well it looks like Belladonna has gone feral again

[magical thyme]

12. the DU horse-people spread it as much as we could

at every opportunity, with a link to one mainstream article that referenced it.

It was fortunate that the buyer was apparently a good rider who could feel the difference. She was another client of the same trainer, but apparently a "throwaway" client who the trainer probably enjoyed telling that it was her bad riding that made the horse "feel funny" as the drugs wore off and the unsoundness began to appear. She hired a vet with 38 years experience as the official USET veterinarian to review the blood sample. He testified that he'd never seen such a drug cocktail put into any horse -- 4 different surgery level sedative and sedative-analgesics at once. 2 of them are a standard combination for x-rays and other procedures that require the horse stand quietly (and were what my vet used on Algiers when she intubated him for colic). But the other 2 are not, and you never see 3, never mind 4, at once! They can impact the heart rate and respiration. That poor horse could have dropped dead from it.

I really, really wish they had been banned from the Olympic team, but I'll bet he monitored Raphaela closely. 99%ers would never have access to those drugs, and would have faced lifetime competition bans, except they weren't caught in competition.

One DUer who is a pro said she's seen parents take out 2nd mortgages on their homes to buy schoolmasters for their talented kids to get a chance to make their name on. This could just as easily have been that kind of person they were screwing over, who wouldn't know better and wouldn't have access to the right level of veterinarian to get to the bottom of it and testify with full credibility.