Doping and the Competition Horse: Current and Historical Perspectives

Introduction

Throughout history humans have used a variety of substances and methods in an attempt to improve performance and so their chances in combat, mating or hunting. The Ancient Greeks had sport as part of their lifestyle by 800 BC, and within 400 years it had achieved huge importance with mass spectator events and the emergence of a hero class of athletes. Horse sport also emerged with chariot races prominent in the early Olympic Games. To increase endurance, the Ancient Romans fed supplements to their chariot horses, and in the following centuries war horses from the Andes to China as well as the steeds of medieval knights were given ‘remedies’ and ‘treatments’ to boost alertness, strength and staying power. In the 16th century, stimulants were known to have been given to racing horses to help them win, and the first rules prohibiting the use of ‘exciting substances’ in horse races are thought to have been introduced in England in 1666.

Anti-doping and Medication Control in 2009

The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) is the world governing body for equestrian sports. Its primary mission is to advance equestrian sport by promoting, regulating and administering humane and sportsmanlike international competition. The FEI has a Code of Conduct specifically formulated to protect the welfare of the horse as well as strict rules on anti-doping and medication control; each year the FEI tests some 3000 horses at about 500 events worldwide. The control of drug use in competition horses is more than ensuring fairness, providing a ‘level playing field’, or reassuring sponsors or public opinion, although all of these are important. Human athletes decide for themselves if they wish to take drugs, horses do not. As a result, there is a moral and ethical dimension when medicating animals. The FEI states that no horse requiring bona fide veterinary attention must be denied it, and distinguishes between medication, i.e. veterinary treatment justifiably provided to safeguard the animal’s health and welfare, and doping, i.e. the deliberate intent to affect the performance of a horse or to mask an underlying health problem. But the dividing line between the use of medication to treat injury and disease as opposed to preparing horses for competition is often narrow and difficult to define.

The End of 'zero tolerance'

In recent years, the FEI has had a major overhaul of its medication policy and this is continuing. It became apparent that the so-called ‘zero tolerance’ means of doping control was ‘a fading illusion’ and unsound both philosophically and pragmatically. To call a positive based on traces of a drug given to a horse for legitimate clinical reasons days or even weeks before a competition when it could not possibly still influence performance was irrational. European Racing pioneered a new approach with the goal of establishing ‘reporting levels’ for therapeutic substances and defining accurate detection times for major veterinary drugs through standardised and rigorous excretion studies. Recommended limits of detection were established for a number of commonly used therapeutics using a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model based on irrelevant drug concentrations in plasma and urine and a risk management review of factors that could be significant in administering the drug to a racehorse. The FEI also provides data on a group of medicines that might reasonably be used clinically close to an event2 ; specific forms and procedures must be completed and the horse examined by the official Veterinary Commission/Delegate who will advise whether it may compete under an emergency equine therapeutic use exemption. [...]