Equestrian events are a key part of the Olympic Games with many great performances in Beijing - and to call for the sport's banning after this latest controversy would be wrong, writes Margie McCloone
SHOW JUMPING, in its present format more or less, has been an Olympic sport since Stockholm in 1912. While suggestions to remove equestrian events from the Olympics have been raised and resisted over the years, this latest controversy is sure to see renewed calls for their exclusion.
Those who have wanted the three disciplines consigned to Olympic history have usually cited the expense of putting in purpose built stadia and courses and eventing in particular has adapted itself to lessen the financial burden on host counties.
If doping and medication cases were to be used as an excuse for their removal, surely other sports should feature higher up the leaderboard.
There has been very little international controversy in the equestrian events other than the wisdom of continuing in dreadful weather conditions, the dimension of fences, etc. At national level, we have had the usual bickering of qualifying conditions and the selection process to occupy minds and the national press. That is until Athens 2004 and the Waterford Crystal affair.
Of course, Cian O'Connor wasn't alone in being stripped of his medal at the last Games. Germany lost team gold when Ludger Beerbaum's horse Goldfever returned a positive test and, over 12 months later, the medals were redistributed with the USA coming out best and the Germans, without Beerbaum's score being taken into account, being awarded silver.
Irish showjumpers have found themselves in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons in recent seasons with Jessica Kürten's mount Castle Forbes Maike returning a positive test following her win at La Baule in 2007.
This saga still drags on with the Germany-based rider, who won Ireland the place to jump in Hong Kong, back on the international stage having had her FEI-imposed suspension lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Of course, in all these instances the competition results were only changed and riders suspended following confirmation of the 'B' sample.
Yesterday's suspension of the four riders prior to the final round of the individual show jumping came about as a change of ruling by the FEI which allowed the Federation to provisionally suspend riders without waiting for the second test conformation.
Tests like these are not likely to be introduced at national level here anytime soon and so yesterday's proceedings will have little impact on showjumping or other equestrian sports in Ireland.
In some jurisdictions, pre-testing is carried out in racing but not so here and the costs involved would make such totally unviable.
For those who compete in equestrianism, representing their country at an Olympic Games is as much a honour and ambition as for any other athlete and there would be widespread opposition to any attempt to remove the disciplines from the list of sports. And not just from the established 'horsey' countries.
This year it was good to see such strong performances in show jumping and dressage from riders representing a wide range of countries.