to measure medicated ability, thus maintaining genetic integrity of the breed.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[6]</span></span></span></a> Pharmaceutical scrims can impair horses for generations. To suppress a condition that is induced by low welfare is unacceptable. It is imperative in animal sensitive societies that the welfare and veterinary care of the horse take precedence over economic human interests.</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #282828; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Horses are born to socialize, communicate, locomote, move about, graze and masticate on a near-constant basis. For behavioral and physical integrity, these preferences need to be re-created to an acceptable degree in the competition stable. The ethical practice of veterinary medicine includes providing clients with the guidance to provide appropriate husbandry, nutrition, conditioning, medical management, and behavioural fulfillment of their equine athletes. Medicating and suppressing injuries with the intent to continue training to later prevail in racing constitutes the unethical and illegal practice of veterinary medicine. Furosemide is a performance enhancing drug, masking agent, and metabolic alkalinizer, and as such is forbidden in racing jurisdictions worldwide, where racing is consequently safer for horses and jockeys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Equine welfare is best supported when horses are properly prepared, physically and mentally sound, and fit to perform in an unmedicated state. Physically or behaviourally impaired horses who require medication to compete should not compete until they are able to compete without pre-competition pharmaceutical intervention. All sensation, behaviour, and proprioception should remain physiologically normal. Sensation and cognitive awareness should not be suppressed with pre-competiton medication. This inludes the use of sedatives, stimulants, and pain relievers of all sorts. Treatments should not interefere with functional physiology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sound horses properly prepared for competition have little need for pre-competition medication. Unsound or behaviorally dysfunctional horses should be medically and behaviorally rehabilitated in a fashion that restores soundness before training and competition are resumed. Medication is for infirm horses, and infirm horses should not compete. Horses who require medication to compete become increasingly unfit to compete safely. Rather than therapeutic intent, many pre-competition medication practices have become performance enhancing at the expense health and welfare of horse and rider. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">It has been demonstrated through time that horses and their riders are best served to compete medication free. As a result, anti-doping laws have been established by all agencies that regualte equine competition. Veterinarians are required by both ethics and law to follow these regulations. Horseracing statisitcs support that the less medication horses receive the more favorably and safely horses compete.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[7]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The safety of the competition horse is dependent on unimpaired neurological functioning. Unimpaired sensation and cognitive ability are necessary for a horse to compete safely and fairly. Any medications or procedures which negate or diminish sensation and awareness in the horse impair the ability of the horse to compete safely.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[8]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The safety, longevity, and durability of the equine patient should considered before short term pre-competition medical solutions are implemented. Familiarity of the patient includes familiarity with stabling, genetics, behavior, and husbandry of the patient. Many if not most medical conditions are a result of human mismanagement of equine stabling and conditioning. When the adaptability is exceeded, horses become unsound. Assessment of stabling conditions and athletic preparation practices are essential components of ethical equine care. Healing must be allowed to progress before competition and training are resumed. Client education is essential to create a husbandry situation conducive to equine healing. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Rest</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">oration strategies that recreate the horse's social grazing and locomotion preferences facilitate and potentiate horse healing. Appropriate healing of many equine maladies is encouraged when the veterinarian provides appropriate medical care and carefully facilitates a scenario to provide the horse with appropriate physical rehabilitation and behavioural fulfillment. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Despite domestication and selective breeding for docility and captivity, horse health remains dependent on locomotion. Locomotion is inherent to digestion, to respiration, to metabolism, to hoof health and function, to joint health, to bone health and durability, to resistance to limb failure, and to behavioral fulfillment. An interdependence exists between horse health and locomotion. Horses evolved to be near-constant walkers and grazers, depending on perpetual motion to sustain health of all systems. Horses did not evolve to be confined in stalls and stables, but to move on a continuous basis. Pulmonary health is dependent on abundant daily locomotion. Deprivation of adequate locomotion results pulmonary deterioration, resulting in an abnormal incidence of EIPH. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">By suppressing EIPH, Lasix perpetuates the substandard American training horsemanship that causes EIPH. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">When horses are deprived of adequate and abundant locomotion, they develop strategies and unwelcome behaviors to keep themselves and their jaws in motion, as is their essential nature. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Horses deprived of friends, forage, and locomotion are at risk to develop stereotypies to provide themselves with the movement they need to survive. The more stereotypies present in a population of equine athletes, the lower their welfare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">No longer is intense medical intervention prior to competetion a viable, ethical, or legal approach. It has been demonstrated that the more intensely horses are medicated to compete, the lower their welfare. The more medications required to sustain any population of animals, the further the deviation from their physical and behavioural needs. Rather than pre-race treatments, the ethical approach includes performance of exensive post-competition examinations to address any weaknesses or unsoundness as a result of the performance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Alternatives to precompetition medication with non steroidal anti-inflammatory medication and steroids include fulfillment of the horse’s long-evolved nature. Musculoskeletal soundness is attained by proper breeding, development, husbandry, and conditioning practices. Management of exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage is achieved by specific lifetime daily development of the horse’s pulmonary and cardiac function. As well, unwelcome and unsafe competition behaviors are best managed by fulfillment of the horse’s inherent behavioral needs, which include abundant daily socialization, locomotion, and grazing.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10pt;">[9]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Recommended reading<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Chyoke A, Olsen S & Grant S 2006 <i>Horses and Humans, The Evolution of Human-Equine Relationships</i>, BAR International Series 1560, Archeopress, England, ISBN 1 84171 990 0<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Magner D 2004 <i>Magner’s Classic Encyclopedia of the Horse</i> Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">McGreevy P 2004 <i>Equine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists </i>Philadelphia: Elsevier Limited. ISBN 0 7020 2634 4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Waran N, McGreevy P & Casey RA 2002 <i>Training Methods and Horse Welfare</i> in Waran N, ed <i>The Welfare of Horses</i>, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p151-180<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Paul McGreevy BVSc, PhD, MRCVS. Equine Behavior, 2004, A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. Second Edition, Elsevier; 2012, Chapter 13 Equitation Science<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Budiansky, S. (1997). The nature of horses: Exploring equine evolution, intelligence, and behavior. New York: The Free Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hausberger M, Roche H, Henry S, and Visser E.K. “A review of the human-horse relationship” Appl Anim Behav Sci 109, 1-24. 2008<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Zambruno, Teresita (2017) <i>Epidemiological investigations of equine welfare at OSAF jurisdiction racecourses. Thesis</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Fraser D (2008). Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context. Wiley-Blackwell; 2008.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Slifer, Paige BMS 599 Dr. Alan Robertson 2017 A Review of Therapeutic Drugs Used for Doping of Race Horses: NSAIDs, Acepromazine, and Furosemide. Thesis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics, </span><a href="https://www.avma.org/About/Governance/Documents/2014S_Resolution8_Attch1.pdf" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">https://www.avma.org/About/Governance/Documents/2014S_Resolution8_Attch1.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[6]</span></span></span></span></a> <span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Magner D 2004 <i>Magner’s Classic Encyclopedia of the Horse</i> Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[7]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Kentucky Horseracing Commission Raceday Medication Transcript, NOVEMBER 14, 2011 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf" style="color: purple;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "ar" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[8]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "ar" , serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Furr M, Reed S editors (2007). Equine Neurology; Wiley-Blackwell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">[9]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Waran N, McGreevy P & Casey RA 2002 <i>Training Methods and Horse Welfare</i> in Waran N, ed <i>The Welfare of Horses</i>, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p151-180</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-42691437329848064592019-04-08T13:06:00.001-06:002021-05-06T09:30:28.125-06:00The Rise and Fall of Raceday Medications<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The History of Permitted Medication in American Horseracing </span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The Annals of Veterinary Medicine <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Sid Gustafson DVM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Phenylbutazone seemed a miracle drug when the stuff began coursing the bloodstreams of racehorses in the late 50s. By the time its use in horses became widespread during the ’60s, I had began collecting the urine that concentrated the ‘Bute’ metabolites, enabling its detection in racehorses. All drugs were forbidden in the game back then, and bute made the list of forbidden performance enhancing agents with the advent of its reliable detection in the urine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Off with a cup on a stick to collect racehorse pee, I became aware of drugs and racehorses at a tender age. Trainers injecting drugs into their horse to win a horse race was a concept I found difficult to comprehend, a dent put in my faith in humanity towards animals, and at such a tender teen age. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">What a soothing anti-inflammatory effect bute brought to racehorses in those simpler days when its use first became widespread after being introduced in the '50s. Bute’s use alleviated certain lamenesses in dramatic fashion. “Really sweet stuff,” I remember Wright Haggerty’s Kentucky groom telling me on the Shelby, Montana, backside in the early 60s as he pestelled up tiny white 100-milligram pills he had received from my father, the attending and regulatory veterinarian (thus my job as urine catcher). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">After WWII and Korea, both veterans and veterinarians returned to the racetrack with a new appreciation of the influence of drugs on pain management and endurance. Of all domestic species, the racehorse is the most pharmaceutically malleable. Drugs can easily and readily, albeit perhaps not consistently or dependably, alter the outcome of a horse race. Drugs can ease certain pains to enhance performance, as well as stimulate, or more often, calm the racehorse to improve performance. Metabolism can be bolstered or impaired with a variety of hormones, electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients injected before the race. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Drug trouble began lurking for horses on the backside; narcotics, stimulants, calmers, blood builders, joint injections, hormones, almost any drug moved up a horse, or so it appeared to trainers so inclined to use drugs to win. I’ve watched and participated in the horseracing game since the 60s. Not everyone doped horses. Not everyone does, save the Lasix and bute permitted. Many folks ran clean as long as they could. When racing drugs became allowed, in no time every trainer jumped in the pre-race drug bandwagaon. These permitted drugs moved horses up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">By the 80s, drug use became permissive, therapeutic the trainers' lobby said. As more drugs were allowed, horses durability began faltering considerably. Racehorses started breaking their legs more frequently, and it was not coincidental. Breakdowns were proportionate to pre-race drugs utilized. I was there, first as a urine collector, then as an attending veterinarian, and later as a regulatory veterinarian in New York in California. It was some experiment. Drugs weaken racehorses, each and every drug. The medicators began exceeded the adaptability of the horse. Drugs caused harm, especially over the long term.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">I came to know the winners, the winning horses and trainers, and how they cared for their winners. Back in the day, I followed the winners to their barn to catch the sample. I could see what sort of husbandry produced winners. It was clear to me back then that horses run soundest and safest clean. That has proven true scientifically and statistically. The more drugs given a horse, the more likely that horse is to breakdown. The more drugs allowed in a racing jurisdiction, the more broken legs and shortened careers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The original medical plan, being that most racing jurisdictions back then prohibited the use of any and all drugs, was to utilize phenylbutazone for training. The Kentucky groom mixed the white powder into a mash, and fed his eager and waiting racehorse, who trained like Seabiscuit the next morning. “So drugs can really make a horse win?” I asked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">“Sure can , some horses, yes, drugs can make all the difference. But that’s not how the game was designed. Talent, natural and learned talent, riding and conditioning talent; that’s what gamblers are lookin’ for. They don’t want any horses getting’ the needle. No the needle never any good for horses or horseracing. No drugs, no needles, that’s the rule. We looking for natural talent, trained up talent, and riding talent. Heart, we lookin’ for horse with heart, with hoof and heart. Yes, we don’t want no drugs. Drugs break down a horse. Drugs may help for a race or two, but after that drugs weaken the horse, hollow out the bones and joints, soften the lungs. Drugs make horses bleed.” That was my education on drugs and racehorses, and right the groom was. Everything he told me back then has turned out correct. He even knew that Bold Ruler had the Lasix, given by the master of hop, Alex Harthill. Horseracing had become a drug game, and the vets became the croakers, pushing drugs like they were oats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Bute cools hot joints and quiets inflamed tendons to desirable medical effect, allowing horses to return to training and racing sooner than otherwise, allowing them to maintain their conditioning. Tight, cool legs and hooves are necessary to continue conditioning the racehorse. If there is excess fluid in a joint, or swelling within a hoof, conditioning is generally counterproductive as further inflammation and damage follow exercise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Bute was first used to facilitate continued training by quieting certain injuries or inflammations, and was especially effective when used conscientiously and conservatively. In a certain sense and in compassionate, knowing hands the drug provided humane relief to the rigors of racehorse life. The question quickly became: Could bute enhance performance? It was not a question for long. The answer was yes. Bute was and is the cleanest boost ever for a horse with mild inflammation in need of relief. The stuff could move a horse up, as they say, without a mental, or stimulant effect, but with an anti-inflammatory effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Two horses being equal, however, bute generally won’t make a horse with quieted inflammation run faster than a horse without joint, bone, or tendon inflammation. In a sense, bute restores normal overall biomechanical function. The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug takes the heat out of mildly inflamed legs, feet, and joints, and this can be good in considerate hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Bute also became useful in the sense that it was diagnostic, or so the mind-set went at the time. If you administered bute and your horse went back to training and eating and being a sound horse after laming up a bit, then it was concluded that the condition was not significant enough to warrant rest, only to warrant bute. Bute, then, could be used to assess the severity of the lameness in racehorses. Some did not consider bute-responsive conditions serious, and this is one line of reasoning that eventually allowed the legalization of bute. There were medical arguments for its use in racing horses, medical arguments made by veterinarians and drug companies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">The conditions that bute administration does not resolve or effectively manage are considered problematic, and those conditions generally warrant rest, rather than more intensive treatment. Today, however, if bute does not manage the condition, more intense treatments are used, and more intense drugs are used.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Rest is the oldest and most effective treatment for lameness. In the history of horse doctoring, no treatment is more effective. The horse has a tremendous potential to heal musculoskeletal injuries if returned to natural pasture conditions, grazing the plains with herdmates. The problem is that it takes a full year of rest to cure many conditions racehorses develop, and at least months for others. No one has time to rest racehorses, to wait a year, and then take eight months to recondition the horse. With racehorses the clock is ticking, fast. If drugs can save time with racehorses, they are used for just that. And that is the case these days. The industry has transcended bute. The monthly veterinary bills at Saratoga and Santa Anita often exceed the monthly training bills. Ask any owner. Unwholesome and unfeasible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">If conditions are diagnosed accurately and thoroughly, and drugs are dosed properly and administered in a timely manner, doctors can reduce problematic inflammation in a given leg or joint, which in turn protects the rest of the horse by minimizing the risk of extra strain on other joints and limbs to compensate for the painful injured joint. However carefully dosed and administered, however, this brand of racehorse sports medicine puts more pressure on the weakened, and now treated joint, and herein lies the danger. In addition to systemic medication given intravenously to treat joint inflammation, cortisone is injected directly into joints and tendon sheaths to get a significant anti-inflammatory effect. Cortisone is in a different class of drugs called steroids, which can be used more specifically than bute to reduce the inflammation in a specific joint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">When there is swelling in a joint or tendon sheath, excess synovial fluid is secreted, distending the joint structures, and in some cases, deforming them, making for irregular movement. The reason for excess fluid in a joint is most often damage to the sensitive joint structures; damage to the synovial membranes, articular cartilages, ligaments, tendons, and underlying bone, any or all of the above. Damaged joints are weakened joints. They are inflamed joints, and in racehorses, many become cortisone-injected joints: weakened joints that are quieted down with cortisone. Why? Horse joints need to flow smoothly. Imagine an abraded joint surface, or a tendon that loses its lubrication as is passes over a running, moving joint, the resultant pain, swelling, inflammation, increased friction, and impaired function. If there is rough movement in one joint, the roughness is relayed throughout the horse’s musculoskeletal system, increasing the burden on the other legs and joints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Intra-articular injection of a joint with cortisone is a potent treatment. In certain veterinarians hands cortisone can be injected efficaciously. The most commonly injected joint is the fetlock, and not coincidentally, the most commonly fractured joint. The reality is that most fractured joints are cortisoned joints, although this information is inaccessible because of medical confidentiality. Bute is less intense, less potent, and a more conservative, saferremedy. The original idea was that legalized bute would replace joint injections, or that was part of the intent. That has not been the case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Phenylbutazone, or bute, abbreviated from the early popular brand Butazolodin, is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug very similar to aspirin. Those who understand the pharmaceutical principles of aspirin understand phenylbutazone. Bute reduces inflammation, and subsequent to that, pain. That is the sequence, anti-inflammatory first, with subsequent pain relief. As a result of reduced inflammation, there is restoration of function accompanying relief of the joint pain. Platelets are coated by bute, and coagulation is impaired, potentiating EIPH.