Re: Legal Remedies and Herbs

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Tue, 27 Oct 1998, Angela C. McGhee wrote:

> Have you seen anyone dragged before the board and suspended for a year
> because their horse had some dandelion in his system?  I just think this
> is a slow day and you guys are making a mountain out of a mole-hill. 
> What we've got now is working fine to my knowledge.  We didn't make this

I would contend that "what we've got now is working fine" is only true
because nobody has ever tried to enforce the rule as written.  Now that
the AERC has a "drug testing" policy, and is starting to sit up and take
note of the drug policy and actually try to implement it at competitions,
I suspect that is isn't going to work so "fine."

Dane Frazier says that the AERC won't create a list of forbidden
substances because to attempt to do so would be impossible, yet, if we as
competitors are to abide by the rule must do so every time we think to
compete.

The vets on the vet committee say that there is no way to make a "list"
but presumably they do so when competing with their own horses????

My personal preferences would be to leave the rule as it stands, leaving
it up to each individual to compete under their own understanding of the
what is a drug and what isn't (i.e. the vet committee isn't allowed to
decide AFTER the fact that some substance is on the forbidden list if a
competitor is "caught" using it) and leave it to the integrity of each
competitor not to violate the rule.

People I have suggested this to tell me that I am hopelessly naive to
think that other competitors won't deliberately "cheat" even if they know
that they won't get caught.

Where does that leave probiotics?

If you think probiotics are a drug and are performance enhancing, don't
give them to your endurance horse.  If you don't, then you can.

If the vet committee is unwilling to define "what is a drug" before the
competition...and leave it to the individual competitor, then they
shouldn't be allowed to define "what is a drug" after the
competition...and disqualify competitors for using them.

To attempt to enforce the AERC drug policy as currently written while
remaining unwilling to define what is a drug (and don't give me that
"anything that is not a nutrient" thing, most "food stuffs" are chock full
of inert matter that neither a drug nor a nutrient and is of no use to the
horse whatsoever and is simply passed out as waste...like the hay I feed
them--clearly rule 13 ISN'T referring to this non-nutritious stuff) is
grossly unfair.

What this leaves ME with is have the rule that says "don't drug your
horse, you define what a drug is...since we won't"  and we won't try to
catch you violating the rule, since everybody's definition of "drug" will
be different.  It will be up to the integrity of the competitors to no
"cheat"

And if competitors want to win (or even complete and tell themselves that
since they are only going for completion it doesn't matter) by
cheating....let them.

Such victories are hollow.

kat
Orange County, Claif.

p.s.  The "I only offer it to my horse and he only eats it if he needs it"
argument doesn't hold water either.  My horse, when he has a cough or a
runny nose will voluntarily avail himself of the Eucalyptus that surrounds
his stall.  I don't even have to offer it to him...if he is feeling
"stuffed up" he will graze on the Eucalyptus trees....if he is not, he
doesn't.