Riding club demoted after positive bute test
A Kent riding club is enjoying delayed celebrations after being crowned British Riding Clubs open showjumping champions for 2012 — six months after the competition was held.
Maidstone and District Riding Club was declared the winner following the demotion of Downshire Riding Club, after one of its horses tested positive for the prohibited substance bute.
“Although we are sad for the other team, we are thrilled to be promoted [from second place] and it has definitely spurred everyone on for the 2013 season,” Jo Cottee, chairman of Maidstone and District, told H&H.
The substance was found in Laura McCann’s horse Audrey after random drug tests were conducted at the championships (15-16 September 2012), at Lincolnshire Showground.
Downshire Riding Club did not wish to comment.
Trophies were presented to the new winners by their president Peggy Skinner, at a ceremony held on 17 March at Findon Stud near Ashford.
This news story was first published in Horse & Hound magazine (11 April 2013)
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.