Re: [RC] APF What is in it, and would residues from its administration violate rule 13? - Ed & Wendy Hauser
"But if you read rule 13 in says "exogenously administered compounds even
if normally found endogenously""
If quoting from rules one must be careful to not
change the meaning of the rule. The relevant part of Rule 13
reads:
"...evidence of the administration of abnormal
substances or of normal substances in abnormal amounts (exogenously administered
compounds even if normally found endogenously)."
Note that the part you use in your argument is an
explanation of what a normal substance amounts is. If person was to be
supplementing a diet with Se, Vitamin E, Vitamin A etc. and the AERC tested the
blood for these substances, they would find the blood amounts within the normal
range for equids and conclude that the rule was followed. If a
misguided person, was giving their horse extremely large amounts of these
substances two things would happen. First, the horse might well get sick since
all these are toxic in large amounts, Se especially. Secondly,
the tested level would be outside the normal range and subject to rule
13.
Mega doses of the water soluble vitamins are a
different story. If withdrawn a reasonable period before the ride, there
would not be an abnormal amount in the blood, again no violation.
I am not a state of the art analytical chemist, but
I have often used the services of same. I'd be willing to bet that MSN
could be tested for as could the abnormal substances in herbal preparations, if
someone put up the money to study their chemistry. Since nowhere does the
AERC reveal what substances it tests for (in fact this may be subject to change
at any time), no one can say that a particular substance "does not
test". The best that could be said is "My horse was on 'wonder herbal
stuff' when tested on March 3, 2004 and the AERC did not detect any
exogenously administered compound". What the result would be on June 3,
2005 is anybodies guess.
"...
Philosophy is worthless as a rule if it can't be enforced and if it won't test
it can't be enforced...."
There are two basic ways to look at morality.
Honor based, and conscience based.
Most sports in our world are run on an honor based
morality. In an honor based morality, the only thing that matters is not
getting caught. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, were not conscience
stricken about the subject of their disagreement, they felt that because things
had been discovered, a duel was the only way to save their honor. A
college recruiter feels it is OK to give special consideration to a potential
star as long as he does not get caught. Under this type of outlook
everyone is assumed to cheat unless sufficiently assured of getting
caught. The rules become long, involved, specific and periodic scandals
erupt when cheaters are caught.
In a conscience based morality, things are done and
the spirit of the rules are followed because the participants would not feel
right if they cheated. I believe that most participants in AERC rides
follow a conscience based system. Even though it would be easy, we do not
cut trail. Even though we know that blood testing is rare or that the
substance probably "will not test", we do not administer abnormal substances or
normal substances in abnormal amounts to our horses sufficiently close to
competition that the horse might be influenced by them.
In the real world, most people are somewhere
between only worrying about getting caught and only following our
consciences. I usually follow speed limits, but am more careful when I
know there are lots of speed cops around. I do follow all AERC rules as
closely as possible irrespective of my chances of getting caught. I would
not feel right accepting an award if I cheated to get it. Blame my
Methodist mother for that.
I would be very upset if the AERC were to become an
organization like the NCAA. We would have 300 page rule books. There
would be an extensive list of banned substances updated every year. A
healthy percentage of horses would be on something that "did not test
(yet)"
Ride fees would be 10 X as large because there
would be trail watchers at every place where trail could be cut. Ride
stables would be patrolled by security guards to prevent drugging of horses at
night.
Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower
Road Victor, MT 59875
