Competition horse medication
ethics
Presented at the American Veterinary Medical Association meeting, Boston 2015
Gustafson S, DVM, 918 South Church Avenue, Bozeman, MT
59715
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.
Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains, moving and grazing in a mutually 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 fulfill 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.
The more medical care and
pharmaceutical intervention required to sustain any population of animals the
lower the population’s welfare.
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. 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.
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 enduring 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.
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 veterinarian shall provide
veterinary medical care under the terms of a veterinarian-client-patient
relationship (VCPR).
The AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics state
that it is unethical for veterinarians to medicate horses without a VCPR. 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.
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.
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.
It is important that the welfare and veterinary care of the horse take
precedence over economic and human interests.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Restoration 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.
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. 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.
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 performance of exensive post-competition
examinations to address any weaknesses or unsoundness as a result of the
performance.
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.
Recommended reading
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
Magner D 2004 Magner’s Classic
Encyclopedia of the Horse Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books
McGreevy P 2004 Equine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine
Scientists Philadelphia: Elsevier Limited. ISBN 0 7020 2634 4
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
Paul McGreevy BVSc, PhD, MRCVS.
Equine Behavior, 2004, A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. Second
Edition, Elsevier; 2012, Chapter 13 Equitation Science
Budiansky, S. (1997). The nature
of horses: Exploring equine evolution, intelligence, and behavior. New York: The
Free Press.
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
Waran, N. McGreevy, P., Casey, R.A
(2007). Training Methods and Horse Welfare, In
The Welfare of the Horse (pp.151-180
) Auckland, New Zealand
Appleby
M, Mench J, Olsson I, Hughes B (2011). Animal
Welfare. CABI, Second edition; 2011.
Fraser D (2008). Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science
in its Cultural Context. Wiley-Blackwell; 2008.
Magner D 2004
Magner’s Classic
Encyclopedia of the Horse Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books
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.
