I was so looking forward to putting my mistake at the AECs behind me and proving to myself that we were ready for our first CCI2 at Fair Hill. I didn't get the chance.
Most people know what happened to us, especially since there was an article in the Chronicle of the Horse and it appeared all over Eventing Nation.
For the most part, people were very supportive. There were the few that tut tutted me and Betsy. We got a few like, 'shame on that owner for trying to run a lame horse' or 'if the vet said the horse wasn't fit to run, the owner should not run the horse'. I would never run Smellie had I thought he wasn't right. I have scratched him from events because I have been worried about his best interest.
In this case, I truly believe he was fine. He was going better than he ever has. He was fit and ready to run. Here's how our first Fair Hill adventure went:
We arrived at Fair Hill on Monday and Elliot was in great form despite the long trip north and the extra couple days hanging at Heidi's Hanoverian Inspection over the weekend. We hacked on Monday after arriving, and took a flat lesson with Leslie Law on Tuesday. Elliot was phenomenal. Leslie said he was moving and working much better than he was even a month before at the AECs. We worked for about an hour pretty hard.
Wednesday morning I went for a long hack before the job and he felt good. Dougie Hannum worked on Smellie in the morning and said his body felt great! He didn't even have anything to adjust. In the jog Elliot was very slow to move off away from the other horses and also the ground jury. So I was essentially dragging him down the jog strip. He was held along with a how slew of other horses.
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This is where things went bad. The vet in the hold box palpated his legs and then flexed Elliot's left hind as if he were performing a pre-purchase exam. Since I was trotting I couldn't really see what was happening but I basically knew he trotted off positive to the flexion. The vet in the box told me that the joint itself looked good and he wasn't tender to palpation, but that Elliot was very lame and that I should just 'go home'. Betsy and Dougie were standing outside the holding area. We were all totally caught off guard and since no one knew quite what to do in this situation, I withdrew.
It was not until I got back to the barn that I found out those types of 'active' flexion tests are illegal in the hold area. The vet is allowed to flex for range of motion and palpate for tenderness, but actively flexing and trotting off is explicitly illegal.
And in all honesty, how many of the horses competing at that level could have flexed positive in that situation? I would hazard a guess that most would flex positive to some degree. I am especially suspicious of this considering all 6 of the horses illegally flexed in the holding area by the same veterinarian all reacted positive. Any horse, if flexed firmly enough will give a positive reaction (see the Behind the Bit blog post summarizing studies concerning the reliability of flexion tests). Since the vet didn't look at Elliot trot on a circle or flex the other leg or even see him trot on a straight away before flexing him, I question the validity of this exam.
Upon finding out that procedure in the hold area was illegal, I spoke with the show office and tried to get in touch with the TD and the President of the Ground Jury in order to make a formal inquiry. After over an hour of waiting, the TD called me on the phone and essentially said there was nothing he could do because I withdrew from the competition despite anything the vet did or said, illegal or not. He also said, that the head vet knew there was something illegal happening in the holding area and she had addressed it. What he didn't say was that it's was a bit of a catch 22 though; if I had represented against the suggestion of the holding box vet, I might have been eliminated or worse yellow carded like one of the kids at young riders this year. And would Elliot have looked okay after being flexed so hard? I don't really know.
We packed up and left early the next morning for home.
We got home Friday night and first thing Monday morning we took Smellie into the vet for a full lameness exam. Dr. Cate Mochal found nothing behind. He did not flex positive to stifle flexions and he was only mildly positive to the hock and fetlock flexions. She said his reaction was so slight, she would not even recommend hock injections.
So, we were all very disappointed. Elliot and I did not get the chance to show off what we had been preparing for all year. We lost a lot of money, but worse we lost a lot of time. I still need a CCI2 in order to run a CCI3 and there isn't another CCI2 until much later in the fall. This sets our progress back. We can still move up to advanced in Florida, but we will have to go back an collect that pesky CCI2 mid-season.
I know the vet was doing what he thought was best. I understand and appreciate that he did not want anyone, equine or human, to get hurt. What upsets me is that if I had broken an FEI rule, I would have been fined and suspended from competition. What happens to him? As far as I know, nothing. He even said he would flex horses again given the opportunity. Maybe the system is broken. I don't know. I have not given an alternative much careful though. However, I do know until the rule officially changes, what this vet did was wrong and it shouldn't happen.
