Imagine the humiliation of a bronze medal winner from the 2008 Olympics in horse riding, Norwegian Tony Andre Hansen when his medal was revoked and he was suspended from the sport till early next year due to a detection of a banned substance on their animals. The substance was capsaicin, a derivative of the chili pepper plant that is used to relieve muscle pains for horses. This is also used by horse riders to train their horses to jump higher, placing it under their belly making it very uncomfortable for the horse thus reinforcing it to jump higher every time it misses a jump. The case was deemed as animal cruelty and thus resulted in his title getting stripped and a fine was issued to the said rider. He was one of four riders found to have the banned substance on their animals which the IOC tested for several banned substances, taking samples before the event. The sheer number of tests that were done, for both humans and animal participants and the ensuing investigation is why the verdict has only now been made known assuring the rights of animals and the equal protection they are getting from the Olympic governing body. Poor equines!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 8:48 am and is filed under Equestrian Articles, Equestrian Stories, Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.