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Bute is an anti-coagulant. If you consider aspirin a painkiller, then I suppose you can consider bute one, as well. Bute lasts longer, a day or two, while aspirin is more quickly metabolized in the horse, a matter of hours. The sustained anti-inflammatory effect of bute is especially therapeutic to horses. Prolonged anti-inflammatory relief allows the interdependent musculoskeletal system of the horse to redistribute weight appropriately. Lameness anywhere imbalances the horse. In a sense, bute can improve the balance by providing anti-inflammatory relief of the inflamed parts, but the trainer tendency is to abuse this effect, and train a lame horse under the influence of bute, and then race the horse under the influence of bute, banamine, and Lasix, as is permitted. Dreadful results. Breakdowns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Initially, drugs for racehorses being illegal, bute was used to facilitate training and not so much enhance racing. That came next. The medication got to working pretty darn good, and in time trainers began administering bute to their horses closer and closer to racing, and soon the testing folk started picking it up. Matt Lytle was one trainer who taught me about bute, the smile it put on his face until Croff Lake, one of his horses, suffered a bad test after winning the Oilfield Handicap in Shelby, Montana, one of those years in the mid-’60s. Lost his purse and sort of soiled his reputation all because of a shade of bute in the urine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Later, I heard him defend the drug, and his use of it: he gave it for the horses well-being, he claimed, and knowing Matt and his connection to his horses, I did not doubt his intent and compassion. Pain relief is compassionate, especially the sort of racehorse pain relief bute provided. The problem today is that a good thing, bute, or medication in general, has been taken too far. In the passion of competition and in a world of big money, horses have become victims of a misguided pharmaceutical culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">My dad, having dispensed the bute, sampled Matt’s horse after it won the Oilfield Handicap. I was the one who caught Croff Lake’s urine, which tested positive. Then in 1968, Dancers Image, the winning horse tested positive in the Kentucky Derby. Rather than further restrict drug use to remedy the situation, the industry legalized drugs. From that time, horse racing shifted from a covert medication culture to an overt medication culture, which has been recently brought to its knees. Bute prolongs coagulation time, and makes horses more vulnerable to bleeding. Certain cortisones also delay and alter normal coagulation. As the use of drugs to keep horses training and racing intensified, so did the incidence of bleeding, or Exercised Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage, EIPH. The more commonly bute and other steroidal and non-steroidal drugs were used, the more racehorses bled. With the medication ideology in full swing, the next drug allowed became Lasix, given hours before the race to stop all the bleeding all the other drugs incited. Lasix became the seat of drug abuse, facilitated the overuse and abuse of more and more drugs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">After hundreds of other doping incidents, there came a general consensus that if so many felt the need to use bute, maybe it should be O.K. to run on. After all, it was only a type of aspirin. And perhaps its legalization would eliminate the need for other more abrasive medications, such as opiates and amphetamines, and local anesthetics. Some even thought it would reduce the urge to administer intra-articular injections of cortisone. Not the case. The bute allowed horses to run that ought not run, and more and more horses began to bleed, the bute and other drugs altering coagulation while hematinics and other blood boosting drugs and hormones elevated red blood counts, further aggravating bleeding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">By the time I graduated from vet school and began practicing at Playfair Racecourse in the late ’70s, I could legally treat racehorses with nearly everything except stimulants, opiates or depressants. That left a lot of anti-inflammatory drugs, antihistamines, hormones, steroids and bleeding medications to administer to running racehorses, not to mention a multitude of vitamins, amino acids and minerals thought to help a horse endure the rigors of confinement training and racing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Now virtually all racehorses run on bute and Lasix, and now with too many fractured fetlocks the medication ideology has to be curtailed. Bute wasn’t enough. No drug is. Legal bute engendered a drug culture. Lasix facilitated the doping by suppressing bleeding. The ideology that more conservative use of potent medications would follow legalization of bute did not prove up. More intense drugs and medical treatments followed, rather than less. The pharmaceutical adaptability of the racehorse has been exceeded. Horse racing has to wean itself from its addiction to drugs that no longer help, but instead weaken horses. Racing jurisdictions are in the process of rolling back drug use. The trend should continue as a part of the remedy to reduce breakdowns. Foreign horse racing jurisdictions run without raceday medication, and their safety records are better than the United States’. Horses running clean are less likely to break down than those running on medication.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">All the efforts by all the organizations involved with racing to curb medication abuse will never be enough until Lasix and other raceday drugs allowed to be injected into the racehorse hours before racing are banned. It is poor form to inject horses with drugs shortly before they race. Where the practice is allowed, horses breakdown more often, as much as four times more often. Where raceday medication is banned, horses are better cared for and racing is safer for both jockeys and horses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Drugs have long been a problem with horseracing. Gambling has encouraged the use of illicit means to cash a bet. One of the most available means to help ensure a horse would win was to dope the horse with a performance enhancing drug. Horses have long been hopped, blocked, doped, and shocked in an effort to command a winning performance at tall odds, and often these means have worked. As America and the world are well aware, performance enhancing drugs have been utilized to nefarious effect in a variety of sports. Horseracing, cycling, and baseball have proven that drugs can and do enhance performance, giving unfair advantage to those who medicate illicitly. The benefits are often immediate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">After Korea and WWII, veterans returned to the racetracks, and many had come to know the opiates, morphine and company, as well as the local anesthetics, and stimulants, as well as the sleepers. The world of medicine was becoming a pharmaceutical world, and racehorses became the pincushions. As a child having been by and large raised by horses in a Native American environment, I had trouble getting my head around the concept of giving a horse a drug to win a race. The Indians had long held contests of horse speed and agility, and it was as natural as an event as I had ever witnessed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">When I was eleven years old, my father came to be in charge of ensuring horseracing was clean in Montana. It was said drugs had drifted in, and cer I was there in the 60s collecting the urine to test for drugs. The rule back in the day was no drugs allowed; none after the horse passed the entry box, and certainly none on raceday. To make racing safe and fair, drugs were simply banned altogether. The horse was designed to run naturally. The winner was to be the healthiest, happiest, fittest, and fastest horse. Horses that needed drugs or treatment were considered unfit to race, having to wait until the day they were healthy and recovered, returned to form, as it is said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">Horses are especially vulnerable to pharmaceutical manipulation, both to enhance and impair performance. Racing, and most all other athletic endeavors, were designed to find the best developed and most naturally conditioned athlete. Form faltered with injuries and miscalculations, and drugs came to be used to restore form in an athletic sense. Medical therapy drifted to medical doping. Drugs have long been known to restore and enhance athletic ability, and for that reason, any and all drugs have long been banned from a variety of athletic competitions, horseracing in the 60s being one of those sports. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">When I first hired on to collect urine, I was shocked such a measure had to be instituted to ensure fair play. “Some people just refuse to follow the rules,” Matt Lytle told me. “They’ll do anything to win a race and cash a gamble.” And it was true. He could point out the violators as they walked through the backside to the betting windows. Coming into the game young, and made aware of such doping shenanigans, along with my father being a veterinarian, both attending and regulatory, I came to develop a keen eye not only for gimpers, but a keen eye for dopers. As it often turned out, those who had the stable of gimpers were those who had the illicit pharmacies pharmacy in their tack rooms. I soon came to see drugs and lameness went hand in hand. As well, it became clear to become a trainer of horses, one often became a juggler of potions. There seemed to be some great mystical power in jugging a horse (giving a medication intravenously in the jugular vein) and winning a race. The practice became the talk of the backside. Through the years as a urine catcher, attending racetrack veterinarian, and finally a regulatory veterinarian, and came to appreciate the affect of drugs on racehorses, and in the end, no drug ever helped a horse for long. It became clear one could restore form by suppressing unsoundness, and beyond that, one could medicate a horse with a variety of performance enhancing drugs to win a race. As modern medicine inundated horseracing, so did scientific regulation. Before one could accuse a trainer of doping a horse, one had to prove the doping with science. Although it was obvious to most on the backside who was doping, it had to be proven. Veterinarians came to be the ones who stayed ahead of the regulations and kept the trainers supplied with the latest drugs that the laboratories could not test for. New drugs came out weekly, and horsedoctors became the foremost authorities on the illicit medication of racehorses. Through the decades I became witness to a long progression of untoward drugs and procedures to restore soundness and enhance performance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">As medication and doping practices intensified, racehorses began to bleed. Drugs facilitated training shortcuts and replaced proper conditioning. Healthy lungs require clean air and abundant daily locomotion. Bleeding became limiting for improperly trained and often overmedicated racehorses. This was followed by additional pre-race medication strategies to stop the bleeding, Lasix being a most effective cover for the aggressive medication practices and substandard husbandry that potentiates EIPH. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">EIPH is caused by inadequate conditioning, husbandry and race condition preparation. Intense pre-race medication practices increase the incidence of EIPH by thinning the blood and enhancing performance. Bute and many others alter coagulation processes and capillary integrity. EPO, blood-building, and the current trendy blood-doping practices overburden the circulatory system potentiating EIPH. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">As American trainers began relying on drugs to sustain and enhance performance, the care of the racehorse began to deteriorate in corresponding fashion. The more drugs utilized, the less care horses received. Drugs replaced proper care. Lasix perpetuated substandard horsemanship. Pre-race drugging engenders disrespect for horse and rider, endangering both, a most insidious aspect of horseracing that continues to this day, and must be stopped to save our sport. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;">https://actascientific.com/ASVS/pdf/ASVS-02-0049.pdf</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 28px;"><a href="https://actascientific.com/ASVS/pdf/ASVS-02-0049.pdf">Performance Horse Medication Ethics</a><br /></span></div>
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-85300589767202677722018-11-08T15:35:00.001-07:002019-07-03T15:35:38.410-06:00The Human/Horse Bond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
- How should horse owners define bonding with their horse? What does that look like?<br />
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Horses form strong pair bonds with other horses, as we see in natural herd settings. Substitute a human for one of the horses, and that is how a human/horse bond looks. A bond is present when horse and human are familiar and comfortable with the other during riding and/or training. Both enjoy being with one another, and remain focused on and connected to one another. An obvious willing partnership is present, each half accommodating the requests of the other. The actions of each are predictable to the other. Each is familiar with the behavior of the other, and accepts the other’s behavior.<br />
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- What motivates a horse to bond with a particular person, like their owner?<br />
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Let’s call owners guardians, here. A horse knows her guardian, but knows nothing of ownership, and rather resents such a concept, as far as I can tell. <br />
Guardians who know how to keep their horse happy, have a horse who is happy to bond with them, as bonding is a horse’s tendency. Horses require abundant friends, forage, and locomotion to be happy. Horses form strong pair bonds with other horses, as taught in the herd, and through the mare/foal relationship. In order for horses to form pair bonds with people, they must first have been taught about pair bonds in the herd—what I term appropriate socialization. For those desiring a bond with their horse, it is essential they remain in an appeasing cooperative mood during their interactions and training. People who are of the mind to frequently show their horse who is boss diminish the bond with their horse. It is always wise to consider the horse always has the last word, should the horse decide to have the last word.<br />
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- What research has been done in this area, that you know of? <br />
Bonding is difficult to research, but McGreevy et al have scientifically approached the subject in their published papers, and in McGreevy’s text book Equine Behavior.<br />
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- What specific things can a horse owner do to bond with their horse? <br />
Spending casual time with a horse develops the bond. Grooming is a great method to establish familiarity and predictability. Predictability and familiarity are established with appropriate training, as well. Appropriate training is training that is a good deal for the horse. Training and riding should be painless, without fear, and absent of stress. <br />
A guardian who walks and grazes her stabled horse for two or three hours each day will develop a deep bond. Think, what makes my horse happy? Let’s do that together. Again, people who know how to keep stalled horses happy with constant foraging, abundant daily walking (miles), grazing, and socialization have horses happy who are more than happy to bond with them. <br />
Remember, stalled horses require miles and miles of daily locomotion beyond their training regimens. Guardians who provide stalled horses with miles of daily locomotion, walking and grazing, develop impeccable bonds. Natural has to be re-created in the stable before a horse will bond readily with a human.<br />
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- Does the owner need to spend more and more time with their horse in order to increase their bond? <br />
No. Once the bond is established and the horse is in a social stabling situation, and the horse looks forward to their guardian’s visit, the bond usually remains solid. The bond will deteriorate if the horse becomes unhappy with the stabling or training, however. <br />
Once again, the stabling and training must be a good deal for the horse for bonds to remain tight. The horse needs a happy life with other horses before she will develop a strong bond with her human guardian. Horses form strong pair bonds, and this is their essential nature. A bond is waiting to happen with any horse, as bonding is a horse’s natural tendency. Contented horses bond with people. Discontented horses, not so much.<br />
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- Do you have any specific stories/anecdotes of a horse you bonded with? What did you do to bond with that horse? <br />
- Yes. When I was a teenager I was on a ranch crew and we each had a string of three horses. We rotated the horses and rode each horse every third day, so long were our days moving cow-calf pairs to mountain pastures. These horses spent their two days off every three grazing native pastures with the other cow ponies (staying happy). <br />
- I had become pair-bonded with my horse Jimbo when I had trained him the friendly way, and he appreciated that. I trained him to be a willing partner. As such, he knew nothing of indentured servitude. After two every-third-day-riding rotations, Jimbo learned he would be ridden every third day. On those days, bonded to me as he was (and I; him) he would leave the horse herd and wait for me at the gate. So bonded Jimbo had become to me, he learnt to count to three. His days spent under me were as enjoyable for him as the days spent with the grazing herd. On his two days off, he would remain with the herd and not be at the gate. <br />
When your horse leaves the main herd to wait for you at the gate to be ridden when he knows you’ll arrive, you know you have developed a deep bond with him or her. Bonds are best developed without food rewards. Those horses often bond with the treats rather than the person.<br />
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- What type of communication and/or body language do horses give to show that they are starting or willing to bond with someone? <br />
They approach you willingly, if not eagerly. Fearful or fleeting behaviors are absent. They are comfortable beside you and under you. They enjoy your grooming, your hand walking, and your hand grazing. These activities develop a bond the horse looks forward to experiencing. <br />
Bonded horses are happy to be away from the herd for a spell to enjoy your company, and the pleasure and companionship you provide. When you make training a good deal for your horse, your horse is happy to bond. If training is a bad deal for your horse, a bond will not develop. Horses who run away from you when you arrive are not yet bonded. They likely did not have a good experience after your previous arrivals, sorry. Training and stabling need to improve for them before they willingly bond. <br />
- Tell me about your professional experience teaching people how to bond with horses or researching the topic?<br />
- I teach horse guardians to bond with their horses by educating themselves about equine behavior...Bonding is dependent on establishing familiarity with your horse. Your horse needs to be in a content frame of mind to bond. Contentment is established by fulfilling and enriching all of your horse’s innate needs, both physical and behavioral. Un-enriched, forage-deprived, stalled horses, for example, are unlikely to bond with their human until their behavioral needs are fulfilled and enriched in a natural and reliable basis.<br />
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- Is there anything else you want to add on this topic at this time? <br />
- Socialized horses are happy to bond with the people they know ensure their lives are fulfilled and enriched with friends, forage and locomotion.<br />
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At the end of this are scientific references, which on this subject remain vague. While it may be difficult to scientifically assess and measure a bond between and horse and human, it is quite easy to see which pairs are bonded, and which are not. Bonding allows the partnership of horse and rider to become greater than the sum.<br />
