Milkshakes and Horses

My forthcoming new novel, He Trots the Air, is about the drugging of horses, yet another way horses are misused by unscrupulous trainers. Connie Holt is back, whom readers will remember as the equine insurance investigator in The Case of the Three Dead Horses. The new story revolves around a conspiracy to drug a prodigious colt named Darkling Lord; he is slated to run in the International Gold Cup steeplechase in Virginia. But Connie's investigation is hampered by lack of information. Who is behind the plot? How many people are involved? Where and when will the drugging happen? What will be the drug used? And most important, can Darkling Lord be saved? Therein lies the mystery.

But while it was great fun to tell this story, my great black colt is just an invention, and I don't have to worry about a real plot. Sadly, many real-life horse owners do. Here is one case in point. Last July, a Pennsylvania trainer named Darrel Delahoussaye was arrested and charged by Pennsylvania State Police with administering illegal drugs to racehorses. The specific drug was milkshakes, that is, the trainer was using a substance that is illegal because it is used to gain unfair advantage. The substances used to make milkshakes as well as syringes were discovered in a truck associated with Delahoussaye, and a former employee testified that he often saw the trainer administer milkshakes to horses on race day.

The most important ingredient in a milkshake is sodium bicarbonate, known to the rest of us as baking soda. Here is the theory of how baking soda works in a horse's body. (By the way, the process is by no means thoroughly understood and research is ongoing.) When a horse is running as fast as he can, lactic acid builds up in his muscles, and he becomes tired. Some believe that large doses of bicarbonate offset the accumulation of acid. Thus the horse will be able to run longer and faster, and with less fatigue. The milkshake is often administered through a nasogastric tube. (Imagine the harm that might be done if an unskilled person ran the tube into the horse's nose and the fluid went into the lungs rather than the stomach.) While horses don't seem to be adversely affected by milkshaking, it is still necessary to continue drug testing programs to determine if there is bicarbonate in a racehorse's body, and if so, enforce the law vigorously. As the Delahoussaye story above demonstrates, people will still try anything they can to change the horse's performance--no matter that it's illegal.

Ken Aberegg: Receiving a Well-Deserved Honor

Last May, the Happy Trails Farm Animal Sanctuary held its annual awards ceremony to pay tribute to those who help animals that have been abused by former owners. Ken Aberegg was honored for his extensive work in rehabilitating horses that often arrive at Happy Trails with emotional and behavioral problems. Knowing how expensive it is to run a rescue operation, Ken provides his valuable services free. "Valuable" is the right word. Ken owns a stable in Alliance, Ohio, where he is a trainer and a riding teacher. But people know him also as a professional horse whisperer, who uses his acute knowledge to bring horses that have been mistreated back to a sane world--where they can't be hurt any more.

Renaming a Tree

The shorn, rather ugly object above is vitex agnus-castus, otherwise known as a Purple Chaste Tree. Every year around October 1, I prune its luxuriant growth until it looks like this.

In spring, it comes back to life, this year reaching a height of about nine feet. It has grayish-green leaves, palmately divided, and purple flowers with an exotic fragrance, not sweet exactly, but more--well--medicinal. Bees cannot resist it, and nestle in the flowers, doing their thing all summer until the Day of Pruning. With this last cutting, I thought all the bees had gone, but there in the branches I had cut off and thrown to the driveway for hauling to the curb, was one stubborn black creature in the flowers.

The Chaste Tree is important to me. In 2003, in the early hours of Mother's Day, a tornado hit our city. I awoke to find my property littered with uprooted trees, the roof of my house pierced by two huge evergreen branches that had fallen into it from my neighbor's yard, and my driveway completely blocked by the debris. It took a long time to fix the damage.

As soon as my dear friend up north heard about it, he selected the Purple Chaste Tree from one of his garden catalogs and had it sent to me. The small rooted shoots, of course, were packed carefully, with instructions included for planting. I dug a hole at the side of my house and followed each direction with utmost care.

Every time I pass the tree or perform the savage pruning, I think of my friend. He has been cursed with ill health for many years, and can no longer garden the wayhe used to. But that tree survives and so does he. And to honor him for his bravery, I have long since given the tree a new name, not as romantic, but much more significant.

I call it the Samtree.

Sound Horse Conference 2010

Ideally, horses' lives should be marked by the best care possible from their owners, and a place to live as beautiful and bountiful as the above scene in Virginia. Those horses were my mare and her son at the farm where they lived. But as I have often written, some horses, especially Tennessee Walking Horses, suffer torture by their owners or trainers so the animals will walk in a contorted, exaggerated, unrealistic gait for the show ring. The gait is marked by the horses lifting their legs unnaturally high, because they are afraid of again experiencing the pain their owners have inflicted upon them. Many people who attend a Walking Horse show don't realize this; they think that this abnormal gait has been achieved through normal training.

These horses are victims of soring.

Their legs have been treated with caustic agents; they have been made to wear stacked shoes; often trainers have placed irritants under their saddles which constantly remind them, with pain, that they have to lift those legs; and they are treated to other horrifying techniques honed by years of mistreatment by men and women who only care about prizes, money, and prestige. These horses are forced to remain in their stalls without the pleasurable experience of grazing, like the horses above, and it is thought by some experts that some Walking Horses' lives are cut short by all they have to endure.

I have written here about the horse protection organization, Friends of Sound Horses. This brave group brings all its resources to getting rid of soring, once and for all. The Sound Horse Conference will be held November 5 and 6 in Louisville, Kentucky. My brochure lists the following as just some of the topics that will be discussed: Pressure Shoeing, True Life Stories, Veterinary Research on Customary Practices for Tennessee Walking Show Horses, Detection of Soring, Legal Developments Affecting the Horse Protection Act, and Second Careers for Show Horses. The panelists will be comprised of veterinarians, judges, trainers, attorneys, and volunteers. All of these speakers are, of course, dedicated to ending soring. I'm going, and hope to see you there. For more information about FOSH and the conference, go to http://www.fosh.info/ and http://www.soundhorseconference.com/. And while you're at it, why not join FOSH and volunteer your services? Horses can use your help.