The International Equestrian Federation has banned its president's husband from riding in endurance races for six months after his horse twice failed doping tests. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, accepted that his horse Tahhan tested positive for a hypertension drug and the steroid stanozolol, the governing body said Monday. “Consistent with the FEI's strict liability approach to anti-doping rule violations, the panel has found Sheikh Mohammed responsible for the doping of his horse,” a tribunal panel said in a ruling published on the FEI's website. His ban runs through Oct. 3, and he must pay $4,200 in fines and legal costs. The Sheikh's horse trainer, Abdullah Bin Huzaim, admitted giving the horse drugs without the Sheikh's knowledge before the 120-kilometer desert races at Bahrain and Dubai. Bin Huzaim was banned for 12 months and fined 4,000 Swiss francs ($3,750), plus 1,500 Swiss francs in costs. Sheikh Mohammed's wife, Princess Haya, is president of the FEI and has campaigned to clean up equestrian's doping and medication problems. She took no part in the disciplinary process. The three-man panel said Bin Huzaim, manager of the Sheikh's Emaar Stables in Dubai, “clearly wanted His Highness to do well with the horse. This behavior is not acceptable and needs to be sanctioned severely.”
