Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Talismanic! Racehorse Medication in America

Horses and People Magazine: Racehorse Medication in America

https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/racehorse-medication-ethics-the-2017-breeders-cup#.WjnUO7aZPOT

Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, animal welfare journalist, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

Talismanic Purifies the Breeders Cup

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Talismanic interview with Godolphin's Osborne and Barzalona

Talismanic won the Breeders' Cup World Championships Turf Lasix-free
Here is the post race interview provided by the Breeders' Cup.
Below, he is ridden by

Mickael Barzalona

coming in on the inside with the blaze and four white stockings.

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Joe Osborne

Mickael Barzalona

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, the winner of the Breeders' Cup Turf is Talismanic, and we're pleased to be joined by Godolphin chief executive Joe Osborne, as well as winning jockey 26-year-old Mickael Barzalona. Winner of the Dubai World Cup, couple of English Classics, and now a Breeders' Cup. Congratulations to you both. Mickael, I'd like to start with you, if you could just tell us about the ride?

MICKAEL BARZALONA: Well, I've got a lovely position. I always break well from the gate, and I could follow around very easily. We were a little worried before the race if we were fast enough for this kind of track. But we just had a good race and a good horse to win.

Q. Joe, could you elaborate on how you saw the race unfold?
JOE OSBORNE: Yeah, exactly. Beautiful ride by Mickael, and the horse was beautifully trained by Andre Fabre. Just great results, so well done.

Q. You mentioned Andre Fabre. So I'd like you to elaborate a little bit on him as a trainer as well as maybe a little bit on how you all determined which trainers will get which horse?
JOE OSBORNE: Well, I mean, it's hard to elaborate on Andre Fabre. The man is a living legend. He's got Breeders' Cups, Classics, Group 1s. He's just a master trainer and trained this horse perfectly. So, it's just a great result for us by our stallion, and bred by us and everything. So it just ticks all the boxes.

Q. Could you tell us the promise of firm grounds, whether that played a large role in deciding whether to bring the horse here today?
JOE OSBORNE: Yeah, it certainly helps. He's by Medaglia d'Oro, so you have to figure Medaglia d'Oro would do well over here, so that certainly was a factor. But I know Andre has always regarded this horse quite highly. So, yeah, I think we're certainly more concerned about fast ground. You could see today, he loved it.

Q. What does it mean to you to win your first Breeders' Cup?
MICKAEL BARZALONA: Well, it means a lot. It's my first time I come over, first time I ride in America, to come here for Andre Fabre, for Godolphin and have a horse to have a chance to finish in the first three before the race, it's a huge honor to ride for this team. Now with age I appreciate a lot more the race than before. I was very young. So now I can understand what it means the big races for the trainer, owner and even for myself.

Q. Joe, Cloth of Stars came out of the Prix Foy and would finish second in de l'Arc, and now you have Talismanic coming out of the Prix Foy and finishing here. Both were pretty long priced, do you think both horses were quite obviously underrespected?
JOE OSBORNE: Probably. But certainly not by the trainer. I know we were there at Chantilly for the Prix de l'Arc, and Andre and the team were pretty keen on his chances. Again, today, probably sometimes maybe just the betting public may overlook these horses. But as I said earlier, if Andre Fabre trains them, I think you have to pay respect.

Q. Do you think this race was a target recently or a target long time ago?
MICKAEL BARZALONA: It was a target since he won his race in St. Cloud, the mile and six race, and we know how Andre Fabre is when he fits a target to a horse. We could see with Cloth of Stars this year, and Talismanic now in the Breeders' Cup.

Q. What are you going to do next with him?
JOE OSBORNE: We're going to have a chat next week with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and Andre and see what the plan is. Today was the day, and we'll just discuss what next year's targets are.

Q. He'll be a 5-year-old. Good chance he stays in training?
JOE OSBORNE: Yeah, I'd imagine. I'm sure that is the case. The fact he performed so well here, it just opens up a lot of international options for him as well.

Q. Could he still go to Hong Kong?
JOE OSBORNE: I think everything's possible at this stage. We haven't ruled anything out yet.

Q. Dubai?
JOE OSBORNE: Yep, Yep.

Q. Could you talk about the homebreds versus buying at sales and what the philosophy is? I know Sheikh Mohammed has kind of gone back and forth through the years. This is obviously a homebred. But is there a concentration one way or the other?
JOE OSBORNE: Not particularly. I think every year we buy foals at public auction, yearlings at public auction. So not particularly. But it's particularly gratifying when you have a homebred win because you just think of all the people that have had involvement in this horse's life from the day it was conceived to today. So it's great satisfaction to that. But we buy yearlings and then obviously that's part of our plan as well.

