April 17, 2010
By Dr. Mike Manno, DVM
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The United States Polo Association held their spring meetings in Wellington this past week in conjunction with the U.S Open finals at IPC. I made the coast to coast trek to attend the welfare committee meeting along with some other seminars that I will address a bit later. As always, the U.S. Open is a large and festive event – no evidence of a recession here my friends. Even though the weather was not great, cool and windy with some rain setting the semifinals back a day, the game remains the same. Despite all the rule changes, Cambiaso still seems to tap his way through a maze of players, mallets and horses as he led his team into the finals once again. Bob Jornayvaz’s Valiente team was indeed valiant in defeat to the Great One. While some things remain the same, every once in a while things do change and I had a ringside seat for a bit of history.
After the game I went over to talk to the guys from Valiente who had spent a few winters out in the desert. I was also speaking with Peter Rizzo, the USPA Executive Director, and we both observed as the representatives from the United States Equestrian Federation came along and 3 horses were randomly picked and had blood samples drawn as the first horses ever drug tested in the history of the USPA. The process was very thorough and professional and went off without a hitch. I can attest that the procedure is one that is done in a manner that will assure confidence in the accuracy of results. After that, the process was repeated on 3 horses from Crab Orchard and again later with horses from the other 2 teams in the following semifinal game. It was a testament to the hard work of the Poly Pony Welfare Committee’s Medication team that has worked diligently in bringing a testing program to the sport just one year after the tragic loss of 21 horses.
It is worth noting that this program is no longer speculative but is now an active and ongoing process. Even though the U.S. Open and IPC were chosen as the first tournament and site to be tested, the program will filter out all over the country to all clubs and tournaments of all levels. The process is random so you just never know when and where the testers will show up. For this year, the program will be run to gather information and to fine tune the system, no penalties or fines as yet. But that will change and the ramifications may be severe. Better start reading the medication rules again. There is plenty of information on the USPA website.
As far as other events go, a wonderful presentation was given by a representative from the Kentucky Horse Council that dealt with recognizing signs of neglect and abuse in the horse and the process of refeeding and rehabilitating these animals. The seminar was videotaped and should be placed on the USPA website for viewing. I highly recommend spending some time looking at this. Also, the Interscholastic/Intercollegiate committee has instituted a program to select an Equine Welfare Representative for all of their tournaments. This individual would be charged with responsibility of identifying and investigating any instances pertaining to the the welfare of all horses used in that particular tournament. We also discussed the implementation of this practice at all clubs so that they can have guidelines to set up welfare committees of their own and put procedures in place for general care, emergencies and neglect/abuse complaints. Although we have had this in force in San Diego for a number of years now, Clint Nangle, the head of the USPA Polo Pony Welfare committee, has asked me to put together a basic program and present it at the fall meeting in Santa Barbara with the hope of implementation of these guidelines at each club. Eldorado Polo Club has already agreed to form a committee before next year’s season. The ultimate goal would be for each club to eventually have their own committees following more or less the same set of guidelines all trying to assure proper care and conditions for our horses.
See you next time.