The FEI announced that no banned substances were identified in the 163 horses tested at last month's WEG. However, two endurance horses tested positive for corticosteroids, which are considered controlled medications. | Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse

On Oct. 25, the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) announced that no banned substances were identified in the 163 horses tested last month at the FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) Tryon 2018. However, the 2018 WEG equine drug tests did reveal controlled medications (substances regularly used to treat horses, but must be cleared from the horse’s system by the time of competition) in two endurance horses’ bodies:

• Samples taken on Sept. 11 from the horse Mora Inocente, ridden by Pablo De Los Heros (ARG) were positive for the corticosteroid dexamethasone; and
• Samples taken on Sept. 11 from the horse El Pangue Ciromagnum, ridden by Raimundo Undurraga Mujica (CHI) were positive for the corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide.

Controlled medication positives at WEGs or Olympic and Paralympic Games are not eligible for the FEI administrative (fast-track) procedure, so these two cases will be heard by the FEI Tribunal. And, as these cases involve only a single controlled medication substance, there is no mandatory provisional suspension of the person responsible.

Additionally, the FEI and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency carried out human anti-doping testing during WEG. There were no positives from 92 samples taken from athletes at the Games