-Two
> years ago, you posted that Baldur was sterile due to steroid use,
> and when
> we questioned it back then, you said it is a common problem in ALL
> sports,
> human and equine. (It's in the archives.) Yesterday, you implied
> that he
> was only given steroids as a treatment for injuries - not what you
> said two
> years ago.
Good point here about steroid use. Perhaps that was unclear, in part
because 'steroids' are a large class of different drugs used for very
disparate purposes in athletes. They are used sometimes to
artificially build body mass and muscle (think WWW) and then
different ones are also used in many types of illness and injury to
suppress inflammation (and its resultant pain.) This horse, Baldur
fra Bakka, was given corticosteroids to 'treat' a knee injury
incurred during athletic competition. While this enabled him to
continue competing, it had the unfortunate side effects of reducing
his testicle mass and functionality.
The issue of 'abuse' regarding 'steroids' is a big one, in all kinds
of athletes with both common uses of this class of drugs. Steroid
abuse in athletes is a big problem as it gives those taking it unfair
advantage, as well as causing them lots of physical and emotional
problems later in life (think big guys with peanut testicles and road
rage.) I do not like what happened to Baldur as a result of steriod
usage, though it was given for an injury and not for its previously
mentioned muscle building effect. In my opinion, 'treating' an animal
so he can continue competition at the expense of his health later
could be classified as 'abuse.' This is a different form of abuse
entirely from giving or using drugs during a competition to give
unfair advantage, which is just totally sleezy. Still, we are such a
competitive lot, it is easy to understand how people can rationalize
it away.
Skye
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