Q. Where was he raised?
JOE OSBORNE: He was born in Britain, and he was raised in Ireland.

Q. This was a very -- with three turns for the 2400 meters and it's a pretty narrow track, I suppose. Did it seem narrow? Did it feel narrow and tight?
MICKAEL BARZALONA: Well, yeah, it's completely different than in Europe. But like I said, Talismanic is a great horse to ride. He's beautiful action and I'm sure the horse could sometimes be struggling, but for him, it's just very easy.

Q. What did you think of the last three furlongs? You were behind a little bit and then you came out in the stretch. Describe the stretch run, please?
MICKAEL BARZALONA: I was just behind Highland Reel. So I knew if I could pass her, we'd have a chance to win the race. When Highland Reel came out and I found my gap, I just knew it was my chance to win it. And he kicked home very well, and he stayed until the line.

Q. For socks -- they say that a horse with full white legs you should never run because there is a saying that they have weak legs because it's white?
JOE OSBORNE: I think he looked beautiful coming past the winning line there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
_{Rev #1 by #206 at 2017-11-05 00:18:00 GMTTalismanic}

Thursday, November 2, 2017

How to Play the Breeders’ Cup Lasix

L is for Lasix

How to Play the Breeders' Cup Lasix Horses and People Magazine

Since pre-race Lasix is allowed in America, the drug is listed on the program so the players can effectively parlay the Lasix horses. Having practiced as an attending thoroughbred and Standardbred veterinarian back in the day, and subsequently following the medication notes on the forms of racehorses through time, I developed a sense of how to play the Lasix. I know better than to gamble where so many permitted drugs are allowed—with so many unknown consequences.

Highland Reel is getting Lasix and so will be favored over Ulysses in the Turf. Ulysses trainer Sir Michael R Stoute has chosen to run without the pre-race diuretic and alkalinizing agent. For our knighted trainer, and the other ethical trainers running Lasix-free, their horses come first. When they win, it will be their horse and the conditioning that did the winning, a most honorable way to win in America, indeed. It is a dangerous precedent to medicate horses up close, in particular, class horses of this nature.

Already, the Breeders’ Cup runners are allowed to stack NSAIDs, many receiving Banamine 48 hours before they race, followed by intravenous phenylbutazone at 24 hours out. This is a lot of drugs to be racing on at speed in close company in an effort to beat the fastest thoroughbreds on the planet. Horses with this many NSAIDs on board are surely apt to bleed more than when running free of these potent permitted anticoagulants and anti-inflammatory drugs. It is well documented scientifically that multiple NSAIDs impair clotting and contribute to pulmonary bleeding. One can assume that many if not most of the horses receiving Lasix also received their stacked NSAIDs at 24 and 48 hours. This is California, the land of therapeutic veterinary medicine, the land of the good stuff as far as some Europeans can see. All of these permitted pre-race medications enhance performance, so put your money down.

Of the horses listed as L on the Breeders Cup card, most will have a pharmaceutical racing advantage, running faster and longer than natural would permit. USADA, the US Anti Doping Agency has listed Lasix as a forbidden Performance Enhancing Drug substance, a performance-altering agent. Performance can be enhanced, but at the risk of metabolic dysfunction, and musculoskeletal failure.

The L1, or first time Lasix horses, all those fragile turf 2-year-olds from Europe save Madeline and Juliet Capulet—will be injected for the first time in their career four hours before they race. Let me tell you here from attending and regulatory veterinary experience, that fillies receiving Lasix for the first time are apt to have behavior changes. Some suffer from musculoskeletal dysfunction due to the electrolyte-altering and alkalinizing aspects of the drug. Yes, some will perform like they never have before, but others, not so well. Some of the fillies do not take to all of the pre-race urination either, not to mention the dehydration. Lasix alters metabolism, and can alter behaviour due to the muscle pain it is known to cause. Colts and geldings are susceptible to untoward sequelae as well. For an example of untoward Lasix, check out Oscar Performance’s L form.
Beware of repeated, relentless racing on Lasix, as it is shown that Lasix hollows the bones of calcium, an important mineral responsible for integrity. Whenever a drug enhances performance, the potential for injury and limb failure increases. Beware of campaigners who have Ls up and down their chart. To see how durability is enhanced by staying away from Lasix, please check out Mongolian Saturday’s form, a study in durability. And Winx's!

