Monday, July 14, 2025 | Posted by Liz Ruggiero

Following a US Equestrian-led summit of veterinary professionals earlier this year, the Federation has released a white paper summarizing the group’s recommendations on best practices in sport horse medicine.

In March, 28 veterinarians gathered at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla., to review:

• Examinations and preventative health measures
• Injury prevention and management
• Fitness to compete
• Wearable technology/biometrics
• Science-based treatments vs. anecdotal evidence-based treatments, including joint injections, vitamins and minerals, nutrition, homeopathy, and shockwave
• Treatment modalities
• Research priorities

Today, US Equestrian has released a white paper which memorializes the conversation and input from all the veterinarians who attended the gathering. The paper is available here.

“Following the recent USEF Veterinary Summit on Sport Horses, we needed to draft a comprehensive white paper that captures the key discussions, scientific findings, and consensus recommendations from the summit,” said co-author Dr. Tracy Turner, president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. “This document will serve as a resource for advancing equine athlete health and welfare, informing evidence-based policy, and guiding best practices within the sport horse community. We care deeply about these horses we use for sport.

Level of Care

“Every horse, regardless of discipline, merits the level of care we have outlined in the white paper. The well-being of the horse should be the guiding principle in all that we do.”

The authors believe the care and safety of horses is a collective responsibility of veterinarians, trainers, and owners, with veterinarians prioritizing the horse’s health over competitive pressures. The white paper defines fitness to compete, which is understood to refer to a horse’s overall readiness, health status, and freedom from doping.

Veterinarians should work with owners to regularly and thoroughly review horses’ wellness status, using advanced diagnostic tools and biometric systems where appropriate to assess a horse’s fitness to compete.

Overtraining and excessive competition can harm horses’ health, though the appropriate amount of work can vary significantly between horses and situations.

The paper emphasizes the importance of muscle recovery, reiterating that rest is the most effective tool to aid in this area. Other areas of focus include therapeutic treatments, homeopathic treatments, supplements, and vitamins and minerals.

Tools

Veterinarians remind readers that appropriate, individualized and diagnostic-based use of tools like orthobiologics and shockwave can be beneficial when used within Federation guidelines. Readers should also be aware that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not regulate homeopathic products or dietary supplements, and there is limited scientific evidence to support the use of many of these treatments.

The paper’s authors encourage future research in the following areas:

• Competition numbers: how frequently horses are entered in shows and how often they compete, compared alongside demographics such as age, competitive success, and injury history. They also suggest researching longevity at various levels of competition compared with frequency of competition
• Appropriate nutrition options to limit the need for post-competition “muscle recovery” treatments
• Evaluation of potential “recovery” biomarkers to assess appropriate treatments to aid in recovery
• Evaluation of wearable technology to evaluate fitness and preparation (already being done in eventing), as well as impacts of pollution, heat, and shipping
• Detection of shockwave biomarkers

If you are interested in supporting these research efforts, please consider making a donation to the Chromatic Fund, a collaborative initiative of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, US Equestrian (USEF), KC Branscomb (breeder of the horse Chromatic), and The Foundation for The Horse. The Chromatic Fund will fund innovative research and education initiatives designed to improve the health and welfare of performance sport horses. For more information go to www.usef.org/donate, and select “The Chromatic Fund” in the dropdown menu.

By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — A “click-to-cancel” rule, which would have made it easier for consumers to end unwanted subscriptions, has been blocked by a federal appeals court days before it was set to go into effect. But there are ways to end those subscriptions and memberships, even if they take some work.

The rule would also have required companies to disclose when free trials and promotional offers would end and let customers cancel recurring subscriptions as easily as they started them. But even without the new federal guidance, here are some ways to stay on top of subscription and membership fees.

Use calendar reminders and regularly review your bills

Experts at the Consumer Federation of America recommend setting calendar reminders for whenever a free trial period ends, to alert yourself to cancel promotional offers before the real recurring costs kick in. The auto-enrollment process, in which the company does not remind the consumer via email that a trial is about to end and higher monthly payments will begin, was also at the heart of the FTC’s rule.