- The bonding aptitude of the horse is enhanced by the horse’s social development. Appropriate socialization with other horses in a herd setting best prepares horses to subsequently bond with—and be trained by—horsefolk. Pastured horses train up and learn more efficiently than stabled horses because their lives are fulfilled and enriched. Contentment for horses is achieved with near-constant friends, forage, and locomotion. Bonding with a horse to facilitate training and performance training is dependent on the horse’s previous socialization with the dam and herd, as well as the horse’s current husbandry situation. The more natural the husbandry, the more natural the bonding. The more grain you feed, the more difficult genuine bonding becomes to achieve for both metabolic and behavioral reasons.<br />
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- Trainability is made more efficient by establishing a bond—a practiced familiarity—between horse and human. The intensity and type of stabling and husbandry, as well as the type of training, affects bonding. Appropriate socialization and enriched stabling are required to establish a strong bond between horse and human. Appropriate training is critical to maintain the human/horse bond. If the human/horse relationship incites pain, fear, or discomfort, the bond will diminish. <br />
- Foals need to be properly socialized in their upbringing, preferably in a pasture herd setting, to develop bonding behaviors that they can later utilize to establish human friendships. <br />
<br />
- Sid Gustafson<br />
- 918 South Church Avenue<br />
- Bozeman, MT 59715<br />
- 406-581-4946<br />
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- Equine Behaviour Through Time<br />
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- Horses began their journey through time 60 million years ago. Three million years ago the footsteps of humans were fossilized next to the hoofprints of horses, suggesting that humans have been contemplating horses for some time. But it was not until perhaps ten thousand years ago that human societies began the dance of domestication with the horse. Over thousands of years, perhaps tens of thousands of years, the horse herds gradually merged with human societies. A shared language described by contemporary scientists as kinetic empathy, a language of movement, and similar compatible social structures facilitated the merging of the two species.<br />
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- There is archeological evidence that humans had formed an intimate and intermingled relationship with horses by 5500 years ago in Botai, where the horsefolk stabled and milked horses, and probably rode them. Horses provided these early horsefolk with much of the essentials they needed for group survival. It is interesting to note that large domestic dogs lived with these early horsefolk as well, but no other domestic animals. To understand the domestication process is to enhance our appreciation of equine behaviour. Horses apparently became domesticated because they found a niche with people long ago on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Both trained and wild horses existed in this realm south of Russia and west of China. A population of horses more amenable to captivity and taming than their wild counterparts likely provided the stock for the first horse societies. Rather than plucking wild horses out of the wild and taming them, it is thought that over tens of thousands of years a relationship developed in a shared niche.<br />
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- By the early 20th century the closest living relative to Equus caballus, the Tarpan, had gone extinct. No truly wild horses remain. All of today’s caballine horses are descended from an original, and possibly separate, population of horses that were amenable to being tamed and selectively bred by humans. It appears to have taken tens of thousands of years to fully domesticate the horse, and to eventually attain control of breeding. Breeding initially consisted primarily of selection for docility and amenability to captivity, and later milking, riding, driving, and stabling. In contemporary culture, selective breeding often involves selecting for the best athlete, or attempting to select for the best athlete. In addition to genetics, this presentation will focus on the socialization aspect of raising horses, and portray the importance of nurture on the eventual behavioral and physical health of the adult athlete.<br />
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- No longer does human society depend on horse society for survival as it once did. Although still bred for trainability, more and more horses are today bred for specific performance goals. These days, horses provide people with entertainment, recreation, sport, esteem, performance, and pleasure, and, as ever, but in fewer and fewer reaches, utility. Other than stockfolk, few others rely on horses to sustain a pastoral livelihood. This new role of the horse requires renewed studies and considerations of equine behavior.<br />
- <br />
- Horsefolk and veterinarians alike remain enticed and intrigued by horses. The science of equine behaviour attempts to appreciate just who horses are, and from the horse perspective. To appreciate the horse perspective, behaviourists explore the evolution and domestication of the horse. We continue to find ourselves attempting to appreciate how the current human/horse relationship came to be so as to facilitate a smooth trouble free relationship with our horses. As well, appropriate breeding, socialization, and training of horses helps minimize behavioural wastage.<br />
- <br />
- To understand where our relationship with the horse is headed, veterinary behaviour practitioners attempt to see where the human/horse relationship has been, and to subsequently help modify and refine the relationship to favour the horse. Humans continue to live with horses and continue to learn from them, as all horsefolk have through time. Now, however, much less time is spent with horses and learning from horses, so contemporary practitioners must research and make themselves aware of the behavioural principles that were once gleaned from a near-constant exposure to horses through all stages of their development. We study the evolution and domestication of the horse to better help us appreciate the horses we have in our hands today. Evolution and domestication provide a basis for the understanding of equine behaviour. Man has attempted to refine his relationship with the horse ever since the first kid grabbed a mane and swung atop a horse. To become a partner with the flighty, powerful (but trainable and tamable) grazer of the plains remains the horsefolk goal.<br />
- <br />
- Appreciation and sensitivity to all of our caballine horses' evolved preferences results in optimum health and soundness, and therefore optimum performance. A horse cannot be coerced to win the Kentucky Derby. The people must work with the horse, and from the horse’s view. If we understand equine behaviour, we understand what makes horses do our bidding, and do it willingly and well. To this day, horses seek to appease their domesticators much as they appease others in horse societies and herds. Horses are willing learners. This learning behavior is a result of evolutionary development of a complex social lifestyle. More recently, selective breeding has influenced equine behaviour.<br />
- <br />
- The nature of the horse is enhanced by the horse’s social development. Appropriate socialization with other horses in the herd pasture setting best prepares horses to be subsequently trained by horsefolk. Pastured horses train up and learn more efficiently than stabled horses. The appropriate, efficient, and considerate training of horses is highly dependent on their previous socialization by the dam and other horses, as well as their current husbandry situation. Trainability is heavily influenced by the intensity and type of stabling and husbandry, not to mention the type of training. In the latest revolution of horsemanship, the area of appropriate socialization and stabling has not received the attention it deserves.<br />
- <br />
- Horses are a quiet species. They prefer calm, and learn most efficiently in tranquil, familiar settings. Horses must know and be comfortable and secure in their environment to be able to learn as horsefolk hope them to learn. Horsefolk all know what we want from our horses, however in this paper I shall present the science of what our horses want and need from humans, the science of equine behaviour. Equine behaviour is not only the basis of training and trainability, but also the very basis of equine health. To succeed in our endeavors with horses (whatever the our equine goals or pursuits), our horses are best served to receive what they preferentially need and require behaviourally, nutritionally, socially, physically, environmentally, visually, and metabolically. In order to properly care for horses and successfully teach and train horses, horsefolk must know horses. They must know who the gregarious grazers of the plains are. They must know how to properly socialize horses through their growth phase to ensure that their horses grow up to be horses. Horses raised out of the herd context are vulnerable to behavioural insecurities later in life. Most behavioural wastage is due to improper socialization and husbandry.<br />
- <br />
- Rather than being dissimilar to us, horses are much like us. In this presentation, I attempt to clarify humankind's social and communicative similarities to horses. As with people, strong social bonds develop between individual horses and groups of horses. This herd nature results in intense social pair and herd bonds. Horses need other horses. Horses require other horses for security, comfort, and behavioural health. Horses need friends throughout their entire life, first their teaching mother, and then their teaching herd. Today’s domestic horse needs horse friends and human friends, although horses do retain the wherewithal to survive just fine without horsefolk. Horses need friends so greatly and constantly, that horses allow horsefolk to substitute as friends. This is possible because man shares a sociality with domestic horses. We speak their gesture language, and horses speak ours. We share a language of movement, and language described as kinetic empathy.<br />
- Domestic horse is no longer human prey, and has not been for thousands of years. Horse has been brought into the circle of humanity, along with a dozen or so other domesticates that share an adequate sociality with mankind to be allowed to develop a mutually beneficial relationship.<br />
- <br />
- Horse and man have co-evolved together for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. Each knows the other, well, and horses have proven to know the nature of people more consistently than people know the nature of horses. It is paramount that horsefolk appreciate the social and communicative nature of horses, and deal with horses in a fashion that is appropriate to their long-evolved social nature.<br />
- <br />
- In addition to adequate and appropriate sociality and socialization, the importance of the need for near-constant motion is paramount to proper application equine behaviour. Locomotion is essential for horse health. In natural settings, horses move about grazing, playing, trekking, and variety of other movements as much a two-thirds of the time. Abundant movement provides constant connection and communication with the other horses in the herd, and as well, sustains the overall and physiologic functions of the horse. Plentiful locomotor activity facilitates behavioural expression and maintains physiologic health. An essential interdependence exists between horse health and locomotion. Horses evolved to be near-constant walkers and grazers. Horses did not evolve to be confined in stalls and stables, but rather evolved to live in open herd settings. Despite domestication and selective breeding for docility and captivity, horse health remains dependent on locomotion. Locomotion is inherent to grazing. Locomotion is inherent to digestion, to respiration, to metabolism, to hoof health and function, and to joint health. If horses are not allowed to move about freely and socialize with other familiar horses grazing and chewing as they evolved to do, they become metabolically vulnerable and subsequently troubled. Horses deprived of locomotion and constant forage ingestion develop strategies to maintain the motion and oral security they feel they need to survive. When horses are deprived of adequate and abundant locomotion, they develop strategies to keep themselves and their jaws moving, as is their essential and inherent nature. Horses deprived of friends, forage, and locomotion are at risk to develop stereotypies to provide themselves with the movement they need to survive.<br />
- <br />
- The primary premise of equine behavioural health is this: in natural settings, horses walk and graze with other horses two thirds of the time. They take a step and graze, then another step or two grazing and moving along, always observing their surroundings, grazing while in touch with other members of the herd unless playing, occasionally dozing or sleeping, but only under the secure and established watch of others. Horses that are not afforded the opportunity to graze and walk much of the time take up with behaviours to replicate essential locomotion. When stabled, some of the horse's long- evolved survival behaviours become unwanted and unwelcome.<br />
- <br />
- Horses require friends, forage, and locomotion to stay healthy and productive. Additionally, horses need clean air and abundant space for optimum health. In rural settings, these requirements are easy to fulfill. Open grasslands and steppes are the geography and environs from where the most recent predecessors of Equus caballus evolved. The further we remove horses from their social grazer of the plains preferences, the more health issues develop that require treatment and management by veterinarians and horsefolk.<br />
- <br />
- Stabling, stalling, hospitalization and transport all deprive horses of their preferences for friends, forage, and locomotion. Although convenient for horsefolk, stabling is inconvenient for horses. Stabling limits the resources of friends, forage, and locomotion. Stabling creates bad air, and allows pathogens and parasites to travel easily between horses. When stabling is required, horses are best served to have their natural needs re-created in the stable. The air must be kept clean, and forage must be always available. Opportunities for movement and simulation of grazing with friends must be provided in abundance. Once our horses’ behavioural needs are understood, appreciated, and fulfilled, the learning and training can begin. Enrichment strategies re-create the needs of stabled horses. Horses deprived of friends, forage, and locomotion are not able to learn as well as appropriately socialized horses. Those strategies that best replicate the grazer of the plains scenario promote the best health, learning, and performance from horses.<br />
- <br />
- Locomotion and socialization are essential for both horse health and healing. Husbandry, healing, and rehabilitation nearly always benefit from appropriately managed locomotion strategies that are constantly tailored to the horse's healing process. Locomotion is required not only for normal healing, but for normal digestion, respiration, hoof health, circulation, and all other physiologic functions of the horse. Stall rest is at the expense of many systems, especially the hoof and metabolic systems. Digestion and respiration are compromised by confinement and restriction of movement. Metabolic, digestive, circulatory, hoof health, musculoskeletal, and nervous, systems, as well as the all other systems and functions of the horse, are dependent upon adequate and appropriate locomotion for normal functioning and/or healing.<br />
- <br />
- For horses that are hospitalized, paddocked, stabled, and corralled; active implementation and re-creation of the social pasture setting is required to optimize and maintain health and promote healing. Medical conditions are apt to deteriorate in the face of the deprivations of forage, friends, and locomotion created by stabling and hospitalization. Re-creation of a natural setting in the stall is the biggest challenge veterinarians face in maintaining the health of stabled horses.<br />
- <br />
- Stalled horses not only heal poorly, they learn and train poorly. Locomotion, social, and forage deprivations create problems for horses. In addition to appropriate medical treatment, veterinarians and stable managers must creatively provide horses with abundant socialization, forage, and locomotion to maintain health and facilitate healing within the parameters of acceptable medical and surgical treatment. Restriction of locomotion to facilitate healing necessitates the implementation of enrichment strategies to simulate locomotion, including massage, passive flexion, and a wide variety of physical therapies.<br />
- <br />
- Horses also heal horsefolk, and those horsefolk that implement these healing strategies often experience a sense of healing themselves, it seems. The human/horse bond runs deep. Domestication of the horse is a co-evolving evolutionary process. The human perspective is being shaped by the horse's perspective these days. Appreciation of the science of equine behavior and equitation is encouraged to support the renewed interest in equine medicine and welfare, and to facilitate the veterinarian’s role of providing horses with their essential needs.<br />
- <br />
- References<br />
- <br />
- Chyoke A, Olsen S & Grant S 2006 Horses and Humans, The Evolution of Human-Equine Relationships, BAR International Series 1560, Archeopress, England, ISBN 1 84171 990 0<br />
- <br />
- Magner D 2004 Magner’s Classic Encyclopedia of the Horse Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books<br />
- <br />
- McGreevy P 2004 Equine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists Philadelphia: Elsevier Limited. ISBN 0 7020 2634 4<br />
- <br />
- McGreevy P, McLean A 2010 Equitation Science, Wiley Blackwell, UK, ISBN 2009048321<br />
- <br />
- McGreevy PD et al 2007 Roles of Learning theory and ethology in equitation Journal of Veterinary Behavior 2:108-118<br />
- <br />
- McGreevy PD 2006 The advent of equitation science The Veterinary Journal 174:492-500<br />
- <br />
- Waran N, McGreevy P & Casey RA 2002 Training Methods and Horse Welfare in Waran N, ed The Welfare of Horses, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p151-180<br />
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behaviorist, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans. He is HABRI certified in the Human/Animal Bond.<br />
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Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-86823013490084246882018-05-29T13:11:00.001-06:002018-05-29T13:11:18.186-06:00The Language of Horsemanship <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/450860016&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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How to raise and train horses to become willing partners and willing winners!<br />
<br />
Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-86540441334369629412018-01-09T17:44:00.000-07:002018-03-30T21:12:19.072-06:00Centaurian Horsemanship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Centaur</div>
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The centaur
portrays something significant about our horsemanship desires. That primal
mythological being displays the metaphoric equestrian ideal; head, arms, and
torso of a horseperson blending gracefully into the body and legs of horse; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Equus sapien</i>. Those who ride horses
understand this conceit clearly; become the horse. Sophisticated Thessalonian
Greek tribesman imagined and mythologized this man/horse creature, a cultural
reflection of man’s emotional and physical blending with the species <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Equus caballus</i>. The centaur image expresses
pastoral man’s exalted and cherished blending with the horse. The centaur
defines the willing partnership many of today’s horsemen seek. </div>
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A current
expression of the centaur is what some term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">natural</i>
horsemanship, a renewal of the manifestation of our desire to connect with
horses in a willing and conciliatory fashion. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ethical</i> horsemanship...training that is a good deal for the horse, including the husbandry and essential social development and enrichment. More than ever, as mankind has drifted ever so far from nature,
people seek true unity with their horses, harmonious partnerships based on
understanding and mutual confidence rather than force or coercion. Horsemen
hope their horse allows total control willingly and readily<span style="font-family: symbol;">—</span>dependably,
consistently, and reliably<span style="font-family: symbol;">—</span>wherever
and whenever they ride together. The connection horsefolk seek is empowerment
from the horse, a controlled extension of their self. The ideal connection is a
pairing achieved willingly, a partnership that becomes something much more than
the sum of man and horse.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhipEza34VjVYY9dDjtRYmo3Ul6wQJCZtkoiTeBjJ5vqzhiQRq5cAMmLjpYUs7P3qqC1SzRRBv3EvUb86lbbvM6CtpoTZNXPcWZYzxBuKesw-QLmyw9EP6-ld8ZixqoFzBNnciu9HU-2Eg/s1600/novellist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GZeUrr8ZarMjGhj_gXcgxbGi8zrjlHAMv-la8U5X6OYjoPXxqsw6Awzx5e-yPHNU4F3VeYzBXvI04W6bqDH1Sz5kcyJS9caiOJv21aEfcSZVfJ894iBP_xckFy6AOltmeWA_1PweJ8Y/s1600/talismanic+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1148" data-original-width="1600" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GZeUrr8ZarMjGhj_gXcgxbGi8zrjlHAMv-la8U5X6OYjoPXxqsw6Awzx5e-yPHNU4F3VeYzBXvI04W6bqDH1Sz5kcyJS9caiOJv21aEfcSZVfJ894iBP_xckFy6AOltmeWA_1PweJ8Y/s320/talismanic+.jpg" width="320" /></a>Man continues to
renew and refine the relationship that has bonded him to horses for millennia.