In summary, all of the L or Lasix horses, have the potential to have their performance enhanced by the drug, or drugs they received prior to the race, and perhaps especially those who have previously ran clean in the purer jurisdictions across the Atlantic, the ones getting their first drug boost in America. Be forewarned that the other L1 turf horses may have an untoward reaction to the drug injection. All drugs have untoward side-effects, you know. Sometimes, this is why handicappers like second-time Lasix, L2. The Lasix affect is known for these horses, and if it was a good affect the first time, the horses are said to even run better the second time they race on pre-race-Lasix, so good it felt to run so fast and easy their last time out on the good stuff.

The California horses, and the rest of the American horses, have all had their pre-race dosages managed and titrated. Their injections and dosages have been adjusted to get the best performance enhancing effect by their trainers and veterinarians. These folks know how to get run out of drugs. The trainers can order up from 3cc to 10cc of intravenous Lasix, and I am telling you ½ cc is plenty, all that is needed to manage EIPH if that is indeed what these folks are trying to manage with this drug. The trainers are allowed to do this without the aid or assistance of professional veterinary guidance, so far the veterinary ethics have deteriorated in the country of ours, the Land of the Free to do what you please with your animals.
In this year’s Breeders’ Cup, all of the American trainers have all of their horses on Lasix such is the American training and veterinary mindset, a dangerous mindset, mind you. Each and every dirt horse, including all of the European dirt runners, will be on Lasix. Dirt is harder to run on than turf, some say, unnatural as dirt is compared to turf for the racehorse. It is postulated by some that dirt racing is one of the reasons Lasix entered the game as it did in America. Dirt is hard on lungs, turf appears kinder, and synthetics appeared kindest of all.

Beware of Lasix, as it is the Lasix horses who will be more vulnerable to injury as the drugs make them run faster that they would otherwise. Remember the scientific evidence that long-term drug use diminishes the welfare and husbandry of horses. Also note that the California bleeders will be running on one less drug than usual, as it is still allowed in California to give Premarin (estrone) along with the Lasix. This drug is a steroid estrogen derivative, and as such can have a hoppy effect on fillies, mares, and others. These California horses will only be getting the pre-race Lasix in the Breeders’ Cup, and therefore may bleed through, you know, so under-pulmonary-conditioned they have become because of the reliance on medication.

Along with the Lasix, do not forget to play the wet air, the fast dirt, the pristine turf, the pull of the full moon, and the draw of the low tides. Do not forget to play the riders, and their trainers, and please pray all have a safe trip.

Do not forget that Winx the Wonder Mare from the land of Lasix-free racing DownUnder, runs pure. Some of you follow the pictures of her swimming and exercising out of the stall each and every day to condition her lungs. This also conditions her legs, and her heart, as her perseverance, longevity, popularity, and soundness are evident to all.

The following 9 horses will be racing Lasix free, all of them on the turf, none of them trained by an American trainer.

Talismatic (GB)

Decorated Knight (GB)

Ulysses (Ire)

Mongolian Saturday

Ribchester (Ire)

Juliet Capulet (Ire)

Madeline (Ire)

Oscar Performance

Nazweeh (GB)

The pure trainers abstaining from Lasix follow, none American. Ganbat is from Mongolia, and the others hail from France, Great Britain, and Ireland, where a kinder, softer, horseracing exists, safer horseracing.

The #BC17 purists

Sir Michael Stoute

John Gosden

Richard Fahey

Roger Varian

James Stack

Ganbat

Roger Charlton

Brian Lynch

The Performance Enhancing Nature of Lasix link

Monday, October 30, 2017

Breeders' Cup Medication Rules

Sid Gustafson

Reporting from the Breeders’ Cup for Horses and People Magazine

Link:

Racehorse Medication Ethics Horses and People Magazine

https://www.horsesandpeople.com.au/article/racehorse-medication-ethics-the-2017-breeders-cup#.Wfj4bEyZNE7

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Competition Horse Medication Ethics

Competition horse medication ethics

Presented at the American Veterinary Medical Association meeting, Boston 2015

Gustafson S, DVM, 918 South Church Avenue, Bozeman, MT 59715

Appreciation of the evolved nature and behavior of horses provides the foundation for the ethical veterinary care of equine athletes. The establishment of a veterinary patient client relationship (VCPR) is instrumental in providing ethical care for the competition horse. Ethical veterinary practice supports the horse’s long-term health and welfare interests while avoiding pharmaceutical intervention in the days before competition.

