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Diane Trefethen wrote:

> While I whole heartedly agree that rules need to be enforced, it is 
> contrary to our American traditions to hold a person guilty until 
> proven innocent.   If a person is accused of drugging his horse and 
> the evidence presented by BOTH sides leads the Protest Committee to 
> conclude that the person is guilty, THAT is when the fines, 
> suspensions, whatever should be imposed.  To suspend a person before 
> he is allowed to hear the evidence against him or defend himself 
> against charges is wrong.

In our legal system where ones liberty can be taken away that is true. 
However, in sports in general a positive drug test does lead to an 
automatic suspension. In fact failure to show for a drug test ordered by 
the antidoping agency for human athletics will result in an automatic 
suspension. Rafeal Palmerio was suspended as soon as his positive came 
back. Ricky Williams was suspended by the NFL as soon as his positive 
came back.

That is the way the rules are written and that is the way they are 
enforced. I would like to see the FEI to step forward and get in line 
with the other upper level amateur and professional sports. Of course 
there should be an appeal process, but IMO the suspension is automatic 
and is in place while the appeal is in process.

Truman

> In the case brought up by Tracey, the horse's owner fed the horse a 
> LEGAL supplement that was not formulated with any illicit compound.  
> Careless handling of the lots of the supplement by the manufacturer 
> led to the lots becoming contaminated with a prohibited substance.  In 
> this instance, although the horse was indeed "doped", punishing the 
> owner would have required a finding that an owner be expected to know 
> not only "what is going into the horse", but also what has happened to 
> all the horse's feed at every stage of processing, a clearly 
> unreasonable expectation. Furthermore, in this case, such a finding 
> would also have actively prevented the advancement of an otherwise 
> qualified animal's progress towards the WEG.
>
> Far more disturbing is that WHEN a person has been found guilty of a 
> transgression and sanctions imposed, as was the case for the trainer 
> who killed some horses for the insurance money, the guilty person is 
> allowed to continue pursuing his trade in violation of said 
> sanctions.  Now THAT is despicable.
>
>
> > For my money there has to be enforcement. If there is an incident 
> > where the physical evidence points to drug use then first there is an 
> > immediate disqualification of the horse. There is a three month 
> > suspension of the owner for an investigation. If it tuns out that the 
> > owner did not give the drug they can be reinstated. If the evidence 
> > points to the owner - and physical evidence is very strong - there 
> > some be punitive sanctions levied.  However, I would contend that 
> > there should be a very high burden of proof required to overrule the 
> > physical evidence.
> >
> > Truman
>
>
>
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"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what 
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