Michael Whitaker suspended??!!

JanetGeorge, thanks for putting me straight on that. Curiouser and curiouser.

re: washing out bowls etc - i have read warnings that certain medicines such as bute are notorious for sticking to things and cross-contaminating. even stirring with the same spoon after it has been rinsed might transfer enough of it to show up, the testing is so sensitive now.
the answer is to have different coloured buckets for every horse and keep them all totally separate. perhaps rinsing buckets with bleach solution might do it but that sounds like overkill every single day?!
 
Did he not come a cropper before with a wrongly given injection ending up in a court case or am I thinking of someone else.
 
We had "medication" buckets on the yard I worked on... any supplement or medication that wasnt for competing horses was only EVER fed in these buckets, so there was no chance of mix up as they were bright yellow and the medication went into the bucket, followed by the feed. Worked well.... no competing horse was ever allowed near a yellow bucket
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Kat B's is a really good tip - we had a reining horse competing under FEI rules at my last yard and everything of hers (including rugs and bandages - some of the dope test failures in Beijing were down to a liniment) was kept separate.
Quite easy with just one FEI horse, much harder with a mixture I think! My mare is a doping hazard as she is always on some med or other and was on regumate last yr. For the sake of my new yard (also comp horses but mainly dressidge I would think hard before putting her back on regumate)
 
We had a mare on Regumate for a while, but I was led to beleive that it could be dangerous for stallions to come into contact with it, especially mature stallions.

I'm not sure if this is true, but with a horse, rider, and on a yard of such stature, you'd think people would be a little more careful, wouldn't you?

We have horses at FEI level, and horses that are subjected to regular drug tests, for this reason all horses are fed seperately in their own stables, each horse has its own feed bin, scoop and bucket etc to minimise any risk of cross contanination.

I know that we're a little bit anal, but you would think at his level, grooms wold be a lot more careful
 
I would be a little careful about saying anything about the groom. she has been with MW for years ands is hardly like to make such a dumb mistake. more like that is the story they are coming up with. if it was her surely she would have been fired by now?
 
Peter Charles blamed the groom on the coverage of the derby. Also most people to do with international showjumping are aware that if a horses bloods are positive for a banned substance the groom takes the rap, rightly or wrongly, grooms cant get banned or fined!!
 
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i am sure it does but at a super league show? with portofino? not likely to be a kiddie wink from school is it?

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No,but even the best make mistakes.
It sounds like a bloody stupid one but a mistake none the less-may deserve a reprimand but not hanging
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Before all get into the grooms v riders thing...let's just remember that it WILL (most likely) have been a groom who fed the horses -that's life - and at that level grooms are professional and responsible (there have been numerous moves to have that recognised over here). However, under FEI rules the person responsible is always the rider. So it is not a matter of shifting the blame, it is a matter of where any responsibility lies. If Michael has to bear a shed-load of grief through someone's incompetence, is that fair?
 
Regumate can be administered via a syringe or put in the feed.
Filling the syringe can be a bit messy as it is a slippy, greasy liquid in a large bottle and women need to wear gloves when handling it.
Some horses won't eat it in the feed, and there is of course the risk of contamination.
It'a pain in the butt and very expensive, but highly effective if you are competing a mare and her hormones make her difficult to ride or handle.
 
I remember Britian losing the Aga Khan cup as David Broome's horse tested positive for a banned substance. It was traced back to the feed manufacturer and one of the workers had used a shovel in the feed that had previously been used in another feed that contained the banned substance.
 
regumate comes in a special dispensing bottle that measures out the dose, which then can very easily be tipped into a syringe or a feed. At the studs i work in we almost never put it in feeds because if the mare does not get the entire does because she has spat in out with feed or most of it is stuck on the bucket then she might come into use unexpectedly and defeat the object of using it. it is a fairly small syringe full and easer to administer that way than most wormers.
 
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I remember Britian losing the Aga Khan cup as David Broome's horse tested positive for a banned substance. It was traced back to the feed manufacturer and one of the workers had used a shovel in the feed that had previously been used in another feed that contained the banned substance.

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Wasn't that cross contamination with a cattle feed? There are some substances used in livestock feed that are banned (and at least one that's poisonous) for horses. If I remember though it wasn't a substance commonly used for horses, hence being able to trace it unequivocally to another source.
 
Isn't it a bit of a stupid mistake to make? We have colour coordinated buckets, or if I had a bigger yard I would have numbered buckets, also the buckets are scrubbed out every day with fairy liquid - small measure to take to avoid the situation Michael has got into. I really can't see them letting him off, if they let him off then how can they justify reprimanding other people who in the future are found out to be in the same situation. I'm sure the excuse of mixed up feed buckets may well be a valid one... but isn't it the excuse that ANYONE would make in that situation, I sure as heck would! Sadly although only a trace was found, it was still there. I do think that there should be varying degrees of leniency though - as in a 6 month ban would be enough in this situation, as regumate in a stallion can surely not be punished in the same way that the chilli type stuff that so many of the olympic horses tested positive for?
 
Probably is a silly mistake but regumate is really awkward stuff. I had to give it to my sisters mare as she was too scared because of the gloves warning and the effects if it gets on your skin.

If it is absorbed that easily - surely a minute trave might not even have been from a bucket?

And even - depends on the type of bucket. The rubber feed skips I can imagine are slightly porous and would be difficult to get traces out. Plastic would be easier.

But what if someone didn't realise they'd splashed it on their hands and went on to groom the gelding in question? I'm guessing skin to skin contact is a possiblity in that case? Or could have splashed on clothing and the horse could have licked it? Lots of possibles, but all accidental.

We just put it in feed, never thought of syringing it, no-one suggested it - I can see it might be safer than feeds in a competing yard scenario but I think scrubbing hands or using alcohol gel afterwards would be advisable just to make sure.

Someone recommended it for my mare last week - not if I can help it!
 
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