Butta-kriget: Internationella hoppryttare vill ha kontrollerad doping

* "Madam President, we request respectfully, that you maintain this progressive list."
* Så skriver Internationella hoppryttarklubben IJRC i ett brev till FEIs ordförande Haya Al Hussein. Rodrigo Pessoa och Ludger Beerbaum är de två ryttare som skrivit under brevet.
* De är alltså för kontrollerad doping med exempelvis "butta", eftersom det är den reella innebörden av den så kallade progressiva listan.
* Läs brevet i sin helhet här.

Brevet från International Jumpers Club till Haya:

Dear President,We the International Jumping Riders Club are the athletes who form the sport that your International Federation is the governing body of. We represent the athletes of the well know  discipline in your family, and we are a group that has a membership across the globe, which has been in existence since the year 1977.

We have been by-standers so far, but we realize that there is a big difference of opinion inside the equestrian world, particularly between FEI and same National Federations and between National Federations, over the issue of the use of Non- Steroidal Anti-inflammatorily in horses sports as permitted medication.We hereby would like to ask you to send this open letter to all your member National Federations, so that they may know, once and for-all, the position of the athlete's of the sport which they govern. We would ask that you do so, before they reply to your letter requesting a postponement of the Progressive List to 2010 GA. Should you be willing to do this, we would hope many of them will consider our position in their deliberations.

We would like to express clearly our opinion:

1.       First of all, the riders want to ensure the welfare of their horses. Without this condition we could not even talk about riding of any kind and any level.

2.       The rider must be enabled to think only about the health of his horse without fear of violating some anti-doping rule in some other countries and therefore feel and be treated as criminal.

3.       We are strongly and firmly against any kind of doping, as it is understood in the WADA code.

4.       We do deem necessary a regulation more appropriate to the times.

5.       So we do think it is time to consider to allow certain molecules (i.e. Non-Steroid that are allowed by the WADA)

6.       We do believe it is responsibility of the FEI and of the National Federations, in partnership with specialists and athletes to find the law and the regulation that embrace the change in compliance with the WADA  and the national laws to determine the dosages that ensure the care and the health of the horses, excluding any form of doping.

7.       We are not willing to wait years before we have a clear rule that is shared and equal for all.

The current situation it is far too uncomfortable for the riders because of the chaos generated by the existing veterinary regulations that differ not only between EU and United States, but also within Europe, for example between Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany it is unacceptable (i.e. there are products allowed in the Netherlands  and not in Germany or allowed in Germany and not in Switzerland). This put the riders in intolerable working conditions and high risk of unwillingly into violations of anti-doping that differ from country to country.

We do not feel that the General Assembly should be permitted to reverse a decision after it is taken, or to delay it beyond reasonable timeframe. We agree to the fact that the FEI Bureau has requested delay of implementation until April, and we will do everything to work alongside you in order to help you achieve the necessary examination of the substance levels that are included in the list. We the International Riders feel that we are willing to accept and aid the List Group of the FEI to amend the list to include lower levels in the case of some substances specified, in order to protect horses who compete in countries with less of a depth of veterinary knowledge and care, and in order for your delegates to feel comfortable that they have made a conservative judgment. According to the Statutes that the FEI passed in regards to Clean Sport, we recognize that an annual amendment to the list is possible, and therefore we agree to this policy direction and understand that annually it can be refined. 

Madam President, we request respectfully, that you maintain this progressive list, and that you protect us, your riders from the damage that is being done to us publicly in the International Media from a situation that we did not contribute to create.We hope it will be possible to held a meeting in January that includes small representatives of FEI, National Federations, athletes and specialists, with the task of finding a common position by April an these issues and especially the timing and manner of entry into force of the new legislation.

Postpone any decision for a further year would not be useful to our sport and would still leave riders, owner, organizers in a situation of uncertainty, and giving a negative image of our sport to athletes, fans and media. On behalf of the IJRC

Respectfully Yours
Rodrigo Pessoa, IJRC President
Ludger Beerbaum, Vice President
Dr. Eleonora Ottaviani Moroni, Secretary General
Francois Mathy jr, Advisor