Easily testable Tom .I mean in the standard routine FEI run test for winners and random check of other horses in any 3 star event they would be damned if they look for other super expensive things but not BB .It is the definitive endurance riding 'designer' drug as I wrote earlier .10 minutes off every phase ,that easily is 1 full hour in front of the rest . No 'muscle builders ' ,HGH , EPO , Auto transfusion [ I do not know whether they do this in the equine world ] or etc etc confer even a fraction of this kind of competitive advantage to a rider . Their's are just in the mind of trainers ,owners and fellow competitors , BB is for real at least in our type of event where getting that 'bloody HR' to 40 in zero time , counts. May even mean winning a BC! .!.Despite it not being performance enhancement in the real sense .And the fact that BB is cheap , easily available ,can be given orally just starting a few days prior to events probably make this the most common abuse in our sport . Some people sometime ago was lamenting that FEI ride has more drug checks then the local rides .It is this abuse that probably there were looking for .To me the theoretical advantage you get from the other expensive ''options'' were rather marginal compared to the ubiquitous ,easily available ,easily given and cheap BB .If ride managers want to keep their drug testing bills low , just test for bb .Can forget about the rest .Leave the major testing to major rides where cost issue is peripheral . That in essense is how I look at the whole 'drug abuse' situition in our sport . BB abuse I think is rampant .You guys are just not looking at it .Out of your hundreds of rides how many are drug tested ??
