Posts Tagged ‘Horse Health’

Arthur gave up a well-established private practice at Southern California racetracks to take the CHRB position in 2006, and he has been a prominent and outspoken advocate for horse health issues in his role as medical director.

The views he presents are his own personal opinions and do necessarily represent those of the AAEP. – Ray Paulick

By Rick M. Arthur, DVM
Sure, there is some Kumbaya in the AAEP’s white paper, just like the recommendations from every other group that has looked at the issues. But to say the AAEP’s white paper doesn’t address what we know best shows an astounding lack of understanding of how horse care at the race track works. Horse racing’s veterinarians are the people who clean up the messes horse racing leaves behind. Just as physicians see parts of the human experience that are not pretty and so do veterinarians in horse racing.

* A period of rest for all horses to provide an opportunity to refresh and diminish the volume of persistent cyclic loading that occurs in the absence of rest.

* No horse shall be permitted to race within 10 days of its last start.

These are really the same issue. Over 90% of all racing fatalities show evidence of pre-existing pathology at the site of their catastrophic injury. These are repetitive stress injuries. Veterinarians are saying give the body time to heal. Where is this outside of what veterinarians know best?

* Every horse entered to race shall be on association grounds in sufficient time to have a pre-race veterinary inspection for racing soundness by the regulatory veterinarian.

*Standardization and enhancement of pre-race and post-race veterinary examinations with mandatory cross-jurisdictional sharing of information.

These are the same issue. Horses should have proper pre-race veterinary inspections; not all do. Is it possible veterinarians see horses racing that shouldn’t be on the track?

* In those jurisdictions that practice it, racetrack management must discontinue the coercion of trainers to enter horses according to stall allotment.

Could it be veterinarians are seeing unfit and sore horses entered to simply fill racing cards? If you think this is out of our area of expertise, you are mistaken.

* Uniform participation by all jurisdictions in injury reporting for both racing and training injuries.

Veterinarians have been driving this issue for years. The numbers are worse than horse racing wants to face. To solve a problem, you have to understand the scope of the problem. Is there a question whether this is a veterinarian issue?

* Development of continuing education and accreditation programs for owners, trainers, stewards, jockeys, grooms, starters, farriers, veterinarians and security personnel.

There is no entity in horse racing which understands or does CE better than the AAEP. In fact there are few professional organizations anywhere that do.

* Claiming (all of it)

Is there a veterinarian at the track who hasn’t seen first-hand how claiming negatively impacts horse welfare? If you have any doubt, spend any entry day with any race track veterinarian.

* Medication

The AAEP white paper endorses a number of fundamental changes in horse racing medication. Encouraging collaboration between the RMTC and IHFA is an enormous step as are many of the other medication recommendations.

As for joint injections: this issue was discussed. What is the right answer without adequate research? Just Say No would have been Kumbaya. The RMTC has announced a major research effort towards glucocorticoid drug testing research which should lead to profound changes on how intra-articular injections are regulated.The AAEP supports the RMTC. The veterinarians on the Racing Task Force know this issue well; well enough to know it is complicated and complex.

* The key to successful implementation of these medication recommendations is increased racetrack security to promote enforcement and achieve uniform compliance.

Horse racing veterinarians are calling for increased security. Hey, you’re right, what do veterinarians know about the need for better backside security? When did they go to the police academy? Or maybe everyone should sit up and ask what are horse racing veterinarians seeing as they spend all day on the backside to cause them to recommend more backside security?

One last point: Sorry, banning the dying practice of pin-firing will never save one horse. I can’t remember if it was ever discussed.

Thirty-five veterinarians worked on the AAEP White paper and all contributed. This is a pretty good first step even with the Kumbaya.

The AAEP understands the issues facing horse racing and is ready, willing and able to work with the industry to help move equine welfare and racing integrity forward.