JULY 2021 THE RIDER /27 ^Between The Ears^ Sedation and Behaviour in Horses


considered a reliable means of sedation. This option is usually utilized by the horse handler with little confi- dence or experience to ad- minister an injectable form. A very potent oral sedation now available is sublingual Detomidine gel and can be a good option for short term sedation to achieve things such as hoof trimming but its oral administration is often misunderstood as it only works if its absorbed under the tongue and the horse needs to be kept quiet for about 20 minutes. IM administration of


By Ellie Ross Sedation is often such


a controversial subject for so many reasons. The use or misuse of it is certainly common in the horse indus- try. In learning, the door is closed if the horse is in a state of fear and/or anxiety. While I don’t personally recommend sedating ani- mals, it is important to un- derstand and consider all aspects. My own personal approach would be to work under the horse’s threshold and build on it but this is not always possible and this ar- ticle is covering a more broad use. What exactly is seda-


tion and how can it truly benefit or harm our horses? Sedation by dictionary defi- nition sounds very harmless: “the administering of a sedative drug to produce a state of calm or sleep”. While sedation and/or


tranquillizers can certainly be used as a kindness to re- lieve an animal of stress or simply to make the animal more amendable to certain medical or other health re- lated procedures, there is a gross amount of misconcep- tions about the types used and/or the risks involved. It is often now the choice in replacing general anesthesia (by your veterinarian) for many common procedures and the level of sedation re- quired to safely be utilized would be referred to as chemical restraint. If seda- tion is being utilized to calm a horse, is the drug being used one in which the horse still has the ability to learn? Is that even a factor of con- sideration for you when se- dating? Some drugs provide


the appearance or impres- sion of a sedated horse but imagine being in front of your worst fear and you are unable to run away, vocalize or outwardly express any of your fears while your mind is sharp and processing all of this. There is a drug that can provide long term seda- tion of up to 30 days that is often misused in sale horses. What kind of psychological damage do you think can occur in a horse that had to endure that? You are afraid of something but can’t phys- ically react. That would be traumatic to say the least so proper consultation with your veterinarian is required for safe use. Drugs like Res- perine certainly have their


place in medicine and are effective in assisting the re- covery of injured horses bound to stall rest. That would be traumatic to say the least so proper consulta- tion with your veterinarian is required for safe use. Not all sedatives work the same meaning that some only just take the edge off while oth- ers can provide a deeper level of sedation. In addi- tion, all horses can respond differently and all horses can respond different than the last time. Sedation does not pre-


vent the horse from kicking so be well aware! I have seen what appeared to be deeply sedated horses, kick far faster and harder than they ever could in sobriety. Some combinations can chemically restrain the horse ,however that is best left to you veterinarian. Sedation can be ad-


ministered orally, IM injec- tion or IV Injection. Oral administration often takes the longest to take effect is


sedation often lasts longer, is typically more powerful than oral and usually re- quires a higher dose. IM in- jected sedation can be a good choice when the horse is not able to be handled or accepting of an IV injection. It can produce just enough sedation to then proceed with a top up of IV adminis- tered drugs. IV administra- tion is the most reliable and provides the quickest re- sults.


Sedation is not gener-


ally a means of pain relief. Often sedation is given in combination with an Opiod to manage pain if required. If a horse is in a stress-


ful environment or showing signs of high anxiety or ex- citability, it is advisable to wait to administer the drugs as the brain is flooded with epinephrine and sedation will not work. It could in ef- fect create bigger chal- lenges. One of the most com-


monly prescribed and/or re- quested


drugs is


Acepromazine or often re- ferred to by the brand name


of Atravet. This is a drug that usually takes 30-60 minutes to take effect, no matter the administration route. Ace will only calm the horse and topping up the dose following the plateau of the response curve, usu- ally does not make it more sedated, it just prolongs the time. There is an added risk in giving this to geldings and stallions as there is a risk that the penis could be- come permanently pro- truded. It


is a muscle


relaxant for some muscles and the retractor penis mus- cle is one of them. This is more commonly noted in IV administration. Another ad- ditional concerning factor in using Ace is that it affects the cardiovascular system with a drop in blood pres- sure for up to six hours fol- lowing administration yet many horses are in physi- cally demanding training sessions following adminis- tration. It is recommended that horses not be worked for 6 hours following ad- ministration. Ace depresses respiration and decreases lo- comotor response. Neither of which is desirable is horse being ridden. Ace does not make an aggressive


horse a non-aggressive horse. It simply reduces the horse’s


responses and


awareness. There has been re-


search performed to deter- mine if the horse had the ability to learn while under the influence of Ace and the results were quite interest- ing. (Kratzer et al 1977, Kerid et al 1981, Warren and Warren 1962) Ace did not prevent horses from learning (given the recom- menced prescribed dose) and they concluded that ACE can effectively be used to teach horses however, the question arose about reten- tion. How much did the horses remember about be- haviours they learned in a drugged state? In humans this has been studied exten- sively with regards to alco- hol,


marijuana,


amphetamines and barbitu- rates. In one study, a group of people were challenged with learning a simple mapped route after ingesting about .66g alcohol per kg body weight. 24 hours later, they


were retested under differ- ent levels of alcohol influ- ence including zero alcohol. The results were surprising


! The retention was highest among those under the in- fluence of alcohol! The same studies were repeated with the use of marijuana, barbiturates and ampheta- mines. The conclusion was that all were shown to pro- duce state dependent learn- ing! This should raise the question if horses learning retention would also be de- pendent on the state in which they were in at the time of learning. I could not


find any studies to refer to on this topic. The most im- portant factor is not to use sedatives for purposes other than what your veterinarian has prescribed them for and only on the horses pre- scribed to. There are many benefits to legitimate uses of sedation but not all seda- tives permit the horse to learn.


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