Horsemen continue to seek a connectivity of their minds to the horse’s body as
horsemen always have. The horsemanship ideal remains the same through time:
that a rider’s thought becomes horse’s action, the centaur effect. Indeed,
modern horsemen report that horse/man relationships approach this ideal with
regularity. The nature of the horse, however, is such that the regularity
remains uncertain. </div>
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Consistent
blending of man’s thought to the horse’s physique requires a thorough and
multifaceted understanding of the horse’s nature. Subsequently, the development
of an ability to communicate physically with horses is required to connect with
horses in a positive fashion. Kinetic empathy, or understanding through
movement, describes the gesture language used between horses, and between
horses and humans. The language of horsemanship is the language of kinetic
empathy. An acceptance of the time it takes to refine relationships with horses
remains an important aspect of communicating with horses. Horsemanship involves
more than training. Horses form strong pair bonds in a herd to develop fluent
communication between horses to facilitate group survival. Group survival is
the horse’s nature, and the horseperson needs to take the time to develop a
familiarity with horses, both on an individual and general basis. Horses need
to know how those in their group move, and respond to their<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>movements, and as well the horseperson
needs to know equine locomotion on many levels. Understanding and comprehending
the kinetic empathy that horses utilize involves appreciating the gaits of
horses. Horsemanship involves bonding, becoming familiar with one another, as
is the horse’s nature. Much of this bonding is the blending of a physical
connection. Pleasing matches take time spent together.</div>
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The connection
between horse and man is subconscious and conscious, inherent and acquired.
Advanced horsemen and horsewomen communicate to and with horses on many levels,
much as horses communicate with one another. Awareness in both species becomes comprehensive
as the relationship develops, with both man and horse knowing the movements of
the other, as well as the other’s expected responses to their movements.</div>
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Man’s relationship
with the horse has been pressing for some time. Mary Leakey discovered early
African man’s footprints fossilized next to the hoof-prints of an early African
horse. These hoof and foot prints next to one another dated 3.6 million years
into the past. That is a long time ago. Man and horse have spent a long time
coevolving. Before merging together in the dance of domestication, man and
horse developed group survival strategies that involved sophisticated social
interaction and communication. Much of the early communication in mankind
involved gestures. The majority of horse communication involves gestures and
body language, acknowledgements and responses to movements. Horse and man’s
ability to communicate merged in the domestication process. Mankind has spent a
long time coevolving with horses, and here we continue to refine our
interspecies communication and understanding of one another. </div>
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Imagine 3 million
years ago, pedestrian man, fleet horse; footprints fossilized together on the
same ancient plain. Three million years ago man and horse gazed at one another,
watching the others movements, coming to understand the other’s intent by the
other’s movements, the beginnings of the sharing of the language scientists
today term kinetic empathy. The contiguous footprints of man and horse do not
prove any sort of close relationship so long ago in Africa, but the shared
ecosystem implies that the two species have been aware and observant of one
another for at least three million years. Horses have been vulnerable to the
many of the same predators as man over time. In response to predation, each
species developed a safety in numbers survival structure, becoming social in
nature. Later, in Asia, man and horse converged in a socially communicative
regard that had independently developed over time. The awareness and contact between
man and horse ebbed and flowed until the right combination of horses, folk, and
resources allowed the connection to develop, allowing the species to merge. By
six thousand years ago, horses had merged with people both physically and
socially. Horses were stabled, milked, trained, and likely ridden, as the Botai
archeology suggests. The shared social structure between man and horse quickly
flourished as the language between the species became refined with close and
continuous contact. The new relationship between these two social species
facilitated the eventual development of inland civilizations. The combination
of the two species soon exceeded the sum of man and horse before their social
merger.</div>
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“The Footprint
Tuff”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
at Laetoli in the eastern rift valley of Kenya, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Australopithecus </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hipparon,
</i>must have had wondering what if might take to tame that resource, assessing
the horse’s power; the African horse looking at man, skeptic then as skeptic
now, yet curious, both being chased by the same predators as they emerged from
the forest to the plains. Three million years is a long time for two species to
contemplate one another in increasingly intense fashion. Some people seem born
with an animal understanding or connectivity in their blood, perhaps
biologically relevant to the long developmental association man and horse have
experienced together. </div>
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The kinetic language
to effectively connect with horses has been selectively enhanced and
incorporated into man’s genome over time. The ability to communicate with horse
is inborn into man’s central nervous system as it is inborn into the horse’s. The
gesture language has converged. For some individuals the language appears more readily
expressible than for others. Children raised in the presence of horses and
other domestic animals develop an understanding of the language the animals
utilize to communicate with one another, as well as the language the domestic
animals utilize to communicate with the children and others. Children quickly
come to appreciate the nature of horses if they are allowed abundant
opportunities to be taught by horses, which is to grow up around horses, to
live near and with horses, to ride them from a young age. Children often
quickly connect by understanding the gesture language of horses, and by responding
with a gesture language of their own, which facilitates bonding. Bonding is
understanding of the other, predictability of the other, knowing of the other,
and the understanding is that of movement. Bonding and understanding go hand in
hand, as bonding is about becoming familiar with the movements of the other,
the meaning of the movements, the responses to the movements. Harmony of
movement becomes the ideal. Harmony with horses requires experience and
understanding; familiarity. The harmony is a harmony of movement, a harmony of
responses to the others movements, a continuous reciprocity, and rhythmic
togetherness, a staying out of the way of the locomotion of the other. The bond
between man and horse is a bond of mutually appreciated movements. The language
of horsemanship is mutual appreciation of movements. Adults and children alike
over time learn to react to these movements with conditioned subconscious
movements of their own when handling and riding horses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exceptional communicators develop willing
partnerships with horses. Horses evolved a group survival strategy, and part of
the strategy is to flow with the herd, to appease the group. As horses appease
others in a herd, horses are willing to appease their riders, provided a fluent
language of horsemanship has been comfortably established. As in a herd, horses
are willing to lead, as well. Provided communication is fluent, a horse’s
nature is to both willingly appease and to willingly lead their rider. The
relationship—the bond of mutual appreciation and predictability of the other’s
movement—is best served to be experienced and secure.</div>
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Those folk without
an animal sense of kinetic empathy can learn to communicate with horses by
educating themselves regarding the history and nature of the horse. Adults unfamiliar
with horse movement and locomotion often require a more formal conscious
learning process regarding horse’s nature, initially at least. Communication
with horses becomes subconscious with time, provided one takes the time to
become familiar with horse movements, and the language in which horse’s
communicate with both one another and with people. Spending time with horses is
essential. Adults cannot become fluent in the language of horsemanship without
spending lots of time with horses—hours a day, days a week. A variety of
activities facilitate an understanding of horse movements. Grooming and
brushing and rubbing horses is an excellent way to become fluent with horses.
Hanging out with horses in grazing scenarios allows people to become with the
responses of horses to the movement of others, both four-legged and two. A bond
has to be established. For some the bond with a horse can come instantly, for
others bonding takes more time. Some pairings are unable to find balance, and therefore
cannot bond adequately to allow the development of a willing partnership.</div>
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Successful
horsemanship depends on the refinement of a fluency of movement between horse
and rider. The accomplishment of fluent human/horse connections requires
understanding of the nature of the horse. Learning theory is important to
appreciate. Learning theory is based on evolutionary processes. Group survival
facilitated socialization. In addition to sharing a language of movement with
horses, man shares the principles of learning with horses. Humans and horses
learn in similar fashion. Mares teach their foals both how and what to learn.
Similar learning allows training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
connections have been modified and melded with longstanding threads of
horsemanship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Horsemanship has
been developed into schools and methods. Many of these methods are sequential,
explanatory, and formulaic, and many of them help horsemen establish effective
relationships with horses. An understanding of the theory and application of
these methods is necessary to gain full advantage of the techniques and to be
able to apply what is termed natural horsemanship to specific disciplines
effectively. </div>
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Finesse,
informality, and variety are equally essential horsemanship virtues, but they
are less often addressed in natural horsemanship programs and will be explored
here. Accomplished horsemen are those who become exposed to a wide variety of
horses in a wide variety of disciplines and applications over extended periods
of time. Individuals remaining buried in specific disciplines have a tendency
to become close-minded to the horsemanship of others, and this can preclude
effective refinement in their chosen discipline. Horsemen seeking improvement
and enhanced performance are wise to view new strategies and thought from a
wide variety of sources with an open mind, and attempt to garner improved
language skills from each horseman they encounter. There are many effective
adaptable traditions and horsemanship methodologies and theories, and most all
of them have information to potentially improve our relationship with horses,
although some may teach us what we ought not do with horses.</div>
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The language of
horsemanship is making a comeback, and our connection with horses is deepening
in many exciting and innovative ways. Facilitating man’s longtime connection
with the horse—a method of signaling and communing with the horse—physical
language more than verbal language, an emotional language. The communication
has reached renewed levels of sophistication, and it is a language that transcends
words in many ways. Exploring the origins and future of the language of
horsemanship is a primary intent of this book.</div>
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Understanding the
nature of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">domestic</i> horse is the
basis of the language of contemporary horsemanship. Horsemen must be able to
read horses and develop a perception and awareness of their myriad levels of
perception and projection. Horses strive to understand horsemen and reciprocate
effectively and efficiently. Willingness and understanding need travel both
ways. Domestic horses possess inborn tameness that horsemen can tap into deeply
and effectively. And do. Through time, beautiful horsemanship has been
practiced far and wide. Common fundamentals of the language persevere, handed
down from horseman to horseman, from man to horse, from horse to man in direct
and indirect ways. </div>
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A huge culture of
horsemanship became lost in the industrial age as horses became obsolete.
Cruelty surfaced, a result of confusion and world war. Horse suffered a brutal
transition as folk lost daily contact and man lost touch with horse’s nature.
Competitive sports, high stakes, and greed also took its toll on horses. Doping
in race and show horses is just now getting seriously reined in. Once again the
horse is being considered. Today we seek to embrace horse’s nature, again.</div>
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Despite this disjointing,
psychological savvy remains in both man and horse as how to communicate with
one another. Traditional horsemanship threads have been actively carried on
through time with the Mongols of the Asian steppes, Persians, North Africans,
Vikings, Laplanders, Spaniards, Americans, European dressage and jumping
equestrians, thoroughbred horsemen, draft and carriage horsemen, Far East
horsemen, cavalry and military, law enforcement, and many other horse-dependent
cultures and disciplines. Today’s new horseman is the natural horseman,
observing and understanding horse in its natural circumstances and applying
that knowledge to the effective training of horses. </div>
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In America the
thread of horsemanship reached the horseback cattlemen of the Great Plains, and
they are currently the most prevalent practitioners of natural horsemanship.
Cattle-working cowboy types are currently those most exposed to be able to
observe horses in natural settings in North America. Ranch horses are not often
stabled, and most run together on open range or in large pastures when not
being ridden. Additionally, feral horses frequent the fringes of cattle ranches
and grasslands of the west, and allow additional observation of natural equine
tendencies. It is often these professionals who emerge to interpret natural
horsemanship. Cowboys are known far and wide for spending time contemplating
horses rather than fixing fence, and many are horseback ten or more hours a
day. The combination of watching and riding horses forms a basis for
interpretation that this treatise expounds upon and carries through other
disciplines. </div>
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Beyond buckaroos,
there are many other proficient and effective horsemen who effectively combine
knowledge garnered from watching horses interact with one another to the
training and partnership development of their riding horses. Natural
horsemanship, although dominated by cowboy types by name, is effectively
practiced in many disciplines including dressage, driving, horseracing, polo, jumping,
eventing, steeple chasing, fox chasing, trekking, trail riding, jousting,
vaulting, and many others as the list goes on. Some apply applications
differently than others, and not all natural references or behaviors translate
as intended or proposed. </div>
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Horse behavior has
the potential to be both over-interpreted and misinterpreted, and horsemen need
to use care in arriving at assumptions based on what they perceive to be
natural. The most successful horsemen are those willing to re-interpret what
appears to happen naturally and otherwise, and to apply training strategies
with the horse in mind with special attention paid to the horse’s physiologic
and psychological parameters. Intentionally (or unintentionally) tiring and
exhausting horses appears to be one of the more popular misapplications of
natural horsemanship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nearly
anyone can put a horse in a round pen, chase it to exhaustion, and hop on. Of
course horses trained in this fashion are someday going to be outside the round
pen. The opportunity for them to have their day will eventually arise. This is
one example of a current misapplication of natural horsemanship. This book will
outline the physiologic parameters horsemen will expected to follow to support
and encourage horse welfare regarding this and other questionable types of
training, natural and otherwise. </div>
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As ever, journeys
with horse are spells of learning, never-ending accumulations, modifications
and clarifications of knowledge resulting in evolved and refined expressions of
understanding and connection. The journey may also include broken bones,
enlightenment, and wisdom. After a basic language is established and natural
circumstances are recreated for horses, the development of balance, timing, and
feel between horse and man can progress to unforeseen heights, and the results
can be refreshingly rewarding—naturally rewarding. At times horsemanship feels
synchronous and fluid, and these are the times horsemen relish, those moments
and experiences when time becomes suspended for both horseman and horse. <span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">This book intends to inform
and teach, to provide a source for unleashing motivated and compassionate
horsemen’s inherent ability to communicate with horses, to allow horsemen to
prevail and succeed with their horses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">The combination of man and
horse is an ideal, the perfect ideal, a revered and special partnership
cultured and nurtured over time that continues to defy our imagination. Natural
horsemanship attempts to mesh two minds together, combining the sensual,
intellectual, and physical advantages of both perspectives. Natural
horsemanship aspires to a rich symbiosis with horse. It replaces the ideology
of dominance, wherein the horseman does all the thinking and commanding and the
horse does as instructed. Coercive horsemanship removes the horse’s
perspective, and limits the horse’s effective contributions, which are immense.
Ethical horsemanship aspires to a mutually considerate relationship with the
horse.<br clear="ALL" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Last Horses
and First Humans in North America, S David Webb and C Andrew Hemmings, 2006,
pages 11-25, from Horses and Humans: the Evolution of Human Equine
Relationships, BAR S1560, Archeopress, Oxford, England</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-1733064680119188082018-01-06T15:54:00.001-07:002018-01-06T15:54:42.982-07:00Ethical Horsemanship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Ethical
Horsemanship</div>
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Sid Gustafson DVM </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Talismanic wins Breeders Cup Turf in Record Time<br />Lasix-free</td></tr>
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THE LANGUAGE OF HORSES is a behavioral
interpretation of the theory and practice of contemporary horsemanship. An empirical
appreciation of equine behavior is instrumental in developing agreeable
partnerships with horses. </div>
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Horses form strong pair bonds. </div>
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To successfully train horses we
must initially bond with them. To bond with horses we must know and learn from
them to fulfill their inherent general and individual needs. An effective pair
bond is formed when each knows the other in a consistent, communicative,
predictable, and reliable fashion. Once this familiarity is established learning
and training can commence in earnest for both human and horse. </div>
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The domestic nature of horses is an
inherent inclination to please people who fulfill their behavioral needs. Fulfilling
the social and physiologic needs of horses is essential to their health, trainability
and prosperity. Ethical horsemanship appreciates the both the wild and domestic
natures of the horse. <br clear="ALL" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
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The Language of
Horses facilitates harmony with horses. An appreciation of the long-evolved
nature of the horse allows the development of positive relationships with horses.