Horses evolved as social grazers of the plains, moving and grazing in a mutually connected and constantly communicative fashion on a near-constant basis. Contemproary equine health and prosperity remains dependent on providing an acceptable degree of this near-constant movement, foraging, and socialization. When horses are confined to fulfill convenience and performance interests, the horse’s natural preferences need be re-created to a suitable degree to avoid exceeding the adaptability of the horse. As the adaptability of the horse is exceeded, welfare is dimished and the need for medical intervention to remedy behavioral, health, and soundness deficiencies is intensified. Contemporary practices regularly exceed the competition horse’s adaptability, resulting in the need for extensive veterinary intervention to sustain health and competitiveness.[1]

The more medical care and pharmaceutical intervention required to sustain any population of animals the lower the population’s welfare.[2] Ethical veterinary care supports the horse’s best welfare interests, as well as the safety of the horse’s riders and drivers. Medical intervention of the equine athlete should be avoided in the days and hours before competition, as pre-competition medication is associated with increased vulnerability and diminished welfare.[3] To properly support the health and welfare of equine athletes, the practitioner must be familiar with their patients both inherently and individually. Socialization, constant foraging, and abundant daily locomotion are the long-evolved requirements to promote and sustain optimal soundness, behavioural health, performance, and healing in competition horses.

Healthy horses function and perform more consistently and predicatbly in an unmedicated state. Contemporary pre-competition medication practices remove the horse’s ability to protect their health and sustain soundness by masking pain and suppressing symptomology and are therefor heavily regulated. Horses who require medication to alleviate medical conditions in order to compete are rendered vulnerable to injury and physical and behavioural dysfunction imperiling the safety of both horse and horseperson. Horses requiring medication to compete are often not fit to compete safely. Horses and horsefolk are best served to compete free of short-term pre-competition pharmaceutical influence. Infirmities require appropriate medical care and rehabilition before competition is considered and resumed, rather than pre-competition medication to allay active medical problems. The equine practitioner should focus on post-performance evaluations and necessary therapies to sustain horse health on a enduring basis. An emphasis on fulfilling the medical, physical, and behavioural needs of the horse to prepare for the future competitions is the essence of ethical veterinary care of the competition horse. Pre-competition medication practices that replace or supplant appropriate health care are not in accord AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics.[4]

For human entertainment, convenience, and revenue, horses are bred, isolated, stabled, conditioned and medicated to perform competitively. Comtemporary pre-competition medication practices are often at the expense of the horse’s health, safety, and welfare. Many current medication practices violate the AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics, specifically the clause that states a veterinarian shall provide veterinary medical care under the terms of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR).

The AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics state that it is unethical for veterinarians to medicate horses without a VCPR. Pre-competition pharmaceutical interventions to remedy insufficient attention and preparation for the horse’s long-evolved health requirements are seldom in the best interest of the horse. The medical and pharmaceutical practices which support equine competitive pursuits should be designed to enhance the health and soundness of the horse on a long term basis and should not be intended to enhance performance.

Pre-competition pharmaceutical intervention has been demonstrated to have an overall negative affect on the health and welfare of competitive horse populations. Where horses are allowed to be permissevely medicated with an VCPR, injuries and catastrophic injuries are more prevalent. Horses are best served to be properly prepared to compete in a natural non-medicated state. Pharmaceutical intervention of the equine athlete should be avoided in the days before competition, as pharmaceutical intervention increases fragility. Intense and widespread pre-competition medication practices correlate with catstrophic injury vulnerability and diminished welfare.[5]

Equine athletic pursuits have historicaly been designed to measure the natural abililty of horses and the trainer’s ability to bring out the horses’ natural ability. Equine competition was originally designed to measure the natural ability of horses rather than their medicated ability.[6] It is important that the welfare and veterinary care of the horse take precedence over economic and human interests. Horses are born to socialize, communicate, locomote, and chew on a near-constant basis. For behavioral and physical integrity, these preferences need to be re-created to an acceptable degree in the competition stable. The ethical practice of veterinary medicine includes providing clients with the guidance to provide appropriate husbandry, nutrition, conditioning, medical management, and behavioural fulfillment of their equine athletes.

Equine welfare is best supported when horses are properly prepared, physically and mentally sound, and fit to perform in an unmedicated state. Physically or behaviourally impaired horses who require medication to compete should not compete until they are able to compete without pre-competition pharmaceutical intervention. All sensation, behaviour, and proprioception should remain physiologically normal. Sensation and cognitive awareness should not be suppressed with pre-competiton medication. This inludes the use of sedatives, stimulants, and pain relievers of all sorts. Treatments should not interefere with functional physiology.

