Laura Young

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This woman should not have a licence....re-education on equine husbandry course and she'll be alright?!


By Graham Green 2:51PM 27 APR 2010
SOMERSET-based Laura Young has been banned from training for six months after denying one of her runners free access to water for more than 48 hours before a race in March 2009.
The 25-1 chance Strategic Plan tested positive for tranexamic acid, the anti-bleeding medication that landed Nicky Henderson in trouble last year, after winning a selling hurdle at Plumpton.
Following a plea bargain, Young admitted the welfare breaches under Rules 220(iii) and 51(i), in return for the BHA dropping the charge of administering a prohibited substance aimed at improving performance.
In determining the term of disqualification, the BHA disciplinary panel accepted Young, who was additionally fined £1,000 for the positive test, had acted out of ignorance, rather than deliberate or wilful cruelty, and also took into account her undertaking to attend a course of re-education on equine husbandry.
Young, who has been training for five years and saddled nine winners during the 2009-10 jump season, explained she had dehydrated Strategic Plan, who was also disqualified at the inquiry this month, in the belief it would minimise the chance of him bleeding.
 
I presume she was thinking along the lines of lasix, the more commonly used anti-bleeding drug which is a diuretic and causes the horse to urinate and so rid the body of fluid so making the blood more concentrated and therefore less likely to bleed. Therefore by denying the horse water, she possibly felt it would help it too. Obviously not a commendable thing to do but by admitting this her sentence is less, I take?
A fair few trainers withold water at the races which I personally didn't agree with. A horse is pretty unlikely to gulp down buckets of water pre-race and if it needs water and you don't give it, then it'll end up dehydrated anyway.
I found this interesting piece on bleeding and lasix if anyone is interested:
http://www.thinkythings.org/horseracing/lasixinfo.html#causes
 
Absolutely, Gal - it's frightening that the BHA could even think of giving back a licence to someone so obviously clueless, although it maybe should be asked what were they doing giving her a licence in the first place? It just goes to show that despite the mandatory residential courses and the holding of the NVQ level 3 qualification in racecourse care that STILL total muppets can slip the net.

In response to jinnyj I am very much of the widely held old school opinion to withhold water at the racecourse. Horses don't know that they are about to ran and aren't widely renowned to be highly intelligent, so they might not be averse to downing a bucket of water before they run if it is available to them. What you therefore do is give them half a bucket of water when you get to the racecourse (three hours beforehand) then take it away after around half an hour so that they can have a drink but cannot drink a lot of water immediately prior to racing. When saddling up, you then sponge out their mouths with water, thus eliminating any chance of them having a belly full of water yet ensuring they are not dehydrated. It's common sense, really.
 
You don't have to work with horses, or any other animal to know depriving anything of water for 2 days is just not acceptable and cruel really. She did it with full knowledge and should not have a licence. I think calling her clueless is too complimentary for her.

I think it should be a basic requirement of getting or keeping your license that no cruelty or malpractice in horse welfare should be on your record. Once it is I think the license should be removed for life. Just a basic principle really.
 
Don't get me started on Mick Quinn. The minute he had his licence taken off him, he was hardly off the screens doing punditry.
 
Again, I agree with you absolutely, Galileo. Ignorance, or claims thereof, are no excuse whatsoever when it comes to cruelty to animals, not least when applying for a licence to train racehorses. I think Ms Young should thank the stars she's had such a lucky escape.

Nah, let's not get started on the Quinn case!!!
 
jinnyj said:
I presume she was thinking along the lines of lasix, the more commonly used anti-bleeding drug which is a diuretic and causes the horse to urinate and so rid the body of fluid so making the blood more concentrated and therefore less likely to bleed. Therefore by denying the horse water, she possibly felt it would help it too. Obviously not a commendable thing to do but by admitting this her sentence is less, I take?
A fair few trainers withold water at the races which I personally didn't agree with. A horse is pretty unlikely to gulp down buckets of water pre-race and if it needs water and you don't give it, then it'll end up dehydrated anyway.
I found this interesting piece on bleeding and lasix if anyone is interested:
http://www.thinkythings.org/horseracing/lasixinfo.html#causes
Click to expand...

So is the suspicion she thought transxemic acid and Lasix were the same ? I cannot see upon what basis she thought a bleeder not on prohibited medication would benefit from dehydration .

It strikes me as a profoundly lenient sentence .
 
Having a piece of paper which states one is qualified to do 'xyz', in my experience, can be totally meaningless. I work with people everyday who have several pieces of paper stating that they are qualified to do this, that and anything else, but they are total muppets and don't have a clue when it actually comes to the real world.
It appears what Young did in this case is simply total neglect for the animal's welfare and in my opinion, should not be given a second chance. Mick Quinn should not have a career which involves horses either.
 
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