What is this all about????

Clarissa · What is this all about????

I found this while on youtube. What are they injecting into this horse & why would a horse need all it's joints filled with 'stuff'??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76uQh1ocYOE

coveredbridgefarm

I don't know what they were injecting or what physical activity that horse had been subjected to that would require such massive doses, perhaps steroids for a race horse(didn't really look like a race horse), but the casualness with which that was done was troubling to me. Maybe the injections were necessary to give the horse some pain relief but it always irritates me to see things like that without also hearing about the horse's history.

I would like to see a display of massive injections accompanied by some kind of explanation for the horse's condition in order that the condition can be prevented or at least alleviated in other horses, assuming this was man made which is probably a fairly safe assumption. I'm kind of partial to preventive medicine.

Larry

Horse Gypsy

Steroid injections are standard in the performance horse industry. I recently heard a reining trainer saying that you can't find a 2 year old that hasn't been injected in the Reining horse futurities. I want no part of this, but it is really common. It should be the last thing you do-- because it involved penetrating the joint capsule, but unfortunately it is the first thing people do. You have to keep up on it. I have 2 experformance horse who have been injected-- and it is part of the soundness problems that I have because I do not want to maintain the injection schedule.
I rehabbed a horse who got a severe infection from an ankle injection,, he was almost put down-- and it was because instead of giving him time off so the lady could bring him to the show circuit in Florida she injects him. It is standard procedure-- everyone does it.

cheerios

yes. Horse Gypsy is right.

For much of the performance horse industry, joint injections are standard practice. The horses are worked long and hard, and joint problems are quite common.

Here's a decent article that covers how it works and some of the major risks.
http://www.horsechannel.com/horse.../horse-joint-injection-25382.aspx

coveredbridgefarm

Horse Gypsy wrote:

Horse Gypsy

I personally find it obscene to put a 2 year old through the training that they do. It is horsey child labor. The more I research it the more I realize that 3-4 is the age to start lightly riding a horse. Lightly being the key word-- Most Dressage people don't start the serious work until 5 or 6.
Riding a horse at 2 is the reason they need injections because there bones are still growing and nothing is mature-- and then the horses break down at 9-- it is not wonder. But this is what the Performance horse world does- with out thought- Drives me nutty-- but it is big $$$ for vets and trainers I guess- It is the attitude of the horse as a possession and a machine.

Clarissa

Right, thanks for the insight.

Sonny has such an injury to his off hind from when he was 5 & a trainer was making him do spins. I could see his HQ was getting tired & I asked the guy to stop but he said he had to keep going until Sonny knuckled down & did it right.

Well that never happened & he learnt how to cheat by stepping out of the turn. Now he has a permanently weak fetlock. It was already slightly injured from trying to get out of the dam up the rock wall one day:roll: rather than go to the dirt part to get out. He is so lazy sometimes

. The rocks cut right into the capsule & it took ages to heal.

When I do cutting & reining with him he always steps out of the spin/rollback on that side after doing it a few times cos he must be hurting.

If you have watched my L4 freestyle audition video you can see him do it at the end of the barrels run I do. I add some double 360's & some cutting maneuvers. He steps out of the 2nd 360 going to the offside.

I just ask him to finish the turn after he's taken the step. There's no point to forcing him.

So I guess those competition horses must have that same pain going on in all their joints every time even when they're training.

I just don't get where we don't like top human athletes filling themselves with drugs, but we don't mind filling animal athletes with drugs.

So sad really.

coveredbridgefarm

Clarissa wrote:

Horse Gypsy

The sad thing is it is really normal-- and you have to do it all the time it is not a one time thing-- They inject the joints a few times a year depending on the competition scedule. Apparently the horses feel better after word- it takes all the pain in the joints away for that period of time. I would never do it. But if you ever wondered how those horses can jump 5-6 foot jumps every weekend here is your answer.

coveredbridgefarm

They start working them too young. Their joints get sore so they inject all of their joints with steroids and then the damage really begins.

And the owners, trainers, and vets can't figure out why their horses break down?

You're right. It is very sad. Everyone(or most everyone anyway) knows what's going on. The horses simply aren't their top priority.

We need to get minimum age limits in one of the sports and then work to apply those same limits over to the other sports. I tend to think that racing has the most vulnerability to those limits because of the high profile nature of the sport.

Larry

Nashama

Its fairly normal, Clarissa. It doe not make it right, but it is normal. People have been known to inject all sorts of things into knee joints including bleach after the horse has gone unsound. It's standard procedure, apparently, to x-ray 3yo cutting horses for bone spurs on their hocks.

Me, I think it should be illegal to compete a horse younger than 3. that's why I like endurance, the horse can not compete until he is 5. Even so, you get your high tech racing stables and their needles there. That's why the racing stables like the barefoot endurance horses - they know it has been slow and steady training to even start in an 80km ride completely bare.

Scarlet Belle

Clarrisa,
Years ago, when I competed in endurance, I thought waiting until my Arabian was 7 years old before actually putting miles on him would save from that sort of thing. It did not. I allow a one time injection for pain relief in the joint.

He was retired to avoid breakdown. He lived a good life, until this last years. He had many years of retirement. I decided killing or breaking down my horse over a feed bucket that I could buy was not worth it.

My gaited horses do well on long distance, but they were started late in life and do not go every single day long distance to wear the joints out.

They have time off and get rotated. Only fair.

Sonya

Clarissa

Thanks for all those replies. Things are much clearer to me now.

I know all about steroids from first hand experience. I have had to take very small doses of (probably) the same ones (legally perscribed) to keep me walking for 4yrs now. But it is a double edged sword as the steroid breaks down the cartlidge in the long run & I have been having real problems with that for 2 yrs. I need both hips replaced now & one shoulder. But without the steroids I would've been in a wheelchair by now.

So it makes me even more sick to the stomach because they would know injecting had long term detrimental effects. But I suppose they have a ready stream of up & coming 2yo's from which to pickso why bother keeping the current horses in good health? Train 'em 'til they either break or come good!!

Like with most other breeding, they breed for percentages not quality.

So most of the breeding stock that have won a lot would've also been the ones injected the most, so they are actually breeding weakness into into the upcoming crops of foals. What idiot thinks that's a good plan