Sound horses properly prepared for competition have little need for pre-competition medication. Unsound or behaviorally dysfunctional horses should be medically and behaviorally rehabilitated in a fashion that restores soundness before training and competition are resumed. Medication is for infirm horses, and infirm horses should not compete. Horses who require medication to compete become increasingly unfit to compete safely. Rather than therapeutic intent, many pre-competition medication practices have become performance enhancing at the expense health and welfare of horse and rider.

It has been demonstrated through time that horses and their riders are best served to compete medication free. As a result, anti-doping laws have been established by all agencies that regualte equine competition. Veterinarians are required by both ethics and law to follow these regulations. Horseracing statisitcs support that the less medication horses receive the more favorably and safely horses compete.[7]

The safety of the competition horse is dependent on unimpaired neurological functioning. Unimpaired sensation and cognitive ability are necessary for a horse to compete safely and fairly. Any medications or procedures which negate or diminish sensation and awareness in the horse impair the ability of the horse to compete safely.[8]

The safety, longevity, and durability of the equine patient should considered before short term pre-competition medical solutions are implemented. Familiarity of the patient includes familiarity with stabling, genetics, behavior, and husbandry of the patient. Many if not most medical conditions are a result of human mismanagement of equine stabling and conditioning. When the adaptability is exceeded, horses become unsound. Assessment of stabling conditions and athletic preparation practices are essential components of ethical equine care. Healing must be allowed to progress before competition and training are resumed. Client education is essential to create a husbandry situation conducive to equine healing. Restoration strategies that recreate the horse's social grazing and locomotion preferences facilitate and potentiate horse healing. Appropriate healing of many equine maladies is encouraged when the veterinarian provides appropriate medical care and carefully facilitates a scenario to provide the horse with appropriate physical rehabilitation and behavioural fulfillment.

An interdependence exists between horse health and locomotion. Horses evolved to be near-constant walkers and grazers. Horses did not evolve to be confined in stalls and stables, but rather evolved to live and move on a near-constant basis. Despite domestication and selective breeding for docility and captivity, horse health remains dependent on locomotion. Locomotion is inherent to digestion, to respiration, to metabolism, to hoof health and function, to joint health, and to behavioral fulfillment. When horses are deprived of adequate and abundant locomotion, they develop strategies to keep themselves and their jaws moving, as is their essential and inherent nature. Horses deprived of friends, forage, and locomotion are at risk to develop stereotypies to provide themselves with the movement they need to survive. The more stereotypies present in a population of equine athletes, the lower the welfare.

No longer is intense medical intervention prior to competetion a viable, ethical approach. It has been demonstrated that the more intensely horses are medicated to compete, the lower their welfare. The more medications required to sustain any population of animals, the further the deviation from their physical and behavioural needs. Rather than pre-race treatments, the ethical approach includes performance of exensive post-competition examinations to address any weaknesses or unsoundness as a result of the performance.

Alternatives to precompetition medication with non steroidal anti-inflammatory medication and steroids include fulfillment of the horse’s long-evolved nature. Musculoskeletal soundness is attained by proper breeding, development, husbandry, and conditioning practices. Management of exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage is achieved by specific daily development of the horse’s pulmonary and cardiac function. Unwelcome competition behaviors are best managed by fulfillment of the horse’s inherent behavioral needs, which include abundant daily socialization, locomotion, and nutrition.[9]

Recommended reading

Chyoke A, Olsen S & Grant S 2006 Horses and Humans, The Evolution of Human-Equine Relationships, BAR International Series 1560, Archeopress, England, ISBN 1 84171 990 0

Magner D 2004 Magner’s Classic Encyclopedia of the Horse Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books

McGreevy P 2004 Equine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists Philadelphia: Elsevier Limited. ISBN 0 7020 2634 4

Waran N, McGreevy P & Casey RA 2002 Training Methods and Horse Welfare in Waran N, ed The Welfare of Horses, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p151-180

Paul McGreevy BVSc, PhD, MRCVS. Equine Behavior, 2004, A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. Second Edition, Elsevier; 2012, Chapter 13 Equitation Science

Budiansky, S. (1997). The nature of horses: Exploring equine evolution, intelligence, and behavior. New York: The Free Press.

