Panelists Discuss Impact of HISA on Veterinarians

Panelists at the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit June 25 discussed how the implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act has changed the environment for regulatory and attending veterinarians.

Dr. Will Farmer, equine medical director at Churchill Downs and moderator of the panel said, “We know (change) doesn’t happen fast and usually doesn’t happen willingly, but we’ve seen a lot of good that has come from (HISA).”

While not everyone in the industry believes HISA’s implementation was perfect, the vets on the panel praised the impact of the governing body.

“We had a lot of the rules already in place prior to HISA, so it wasn’t a massive change for horsemen. … We’ve seen pretty good collaboration with our horsemen and our attending veterinarians and particularly on medical records. (They) were not something that we as regulators had access to until HISA was put into place,” said Dr. Sarah Hinchliffe, regulatory veterinarian for the New York Racing Association.

Added Dr. Lyndsay Hagemeyer, a regulatory veterinarian in Ohio, “I truly feel like our horsemen have embraced it, as it levels the playing field for those who do race in other jurisdictions. It’s predictable now.  They can see how things are going to go both with the vets list and medication reform.”

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Dr. Chip Johnson, who has practiced in multiple jurisdictions, stated the obvious, as there were considerable concerns surrounding HISA.

“Trepidation and apprehension ran amok with our people and it’s been a process from our perspective,” Johnson said. “There’s obviously a lot more to do, but it’s made us all better veterinarians, and it’s made our horses safer.”

Hinchliffe said that withdrawal times rather than detection time caused some of that trepidation, but she sees improvements being made. 

In the same vein, Hagemeyer said prerace exams were a “huge change” for horsemen in Ohio, who, she said, thought the process was a “waste of time.” But that has changed.

“I heard that a lot initially, but with this racing season, it’s kind of a welcome change,” she said. “I would say that they’re used to us being in the barns. Now they’re used to us taking time to examine their horses and being thorough.”

A big issue for veterinarians has been the volume of paperwork. Johnson said that in addition to the cost in time, it has a monetary cost, as his practice needed to hire two people to handle the increased workload.

“It is the department of redundancy department all over again for us on many occasions, between transferring it to my billing office, reporting it to the KHRC, what I did, what I have to do, reporting it to HISA. Those things will iron out. It was a challenge that came to our profession that was probably long overdue. We were certainly not in compliance with most veterinary board directives as far as our record keeping goes and I think this made us better record keepers and in the end will make us better veterinarians because of it,” Johnson said. 

He added that from the horsemen’s perspective, the “inability to make treatment decisions with therapeutic medications is something that they feel has hindered their ability to train and care for their horse.”

Johnson said that a conversation on medications will eventually happen and it may not go the way he and others want it to, but that is an example of the “disconnect” between HISA and horsemen.  

Even with bumps in the road, has HISA helped in the collaboration between trainers’ attending vets and regulatory vets? The panel was unanimous. 

“I think it’s helped,” said Hinchliffe. “I don’t know that necessarily the HISA rules have helped in that discussion as much as it’s more just, we’re all working together for the benefit of the horse and we all want the same thing. … We’re not adversaries, we’re here to work together.”

But Hagemeyer notes that in Ohio, there are not many attending vets, which results in very long days for the few they have working on the backside of tracks. Efforts are being made to not add too much to their workload.

Farmer noted that at the same time, he believes the increased requirements that have led to bigger workloads have produced greater communication between state veterinarians and smaller jurisdictions.

Points of interest

• Hinchliffe on medical records: “For us, it’s been huge. We were a jurisdiction that had no access to medical records, with the exception of joint injections, before HISA, so, even just getting to see what a particular trainer’s routine prerace or routine schedule is for medication has been huge for us in in looking at these horses, determining our comfort level or risk level with them.”

• Farmer on technology: “We are in a world today where I feel the diagnostic imaging, whether it’s advanced diagnostic imaging or just the radiograph and ultrasound, can still yield a lot of very valuable information. We’re very fortunate to see some new, advanced diagnostic imaging that has come around.”

• Johnson’s advice for the solo practitioner at a small track: “Good luck. … I think we need to really give consideration to the individual situation, rather than be somewhat draconian in our implementation, maybe really step back and take a look at how do we get there with baby steps.”