Whaddya think?
http://www.sidelinesnews.com/blog/?p=262

Well as for myself I think drugs are a good thing. Obviously not if it will ultimately hurt your horse. But come on! It’s aspirin. That last con is not really anything. Trust me that low a dose of Banamine or Bute will NOT cover up soundness issues beyond a horse that woke up a little sore. And even if it did I highly doubt that a professional would risk ruining a 500k plus horse for one class no matter how much money. I did the NAYRC and let me tell you my horse was hurting by the last round. He needed just a little Bute in order to loosen up and I hated to see him go without it. I had to give him a week of in order to get over the soreness that could so easily have been prevented. As for the loss of support…um where as those crowds that would stop coming? I don’t see millions of people coming out to watch. It’s basically only horse folk who watch and they would watch regardless. I think it’s silly to say half a dose of Bute would change the game, only to say the FEI horses would not be sore for a week after each competition.

I am all for the progressive list. I don't really see why horses, particularly the FEI level horses, cannot have a little something at the end of the day to help them continue feeling good. The zero tolerance testing is so sensitive that it picks up doses that I doubt really help a horse's performance - half a nanogram of capsaicin? (I'm pretty sure I just butchered that spelling, sorry). Do any other Olympic sports have zero tolerance testing? I don't know the "normal" protocol.

See, what I see about allowing more pain killers is exploitation. Granted, not everyone will do this. But, as with a lot of hunters, they're being ridden too much and/or too hard and it is taking a toll on their bodies. Not just soreness at the end of the day, but prolonged pain. If more drugs were allowed, I feel as if there are people out there who would push their horses harder because they can numb the pain away.

I think it could be exploited that way, but the proposed rule changes have a pretty strict limit of how much can be given (particularly for the NSAIDs). A gram of bute 24 hours prior to showing is not going to effectively mask strong pain, but it might take the edge off of some aches.

I also think that the high performance horses, particularly the jumpers (by high performance, I suppose I mean 1.40m+), should be able to have some forms of liniment/painkillers that are otherwise not permitted by the FEI rules. I use Sore-No-More on Nikki's legs after a big class, but if she were to do an FEI competition, that would not be okay. I don't think that products like that are enhancing the horse's ability or hiding pain.

Well as for Springbreak, I know what you mean with the hunters there is a lot of 1st class manipulation. Ha ha. But trust me you cannot cover the soreness that you’re talking about with this amount. Also if you work a big time jumper till they are almost lame, they WILL sour and then no amount of medicine will help you then. As for how liberal this would get I do not know but if I know the horse world correctly then it has to be pushed passed to the limit and then fixed again.
As for other sports I don’t know the protocol but I figure for example the runners and such get to take Advil and such because it’s not performance enhancing its soreness reducing to the point where you do not get that day after effect. (And btw I have a friend who is into the fencing thing and in big international events he gets to take pain killers and such.) Actually I have a perfect metaphor for this. Consider pregnancy an abortion is like abuse of medicine, and Bute and such is the equivalent of the plan B pill, it’s not an abortion pill but it helps prevent an unfortunate condition. Okay so I might have butchered that analogy but eh.
Oh and I’m not saying I like or dislike abortion so don’t even start with any of that.