Dressage-News

The German federation reported Friday it is undertaking extensive tests and a review of a prohibited substance–cimetidine, commonly used to treat stomach ulcers in horses–detected in El Santo NRW that Isabell Werth has competed at Grand Prix for the past three years including on the German team at the 2011 European Championships.

The German FN released a brief statement after the magazine St. Georg reported the case that could lead to a one-year suspension for the country’s most celebrated Olympic dressage rider. It would be the second offense for Isabell who was suspended in 2009 over a positive doping test for Fluphenazine at Wiesbaden, Germany.

The latest case began at the Rhineland Championships, a national competition, in Langenfeld at the end of June last year where the 12-year-old gelding (Ehrentusch x Rythme x Rythmus) was routinely tested for drugs.

“The analysis revealed the presence of the prohibited substance cimetidine,” the federation said, “that among other things, is used to treat stomach problems in horses.

“Isabell Werth denies that the gelding, the drug was administered. The rider has prompted extensive research and reports to clarify the facts. This is also the reason for the current duration of the proceedings.”

The FN would not say more because the case is still going on.

However, St. Georg quoted Isabell as saying, “my conscinece is clear. El Santo has never needed a substance against stomach ulcers.”

She has speculated that an electric power outage In her barn could have casued water from a neighboring stall occupied by Warum Nicht FRH who was undergoing treatment to end up in the automatic watering system in El Santo’s stall.

The German federation has allowed her to call experts and make visits to her farm as Isabell seeks to prove her innocence.

She was notified before starting at Langenfeld her horse would be drug tested.

“If I feared that the test was to be positive,” she told St. Georg, “I would have loaded my horses on the truck and gone home,”