Horse Racing Medication Regulations Reviewed

Medication regulations for racehorses are changing. Here’s what you need to know.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

The old adage says "you don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been."

So at the 2013 American Association of Equine Practitioners’ (AAEP) convention, held Dec. 7-11 in Nashville, Tenn., several of the organization’s past presidents covered controversial industry topics in a “Lessons Learned” session from. Tom Brokken, DVM, AAEP’s president in 2006, reviewed evolving medication regulations in horse racing. Brokken is a partner with Teigland, Franklin & Brokken, DVMs, P.A., in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Brokken began by outlining the AAEP-sponsored Racehorse Medication Summit which took place in 2001. The goal of that first meeting was to create overall uniformity within the racing industry, Brokken said. At that meeting the group agreed on a need for:

  • Medication regulation uniformity;
  • Medication policies that considered the integrity of racing, health and welfare of horse and human participants, and long-term interest of the breeds;
  • The creation of a national advisory body to develop medication policies;
  • Education; and
  • Broad-based funding to support these initiatives.

In 2002 the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium was formed (RMTC) with AAEP as a founding member. The Consortium’s mission was “to develop, promote, and coordinate, at the national level, policies, research, and educational programs that seek to ensure the fairness and integrity of racing and the health and welfare of racehorses and participants, and to protect the interests of the racing public

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Michelle Anderson is the former digital managing editor at The Horse. A lifelong horse owner, Anderson competes in dressage and enjoys trail riding. She’s a Washington State University graduate and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in business administration and extensive coursework in animal sciences. She has worked in equine publishing since 1998. She currently lives with her husband on a small horse property in Central Oregon.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
328 votes · 328 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!