Arthur Hancock III

[Duvalier]

Just read this letter he opined on the Paulick Report, and was surprised to read this quote regarding lasix..."These wonderful animals are given countless numbers of so-called “therapeutic” drugs that are in essence performance-enhancing drugs. These include painkillers like Butazolidin which thins the blood, causing horses to bleed and, of course, Lasix to remedy the bleeding. Lasix has also been proven to leach calcium from the bones of human beings, making them susceptible to more fractures, etc."


At the same time he runs his own horse Roku on lasix? Something seems odd about that, or is this horse owned by someone else?

http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Res...697&registry=T



http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ra...ss-to-wake-up/

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by Duvalier

Just read this letter he opined on the Paulick Report, and was surprised to read this quote regarding lasix..."These wonderful animals are given countless numbers of so-called “therapeutic” drugs that are in essence performance-enhancing drugs. These include painkillers like Butazolidin which thins the blood, causing horses to bleed and, of course, Lasix to remedy the bleeding. Lasix has also been proven to leach calcium from the bones of human beings, making them susceptible to more fractures, etc."


At the same time he runs his own horse Roku on lasix? Something seems odd about that, or is this horse owned by someone else?

http://www.equibase.com/profiles/Res...697&registry=T


http://www.paulickreport.com/news/ra...ss-to-wake-up/

They think the calcium situation might be something you can rectify, now that we're aware that it happens. I read a study about that earlier in the year. It would imply that lasix can temporarily cause a calcium depletion which obviously weakens bone. From what I remember, it isn't a long term thing. It'll fix itself if, say, you race a horse on lasix and then it doesn't get another dose of it for a little while. Not even that long either, but I can't remember how long it takes a horse's body to recover. Seems like a matter of days.

I don't see them racing on lasix as hypocritical--if everybody else is using it, no point in penalizing yourself because it does affect things like water weight. He's arguing from a 'everybody needs to put their guns down, not just me' basically. The point others are making is that nobody should need to stop.

Besides, it's a logical fallacy called "tu quoque" to point to someone else's hypocrisy as evidence that you are right or wrong about something. If Hancock uses lasix all day long and twice on Sunday's, it doesn't actually mean anybody who's pro-lasix is right for doing so. Not that they're wrong either, but if you wanna argue in favor of lasix, using a bad argument isn't helpful to anybody.

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

They think the calcium situation might be something you can rectify, now that we're aware that it happens. I read a study about that earlier in the year. It would imply that lasix can temporarily cause a calcium depletion which obviously weakens bone. From what I remember, it isn't a long term thing. It'll fix itself if, say, you race a horse on lasix and then it doesn't get another dose of it for a little while. Not even that long either, but I can't remember how long it takes a horse's body to recover. Seems like a matter of days.

I don't see them racing on lasix as hypocritical--if everybody else is using it, no point in penalizing yourself because it does affect things like water weight. He's arguing from a 'everybody needs to put their guns down, not just me' basically. The point others are making is that nobody should need to stop.

Besides, it's a logical fallacy called "tu quoque" to point to someone else's hypocrisy as evidence that you are right or wrong about something. If Hancock uses lasix all day long and twice on Sunday's, it doesn't actually mean anybody who's pro-lasix is right for doing so. Not that they're wrong either, but if you wanna argue in favor of lasix, using a bad argument isn't helpful to anybody.

The calcium deal is a non-issue for the most part. Calcium is leeched in humans because of daily use and horses arent human.

The problem that I have with those who demonize lasix and continue to use it is that they speak as though there is this irreparable damage done to the horse and yet they dont want to "lose an edge". IMO they dont actually believe the nonsense they spew but they use it to try to further the agenda. A lot of owners that have taken up the anti-lasix charge simply dont want to pay vet bills and for some reason have this delusional thinking that banning lasix will somehow "change the culture" on the backside.

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by Merlinsky

I don't see them racing on lasix as hypocritical--if everybody else is using it, no point in penalizing yourself because it does affect things like water weight. He's arguing from a 'everybody needs to put their guns down, not just me' basically. The point others are making is that nobody should need to stop.

I have to respectfully disagree on the hypocrisy point. The anti-Lasix crowd have advanced several arguments as to why the medication should not be permitted on race day. In his piece, Hancock espouses one of the popular arguments - that use of Lasix is harmful to the horse. If so, then racing his horses on Lasix is hypocritical; by using the medication on his horses, he is essentially saying that his financial interests outweigh the health of the horse.