My bad for not knowing the rules. Expensive lesson and a major MAJOR bummer. Hope next time will be better.
Most people know what happened to us, especially since there was an article in the Chronicle of the Horse and it appeared all over Eventing Nation.
For the most part, people were very supportive. There were the few that tut tutted me and Betsy. We got a few like, 'shame on that owner for trying to run a lame horse' or 'if the vet said the horse wasn't fit to run, the owner should not run the horse'. I would never run Smellie had I thought he wasn't right. I have scratched him from events because I have been worried about his best interest.
In this case, I truly believe he was fine. He was going better than he ever has. He was fit and ready to run. Here's how our first Fair Hill adventure went:
We arrived at Fair Hill on Monday and Elliot was in great form despite the long trip north and the extra couple days hanging at Heidi's Hanoverian Inspection over the weekend. We hacked on Monday after arriving, and took a flat lesson with Leslie Law on Tuesday. Elliot was phenomenal. Leslie said he was moving and working much better than he was even a month before at the AECs. We worked for about an hour pretty hard.
Wednesday morning I went for a long hack before the job and he felt good. Dougie Hannum worked on Smellie in the morning and said his body felt great! He didn't even have anything to adjust. In the jog Elliot was very slow to move off away from the other horses and also the ground jury. So I was essentially dragging him down the jog strip. He was held along with a how slew of other horses.
.jpg)
This is where things went bad. The vet in the hold box palpated his legs and then flexed Elliot's left hind as if he were performing a pre-purchase exam. Since I was trotting I couldn't really see what was happening but I basically knew he trotted off positive to the flexion. The vet in the box told me that the joint itself looked good and he wasn't tender to palpation, but that Elliot was very lame and that I should just 'go home'. Betsy and Dougie were standing outside the holding area. We were all totally caught off guard and since no one knew quite what to do in this situation, I withdrew.
It was not until I got back to the barn that I found out those types of 'active' flexion tests are illegal in the hold area. The vet is allowed to flex for range of motion and palpate for tenderness, but actively flexing and trotting off is explicitly illegal.
And in all honesty, how many of the horses competing at that level could have flexed positive in that situation? I would hazard a guess that most would flex positive to some degree. I am especially suspicious of this considering all 6 of the horses illegally flexed in the holding area by the same veterinarian all reacted positive. Any horse, if flexed firmly enough will give a positive reaction (see the Behind the Bit blog post summarizing studies concerning the reliability of flexion tests). Since the vet didn't look at Elliot trot on a circle or flex the other leg or even see him trot on a straight away before flexing him, I question the validity of this exam.
Upon finding out that procedure in the hold area was illegal, I spoke with the show office and tried to get in touch with the TD and the President of the Ground Jury in order to make a formal inquiry. After over an hour of waiting, the TD called me on the phone and essentially said there was nothing he could do because I withdrew from the competition despite anything the vet did or said, illegal or not. He also said, that the head vet knew there was something illegal happening in the holding area and she had addressed it. What he didn't say was that it's was a bit of a catch 22 though; if I had represented against the suggestion of the holding box vet, I might have been eliminated or worse yellow carded like one of the kids at young riders this year. And would Elliot have looked okay after being flexed so hard? I don't really know.
We packed up and left early the next morning for home.
We got home Friday night and first thing Monday morning we took Smellie into the vet for a full lameness exam. Dr. Cate Mochal found nothing behind. He did not flex positive to stifle flexions and he was only mildly positive to the hock and fetlock flexions. She said his reaction was so slight, she would not even recommend hock injections.
So, we were all very disappointed. Elliot and I did not get the chance to show off what we had been preparing for all year. We lost a lot of money, but worse we lost a lot of time. I still need a CCI2 in order to run a CCI3 and there isn't another CCI2 until much later in the fall. This sets our progress back. We can still move up to advanced in Florida, but we will have to go back an collect that pesky CCI2 mid-season.
I know the vet was doing what he thought was best. I understand and appreciate that he did not want anyone, equine or human, to get hurt. What upsets me is that if I had broken an FEI rule, I would have been fined and suspended from competition. What happens to him? As far as I know, nothing. He even said he would flex horses again given the opportunity. Maybe the system is broken. I don't know. I have not given an alternative much careful though. However, I do know until the rule officially changes, what this vet did was wrong and it shouldn't happen.
My bad for not knowing the rules. Expensive lesson and a major MAJOR bummer. Hope next time will be better.
