Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: "Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them

Several years ago I talked with Marty (Dr. Martin Adams, Director of Equine Nutrition at Southern States) about the "Yucca" additive to Triple Crown feeds. His comments were there is absolutely no peer reviewed evidence that Yucca has any anti-inflammatory effect, there is so little in the feed that in any testing it would be below the background testing noise level and finally the same supplement is in a lot of commercially milled feeds although it doesn't appear on the bags.  If it doesn't test - it doesn't exist.

I was hoping the AERC drug policy would have been updated based on science rather than hearsay. There is no peer reviewed scientific evidence that any compound in Yucca is performance enhancing much less in the levels that would be used to remove the nitrite radical from urine. Major double blind studies on MSM in humans point to no more effective than a placebo. No reason to believe the same is not true in horses.

But yet we somehow could not shed the past and step forward in our drug policy. It's a little better than the past but in reality only half way there.

Truman


Bruce Weary wrote:

  Truman said: " Personally I would like to see the fist fight that could arise if the AERC took actions against a rider because he was using a brand of commercially prepared feed by a reputable feed company. It would not be pretty and I expect the AERC would lose that battle in a heartbeat."

 The fact that the substance's source was from a reputable feed company would be no defense against testing positive. There are many fine and reputable drug companies that produce substances that cannot find their way into our horses, either. Remember Mrs. Olson on the old Folger's commercials? The horses can't have her caffeine, either.:)     
 You wanna see a fist fight? Take my morning caffeine away from me. I hope your life insurance is paid up. :)     Bruce Weary

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"Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them."  H.L. Mencken