German show jumper Christian Ahlmann has been fined and banned from competition after his horse tested positive for a banned drug at this summer's Olympics

I read this story at a couple places what is the drug "capsaicin" is it just a performance enhancing drug? I will have to look it up.

Anyway I am saddened when anyone who is in the spotlight where people look up to as an example make a poor decision.

My question and wonder has always been, how much control does the rider have on what goes into his horse. I have always felt that sometimes over zealous trainers and owners might try and slip something by without the knowledge of the rider?

Anyway just wanted to learn a little more about eventing when I read about this.

For eventing, if they are a good rider, then they wil be with their horse at all times, and also have vet checks before a competittion. So normally that should not have happened at all without the rider noticing. But I guess there is a SMALL chance that something happened without the riders knowledge.

Unfortunately I know a "trainer" that was drugging the horses without the owners knowledge, it's more common than we like to think. He actually ended up stunting one of the horses growth and though he is a champion he had to be gelded due to the side effects of the drugs he was given. It wasn't eventing though.

At that level of competition there is NO way the rider [sometimes owners are just on paper] doesn't know whats going on. The horse industry is @ a very sad stage that illegal practices are the norm.
2008 Olympics
Rodrigo Pessoa [Brazil/ShowJumper] Tested positive-fined
Courtney King Dye [United States/ Dressage] Tested positive-fined
Phillip Dutton [United States/ Eventing] Illegal use of weighted boots-fined
Capt. Mark Phillips [United States/Chef E' Quip] Knowledge of wrongful practices-fined, and there were multiple others.
It would be nice if this didn't happen, unfortunetly it is the norm. 1 magazine "Equestrian" is the publication for the United States Equestrian Association comes out monthly, in the back are fines and suspensions, that section is never less than 15-20 pages. And that is just 1 book,each month.
The bigger the stakes, the more people/ways they find to try and cheat.
Capsaicin is made from pepper juice- It has a numbing effect, sort of like mild lidacain. It can be purchased otc, one that comes to mind is Farnams Thera-Flex