Feud Over Doping and Media Splits Ireland's Show-jumpers

It is an equestrian saga to rival Jilly Cooper's hay-strewn blockbusters.

A top international show-jumper is under 24-hour bodyguard protection in fear for his life; two world-class riders are boycotting their team in a bitter feud; a horse has tested positive for banned drugs; and riders are accusing each other of using the media to air their dirty laundry.

Also involved is the dashing godson of the media tycoon, Tony O'Reilly, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Ireland.

The eruption in the elite world of Irish showjumping this week has embarrassed a country that prides itself on an affinity with all things equine.

With a horse sports industry worth €300m (£207m) a year, and Ireland battling to hold its place in the showjumping super league, riders warned that the country had become a horsing "laughing stock".

At the heart of the controversy is Cian O'Connor, 25, a handsome Kildare show-jumper who was hailed as a national hero when he won Ireland's only gold medal at the Athens Olympics last year.

O'Connor is known for his determination and self-belief: aged 16, he took a showjumping "business plan" to his godfather, the Independent Newspapers chairman, Tony O'Reilly, who bought him the horse, Waterford Crystal.

When the horse secured him his Olympic win, O'Connor celebrated, relieved that the theft of his lucky green riding jacket days before the competition had not brought any ill omens.

All that changed when a urine sample from Waterford Crystal at Athens tested positive for a banned substance.

O'Connor said he was innocent and demanded a second test. But the horse's back-up "B sample" of urine was stolen on the way to a laboratory in Newmarket.

Then documents about another of O'Connor's horses were stolen in a break-in at the Equestrian Federation of Ireland's headquarters.

The story was starting to read like a crime thriller.

Finally this spring, after tests on a blood sample from Waterford Crystal, O'Connor was stripped of his medal and banned for three months.

The International Equestrian Federation accepted his assertion that drugs had not been administered in an attempt to enhance the horse's performance. O'Connor felt exonerated.

But it was when he arrived back to rejoin the Irish team last weekend that the dispute flared up. The Dublin Horse Show, Ireland's biggest and most glamorous equestrian event should have been a glorious moment with Ireland defending the Aga Khan trophy.

Instead, Britain triumphed and a "poisonous atmosphere" festered among the Irish team.

Jessica Kurten, described as one of the best riders Ireland has ever produced, refused to ride on the Irish team if O'Connor was part of it.

Then, the show-jumper Harry Marshall quit, saying he would not ride on a team with O'Connor, whom he accused of interfering in the selection process. Next, a team trainer and a member of the selection panel both quit in disgust, saying O'Connor was dictating who should ride where.

O'Connor broke his silence as it emerged that he was under 24-hour protection after threats at the Dublin horse show.

In a statement to the Irish Independent, he said: "In my heart and soul I believe that certain individuals thought I was dead and buried after the Olympics and now they're sick because I'm back with a vengeance, getting on teams and jumping well."

He said allegations that he had interfered with choosing riders for the team were "absolutely outrageous".

He had offered to step down from the team, but said that the offer had been rejected.

Marshall stood firm in his refusal to ride with O'Connor, saying he disagreed with his training methods.

He added: "I don't know about complete control, but he has a huge influence on the press and he uses it to his own benefit and against other people he doesn't like."

The chairman of the team selection committee defended O'Connor's "tremendous ability" and "fantastic horse" which he said the team desperately needed.

But after Eddie Macken, Ireland's most famous show-jumper, warned that the Irish team risked slipping into the "B-league" and losing "whatever glamour it had left", the president of the country's equestrian federation has ordered a review of the way the team is selected and run.

Irish playwrights are fond of recreating sporting showdowns on stage and following the success of the Roy Keane musical, it surely cannot be long before a showjumping pantomime hits theatres.

But no one in the equestrian world is laughing.