Stabling must re-create natural. The successful horse person appreciates the
world from the horse’s perspective. In addition to the fulfillment of the
horses’ essential needs of friends, forage, and locomotion, fluency in the
language used to read and communicate with horses is essential to teach horses.
Communicative bonding allows the union of horse and rider to be a willing
partnership. </div>
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Constant concise
communication clarifies and solidifies the relationship. Horses form strong
pair bonds based on precise communication. Precise communication engenders
predictability, and predictability establishes mutual reliability. A
partnership forms, activated by actualizing the bond. Horse and rider. Each
knows the other. Each understands the other, and appreciates the other. In the
best relationships, each admires the other, looking forward to riding together.
Familiarity, from the word familial, develops between the horse and rider.
Horse and rider come to know one another, and in the best relationships, to enjoy
one another. Horse and human share an evolved sociality that facilitates
communication and appeasement. The higher the degree of familiarity between
horse and rider becomes, the more fluent and productive the relationship. </div>
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Willing
partnerships between horses and humans are developed utilizing a shared
language, a gesture language, kinetic empathy. Both man and human, having
evolved in group-survival societies, have the evolutionary background to
cooperate and communicate with like-minded others. Man and horses share
communication-based group survival constructs. With horses, humans share the
language that facilitates group survival, a language of motion and touch,
kinetic empathy and haptic empathy, empathy implying <i>conveyance of meaning</i>, rather than sympathy. Empathy is the ability
to understand another. Kinetic empathy is the ability to understand another’s
gesture language. </div>
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To bond with and
train horses, one must become sympathetic to the gesture language of horses,
empathetic to the meaning of all of their motions, their body, ears, eyes,
lips, and legs. One has to watch carefully to become sympathetic to the
meaning. In watching for meaning in motion, horses and humans enhanced group
survival. Fluency in the language of horsemanship is based on an understanding
of the language of horses, and its similarities to the language of horsefolk.
Horsemanship is a sharing of the language horse with the language of man. Man
and horse easily share a language as time and domestication has proven. It is
no surprise we are apt to share a language with other species who have evolved
similar group survival constructs. Man and horse successfully converged
societies facilitated by their similarly evolution of group communication.
Horses and man share a language of movement and touch, which successfully
allows a shared sociality between human and horse. Horsemanship is merging with
the herd, while pair bonding with the horse. Horses have no verbal language,
but are adept communicators utilizing kinetic empathy. Horses employ movements
to transfer information to others. Horses also communicate via touch. Horsefolk
communicate with horses utilizing movement and touch. </div>
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There are many
layers and textures to the communication and social structuring that occurs
between humans and horses. Domestication science, the study of the merger of
horse and human societies, helps horsefolk appreciation the similarities
between horses and people. Shared social constructs allowed horses and humans
to merge, enhancing group survival for both species. As the species merged,
coevolution solidified the survival of both species. Eons of time played an
immense role—time, geography, climate, and genetics, but mostly it was the
social constructs horses and humans share thousands of years of close association
(co-evolution), followed by selective breeding. </div>
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Communication
between horses and people is largely silent gesture language, a language with
meaning in motions and pressures and releases rather than vocalizations. Auditory
cues can replace physical cues after the physical cues are established,
however. Beyond the language of movement between horses and people, comes the
captivating language of feel, a <i>haptic empathy</i>,
a language of touching motions. Kinetic empathy and haptic empathy are the
terms I use to define the Language of Horses. Fluency in both is essential to
achieve ethical horsemanship.</div>
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Ethical
horsemanship emphasizes the exploration of the inherent socialization processes
required to develop mutually aggreeable relationships with horses. Making
friends with horses in a social sense facilitates willingness to please, and
willingness to learn and remember. Appropriate socialization with the mare and
herd during the growth phase refines these essential communication abilities. Once
foals are taught to communicate with other horses, they can then be taught to
communicate with humans. It is essential during the imprint phase that the mare
teach the foal these communication basics, as she is the most qualified, the
only qualified teacher in this regard. In order for horses to respond to human
training and teaching, the foal must be thoroughly taught and trained, and
maintained by refining their communication abilities with other horses.
Trainability requires appropriate socialization. To train up, horses must grow
up to be horses as taught by horses. Throughout life, abundant socialization is
required to maintain healthy mental processes and responsiveness to other
horses and people alike. The most effective socialization is accomplished in
spacious herd settings. Especially critical is the period from birth through
adolescence. In addition to understanding and correctly applying equine
behavior to training, horses benefit immensely from appropriate and abundant
socialization. Horses become willing to reward people with stellar performance
and optimum health when continuous and appropriate socialization are abundantly
provided throughout their development, training, and competitive life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B00ILG3JX0&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_KhvuAbF7HGE2X&tag=httpwwwsidgus-20">The Nature of Horses</a></span></div>
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfarist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry and training of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity.<br />
Sid Gustafson provides equine behavioral consults to help humans achieve willing and winning partnerships with horses.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-2052620346978967462017-12-19T20:18:00.001-07:002017-12-28T12:12:45.973-07:00Talismanic! Racehorse Medication in America<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<a href="https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/racehorse-medication-ethics-the-2017-breeders-cup#.WjnUO7aZPOT">Horses and People Magazine: Racehorse Medication in America</a><br />
<br />
https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/racehorse-medication-ethics-the-2017-breeders-cup#.WjnUO7aZPOT<br />
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-58975537798116914842017-12-02T11:04:00.001-07:002017-12-02T11:04:38.375-07:00Talismanic Purifies the Breeders Cup<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<br />
Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-21935815305844463702017-11-04T21:23:00.000-06:002017-11-04T22:14:18.816-06:00Talismanic interview with Godolphin's Osborne and Barzalona<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Talismanic won the Breeders' Cup World Championships Turf Lasix-free<br />
Here is the post race interview provided by the Breeders' Cup.<br />
Below, he is ridden by<br />
<h1 style="color: #666666; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
Mickael Barzalona </h1>
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coming in on the inside with the blaze and four white stockings. </div>
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Saturday, November 4, 2017</h3>
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Joe Osborne</h1>
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</h3>
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Mickael Barzalona</h1>
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Press Conference</h3>
THE MODERATOR: All right, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Turf is Talismanic, and we're pleased to be joined by Godolphin chief executive Joe Osborne, as well as winning jockey 26-year-old Mickael Barzalona. Winner of the Dubai World Cup, couple of English Classics, and now a Breeders' Cup. Congratulations to you both. Mickael, I'd like to start with you, if you could just tell us about the ride?<br />
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MICKAEL BARZALONA: Well, I've got a lovely position. I always break well from the gate, and I could follow around very easily. We were a little worried before the race if we were fast enough for this kind of track. But we just had a good race and a good horse to win.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Joe, could you elaborate on how you saw the race unfold?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Yeah, exactly. Beautiful ride by Mickael, and the horse was beautifully trained by Andre Fabre. Just great results, so well done.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>You mentioned Andre Fabre. So I'd like you to elaborate a little bit on him as a trainer as well as maybe a little bit on how you all determined which trainers will get which horse?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Well, I mean, it's hard to elaborate on Andre Fabre. The man is a living legend. He's got Breeders' Cups, Classics, Group 1s. He's just a master trainer and trained this horse perfectly. So, it's just a great result for us by our stallion, and bred by us and everything. So it just ticks all the boxes.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Could you tell us the promise of firm grounds, whether that played a large role in deciding whether to bring the horse here today?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Yeah, it certainly helps. He's by Medaglia d'Oro, so you have to figure Medaglia d'Oro would do well over here, so that certainly was a factor. But I know Andre has always regarded this horse quite highly. So, yeah, I think we're certainly more concerned about fast ground. You could see today, he loved it.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>What does it mean to you to win your first Breeders' Cup?</b><br />
MICKAEL BARZALONA: Well, it means a lot. It's my first time I come over, first time I ride in America, to come here for Andre Fabre, for Godolphin and have a horse to have a chance to finish in the first three before the race, it's a huge honor to ride for this team. Now with age I appreciate a lot more the race than before. I was very young. So now I can understand what it means the big races for the trainer, owner and even for myself.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Joe, Cloth of Stars came out of the Prix Foy and would finish second in de l'Arc, and now you have Talismanic coming out of the Prix Foy and finishing here. Both were pretty long priced, do you think both horses were quite obviously underrespected?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Probably. But certainly not by the trainer. I know we were there at Chantilly for the Prix de l'Arc, and Andre and the team were pretty keen on his chances. Again, today, probably sometimes maybe just the betting public may overlook these horses. But as I said earlier, if Andre Fabre trains them, I think you have to pay respect.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Do you think this race was a target recently or a target long time ago?</b><br />
MICKAEL BARZALONA: It was a target since he won his race in St. Cloud, the mile and six race, and we know how Andre Fabre is when he fits a target to a horse. We could see with Cloth of Stars this year, and Talismanic now in the Breeders' Cup.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>What are you going to do next with him?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: We're going to have a chat next week with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and Andre and see what the plan is. Today was the day, and we'll just discuss what next year's targets are.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>He'll be a 5-year-old. Good chance he stays in training?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Yeah, I'd imagine. I'm sure that is the case. The fact he performed so well here, it just opens up a lot of international options for him as well.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Could he still go to Hong Kong?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: I think everything's possible at this stage. We haven't ruled anything out yet.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Dubai?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Yep, Yep.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Could you talk about the homebreds versus buying at sales and what the philosophy is? I know Sheikh Mohammed has kind of gone back and forth through the years. This is obviously a homebred. But is there a concentration one way or the other?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: Not particularly. I think every year we buy foals at public auction, yearlings at public auction. So not particularly. But it's particularly gratifying when you have a homebred win because you just think of all the people that have had involvement in this horse's life from the day it was conceived to today. So it's great satisfaction to that. But we buy yearlings and then obviously that's part of our plan as well.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>Where was he raised?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: He was born in Britain, and he was raised in Ireland.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>This was a very -- with three turns for the 2400 meters and it's a pretty narrow track, I suppose. Did it seem narrow? Did it feel narrow and tight?</b><br />
MICKAEL BARZALONA: Well, yeah, it's completely different than in Europe. But like I said, Talismanic is a great horse to ride. He's beautiful action and I'm sure the horse could sometimes be struggling, but for him, it's just very easy.<br />
<br />
<b>Q. </b><b>What did you think of the last three furlongs? You were behind a little bit and then you came out in the stretch. Describe the stretch run, please?</b><br />
MICKAEL BARZALONA: I was just behind Highland Reel. So I knew if I could pass her, we'd have a chance to win the race. When Highland Reel came out and I found my gap, I just knew it was my chance to win it. And he kicked home very well, and he stayed until the line.<br />
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<b>Q. </b><b>For socks -- they say that a horse with full white legs you should never run because there is a saying that they have weak legs because it's white?</b><br />
JOE OSBORNE: I think he looked beautiful coming past the winning line there.<br />
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<strong>FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports</strong><br />
<sub>Rev #1 by #206 at 2017-11-05 00:18:00 GMTTalismanic</sub></div>
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<br />
Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-59929196207718036562017-11-02T13:34:00.002-06:002017-11-03T21:56:48.739-06:00How to Play the Breeders’ Cup Lasix<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">L is for Lasix<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/how-play-the-breeders-cup-lasix#.Wf04bbaZNE6">How to Play the Breeders' Cup Lasix Horses and People Magazine</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Since pre-race Lasix is allowed in America, the drug is listed on the
program so the players can effectively parlay the Lasix horses. Having practiced as an
attending thoroughbred and Standardbred veterinarian back in the day, and subsequently
following the medication notes on the forms of racehorses through time, I
developed a sense of how to play the Lasix. I know better than to
gamble where so many permitted drugs are allowed—with so many unknown
consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Highland Reel is getting Lasix and so will be favored over Ulysses in
the Turf. Ulysses trainer Sir Michael R Stoute has chosen to run without the
pre-race diuretic and alkalinizing agent. For our knighted trainer, and the
other ethical trainers running Lasix-free, their horses come first. When they
win, it will be their horse and the conditioning that did the winning, a most
honorable way to win in America, indeed. It is a dangerous precedent to
medicate horses up close, in particular, class horses of this nature. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Already, the Breeders’ Cup runners are allowed to stack NSAIDs, many
receiving Banamine 48 hours before they race, followed by intravenous phenylbutazone
at 24 hours out. This is a lot of drugs to be racing on at speed in close
company in an effort to beat the fastest thoroughbreds on the planet. Horses with this many NSAIDs on board
are surely apt to bleed more than when running free of these potent permitted
anticoagulants and anti-inflammatory drugs. It is well documented scientifically that multiple NSAIDs
impair clotting and contribute to pulmonary bleeding. One can assume that many if not most of the horses receiving Lasix also received their stacked NSAIDs at
24 and 48 hours. This is California, the land of therapeutic veterinary
medicine, the land of the good stuff as far as some Europeans can see. All of
these permitted pre-race medications enhance performance, so put your money
down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Of the horses listed as L on the Breeders Cup card, most will have a
pharmaceutical racing advantage, running faster and longer than natural would permit. USADA, the US Anti
Doping Agency has listed Lasix as a forbidden Performance Enhancing Drug
substance, a performance-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">altering</i>
agent. Performance can be enhanced, but at the risk of metabolic dysfunction,
and musculoskeletal failure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">The L1, or first time Lasix horses, all those fragile turf 2-year-olds
from Europe save Madeline and Juliet Capulet—will be injected for the first
time in their career four hours before they race. Let me tell you here from
attending and regulatory veterinary experience, that fillies receiving Lasix for the first
time are apt to have behavior changes. Some suffer from musculoskeletal dysfunction due to the electrolyte-altering and alkalinizing aspects of the drug. Yes, some will perform like they never have
before, but others, not so well. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of
the fillies do not take to all of the pre-race urination either, not to mention the dehydration. Lasix alters metabolism, and
can alter behaviour due to the muscle pain it is known to cause. Colts and geldings
are susceptible to untoward sequelae as well. For an example of untoward Lasix,
check out Oscar Performance’s L form.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Beware of repeated, relentless racing
on Lasix, as it is shown that Lasix hollows the bones of calcium, an important
mineral responsible for integrity. Whenever a drug enhances performance, the
potential for injury and limb failure increases. Beware of campaigners who have
Ls up and down their chart. To see how durability is enhanced by staying away
from Lasix, please check out Mongolian Saturday’s form, a study in durability. And Winx's!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">In summary, all of the L or Lasix horses, have the potential to have
their performance enhanced by the drug, or drugs they received prior to the
race, and perhaps especially those who have previously ran clean in the purer jurisdictions
across the Atlantic, the ones getting their first drug boost in America. Be forewarned that the other L1 turf horses may have an untoward reaction to the drug injection. All drugs have untoward side-effects, you know. Sometimes, this is why handicappers like second-time Lasix, L2. The Lasix affect is known for these horses, and if it was a good affect the first time, the horses are said to even run better the second time they race on pre-race-Lasix, so good it felt to run so fast and easy their last time out on the good stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">The California horses, and the rest of the
American horses, have all had their pre-race dosages managed and titrated. Their injections and dosages have been adjusted to get the best performance
enhancing effect by their trainers and veterinarians. These folks know how to get run out of drugs. The trainers can order up from 3cc to 10cc of intravenous Lasix, and I am telling you ½ cc is plenty, all that is needed to manage EIPH if that is indeed what these folks are trying to manage with this drug. The trainers are allowed to do this without the aid or assistance of professional veterinary guidance, so far the veterinary ethics have deteriorated in the country of ours, the Land of the Free to do what you please with your animals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">In this year’s Breeders’ Cup, all of the American trainers
have all of their horses on Lasix such is the American training and veterinary
mindset, a dangerous mindset, mind you. Each and every dirt horse, including
all of the European dirt runners, will be on Lasix. Dirt is harder to run on
than turf, some say, unnatural as dirt is compared to turf for the racehorse. It
is postulated by some that dirt racing is one of the reasons Lasix entered the
game as it did in America. Dirt is hard on lungs, turf appears kinder, and
synthetics appeared kindest of all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Beware of Lasix, as it is the Lasix horses who will be more
vulnerable to injury as the drugs make them run faster that they would
otherwise. Remember the scientific evidence that long-term drug use diminishes the welfare and husbandry of horses. Also
note that the California bleeders will be running on one less drug than usual,
as it is still allowed in California to give Premarin (estrone) along with the
Lasix. This drug is a steroid estrogen derivative, and as such can have a hoppy
effect on fillies, mares, and others. These California horses will only be
getting the pre-race Lasix in the Breeders’ Cup, and therefore may bleed
through, you know, so under-pulmonary-conditioned they have become because of
the reliance on medication. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Along with the Lasix, do not forget to play the wet air, the fast dirt, the pristine turf, the pull of the full moon, and the draw of the low tides. Do not forget to play the riders, and their
trainers, and please pray all have a safe trip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJQOzREFlFQXaC9vOCredzQzmPTv4Q8atXhtMIOGIskw0OgvOHgL7gVhVcZlJBeQsQdWbG5FB_KXj2b3cPM4p4wiQRe6ZRPxXjyg3nMKxR4HQ3xlOLaFNO2H4xN0DeswvgAtwNivDrgE/s1600/Del+Mar+sea.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJQOzREFlFQXaC9vOCredzQzmPTv4Q8atXhtMIOGIskw0OgvOHgL7gVhVcZlJBeQsQdWbG5FB_KXj2b3cPM4p4wiQRe6ZRPxXjyg3nMKxR4HQ3xlOLaFNO2H4xN0DeswvgAtwNivDrgE/s320/Del+Mar+sea.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">Do not forget that Winx the Wonder Mare from the land of Lasix-free
racing DownUnder, runs pure. Some of you follow the pictures of her swimming
and exercising out of the stall each and every day to condition her lungs. This
also conditions her legs, and her heart, as her perseverance, longevity,
popularity, and soundness are evident to all.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><span style="font-size: large;"> The following 9 horses will be racing Lasix free, all of
them on the turf, none of them trained by an American trainer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Talismatic (GB)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Decorated Knight (GB)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Ulysses (Ire)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Mongolian Saturday</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Ribchester (Ire)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Juliet Capulet (Ire)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><span style="font-size: large;">Madeline (Ire)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><span style="font-size: large;">Oscar Performance<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><span style="font-size: large;">Nazweeh (GB)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><span style="font-size: large;">The pure trainers abstaining from Lasix follow, none American.
