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By Nancy Jaffer/For The Star-Ledger

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Negotiation and cooperation have produced an agreement on a landmark equine drug issue, the hot button topic of the U.S. Equestrian Federation's annual meeting here.

“We've determined through a lot of work and research this is for the welfare of the horse. It's a win for the horse,” declared Kent Allen, the veterinarian who heads the organization's veterinary and drugs and medications committees.

Those panels recommended that exhibitors should be permitted to give only one non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, rather than two, to horses in competition, citing the harmful effects overuse of the substances can have on the animals' health and well-being .

During the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association's convention last month, however, many attending appeared implacable in their insistence on being able to continue giving two NSAIDS, equating that practice to human athletes' use of ibuprofen and similar substances for easing aches and pains. They maintained it helped older horses continue their show ring careers, but USEF veterinarians felt horses often were administered the drugs without sufficient diagnosis, and that horses needing two NSAIDs to show should stay in the stable.

The USHJA proposed a rule that would enable trainers to give two NSAIDs if they filed a medication report every time they did so, but there was concern that the procedure could go on indefinitely. The compromise calls for anyone using two NSAIDs to file a special form beginning April 1 and running through Nov. 30, 2011. After that, however, only one NSAID will be allowed.

“Working through it here over the last couple of days and arguing extensively back and forth, we have all come to this consensus that people are accepting and can support (it),” said USHJA President Bill Moroney.

“The level of the discussion I thought was exceptional,” noted USEF President David O'Connor, a proponent of the limitation.

“It was a bold decision because it was a cultural shift. This is a great step.”

There has been some grumbling in the USHJA ranks from those who are just going to have to grimace and bear it, but in this era, equine welfare comes first.

“The reality of it is that it's inevitable,” said Geoff Teall, a trainer who is on the USHJA board. He said that looking on the plus side, it might lead people away from showing their horses too much, though at the other end of the equation, he speculated it could send some horses away from federation-recognized shows to unrecognized competitions that don't have drug testing.

Louise Serio, another USHJA member, worried that horses which can't show without two NSAIDs might face a worse alternative at a time when the economy has left many horses homeless, often resulting in euthanasia or a trip to slaughterhouses outside the U.S.

The saga of limiting NSAIDs actually started at the federation's 1998 convention, when veterinarians went after the practice of "stacking'' multiple NSAIDs in horses. The effort to limit NSAIDs drew such rancor from trainers that it was dropped until the next year, when the two-NSAID rule went into effect.

Use of one NSAID is still far more generous than FEI (international equestrian federation) rules, which don't permit any non-steroidals in competition. Plans to allow them in limited amounts produced such an outcry from so many countries, which consider the practice "doping,'' that the matter had to be tabled last year.

Achieving the compromise elevated the mood at the convention. It got another boost with the popular choice of dressage superstar Ravel as the USEF's 2009 Farnam/Platform Horse of the Year during one of the meeting's keynote dinners. There were five candidates for the honor, each from a different breed or discipline, but two-time Olympic gold medal-winning show jumper Sapphire was considered Ravel's chief competition for the honor, decided by a vote of members and the media.

In April, Ravel's rider/trainer Steffen Peters became the first American to win the Rolex FEI World Cup Dressage title on U.S. soil, then followed that up on the ever-improving gelding with a milestone sweep of all three Grand Prix dressage competitions at the world's top dressage competition in Aachen, Germany.

Peters was competing in California and could not make it to the presentation, but Ravel's owner, Akiko Yamazaki, was ecstatic as she accepted the award.

“Ravel made a dream come true, a dream I didn't even know I could have...it was also an American dream, truly,” she said, citing the multi-national origins of everyone who has made Ravel a success.

Nancy Jaffer may be reached at nancyjaffer@att.net

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