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[RC] Drug testing - Heidi SmithI don't know what the actual costs would be, but it may HELP keep people a little more honest if they actaully thought there was a chance their horse might be tested. Not that anyone would do anything illegal or anything!!! It has been my general impression, given both the results of what drug testing HAS been done and what I've personally seen of the horses and riders, that drugging is NOT common in our sport, and that what drugging is done is pretty much practiced by a few specific individuals. Some of our "positives" have been the sorts of traces that are pretty accidental or due to ignorance--traces of sulfas from not knowing that sulfas have long withdrawal times, traces of bute from not knowing that simply washing the bute out of a disposable syringe may not clean it sufficiently to remove all traces if you use the same syringe next weekend to dose your endurance horse, ignorance of things like procaine in penicillin (although why you'd want to ride a horse at a ride that needed penicillin 5 days ago baffles me), etc. Most of our riders are sufficiently committed philosophically to the "no drug" concept and care enough about their horses to allow sufficient recovery time if they need to treat horses for medical conditions that we simply don't have a big problem with drugging. That said--I think it is important that we continue to test, and that we attempt to catch those few who DO intentionally cheat. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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