“No subscription business model should be structured to profit from a gauntlet-style cancellation process,” said Erin Witte, Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America, in a statement on the click-to-cancel rule.

Regularly reviewing your credit card and debit card bills can also help you keep track of any recurring charges — including price increases you may have missed or that you didn’t anticipate when trying out a new membership or subscription.

Know the terms and conditions of a given subscription

“Companies make it easy for consumers to click to sign up and easy for the companies to automatically withdraw funds from consumers’ accounts,” said Shennan Kavanagh, Director of Litigation at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) in a statement on the FTC’s click-to-cancel rule. “People should not (have to) spend months trying to cancel unwanted subscriptions.”

Given the FTC’s vacated rule, though, companies may still legally require that customers cancel memberships or subscriptions by phone, even as they permit signing up, enrolling, and paying bills online. Consumer advocates say this places an extra burden of time and energy on the consumer to stop an unwanted recurring fee, but sometimes knowing the terms of the subscription and getting on the phone is worth the trouble.

There are some services that unenroll you

Apps like Rocket Money and services like Trim, which is accessed through a browser, can keep track of your recurring monthly fees and subscriptions, for free — or for a fee — and can help you catch new ones or even unsubscribe from some services.

For parents, especially, a service like Trim could help inform them that a child has started a new subscription, game or membership before the fees recur. And Rocket Money will actively work to end unwanted subscriptions for you, for a monthly price. If the company can’t successfully end or cancel the subscription or membership, it will give the customer the information needed to do so. Trim also provides this service, in its premium form, for an additional fee.

Resist deals when canceling

The FTC is currently moving forward with preparations for a trial involving Amazon’s Prime program, which accuses the retailer of enrolling consumers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.

Often, when a consumer tries to cancel a subscription for something like Prime, which offers free delivery and streaming video, the company will offer a month or more of the subscription at a promotional rate — half off, or at other, better-seeming values, to entice a customer to stay. Staying strong in the face of what may appear to be a good deal can help you stop recurring monthly fees before you forget to cancel them again.

Agreeing to yet another trial or promotional rate, which is another on-ramp to auto-enrollment, just continues the cycle, according to consumer advocates.

What would the FTC’s rule have done?

The FTC’s rule would have required businesses to obtain a customer’s consent before charging for memberships, auto-renewals and programs linked to free trials. The businesses would have also had to disclose when free trials and promotional offers would end.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said this week that the FTC made a procedural error by failing to come up with a preliminary regulatory analysis, which is required for rules whose annual impact on the U.S. economy is more than $100 million.

The FTC said that it did not have to come up with a preliminary regulatory analysis because it initially determined that the rule’s impact on the national economy would be less than $100 million. An administrative law judge decided that the economic impact would be more than the $100 million threshold, and the court decided to vacate the rule.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration had included the FTC’s proposal as part of its “Time is Money” initiative, which aimed to crack down on consumer-related hassles.

“The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.”

Originally Published: July 14, 2025 at 12:16 PM EDT

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) — New technology and artificial intelligence might be the answer to improved addiction recovery.

OpiAid is a first-of-its-kind device that helps care providers determine the best approach for a patient.

“It monitors everything during the day, during the evening, monitors their sleep,” said Dino Miliotis, the national spokesperson and top investor of OpiAid.

The device is a watch. Every five minutes it collects data and sends it straight to the care team through this dashboard.

It picks up on symptoms associated with addiction recovery, which are often difficult for patients to put into words themselves.

“We’re able to look at and distinguish between anxiety, depression and withdrawal. It can actually measure the level of withdrawal,” said Miliotis.

Miliotis is in recovery himself. He says OpiAid can improve the way addiction is treated.

“Still in the recovery community, the gold standard is still something we’ve followed for the last 40 years, it’s time to change,” said Miliotis.

