Second Trazodone case in eventing
Dressage seem to keep delivering serious cases of horse and animal abuse to the table. What the heck has gone wrong with dressage the past 10-20 years? Please feel free to share in the comments
Yesterday rumours started to fly that the B-sample of the doped up Belgian eventing horse in Paris have come back. Being the Curious George character that I am I rushed to the FEI website this morning to see if that was indeed true.
Technically I went there to if their documentation had been updated.
But no.
Today FEI have not published information about this case but instead we now have an additional doping case in eventing.
Cause yet another eventer getting caught with the banned substance Trazodone.
Trazodone is used to treat depression. Trazodone is in a class of medications called serotonin modulators. It works by increasing the amount of serotonin, a natural substance in the brain that helps maintain mental balance.
This second case was in CCI3*-L Elkton, USA and both horse and rider have been suspended. The horse now have a two month, and the rider have to wait and see.
Considering what Trazodone is originally used for I find it to say the least it to be very intriguing that no less than two eventing horses gets caught with this substance in their system just months apart.
Even more so since the current Table of Suspension list on the FEI list dates back to 2020, and there are only the two eventing related case on it. One being Dia van het Lichterveld Z and the other being HTS Jensen R.
Is it really a total fluke and or an honest mistake?
Or, is this drug something that is known to have great effects?
Like in the benefits of giving it to the horses being so great that it is considered worth the risk of getting caught?
More dressage violence
Looking for the outcome of the B-sample from Paris I did not only find the second eventing horse but also see there are now fresh suspensions of dressage riders and or trainers.
These names have been under scrutiny for a long time but since a few days back they are also officially suspended by the International Equestrian Federation.
Which means Tanya Strasser-Shostak and Evi Strasser now join both the British rider and Olympic Gold Medalist Charlotte Dujardin and the American Cesar Parra on this list of shame.
The two of them have been in the media for a long time now but as from November 12th they are officially suspended due to an open investigation of allegations of horse abuse.
There’s a fifth dressage related suspension on the list but that is a doping case.
But four name worthy dressage riders slash trainers making the list, and doing so for animal abuse really start to feel like a total break down of the system of dressage.
