FEI maintains provisional suspensions on horses
While Guerdat is eligible to compete in Aachen, he will not be able to ride Nino and will need to select an alternative pre-declared horse.
The FEI Tribunal has maintained provisional suspensions on three Swiss jumping horses ridden by Steve Guerdat and Alessandra Bichsel.
Two-month provisional suspensions were imposed on the horses in July after tests for prohibited substances returned positive.
Samples taken in May from Steve Guerdat's horses, Nino des Buissonnets and Nasa, tested positive for the banned substance codeine and the controlled substance, morphine. Both horses also revealed traces of the banned substance oripavine, however there was not enough in Nasa's sample to declare a positive for the substance.
In the same month, samples taken from Alessandra Bichsel's horse, Charivari KG, also returned positive for codeine, oripavine and morphine.
The athletes were notified of the positives and both immediately asked for the provisional suspensions to be lifted. While the FEI lifted the provisional suspension on the riders, requests for the lifting of the suspensions on the horses were denied.
On Monday (10 August), the closing date for entries to the FEI European Jumping Championships Aachen 2015, Steve Guerdat made a subsequent request to have the provisional suspension on his horse lifted.
In response to the request, the FEI Tribunal has decided to maintain the provisional suspensions of the horses. While Guerdat is eligible to compete in Aachen, he will not be able to ride Nino and will need to select an alternative pre-declared horse.
Decisions on the full merits will be made at a later stage.
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