New Perceptions North, a treatment center in Hanford founded by Flindt Andersen, was the first to start using OpiAid.

“People are looking for answers, they’re looking for solutions. And although this is not a fix-all to somebody’s addiction, it is an enormous tool in getting people the help they need in real time,” said Andersen.

Both men say they hope to see OpiAid help millions of people in recovery and are proud of its ties to the Central Valley.

For news updates, follow Nic Garcia on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Pittsburgh region’s assets will be on display for President Trump and the leaders of the country’s largest energy and technology companies on Tuesday. 

Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, organizer of the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, is set to announce $70 billion in new investments in the state.  

One project is set to target Aliquippa, which was once the steelmaking center of the Ohio Valley until it fell on hard times with the closing of the mill. But Aliquippa is looking at a rebirth, with the possible transformation of that site to power the artificial intelligence economy. 

“That thing’s been sitting empty for close to 50 years of my life,” Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker said. 

Walker remembers his steelworker father walking out of the mill for the last time and sitting on the porch crying the day it closed. Today, the mayor hopes that a technological revolution can bring his city back. 

“Being that we were the center of steel, now we can be the center of AI,” Walker said. “I don’t think, I know it can happen. I know in this day and age, 2025, Aliquippa can be a new tech hub.”

Artificial intelligence requires massive amounts of energy and computing capacity, and a local partnership headed by real estate developer Chuck Betters hopes to transform the 89-acre site of the old mill into a massive, multi-billion dollar data processing center, creating thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of permanent ones and generating tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. 

“Large job creation, large tax base, and the comeback of Beaver County from the steel mill days,” Betters said. 

At Tuesday’s summit, the Pittsburgh region will be on display for the heads of the country’s largest tech companies, showcasing both the technological innovations being developed here as well as the massive energy resources available to power them. 

Data centers will help spawn companies like Pittsburgh’s Gecko Robotics, which recently became a unicorn — a company worth more than $1 billion. Founder Jake Loosararian will demonstrate at the summit his AI-powered climbing robots and ask those tech leaders to invest here and help Pittsburgh take the next step. 

“We have the biggest leaders in the world in AI and energy coming to this city,” Loosararian said. “We need to see investment from those companies into this region — continue to do so. You’ll start to see an ecosystem of companies like Gecko that begin to emerge.”

With energy in natural gas and nuclear, empty industrial sites ready for data center development, and a culture of innovation, leaders say the Pittsburgh region is uniquely positioned to be a world leader in AI. 

Walker believes that it can bring back Aliquippa’s Franklin Avenue. 

“More businesses downtown, more strip malls, more access to revenue, that dollar flip two or three times in this community instead of leaving it,” Walker said. 

If and when the site of the mill is developed, it will begin to merge the region’s technological know-how with its vast energy resources, creating a new AI economy that leaders say will benefit everyone. 

Executives from top gym brands don’t see strength training’s newfound popularity going away anytime soon. They’re also getting creative about using technology and AI inside the four walls

High-value, low-price (HVLP) gyms are on top of the fitness world right now, winning new members, expanding across the country at a rapid clip and reportedly scoring billion-dollar valuations. 

But the industry’s leading HVLP gym brands aren’t resting on their laurels – they’re looking for new ways to innovate. 

During an ATN Innovation Summit 2025 conversation moderated by ALTA Technology Group’s Tara Levitt, Eos Fitness chief operating officer Richard Idgar, Chuze Fitness co-founder and chief operating officer Nicholas Barshick, and CR Fitness CEO Tony Scrimale shared their predictions for the future of the red-hot HVLP gym industry. 

ATN breaks down some key takeaways from their discussion:

Members Love Coming to the Gym, Especially for Strength Training

The days of low-price gyms being “membership mills” – where people signed up but rarely actually showed up – are over.

Fueled by Gen Z’s appetite for fitness, HVLP operators are now facing the opposite challenge: gyms are becoming too crowded.

