Firing horses

Re: Firing horses

patrick murphy — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:31:46 GMT

just reurned from hols, catching up and saw your post. really??

Re: Firing horses

Bob Russell — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:46:15 GMT

I have just five-starred Roger Meacock!!

Re: Firing horses

Roger Meacock — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:27:34 GMT

Unfortunately pin and bar firing are still very much alive in at least one of the practices heavily involved in racing in the UK. Last year I even heard about a 2yo that was fired as a "preventative" measure to stop curbs forming. It occurs to me that it would soon stop if the Jockey Club passed a rule that fired horses were inelligible to race in the UK. Given our understanding of how useless it is how could anybody legitimately object to this rule being passed? It would also stop horses being taken to Ireland for this procedure to bypass a ban on it being carried out in the UK.

Roger

Re: Firing horses

bob lehner — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:15:45 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"][quote user="Judith Joyce"] Is that what they called "Ring Firing"???[/quote][/quote]

Reminds me of that famous Johnny Cash song 'Ring of Fire'. Apparently shortly after he died one of the USA's leading haemorrhoid creme manufacturers wanted to use the song in their TV adverts - but sadly his family refused permission.

Re: Firing horses

Niall Taylor — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:30:11 GMT

[quote user="Judith Joyce"] Is that what they called "Ring Firing"???[/quote]

LOL^1,000,000

Niall

Re: Firing horses

Judith Joyce — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:24:10 GMT

[quote user="patrick murphy"]

my first boss told me that it was very effective, if applied to the owner's behind

[/quote]

Is that what they called "Ring Firing"???

Re: Firing horses

patrick murphy — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:39:47 GMT

my first boss told me that it was very effective, if applied to the owner's behind

Re: Firing horses

Alex Gough — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:44:46 GMT

They are a site member because they are from the veterinary industry, and to be fair when I pointed out the issues they said they thought that there was something not right, and declined to get further involved.

Alex

Re: Firing horses

Tom Ward — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:01:15 GMT

[quote user="alex gough"]

They contacted me because they thought I had written on vetsurg that I had done the procedure.

[/quote]

How did they know what you've been writing on the site?

Re: Firing horses

Bob Russell — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:19:39 GMT

[quote user="Eamon McAllister"]

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

Yeah but the horsey world is an odd one , while the horseracing world is a pretty strange little world altogether. As for Ireland...

[/quote]

What about Ireland?

[/quote]

Vaccines, antibiotics available on demand from the local pharmacy. Puppy farms largely unregulated and exporting 6-8 weeks old puppies to the UK. Exporting the Irish stray dog problem to the UK when we have a big enough problem of our own ! Incidentally many of these dogs vaccinated with the vaccines from the local chemist.

Just to start the ball rolling!

Re: Firing horses

Eamon McAllister — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:05:44 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

Yeah but the horsey world is an odd one , while the horseracing world is a pretty strange little world altogether. As for Ireland...

[/quote]

What about Ireland?

Re: Firing horses

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:41:49 GMT

[quote user="alex gough"]

Im just amazed that it still goes on after all these years. I thought everyone knew it was cruel and ineffective.

alex

[/quote]

Yeah but the horsey world is an odd one , while the horseracing world is a pretty strange little world altogether. As for Ireland...

Re: Firing horses

Alex Gough — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:49:19 GMT

Im just amazed that it still goes on after all these years. I thought everyone knew it was cruel and ineffective.

alex

Re: Firing horses

Wren — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:53:11 GMT

I regularly see racehorses and ex-racehorses with firing scars and occasionally sports horses. Usually bar firing but occasionally pin-firing. Some of them are not particularly old horses. I generally choose not to ask and generally it would have been with a previous owner/trainer anyway but if I do ask the answer is usually 'Ireland'.

Re: Firing horses

Niall Taylor — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:50:28 GMT

[quote user="Rosie Skinner"]I felt it somewhat discredited him as a vet[/quote]

Only somewhat?! Isn't firing now a Category C unacceptible mutilation according to RCVS and, as such, subject to disciplinary charges?

They were still doing it in The Irish Republic in 2008 apparently - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/racing/horses-brought-to-ireland-for-barbaric-treatment-of-injuries-13922432.html

Niall

Re: Firing horses

Rosie_Skinner — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:26:14 GMT

I saw practise at a well known equine practice in 2001-2002 where I witnessed a vet firing a racehorse's tendons whilst cursing the name of Prof Silver (who was my tutor at Bristol). He was the only guy in the practice who would do it, it was a pretty barbaric sight and I wouldn't go on calls with him after that as I felt it somewhat discredited him as a vet.

Re: Firing horses

Thomas Johnson — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 09:09:00 GMT

I can remember seeing practice in Newmarket in 2002 and being shown marks on the legs of a horse and asked what I thought they were, I didn't know, and was then told they were from firing. The vet who showed me wasn't happy that it had been done, but it appeared to have been done before the horse came in to the current owner's possession.

Re: Firing horses

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 22:45:14 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"]

It's both useless and cruel

Wynne

[/quote]

Seconded.

It was declared unprofessional a long time ago.

I'm appalled to hear that it was still being done in this country in the mid-nineties.

Re: Firing horses

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 10:05:54 GMT

It's both useless and cruel

Wynne

Re: Firing horses

hazelbentall — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:25:13 GMT

There was a report by Prof Silver many years ago looking at the efficacy of firing horses and the conclusion was that firing was useless. RCVS then deemed it unethical do on the basis of that evidence but we couldn't get it banned in racing greyhounds as there wasn't any evidence base (but it is useless).

Re: Firing horses

Rob Davis — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:30:51 GMT

I haven't done any equine work for a long time, but I remember seeing practice (in around 1996-7) at an equine practice with a large racing client base. I was fairly dismayed at the time to fine that firing was fairly regularly still being carried out on racehorses. There was one recent graduate who had fallen out with some very well-known trainers for voicing her opinion on firing and refusing to carry it out. It made me realise very quickly that despite my equine leanings at the time, this was not a world I wanted to be involved in.