Ganbat is from Mongolia, and the others hail from France, Great Britain, and
Ireland, where a kinder, softer, horseracing exists, safer horseracing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">The</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BC17"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">#BC17</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">purists</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Sir Michael Stoute</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">John Gosden</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Richard Fahey</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Roger Varian</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">James Stack</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Ganbat</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";">Roger Charlton</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond";"><span style="font-size: large;">Brian Lynch<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond"; font-size: large; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> <a href="https://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/alkalinization-lasix-and-milkshaking-a-veterinarians-view/">The Performance Enhancing Nature of Lasix</a> link</o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</span></div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-60890043464330413212017-10-30T13:40:00.001-06:002017-10-31T17:05:58.055-06:00Breeders' Cup Medication Rules<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT;">Sid Gustafson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT;">Reporting from the
Breeders’ Cup for Horses and People Magazine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Link:<br />
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<a href="https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/racehorse-medication-ethics-the-2017-breeders-cup#.Wfj4bEyZNE7">Racehorse Medication Ethics Horses and People Magazine</a><br />
<br />
https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/racehorse-medication-ethics-the-2017-breeders-cup#.Wfj4bEyZNE7</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</span></span></div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-382413671551674952017-10-08T18:53:00.000-06:002019-07-17T19:21:52.044-06:00Competition Horse Medication Ethics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-transform: uppercase;">Competition horse medication
ethics<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-transform: uppercase;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-transform: uppercase;">Presented at the American Veterinary Medical Association meeting, Boston 2015</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gustafson S, DVM, 918 South Church Avenue, Bozeman, MT
59715</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Appreciation of the
evolved nature and behavior of horses provides the foundation for the ethical
veterinary care of equine athletes. The establishment of a veterinary patient
client relationship (VCPR) is instrumental in providing ethical care for the competition
horse. Ethical veterinary practice supports the horse’s long-term health and
welfare interests while avoiding pharmaceutical intervention in the days before
competition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Horses evolved as </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">social</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> grazers of the plains, moving and grazing in a </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">mutually</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> connected and constantly communicative fashion on a
near-constant basis. Contemproary equine health and prosperity remains
dependent on providing an acceptable degree of this near-constant movement,
foraging, and socialization. When horses are confined to </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">fulfill</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> convenience and performance interests, the horse’s
natural preferences need be re-created to a suitable degree to avoid exceeding
the adaptability of the horse. As the adaptability of the horse is exceeded,
welfare is dimished and the need for medical intervention to remedy behavioral,
health, and soundness deficiencies is intensified. Contemporary practices
regularly exceed the competition horse’s adaptability, resulting in the need
for extensive veterinary intervention to sustain health and competitiveness.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The more medical care and
pharmaceutical intervention required to sustain any population of animals the
lower the population’s welfare.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ethical veterinary care supports the horse’s best welfare interests, as well as
the safety of the horse’s riders and drivers. Medical intervention of the
equine athlete should be avoided in the days and hours before competition, as
pre-competition medication is associated with increased vulnerability and
diminished welfare.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> To properly
support the health and welfare of equine athletes, the practitioner must be
familiar with their patients both inherently and individually. Socialization,
constant foraging, and abundant daily locomotion are the long-evolved
requirements to promote and sustain optimal soundness, behavioural health,
performance, and healing in competition horses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Healthy horses function
and perform more consistently and predicatbly in an unmedicated state. Contemporary
pre-competition medication practices remove the horse’s ability to protect
their health and sustain soundness by masking pain and suppressing symptomology
and are therefor heavily regulated. Horses who require medication to alleviate
medical conditions in order to compete are rendered vulnerable to injury and
physical and behavioural dysfunction imperiling the safety of both horse and
horseperson. Horses requiring medication to compete are often not fit to
compete safely. Horses and horsefolk are best served to compete free of
short-term pre-competition pharmaceutical influence. Infirmities require
appropriate medical care and rehabilition before competition is considered and
resumed, rather than pre-competition medication to allay active medical
problems. The equine practitioner should focus on post-performance evaluations and
necessary therapies to sustain horse health on a </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">enduring </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">basis. An emphasis on fulfilling the medical,
physical, and behavioural needs of the horse to prepare for the future
competitions is the essence of ethical veterinary care of the competition horse.
Pre-competition medication practices that replace or supplant appropriate
health care are not in accord AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">For human entertainment,
convenience, and revenue, horses are bred, isolated, stabled, conditioned and
medicated to perform competitively. Comtemporary pre-competition medication
practices are often at the expense of the horse’s health, safety, and welfare. Many
current medication practices violate the AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics,
specifically the clause that states a</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> veterinarian shall provide
veterinary medical care under the terms of a veterinarian-client-patient
relationship (VCPR).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics state
that it is unethical for veterinarians to medicate horses without a VCPR. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Pre-competition pharmaceutical interventions to remedy
insufficient attention and preparation for the horse’s long-evolved health
requirements are seldom in the best interest of the horse. The medical and
pharmaceutical practices which support equine competitive pursuits should be
designed to enhance the health and soundness of the horse on a long term basis
and should not be intended to enhance performance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Pre-competition
pharmaceutical intervention has been demonstrated to have an overall negative
affect on the health and welfare of competitive horse populations. Where horses
are allowed to be permissevely medicated with an VCPR, injuries and
catastrophic injuries are more prevalent. Horses are best served to be properly
prepared to compete in a natural non-medicated state. Pharmaceutical
intervention of the equine athlete should be avoided in the days before
competition, as pharmaceutical intervention increases fragility. Intense and
widespread pre-competition medication practices correlate with catstrophic
injury vulnerability and diminished welfare.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn5" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[5]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Equine athletic pursuits
have historicaly been designed to measure the natural abililty of horses and
the trainer’s ability to bring out the horses’ natural ability. Equine competition
was originally designed to measure the natural ability of horses rather than
their medicated ability.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn6" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[6]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
It is important that the welfare and veterinary care of the horse take
precedence over economic and human interests.</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: #282828; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Horses are born to socialize, communicate, locomote, and chew on a
near-constant basis. For behavioral and physical integrity, these preferences
need to be re-created to an acceptable degree in the competition stable. The
ethical practice of veterinary medicine includes providing clients with the
guidance to provide appropriate husbandry, nutrition, conditioning, medical
management, and behavioural fulfillment of their equine athletes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Equine welfare is best supported
when horses are properly prepared, physically and mentally sound, and fit to
perform in an unmedicated state. Physically or behaviourally impaired horses
who require medication to compete should not compete until they are able to
compete without pre-competition pharmaceutical intervention. All sensation,
behaviour, and proprioception should remain physiologically normal. Sensation
and cognitive awareness should not be suppressed with pre-competiton
medication. This inludes the use of sedatives, stimulants, and pain relievers
of all sorts. Treatments should not interefere with functional physiology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sound horses properly prepared
for competition have little need for pre-competition medication. Unsound or
behaviorally dysfunctional horses should be medically and behaviorally
rehabilitated in a fashion that restores soundness before training and
competition are resumed. Medication is for infirm horses, and infirm horses
should not compete. Horses who require medication to compete become
increasingly unfit to compete safely. Rather than therapeutic intent, many
pre-competition medication practices have become performance enhancing at the
expense health and welfare of horse and rider. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">It has been demonstrated
through time that horses and their riders are best served to compete medication
free. As a result, anti-doping laws have been established by all agencies that
regualte equine competition. Veterinarians are required by both ethics and law
to follow these regulations. Horseracing statisitcs support that the less
medication horses receive the more favorably and safely horses compete.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn7" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[7]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The safety of the
competition horse is dependent on unimpaired neurological functioning.
Unimpaired sensation and cognitive ability are necessary for a horse to compete
safely and fairly. Any medications or procedures which negate or diminish
sensation and awareness in the horse impair the ability of the horse to compete
safely.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn8" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[8]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The safety, longevity,
and durability of the equine patient should considered before short term
pre-competition medical solutions are implemented. Familiarity of the patient includes
familiarity with stabling, genetics, behavior, and husbandry of the patient.
Many if not most medical conditions are a result of human mismanagement of
equine stabling and conditioning. When the adaptability is exceeded, horses
become unsound. Assessment of stabling conditions and athletic preparation
practices are essential components of ethical equine care. Healing must be
allowed to progress before competition and training are resumed. Client
education is essential to create a husbandry situation conducive to equine
healing. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Rest</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">oration strategies that
recreate the horse's social grazing and locomotion preferences facilitate
and potentiate horse healing. Appropriate healing of many equine maladies is
encouraged when the veterinarian provides appropriate medical care and
carefully facilitates a scenario to provide the horse with appropriate physical
rehabilitation and behavioural fulfillment. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">An interdependence exists between
horse health and locomotion. Horses evolved to be near-constant walkers and
grazers. Horses did not evolve to be confined in stalls and stables, but rather
evolved to live and move on a near-constant basis. Despite domestication and
selective breeding for docility and captivity, horse health remains dependent
on locomotion. Locomotion is inherent to digestion, to respiration, to
metabolism, to hoof health and function, to joint health, and to behavioral
fulfillment. When horses are deprived of adequate and abundant locomotion, they
develop strategies to keep themselves and their jaws moving, as is their
essential and inherent nature. </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Horses
deprived of friends, forage, and locomotion are at risk to develop stereotypies
to provide themselves with the movement they need to survive. The more
stereotypies present in a population of equine athletes, the lower the welfare.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">No longer is intense
medical intervention prior to competetion a viable, ethical approach. It has
been demonstrated that the more intensely horses are medicated to compete, the
lower their welfare. The more medications required to sustain any population of
animals, the further the deviation from their physical and behavioural needs.
Rather than pre-race treatments, the ethical approach includes <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>performance of exensive post-competition
examinations to address any weaknesses or unsoundness as a result of the
performance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Alternatives to
precompetition medication with non steroidal anti-inflammatory medication and
steroids include fulfillment of the horse’s long-evolved nature.
Musculoskeletal soundness is attained by proper breeding, development,
husbandry, and conditioning practices. Management of exercise induced pulmonary
hemorrhage is achieved by specific daily development of the horse’s pulmonary
and cardiac function. Unwelcome competition behaviors are best managed by
fulfillment of the horse’s inherent behavioral needs, which include abundant
daily socialization, locomotion, and nutrition.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftn9" name="_ftnref" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[9]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Recommended reading<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Chyoke A, Olsen S & Grant S 2006 <i>Horses and Humans, The Evolution
of Human-Equine Relationships</i>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>BAR International Series 1560, Archeopress, England, ISBN 1 84171 990 0<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Magner D 2004 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magner’s Classic
Encyclopedia of the Horse</i> Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">McGreevy P 2004 <i>Equine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine
Scientists </i>Philadelphia: Elsevier Limited. ISBN 0 7020 2634 4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Waran N, McGreevy P & Casey RA 2002 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Training Methods and Horse Welfare</i> in Waran N, ed <i>The Welfare of
Horses</i>, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p151-180<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Paul McGreevy BVSc, PhD, MRCVS.
Equine Behavior, 2004, A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. Second
Edition, Elsevier; 2012, Chapter 13 Equitation Science<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Budiansky, S. (1997). The nature
of horses: Exploring equine evolution, intelligence, and behavior. New York: The
Free Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hausberger M, Roche H, Henry S,
and Visser E.K. “A review of the human-horse relationship” Appl Anim Behav Sci
109, 1-24. 2008<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Waran, N. McGreevy, P., Casey, R.A
(2007). Training Methods and Horse Welfare, In<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .3in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Welfare of the Horse (pp.151-180
) Auckland, New Zealand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> McGreevy,
P.D. (2004). Equine Behaviour: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists.