“Our members share most that overcrowding is actually the largest concern,” said Idgar, whose EoS Fitness has grown from less than 20 locations to over 125 in the past decade. “Our boxes have grown. … we’ve increased by almost 10,000 square feet from the time that we started.”

Barshick echoed that concern, noting that Chuze Fitness has taken deliberate steps to ease crowding.

“Our number one source of detractor sentiment is crowds,” Barshick said.

To help address overcrowding, Chuze created the “Lift Lab,” a premium, access-controlled space outfitted with Olympic lifting platforms, kettlebells, plyo boxes and other top-tier strength equipment.

“One way that we can help offset (overcrowding) is create … a pay-gated, specialty workout area that our members can trade up to have access to,” Barshick said.

The move also underscores the growing popularity of strength training among gyms in general, with operators at all price points adding weightlifting equipment en masse. Among HVLPs, Planet Fitness has made a notable push to market its new strength training equipment. Meanwhile, Chuze is now “more loud and proud about the fact that we offer a comprehensive strength offering,” Barshick said. 

Influencers Are Welcome Inside Gyms, But Not in Every Area

HVLPs are also taking steps to welcome fitness influencers inside their gyms while still protecting member privacy.

CR Fitness, which operates over 80 Crunch Fitness locations, is embracing influencer culture as a brand amplifier within its gyms. 

Social media influencers “want to be front and center,” Scrimale said. “As my daughter says, they want to be under the lighting where it’s aesthetically pleasing. They want to take their pictures.”

“We are doing things to make sure that no matter where the lights are, or backlit mirrors, that there’s a Crunch logo for branding purposes,” he added.

Still, operators must ensure they accommodate all members. Scrimale emphasized the importance of maintaining safe spaces for those who prefer not to be filmed.

Along those lines, EoS Fitness has created “The Set,” a private space within its clubs that’s dedicated specifically to filming content. 

“That’s just an example of innovation and really carving out the space in a different way and thinking about it differently, where we still want that marketing opportunity,” Idgar said. “We want influencers in the gym.”

The Set has the double benefit of accommodating content creators while minimizing awkward run-ins between staffers and members who prefer not to be caught on camera. 

“The conversation about policing (filming) behavior is way different, on both sides,” Idgar noted.

See Also

Tech Will Change the In-Gym Experience

Looking ahead, HVLP operators are exploring ways to make tech a bigger part of the in-gym experience for members, along with adding more wellness and recovery options. Barshick said Chuze is exploring implementing a system that would allow members to do things like pre-order a smoothie on their app to pick up after class, as one example.

“We’re probably losing a lot of sales because we don’t yet have that technology,” he said. “So I’m really excited to see that.”

But Chuze’s tech ambitions go well beyond drink orders. Barshick said the California-based gym operator, which has over 50 locations across the U.S., is hoping to add GPT-style AI tools to give members personalized workout advice.

“It would be amazing if we could get a GPT integrated into our app that is trained on our club layout and knows exactly what equipment we offer,” he said. “And then you’ve got a new member that’s joining in the app, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I love 5ks and I want to put on five pounds of muscle: give me a workout program and a nutrition plan.’”

Crunch’s biggest franchise operator is also looking to add more tech to its clubs. 

“I would like to see more gamification,” CR Fitness’ Scrimale said. “When you have big member bases like we have, the ability to compete against other members … I really hope that someone out there comes out with a platform or something so whenever they walk in, there’s a whole ‘workout of the day’ … or the ‘highest benchpress of the day.’” 

Such a platform might already exist, courtesy of fit tech giant EGYM. 

Idgar noted that EoS uses EGYM’s line of strength training equipment inside its clubs, which offers gamification features.

“That is very appealing to a lot of demographics in our gyms, where there is a leaderboard, and they’re competing, not only monthly, but daily, against themselves and then other members, even other gyms,” Idgar said of how EoS is leveraging EGYM.

This article is based on a live discussion held during the ATN Innovation Summit 2025, a two-day event dedicated to the future of fitness and wellness. See here for More Innovation Summit coverage.