KEVIN Thornton and his legal team described this week’s FEI decision to suspend and fine him in a highly controversial case as “disappointing”, highlighting that no finding of responsibility for the subsequent death of the horse was made against him.
On Wednesday, the FEI Tribunal announced a four-month suspension for Thornton who was also fined 5,000 Swiss Francs and ordered to pay legal costs of another 5,000 Swiss Francs over the death of Ballina owner Vinnie Duffy’s horse Flogas Sunset Cruise at Cagnes-Sur-Mer show on October 10th 2016.
Thornton has consistently denied allegations that he whipped the horse excessively or abused the horse in any other way. A subsequent autopsy found no physical evidence of whip marks, spur marks or excessive sweating on the horse.
Zurich Attorney-at-Law, Dr Monika Gattiker, told The Irish Field this week: “We are a bit disappointed. Kevin is disappointed of course but perhaps the FEI was always going to give him something. Significantly, there was no finding of responsibility for the death of the horse made against Kevin and again, there was no evidence from the autopsy of any whip marks, spur marks or even sweat marks on the body of the horse. The autopsy could give no cause of death for the horse either.”
STATEMENTS
Dr Gattiker said she still had a number of unanswered questions about some of the adverse witness statements given in evidence to the FEI Tribunal against her client.
“I find it very strange that all said they were witnesses in France at the show. Yet all come from the same circle around Lausanne, and there seems to be a connection to a third party that had a legal struggle with my client.
“Their statements were all co-ordinated by one person not from the FEI legal department, it could not be verified why this person was chosen for this task. I’m rather surprised how and by whom the witnesses were chosen.
“I find it very strange that of all these witnesses, nobody took a single photograph or a video on their phone of what they were seeing. There is no photographic evidence in this case of alleged horse abuse. You could say it is coincidence but if it is so, it’s another very funny coincidence. Again like the reliability of some of the witness statements, that’s difficult to prove.”
Thornton and his legal team have to decide whether they want to appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) but with the four-month suspension imposed immediately on the Irish rider, it would be very unlikely to get a decision within that timeframe.
“Also the chance that we could get the 10,000 Swiss Francs cut down is rather remote, it could be throwing good money after bad,” explained Dr Gattiker.
Commenting on his Facebook page, Thornton said: “I feel very upset and disappointed at the decision. I agree totally with the FEI for their investigation as the welfare of our animals is the highest priority in this sport.”
The FEI Tribunal determined that the athlete’s behaviour “went way beyond what could be considered an acceptable conduct towards a horse” and further concluded “with confidence that the horse has been whipped repeatedly, substantially and excessively and clearly more than the three times alleged by Mr Thornton.”
The FEI stated in its testimony that “even if the horse had survived, a case of horse abuse would still have been opened by the FEI.” As the autopsy did not confirm the cause of death, the FEI Tribunal clarified that it was “not deciding on the potential responsibility of Mr Thornton for the tragic death of the horse.”
“The FEI stood up for horse welfare by taking this case to the FEI Tribunal and given the severity of this incident, I truly would have expected a much tougher sanction,” said FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez. “It was important to the FEI that the allegation of horse abuse was confirmed by the Tribunal.
“We had requested a two-year suspension, but the level of sanctions is at the discretion of the Tribunal and we respect its independence.”
The full 37-page statement from the FEI Tribunal of this case can be found on www.theirishfield.ie