Big Brown’s Owners Say Stable Will Go Steroid Free

[girly]

I completely agree there is a huge difference between legitimate medical care and doping up for races. However, medicating to hide symptoms is just as bad in my opinion. But I don\'t think that\'s what you meant, Miff. If a horse is having problems, the animal shouldn\'t be raced, period. That\'s why vets need to be an integral part of every aspect of the business. Owners or trainers dispensing drugs without vet over site is very scary.

[miff]

Girly,

If every horse had to go the post \"perfect\" or as you said, symptom free without meds,there would be no racing.

Mike

[girly]

Are there any race horses in the world that are sound? I should think so! It reminds me of dog lovers who breed and breed until the inbreeding leads to constant health problems in their precious pooches. Ughh! But that\'s another subject... Isn\'t it great to have debates here without the infantile posturing that we\'d been subjected to in the past? Thank you TGJB! This board has really improved-

[sighthound]

Clenbuterol is tested post-race, in urine or plasma/serum.

[richiebee]

IEAH equals Iavarone Exudes Amazing Hypocrisy.

Hey fella if you really wanted to clean up Racing maybe you should read Michael
D\'s link from the  (Baltimore?) paper which chronicles the malfeasances of your
trainer. Something like 70 sanctions-- personal drug use, medication positives,
failure to follow proper scratch procedures, foal papers and/or colors not
available--the guy never met a rule he didn\'t think was made to be broken.

\"Babe\" has shown an incredible ignorance of (or disregard for) the rules of
Racing. He blew off Congress with the novel explanation that he didn\'t graduate
high school and wouldn\'t be very effective as a witness.

I think Congress should have subpoenaed him. I think Babe\'s nearly 20 or so
years of disregard for the rules of Racing should have been made a matter of
public record.

Just imagine how many more suspensions he could have incurred if he hadn\'t been
sat down for 5 years for his own personal drug use

[Flighted Iron]

Even For Life,

  A heart rate monitor is an interesting idea. The figure sheets themselves indicate athletic progression. Do any of the maintenance meds affect heart rate
results? Do inconsistencies with track conditions,weather(precipitation,temp,wind)
potentially skew the results of the heart monitor? I would imagine there\'s room
for the calculation of those factors. It is very intriguing however.

  Respectfully,
   Flighted Iron

[Even for Life]

Flighted Iron

A number of issues can impact the HR readings of a horse—such as those you mention. But what you do is develop a baseline for an individual horse that consists of resting, pre-work-out; work-out and recovery HR (within a range). In addition, you record other information impacting the work—temperature, track condition, meds, etc. Over a period of time patterns become recognizable and a trainer will be able to truly understand the athletic progress/performance of his/her horse. With our horses, I could foresee illness/problems in advance due to variations from my baseline readings. I also would know when my horse was fit and be in position to deliver improved/peak performance.

We did this years ago with the onboard HR monitor, and keeping paper records. Now you can download all the data from the monitor onto your computer and use very specific software to manage/analyze the information. Some monitors are integrated with GPS systems so you can accurately manage distance/velocity/etc.

I cannot see how a trainer can design/manage a fitness program with out this essential data. Cardiovascular fitness is probably the most important and practical way to assess fitness. I bet most trainers would not know what their horses resting HR, aerobic zone, Anaerobic threshold and Max HR are.  In my book, you need this information to train...(by the way here are the ranges for horses: Resting HR 30-40 BPM; Aerobic HR 150-170; Anaerobic HR—170+; Max HR 220-250).

Even for Life

[Flighted Iron]

Even For Life,

  Do you subscribe to the thorograph sheets or get the sheets for your own
horses? If yes: I\'m curious if a horse  that  was entering a probable bounce pattern actually was improving cardiovascularly and in fact did not bounce
on the sheets in the subsequent outing? The resting HR is similar to a human
who does serious distance training. I would guess it\'s due to their size?

 Respectfully,
  Flighted Iron