The year 2006 was a most productive year for the FEI with regard to testing, in terms of numbers of horses tested as well as the number of events covered. In total, the FEI tested 3173 horses: 2097 in the Medication Control Programme (Groups I and II) and 1076 outside of the MCP, which is superior to anything done so far. In ten years, the number of tests has doubled: there were 1,500 tests conducted in 1996.

A bit disappointing was that the rate of positives remained the same overall: 2.5% in the MCP and 1.3% outside of it.

As far as the different disciplines were concerned, the absolute number of positives coming from Jumping is inevitably the highest, as the events tested by the FEI are mostly Jumping events. An interesting trend was that the increased popularity of CICs led to more Eventing horses tested and thus caused a higher number of positives from this discipline. The breakdown of positive cases by discipline was as follows:

Discipline: positives
Jumping: 30
Endurance: 9
Eventing: 14
Dressage: 6
Vaulting: 1
Driving: 1
Reining: 1

In terms of expenses, there was a clear parallel between the increase in activities and the operational budget: MCP testing expenses went up by 40%. This means that a ceiling in testing, in regard to the current available budget, has been reached. It is therefore anticipated that the MCP fees might need to be increased.