Hausberger M, Roche H, Henry S, and Visser E.K. “A review of the human-horse relationship” Appl Anim Behav Sci 109, 1-24. 2008

Waran, N. McGreevy, P., Casey, R.A (2007). Training Methods and Horse Welfare, In

The Welfare of the Horse (pp.151-180 ) Auckland, New Zealand

[1] McGreevy, P.D. (2004). Equine Behaviour: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists. Edinburgh: Saunders; 2004.

[2] Appleby M, Mench J, Olsson I, Hughes B (2011). Animal Welfare. CABI, Second edition; 2011.

Fraser D (2008). Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context. Wiley-Blackwell; 2008.

[3] Gustafson S, A Contemporary Approach to Equine Behaviour Education, Proceedings, World Veterinary Congress, 13 October 2011, held in conjunction with the International Veterinary Behaviour Meeting (IVBM).

[4] The AVMA Principles of Veterinary Ethics, https://www.avma.org/About/Governance/Documents/2014S_Resolution8_Attch1.pdf

[5] Kentucky Horseracing Commission Raceday Medication Transcript, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf

[6] Magner D 2004 Magner’s Classic Encyclopedia of the Horse Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books

[7] Kentucky Horseracing Commission Raceday Medication Transcript, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

http://www.khrc.ky.gov/Documents/RaceDayMedicationTranscript.pdf

[8] Furr M, Reed S editors (2007). Equine Neurology; Wiley-Blackwell

[9] https://www.amazon.com/Horse-Behavior-Sid-Gustafson-DVM-ebook/dp/B00ILG3JX0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1507510362&sr=1-1

Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Horses Utilize the Pace Gait to Swim

While many horses do not utilize the pace gait while traveling aground (although nearly all can, if needed to avoid pain), most use the pace gait to swim.

Dr Gustafson graduated from Washington State University as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He is a practicing veterinarian, equine behavior educator, and novelist. The application of behavioral science to the husbandry of horses enhances optimal health, performance, soundness, contentment, and longevity. Behavioral, social, locomotory, and nutritional strategies enhance the prosperity, vigor, and health of stabled horses. Sid offers veterinary care, training, husbandry, and conditioning from the horse's perspective to achieve willing and winning equine partnerships with humans.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Goodreads reviews of Swift Dam

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Swift Dam punches above its weight class

Swift Dam punches above its weight class. Amazon review link.

Both timely and timeless., March 18, 2017

Robert Bennett

Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Swift Dam (Paperback)

Sid Gustafson's _Swift Dam_ punches above its weight class: written by a practicing veterinarian, it reads like the work of a celebrated Iowa Writer's Workshop prodigy, and clocking in at only 150 pages, little more than a long novella, it takes its reader into a fully flushed out imagination of a very real event. Amidst its surface tale of the broken Swift Dam flood of 1964, it interweaves three distinct stories.

First, it puts forward a cautionary tale, warning us not to put too much faith in modernity's bold technological breakthroughs, for the water may indeed break through them, leaving us in the devastating ruins of a failed modernity. Like Walter Benjamin's vision of the Angel of progress as a series of train wrecks piling on top of each other, Gustafson shows us the dark, underbelly of modernity, suggesting forcefully that the Swift dam was not the first dam to fail, nor will it be the last. We need to stop seeing modern technology--again portrayed in the novel as the excessive use of chemicals to treat animals--as an infallable panacea, and become more cautious of its risks and dangers. As the bumper sticker says, "Nature Bats Last."

The larger second story is the tragic demise of the Blackfeet people, their lives, their property, and their hopes which were washed downstream, living below the dam. Here the story is less about the failure of modern technology per se, and more about the devastating losses caused by modernity's failure. Gustafson shows us how yet again Native Americans have born the brunt of a failed notion of Manifest Destiny which has repeatedly damaged Native people through military violence, infectious diseases, broken treaties, and now breached dams.

Gustafson's third narrative, however, is perhaps his most subtle and most fully realized. Told through the eyes of an old school veterinarian who eschews the excessive use of drugs, Gustafson weaves a tale about our alienation from the land and the animals who live on it. So in addition to telling a narrative about modernity's tragic failures, Gustafson also offers a ray of hope, depicting a world in which--through animal husbandry/midwifery and Native traditions and perspectives, we might reconnect to our lands and the animals who populate them.

This quick, but delightful, read restores faith in the old ways of the past as a cure for a world alienated by too much technology and an insufficient connection to Native lands and peoples.

Robert Bennett is a Professor of English at Montana State University