Edinburgh: Saunders; 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Appleby
M, Mench J, Olsson I, Hughes B (2011). <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Animal
Welfare. CABI, Second edition; 2011.<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Fraser D (2008). Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science
in its Cultural Context. Wiley-Blackwell; 2008.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Gustafson
S, A Contemporary Approach to Equine Behaviour Education, Proceedings, World
Veterinary Congress, 13 October 2011, held in conjunction with the
International Veterinary Behaviour Meeting (IVBM).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> The AVMA
Principles of Veterinary Ethics, </span><a href="https://www.avma.org/About/Governance/Documents/2014S_Resolution8_Attch1.pdf"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">https://www.avma.org/About/Governance/Documents/2014S_Resolution8_Attch1.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[5]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Kentucky
Horseracing Commission Raceday Medication Transcript, NOVEMBER 14, 2011 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[6]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Magner D 2004 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Magner’s Classic
Encyclopedia of the Horse</i> Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books</div>
</div>
<div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[7]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Kentucky
Horseracing Commission Raceday Medication Transcript, NOVEMBER 14, 2011 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;">http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6886161096540485165#_ftnref" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "ar"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[8]<!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "ar"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Furr M, Reed
S editors (2007). Equine Neurology; Wiley-Blackwell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-47353677987979382722017-08-29T20:48:00.004-06:002017-08-29T20:48:52.891-06:00Horses Utilize the Pace Gait to Swim<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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While many horses do not utilize the pace gait while traveling aground (although nearly all can, if needed to avoid pain), most use the pace gait to swim.<br />
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-84488011941237209242017-05-25T21:40:00.000-06:002017-05-25T21:40:39.986-06:00Goodreads reviews of Swift Dam <style>
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-46970018210967204472017-03-21T19:24:00.002-06:002017-03-21T19:24:52.533-06:00Swift Dam punches above its weight class<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/review/RCJ8Z8JUYNW98">Swift Dam punches above its weight class. Amazon review link.</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2PHSIB41VILDE/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pdp_enth" style="color: #004b91;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Robert Bennett</span></a></div>
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<b><span class="h3color tiny" style="color: #e47911;">This review is from: </span>Swift Dam (Paperback)</b></div>
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Sid Gustafson's _Swift Dam_ punches above its weight class: written by a practicing veterinarian, it reads like the work of a celebrated Iowa Writer's Workshop prodigy, and clocking in at only 150 pages, little more than a long novella, it takes its reader into a fully flushed out imagination of a very real event. Amidst its surface tale of the broken Swift Dam flood of 1964, it interweaves three distinct stories.<br /><br />First, it puts forward a cautionary tale, warning us not to put too much faith in modernity's bold technological breakthroughs, for the water may indeed break through them, leaving us in the devastating ruins of a failed modernity. Like Walter Benjamin's vision of the Angel of progress as a series of train wrecks piling on top of each other, Gustafson shows us the dark, underbelly of modernity, suggesting forcefully that the Swift dam was not the first dam to fail, nor will it be the last. We need to stop seeing modern technology--again portrayed in the novel as the excessive use of chemicals to treat animals--as an infallable panacea, and become more cautious of its risks and dangers. As the bumper sticker says, "Nature Bats Last."<br /><br />The larger second story is the tragic demise of the Blackfeet people, their lives, their property, and their hopes which were washed downstream, living below the dam. Here the story is less about the failure of modern technology per se, and more about the devastating losses caused by modernity's failure. Gustafson shows us how yet again Native Americans have born the brunt of a failed notion of Manifest Destiny which has repeatedly damaged Native people through military violence, infectious diseases, broken treaties, and now breached dams.<br /><br />Gustafson's third narrative, however, is perhaps his most subtle and most fully realized. Told through the eyes of an old school veterinarian who eschews the excessive use of drugs, Gustafson weaves a tale about our alienation from the land and the animals who live on it. So in addition to telling a narrative about modernity's tragic failures, Gustafson also offers a ray of hope, depicting a world in which--through animal husbandry/midwifery and Native traditions and perspectives, we might reconnect to our lands and the animals who populate them.<br /><br />This quick, but delightful, read restores faith in the old ways of the past as a cure for a world alienated by too much technology and an insufficient connection to Native lands and peoples.</div>
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Robert Bennett is a Professor of English at Montana State University</div>
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-37772553630569223122017-03-18T13:20:00.002-06:002017-03-18T13:37:52.629-06:00The writing flows through the reader's mind like water...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="author url fn" href="https://magazine.wsu.edu/author/krystle-lyric-arnold/" rel="author" style="border: 0px; color: #8f7e35; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Krystle Lyric Arnold">Krystle Lyric Arnold</a> reviews Sid's third novel, Swift Dam, in the latest Washington State Magazine</em><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://magazine.wsu.edu/2017/01/27/swift-dam/">The writing flows through the reader's mind like water...</a> linked here</em><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/103184134798160862810" target="_blank">+Washington State University</a> </em><br />
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sid Gustafson ’77, ’79 DVM</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Open Books: 2016</em></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Swift Dam</em> pulls you in, drags you practically, sweeping you over the western landscape until you are ankle deep in Sid Gustafson’s world. The writing flows through the reader’s mind like water and entrenches the reader in the story. With each passing chapter, it becomes harder to discern if you are reading a published novel or a form of the author’s diary.</div>
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The story follows the major life events of a traveling veterinarian and a small-town sheriff, describing the intertwining of the two lives. Although the back panel of the book suggests it is about the travesty of a disaster in rural Montana, it is really so much more.</div>
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The author walks his readers through each of the two men’s memories of a flood in 1964. A break in the title’s Swift Dam swallows up several residents of the small reservation and town both men call home. Despite the years gone by, both men use the event as a way to grow, to engage, and to remember those they lost.</div>
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As they grow and remember, so do we. Through the eyes of the vet, we begin to see the world not as a mechanical structure machined by man, but as a revolving reaction between man, nature, and beast. Meanwhile, the sheriff helps us to examine the humility and humanity of our fellow man.</div>
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The story brings to mind the Oso landslide in Washington in 2014. Whether or not Gustafson intended it to be, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Swift Dam</em> is a lovely tribute to anyone who has ever been impacted by a disaster. It speaks of the friends, brothers, sisters, children, mothers, and fathers who are no longer with us. It speaks of, and to, those who have lived to remember and love after any catastrophe.</div>
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<a href="http://wsm.wsu.edu/r/index.php?id=51#.WM2MBxjMxE4">Prisoners of Flight, Sid's debut novel, reviewed in Washington State Magazine by Brian Ames</a><br />
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<a href="http://wsm.wsu.edu/r/index.php?id=37">Horses They Rode, reviewed likewise! </a><br />
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Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist.
The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity.
Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-40592927582347423262016-10-18T12:29:00.000-06:002017-10-14T21:33:03.987-06:00First Aid for the Active Dog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Learn how to administer Dog First Aid. Follow this guide to manage your dog's injuries or illness when veterinary services are not available. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In this concise dog first aid manual, veterinarian Sid Gustafson shares his healing art with all those who treasure their dog’s health, healing, safety, and welfare. Dr Gustafson’s guidelines for the resolution of illness and injuries have saved countless lives. Learn the techniques and knowledge to evaluate the seriousness of your dog's illness or injury, and to properly manage and care for the illness or injury until you can see your veterinarian. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://a.co/8pnwrBb">First Aid for the Active Dog, ebook</a></span><br />
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Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes. Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of dogs. Training and husbandry from the dog's perspective result in content, cooperative dogs who are willing to learn and please their guardians. </div>
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Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-25955575129307881682016-09-01T22:37:00.001-06:002017-03-04T10:56:26.322-07:00Yellowstone River Whitefish PKD Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae Epidemic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://mtstandard.com/lifestyles/outdoors/spread-of-pathogen-in-montana-rivers-requires-thoughtful-scientific-response/article_53d0439e-1c71-5b18-a740-59ace78f7468.html">Montana Standard Article: Spread of pathogen in Montana Rivers requires a thoughtful and scientific response.</a><br />
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Preservation Medicine<br />
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Sid Gustafson DVM<br />
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Aquatic infectious disease is caused by a pathogen present in a river environment that achieves successful reproduction in a vulnerable host, often at the host’s expense.<br />
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An appreciation of the Yellowstone River whitefish epidemic requires consideration of three factors; 1) the host(s), 2) the warming river environment, and 3) the pathogen(s).<br />
Epidemics—including the Yellowstone River whitefish Tetra epidemic—are preceded by essential predisposing conditions in all three.<br />
The Yellowstone River and watershed activities compose the environment. Warming temperatures, low flows, silting, proliferation of the pathogen Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae, diminished oxygenation, salinity, septic seepage, chemical runoff, altered riverbanks, recurrent contamination with pathogens and invasive species, river sporting, boating, and flyfishing, water diversion and irrigation, riparian residential, business, and agricultural practices are the primary environmental factors that facilitated this epidemic.<br />
While all of the aforementioned factors play a role, the warming of the river was the critical factor in this epidemic. Had the river not warmed to the critical temperature, thought to be around 15 degrees centigrade, the epidemic would not have happened despite the presence of the pathogen and the vulnerable whitefish.<br />
Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae is a native North American pathogen that has resided in American rivers for centuries. The pathogen has spread to European rivers, as well as to the Yellowstone River. In the Yellowstone, this infectious agent has adapted to infect whitefish, finding them more vulnerable than trout. The native Yellowstone mountain whitefish, the salmonid Prosopium williamsoni is our host of concern. The fish is called the mountain whitefish because in cold mountain rivers this fish thrives.<br />
The infective aquatic pathogen T. bryosalmonae is unusual among the myxosporea (of which the whirling disease pathogen is a relative) in that it requires a bryozoan as an intermediate host. The bryozoan in this case may be Plumatella fungosa. In this freshwater jellyfish, the Tetracapsula completes its life cycle. This jellyfish releases fish-infective spores into the river. When waters warm high enough to manifest disease, around 60 degrees F, these floating spores attach to the whitefish’s gills before proceeding to cause proliferative kidney disease<br />
Depending on the fish’s health, resistance, environmental conditions, adaptability, infective dose, and immune status, the fish survives to perhaps be resistant to future infections, or she dies. As the fish dies, the pathogen enters the water. At this stage of this complex life-cycle, rather than finding another fish, the Tetra pathogen finds a fungosa to complete its lifecycle. In this process, the infectious organism begins to flourish in the river and gains momentum to create an epidemic.<br />
Multiple measurable factors preceded the whitefish epidemic, an epidemic a long-time coming, an epidemic that veterinary medical technology had the ability to predict had aquatic veterinary medicine been employed to keep Montana rivers and their fish populations prosperous and healthy.<br />
The hosts of this disease have historically been salmonids, whitefish among them. As any Yellowstone guide knows, a whitefish is no salmon. While considered undesirable by some, the whitefish is an indicator species reflective of river health. Like trout, whitefish and grayling are salmonids. Whitefish require pristine rivers. Grayling, the previous indicator species, were extirpated by sullied river systems. Historically, whitefish often come next.<br />
To monitor and predict future epidemics, competent aquatic veterinarians sample, test, analyze and interpret the host health, river health, intermediate host presence, along with the pathogen load in the river system. With this information, aquatic veterinarians can manage the health of the watershed, river, and fish to minimize the impact of infectious disease. All of this ahead of time. The aquatic veterinary goal is to prevent epidemics, or at least predict them, something beyond biologists’ ability at this time. Veterinarians have a long and effective history of successfully managing the health of animal populations threatened by infectious disease, be they wild or domestic. Veterinarians have the appropriate knowledge and experience to sustain fish and river health. The time has come to look to veterinarians to manage river health in Montana as rivers are managed in progressive fisheries throughout the world where the economy depends on fish health and prosperity. There is a lot to learn about this epidemic, and veterinarians are the best learners regarding management and prevention of infectious disease.<br />
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The resolution of the Tetra epidemic could be similar to the resolution of the whirling disease epidemic. The whitefish and trout survivors will perpetuate offspring that are more resistant than their immunologically naïve predecessors. Disease resistance will develop. The fish will adapt to and/or find a balance with their pathogen and intermediate host. An equilibrium between pathogens and hosts emerges over time if the river system is kept healthy and cool. The trout may have previously acquired a resistance from their experience with the whirling disease organism, and now with this Tetra experience, the trout appear to be developing resistance to infective pathogens of various sorts.<br />
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Treatments:<br />
An antimicrobial agent to kill the aquatic pathogen is not an available method of control or prevention, as the river environment would be further deteriorated by the drug’s side-effects and unintended victims.<br />
The jellyfish host, Plumatella fungosa, could be medically manipulated, sterilized, or genetically altered to block the two-host disease transmission cycle, and that is a consideration.<br />
The environment (the river et al) can be made healthier; water cooled, flow quickened, and oxygenation enhanced using progressive river management techniques (limiting water drawouts, averting septic and manure seepage, and halting chemically contaminated runoffs). The fish populations could be treated more kindly and carefully by educating guides and anglers on the principles of animal welfare (fish are sentient beings) and the principles of disease transmission. Fishing hooks, boats, gear, and fishermen transmit fish diseases near and far. This needs to be evaluated and addressed.<br />
Fishing stress and disease vulnerability can be significantly reduced by regulating fishing and/or floating in consideration of the fish, rather than the fisherman, accountants, and irrigators. Catch-and-release practices and their relationship to perpetuating and spreading fish diseases require investigation. Harvesting can be considered a possible disease management measure. Stressed or injured fish should not be released back into the river.<br />
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Rest is the oldest remedy to manage disease. While naïve to the vagaries of infectious animal disease, the Montana FWP is to be commended for closing the river and giving her a long-needed rest. Periodic rest during critical times appears to be one solution of many. Whitefish populations can balance trout populations, and overpopulations, keeping fish numbers balanced and healthy. Pathogens often find imbalanced populations vulnerable. The microbe often has the last word (when the humans don’t pay attention). Aquatic veterinarians pay attention.<br />
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Recommended reading:<br />
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^ Hedrick R.; McConnell E.; de Kinkelin P (1993). "Proliferative kidney disease of salmonid fish". Annual Review of Fish Diseases. 3: 277–290. doi:10.1016/0959-8030(93)90039-E.<br />
^ Kent, M.L. & R.P. Hedrick (1985). "PKX the causative agent of proliferative kidney disease (PKD) in Pacific salmonid fishes and its affinities with the Myxozoa". Journal of Protozoology. 32 (2): 254 260. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.1985.tb03047.x. PMID 4009511.<br />
^ Korotneff, A. (1892). "Myxosporidium bryozoides". Z. Wiss. Zool. 53: 591–596.<br />
^ Anderson, C.L., Canning, E.U. & Okamura, B. (1999). "18S rDNA sequences indicate that PKX organism parasitizes Bryozoa". Bulletin of the European Association of Fish Pathologists. 19: 94–97.<br />
^ Canning, E.U., Curry, A., Feist, S.W., Longshaw, M., & Okamura, B. (1999). "Tetracapsula bryosalmonae n.sp. for PKX organism the cause of PKD in salmonid fish". Bulletin of the European Association of Fish Pathologists. 19 (2): 203–206.<br />
^ Canning, E.U., Curry, A., Feist, S.W., Longshaw, M., & Okamura, B. (2000). "A new class and order of myxozoans to accommodate parasites of bryozoans with ultrastructural observations on Tetracapsula bryosalmonae (PKX organism)". Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. 47 (5): 456–468. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.2000.tb00075.x. PMID 11001143.<br />
^ Kent, M.L. J. Khattra, R.P. Hedrick, and R.H. Devlin (2000). "Tetracapsula renicola (Myxozoa: Saccosporidae); the PKX myxozoan – the cause of proliferative kidney disease of salmonid fishes". Journal of Parasitology. 86 (1): 103–111. doi:10.1645/0022-3395(2000)086[0103:TRNSMS]2.0.CO;2. PMID 10701572.<br />
^ Anderson, C.L., Canning, E.U. & Okamura, B. (1999). "18S rDNA sequences indicate that PKX organism parasitizes Bryozoa". Bulletin of the European Association of Fish Pathologists. 19: 94–97.<br />
^ Henderson, M. & Okamura, B. (2004). "The phylogeography of salmonid proliferative kidney disease in Europe and North America". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 271 (1549): 1729–1736. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2677. PMC 1691782. PMID 15306294.<br />
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http://echo.epfl.ch/page-114506-en.html<br />
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Fumagillin (or other effective drug)<br />
Microsporidians (Loma salmonae, proliferative kidney disease, whirling disease, proliferative gill disease)/freshwater-reared finfish<br />
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Ray, R.A., R.W. Perry, N.A. Som and J.L. Bartholomew. 2014. Using cure models for analyzing the influence of pathogens on salmon survival. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 143(2):<br />
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Bjork, S.J., Zhang, Y.A., Hurst, C.N., Alonso-Naveiro, M.E., Alexander, J.D., Sunyer, J.O., and Bartholomew, J.L. 2014. Defenses of susceptible and resistant Chinook salmon (Onchorhynchus tshawytscha) against the myxozoan parasite Ceratomyxa shasta. Fish Shellfish Immunol. 1:87-95.<br />
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Gómez, D., Bartholomew, J., and Sunyer, J.O. 2014. Biology and mucosal immunity to myxozoans. Dev. Comp. Immunol. 43(2): 243-56.<br />
