Equestrian: Nicholson slams death report

New Zealand Olympic equestrian rider Andrew Nicholson has poured scorn on a safety inquiry into eventing which recommends mandatory dope testing for riders and fines for reckless riding.

Nicholson said he was positive the report was a sop to the public over eventing rider deaths in an Olympics year.

"Its not going to help anything," he said. "The amount of people being killed is simply not acceptable. I don't think there's any other sport that's popping them off like this."

Five riders were killed in eventing in England last year, prompting the establishment of an international committee to review safety in the sport.

But already five riders have died this year - two in Australia, one in the United States, one in Switzerland and another in England.

The committee's report finds as its key recommendation that all efforts must be made to stop horses falling.

But Nicholson said the report itself did not address why horses were falling.

The report, expected to be debated by the riding community at this week's Badminton horse trials, calls for more stringent checks on rider abilities and qualifications. It urged that statistics on falls be kept by national federations.

The committee recommended random dope testing and spot medical examinations for riders. It also says the use of calming and homeopathic remedies for horses is contrary to the spirit of eventing, but does not suggest they be banned.

Nicholson said he cannot understand why the dope testing issue was raised.

"Does that mean that some of the riders that were killed were on drugs, or are they just trying to imply that. If it's right, it should have been put out in some report that Joe Bloggs was on cloud nine."

Nicholson, as a member of New Zealand's Olympic Games long-list, said he could be dope tested now, at any time of the day or night. He has been tested twice in his career.

He said some riders did use homeopathic substances to calm their horses before dressage tests and maybe the committee was worried the horses might not be free of remedies before competing in the endurance test.

"But have they found that that's why a couple of them have got killed?

"I personally think it has got nothing to do with it, but it makes interesting reading for Joe Public."

Nicholson said people died because a horse fell on them. Horses might be falling because fences were very solid now, or because of the design of jumps.

Nicholson said an urgent review of course designs was needed, and it was not good enough for officials to say courses were as safe as they could be.

He said the report called for research on safety hats and body protectors, but activists within the sport had been calling for that work to be done since 1990.

- NZPA