After the Sakhir CEI** (Bahrain) in February, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa received a yellow card and an approximately $560 fine when video footage surfaced of a groom chasing and apparently striking his horse, Tarabic Carl. The Bahraini National Federation also suspended the rider and the groom involved in the incident until the end of the endurance season, April 25 of this year. But until now, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Mubarak Al Khalifa was still listed as the winner of that race.

However, a protest brought to the Fédération Equestre Internationale Tribunal by Horse & Hound editor Lucy Higgingson and Horse & Hound freelance contributor Pippa Cuckson was found admissible today, Sept. 15, and Sheikh Mohammed was disqualified from the event. He must forfeit all medals, points and prize money, though the FEI can still appeal the decision before the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 30 days.

In making the decision, the FEI Tribunal referred to wording of Article 811.1 of the endurance rules, which state that horse abuse “shall be penalized by disqualification and as otherwise allowed by the [general regulations].”

“As a result, the Tribunal holds that the Ground Jury had therefore acted arbitrarily in not imposing any disqualification,” read the decision.

FEI Endurance Committee Chair Dr. Brian Sheahan argued that Tarabic Carl didn’t have any signs of injury—welts, swellings or skin wounds—after the race, and that the groom briefly striking the horse wouldn’t have caused “prolonged stress” or affected the horse’s performance. “That furthermore, insofar as the level of horse abuse did not result in injury or distress, it could be considered as less serious offence,” stated the argument from Sheahan in the Tribunal decision.

But the Tribunal found that FEI rules don’t differentiate between extents of abuse. It also discarded the governing body’s claims of double jeopardy. 

“The Tribunal further holds that therefore the Ground Jury had to penalize the horse abuse with disqualification, irrespective of the question whether or not a horse abuse of a ‘less severe nature’ had taken place,” stated the decision.

Canadian journalists Pamela Young, editor of Horse Sport International, and Jennifer Anstey, publisher and owner of the Horse Publications Group, lodged an identical protest on March 4, the same day the FEI Secretary General acknowledged receipt of the initial protest from Cuckson and Higginson. Young and Anstey later withdrew their protest since the Tribunal was already hearing evidence from the first.

“We brought the protest because, apart from the obvious leniency of the yellow card, FEI rules are quite clear about what the penalty for horse abuse has to be, and the FEI needed to be seen to apply its existing rules before introducing any more,” said Cuckson. “I have no legal training apart from what is required for the profession of publishing, i.e. defamation and copyright law, but all this required was the ability to read and to apply some common sense!

“Of course, we can’t be sure the FEI won’t appeal the decision. But I hope our experience will encourage others to make bona fide protests when they see clear evidence of rule-breaking in any equestrian sport, where protests are admissible within the scope of the FEI rules and regulations,” Cuckson continued. “I also hope this ruling also means video evidence can be used more readily and in hindsight in future. When the field of play is 100 miles long, the ground jury can hardly expect to be on the scene of an offense at the moment it is committed. Existing rules about what can be protested are fine for arena sports, but hardly for endurance.”

Sheikh Mohammed recently served a two-month suspension after he received a second yellow card, this time at the Compiegne CEI** (France) for abuse of horse.