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Ray, A.R. and J.L. Bartholomew. 2013. Estimation of transmission dynamics of the Ceratomyxa shasta actinospore to the salmonid host. Parasitology. 140:907-916.<br />
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Bartošová, P., I. Fiala, M. Jirku, M. Cinkova, M. Caffara, M.L. Fioravante, S.D. Atkinson, J.L. Bartholomew and A.S. Holzer. 2013. Sphaerospora sensu stricto: Taxonomy, diversity and evolution of a unique lineage of myxosporeans (Myxozoa). Molec. Phylogentics and Evolution. 68:93-105.<br />
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Ray, A.R., R.A. Holt and J.L. Bartholomew. 2012. Relationship between temperature and C. shasta-induced mortality in Klamath River salmonids. Journal of Parasitology. 98:520-526.<br />
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Ordás, M.C., R. Castro, B. Dixon, J.O. Sunyer, S. Bjork, J. Bartholomew, T. Korytar, B. Kollner, A. Cuesta and C. Tafalla. 2012. Identification of a novel CCR7 gene in rainbow trout with differential expression in the context of mucosal or systemic infection. Developmental and Comparative Immunology. 38:302-311.<br />
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Stinson, M.E.T. and J.L. Bartholomew. 2012. Predicted redistribution of Ceratomyxa shasta genotypes with salmonid passage in the Deschutes River, Oregon. J. of Aquatic Animal Hlth. 24:274-280.<br />
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Hallett, S.L., R.A. Ray, C.N. Hurst, R.A. Holt, G.R. Buckles, S.D. Atkinson and J.L. Bartholomew. 2012. Density of the waterborne parasite, Ceratomyxa shasta, and its biological effects on salmon. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 78:3724-3731.<br />
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Zielinski, C.M., H.V. Lorz, S.L. Hallett, L. Xue and J.L. Bartholomew. 2011. Comparative susceptibility of Deschutes River (Oregon, USA) Tubifex tubifex populations to Myxobolus cerebralis. Journal of Aquatic Animal Health 23:1-8.<br />
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Zhang, Y-A., I. Salinas, J. Li, D. Parra, S. Bjork, S. LePatra, J. Bartholomew and J.O. Sunyer. 2010. IgT, a primitive immunoglobulin class specialized in mucosal immunity. Nature Immunology 11:827-835.<br />
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Bjork, S.J. and J.L. Bartholomew. 2010. Invasion of Ceratomyxa shasta (Myzozoa) and comparison of migration to the intestine between susceptible and resistant fish hosts. International Journal for Parasitology, 40:1087-1095.</div>
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Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-11777887802267306252016-07-02T12:26:00.005-06:002021-01-02T16:24:04.026-07:00Swift Dam, last best novel review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px;">"Swift Dam," the new novel by veterinarian and writer Sid Gustafson, is a beautifully evocative exploration of memory and landscape, history and generational re</span><span class="text_exposed_show" face=""helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-size: 14px;">lationships. It is set on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where Sid grew up as part of the prolifically creative Gustafson clan.</span><br />
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The guts of the book are the ruminations of Oberly and Vallerone on life, love and mortality. Vallerone, apparently subject to some kind of sleep disorder, has trouble keeping his dreams separate from real life, or disentangling real history from myth and misremembrance.</div>
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The point seems to be that we all are disordered when we try to reconstruct the past, that we all live to some extent in a waking dream.</div>
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The book is also full of veterinary particulars, which might sound dry but are anything but. Vallerone is an old-fashioned healer who does much of his diagnosis and doctoring with his hands—hence the nickname “Fingers”—and who is a proponent of the Blackfeet way of raising and caring for horses.</div>
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Sid, who in his own practice specializes in the care of thoroughbred race horses, goes into loving detail about the proper care of livestock, and he takes several detours to damn the damage done to animals by modern ranching techniques and the scourge of using drugs to treat every ailment.</div>
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Sid writes of veterinary medicine, and much else, with a poetic voluptuousness, as in this description of the aftermath of a cesarean birth: “The new mother heaves a sigh of relief as the calf exits her incised womb. Doc elevates the calf to drain her wet lungs, and lays the neonate out and revives the baby, too long inside. He clamps her umbilicus to make her inhale, and inhale the little creature does, taking in first air, continuing to inhale, gestating nine months to inhale. Fingers threads his needle with catgut suture and the newborn sits to her sternum and issues a faint bawl. He stitches the mother back together, the newborn flapping her ears, stars singing hallelujah.”</div>
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Sid also knows the Blackfeet, whom he grew up around up on the family ranch. He writes of Blackfeet past and present with a clear understanding of the indignities they have suffered, but also with an unsentimental appreciation of what they might teach those who care to listen.</div>
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Toward the end of the book, Vallerone “watches the new dam through the drizzle, his bones pained by the rain, joints in need of ambulation. He walks, walks to lubricate his joints, to stiffen his bones, to condition his muscles. He knows locomotion is the key to longevity. To keep living, one must keep moving. All of the animals taught him that to move is to live. All becomes dependent on locomotion in the end. When you stop moving, you stop living. When the water stops flowing, all is over.”</div>
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True words, for sure. The Gustafson children lost both their parents in the past few years, but Sid and his his siblings don’t seem to be slowing down in the least.</div>
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<strong>Details</strong>: “Swift Dam,” by Sid Gustafson, published by Open Books, 2016. 152 pages, $15.95; ebook, $6.99.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a href="http://www.open-bks.com/library/moderns/swift-dam/about-book.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">purchase Swift Dam</a><br /></div>
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Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist.
The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes.
Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses who are willing to learn and perform.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-34369857019830665962016-06-14T17:44:00.002-06:002018-03-22T09:01:28.968-06:00High Altitude Trouble in Dogs and Horses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span data-offset-key="bcd5t-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">High Altitude Disease in Dogs and Horses: Pulmonary Edema</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="198c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Signs, Prevention, Treatment</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cj9sq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sid Gustafson DVM</span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="cj9sq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/Canine%20Field%20Medicine:%20First%20Aid%20for%20Your%20Active%20Dog%20https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072BX7L2X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_es8SAbPBYFG3P" target="_blank">Dog First Aid guide link</a></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="159s6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Practicing in Big Sky, at 6000-10000 feet and higher, our practice sees and treats many cases of pulmonary edema, altitude sickness, and heart disease in horses and dogs are exacerbated by the altitude. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ba094-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Difficult Breathing is the first and most obvious sign.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ab1tg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Altitude Sickness</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="dqobv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Pulmonary edema/altitude sickness can include swelling of the lungs or accumulation of fluid that interferes with effective breathing. Struggling for air is uncomfortable, and afflicted dogs and horses cannot catch their breath, even at rest.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7e93i-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Causes: Unacclimated to high altitudes accompanied by high altitude activity. Distressed, rapid, relentless, or difficult breathing may be associated with underlying med¬ical conditions such as heart disease, respiratory infection, asthma, collapsing trachea, etc. That said, the healthiest dogs and humans can succumb to the vagaries of altitude sickness from time to time. The body likes oxygen, and when oxygenation becomes impaired, breathing troubles can be intense. High temperatures contribute to the breathing distress. Make sure your dog and horse stay cool. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Heart weaknesses and lung conditions contribute to the severity of the condition, as can allergies and infection. Gradual, measured acclimation to altitude is recommended. Subtle conditions not apparent at lower altitudes may present themselves clinically under the duress of altitude and exercise. Aging dogs become susceptible as time wears on. Just because Fido had an uneventful climb last year doesn't mean the trip will be a merry one this year. Don't forget your dog's annual physical before tackling the mountain peaks this year. Make sure your dog stays hydrated during mountain adventures.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bt2ac-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Signs: Difficult and labored breathing caused by airway inflammation or fluid in the airways and/or lungs. Your horse or dog tires easily and requires frequent rests, refuses to continue (can’t continue); relentless panting fails to diminish with rest.The dog may refuse to sit or lie down, as those postures makes breathing more difficult. As the condition worsens, coughing and blood-tainted spittle accompany shortness of breath. Milder cases of altitude sickness manifest as coughing at night, often beginning a few hours after activity has subsided. The dog may prefer a sitting position with the elbows held wide and head stretched out, refusing to lie down. Other signs include a worried expression, distressed eyes and unremitting panting. When horses pant, the condition is sever. </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In young dogs and horses, the cause can be congenital heart disease or anemia from internal parasites. Older or heavy dogs and horses may suffer from congestive heart failure. that is </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">severely</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> worsened with exercise at altitude. Backup of fluid into the lungs from a weak or aging heart is aggravated by strenuous or even mild activity at high elevations. Intake of untoward amounts of salt can aggravate heart disease and pulmonary edema. Many aging dogs should be on a low sodium, or sodium-free diet. Adequate hydration and maintenance of normal electrolyte levels becomes compensated at high elevations, and medical problems ensue on several levels. </span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d9q07-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prevention: Careful conditioning and gradual acclimation to high altitudes are recommended before all high altitude trips. Proper medical treatment of underlying health conditions can prevent exercise-associated breathing complications at any altitude. Avoid strenuous exercise—especially at high altitudes—to which your dog is not accustomed, difficult snow (deep, wind-pressed, crusted) and extremes of hot or cold weather. See your veterinarian for a physical exam and consultation prior to departure. He or she will discuss proper conditioning and consider the need for administration of preventive and ameliorative medications, which can be critical as pulmonary edema and altitude sickness can be life-threatening. Retreating to a lower altitude is always recommended and often required for the breathing to return to normal. Avoid salt, and salty treats, bacon, ham, and cheap dog treats, as these cause additional fluid retention and contribute to pulmonary edema. </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many dogs coming to altitude manifest </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">symptoms</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of underlying heart disease that was asympotamtic at sea level. Weak hearts and lungs become even weaker at altitude. It is possible to prevent lung and heart issues with medication prescribed by your veterinarian. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="tir7-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Treatment: Discontinue activity. Transport the dog to a lower altitude in a manner that allows easy breathing. If the gums become pale or purple, mouth-to-nose breathing may be necessary until the gums regain their normal color and refill time. Administer oxygen if available, which it often is at high altitudes. I recommend that you bring oxygen for yourself and your dog if you plan to travel at unaccustomed elevations where there could be problems. Simply allow the oxygen to flow near your dog's nostrils, rather than into the mouth, in a wind- free environment.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5si3s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Seek veterinary care if breathing difficulty doesn't improve with rest or the return to a lower elevation. Subsequent or underlying lung disorders or infections and aggravation of pre-existing medical conditions can complicate altitude sickness. See your veterinarian if your dog experiences difficulty breathing or tires easily on high altitude hikes. Furosemide is a commonly employed pharmaceutical treatment. It is a diuretic which lowers the arterial blood pressure in the lungs. Side effects include electrolyte imbalances and dehydration. Other preventive medications include triamcinolone. Cortisones that have a fluid retention effect should be avoided (prednisone and the like).</span><br />
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Dr Gustafson is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist.
The application of behavior science enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes.
Behavioral and nutritional strategies enrich the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses who are willing to learn and perform.</div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886161096540485165.post-91064084540785783462016-06-12T18:41:00.000-06:002017-10-25T17:54:24.037-06:00Locomotion: Essential Horse Health<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Horses in natural settings forage two thirds of the time, walking and grazing together. in constant communication and group-survivalist harmony. The key to keeping confined horses healthy is to re-create this scenario in the stable as best one can manage. All systems of the horse are dependent on miles of daily locomotion for proper function. Digestion, respiration, metabolism, behaviour, learning, training, and hoof health are all dependent on abundant daily locomotion. Horses are born to move, and move they must to maintain health and prosperity. The last place a horse evolved to live is in a stall. When horses are stalled, natural must be re-created for them.<br />
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Movement is necessary for normal, optimal digestion. Roughage is the diet of preference, and horses in natural settings arrange their lives to generally always have grass roughage in their stomach and grass roughage before them. Horses at pasture move most all the time. In caudal cecal grazers such as horses, digestion is linked to locomotion. Digestion is dependent on locomotion accompanied by near-constant grazing.<br />
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Colic is often initiated by deprivations of locomotion. Digestion is locomotion dependent. For the horse's gut to move, the horse must move, abundantly. Stalled horses require miles of daily walking to maintain digestive health. When stalled they should have constant access to appropriate forage. Bedding stalled on horses on clean straw helps re-create the constant moving and grazing horses are won't to do. Horses bedded on straw (with 24/7 access to hay), spend hours moving about, head down, lipping, and tonguing through the straw. Straw encourages the constant movement that aids digestion in a big way. It is relatively easy to keep stabled horses' stomachs full with roughage. Appropriate hay should always be present, in addition to the straw bedding. The straw bedding needs cleaned of manure and fluffed several times a day.</div>
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Behaviourists know stomach volume, and so now do all of you, 1-4 gallons. How easy is it to keep a horse's stomach full of a gallon or two of hay? Quite easy</div>
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<i>Listen to McGreevy: Lack of forage is the most important management factor causing the development of stereotypic behaviours. </i></div>
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Please understand horse's dependence on roughage, and please come to fully appreciate that the horse did not evolve to assimilate grains or concentrated protein, please. And for goodness sake, do not feed locomotion deprived horses grain, as the practice is detrimental. Only moving horses can handle grain. Long-standing horses fed grain develop obesity, and metabolic syndrome, laminitis follows, keeping the veterinarians busy, and the horse owner bank accounts depleted.</div>
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Tell me the ways that horsefolk in-the-know provide stabled horses roughage to graze two thirds of the time, and the necessary movement and locomotion to digest and assimilate the roughage.</div>
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Of course, by now we all know what failing to provide these simple roughage and stomach-content requirements causes in horses (poor learning ability, stereotypies, lack of motivation to perform, lameness, tying -up, ulcers, more veterinary bills...)</div>
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Oh, and do not forget water. And where the water is placed.</div>
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Tell me the reasons why when you lead a horse to water she will not drink the water, please, and remember horses will seldom eat when they start to become dehydrated (when they are thirsty), or after you clip their vibrissae.</div>
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Remember horses' good and essential friend, salt. Lead a horse to salt and she will lick and later drink. Make sure salt always travels with your horse. It seems lack of salt while traveling causes a lack of hydration, which leads to colic. Horses require salt and water 24/7 as they do forage and locomotion.</div>
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Minerals may also be required to be supplemented, and of course the most important minerals after salt are calcium and phosphorus, balanced please. Calcium and phosphorus make up bone, and bone makes a horse durable and sound. Do not forget the bone minerals, please.<br />
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Healthy horses make happy and willing partners.</div>
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When we have problems with a horse in this class, we all know to first make sure that the forage, friends, and locomotion are adequate, plentiful, and appropriate before devising some heavy handed training strategy. Unhappy horses are hard to train, yes, as are horses who are not pairbonded to their trainer.</div>
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When confronted with a horse with behaviour or training issues, we have all learned to <i>first</i> consider stabling as a primary factor in teaching, learning, and training. The proper method to address training issues is to first address stabling and socialization issues. </div>
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Locomotion is also essential for pulmonary health. Horses locked down all day bleed into their lungs when exercised strenuously, as in a race. The leading cause of bleeding in racehorses is a lack of abundant daily locomotion. </div>
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Metabolic disease and laminitis are caused by a lack of adequate locomotion. Colic is caused by a lack of locomotion. Obesity is caused by a lack of locomotion. Tying up is caused by a lack of locomotion. Bucking is caused by a lack of locomotion. Cribbing is caused by a lack of locomotion and constant chewing and grazing. Take locomotion away from a horse and she will give movement back to you in the arena in ways you do not prefer.</div>
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Happy horses train up happily. Set yourself and your horses up to succeed, please. Keep your horses happy with friends, forage, and locomotion, and grooming. </div>
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Stalled horses require movement. For horses unable to move because of injury, we must re-create movement with massage and passive flexion of all the limbs.</div>
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Dr Gustafson is an equine veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, and novelist. Applied veterinary behavior enhances optimum health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity in animal athletes.
Natural approaches to development, training, nutrition, and conditioning sustain equine health and enhance performance.<br />
Behavioral and nutritional enrichment strategies enhance the lives of stabled horses. Training and husbandry from the horse's perspective result in content, cooperative horses. </div>
Sid Gustafson DVMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01609352738495482793noreply@blogger.com1