Top showjumper Michael Whitaker's ban from competing for the British team at future Olympic Games has been lifted, H&C has learned.

The news came today, on Whitaker's 50th birthday. The four-time Olympian, received the ban after his horse Tackeray failed a drugs test at an event in France in May 2009. But the British Olympic Association's appeals panel has now ruled that "significant mitigating circumstances" existed in relation to the offence.

Whitaker received a fine and separate four-month competition ban last year. That ban, handed down by world governing body the FEI, was served between 25 June and 24 October 2009, while Whitaker's fine plus associated costs amounted to £1,362.

The test in question identified altrenogest - a hormone found in a calming product which may be fed to mares, but not stallions - in Tackeray after an event at the French venue of La Baule.

Whitaker argued at the time that Tackeray had been inadvertently given the wrong feed container, but the FEI rejected his defence. In receiving a competition ban for the failed test, Whitaker was automatically excluded from consideration for future British Olympic teams under the BOA's own rules.

He based his later appeal against the Team GB ban on the argument that the doping offence was minor, and mitigating circumstances existed. The BOA panel agreed with the latter point, though it concluded the offence was not minor.

In a statement, British Showjumping added: "The panel recognised that Whitaker was not personally negligent or at fault in relation to any systems, instructions or delegation about which he could have been expected to do anything more.

"The panel noted that there is no reasonable basis for concluding that Whitaker (or his groom) deliberately administered the prohibited substance, from which it follows that it did not enter the horse's body with any intent by either Whitaker or his groom to enhance performance."

Whitaker, who helped Britain to team silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, has also competed in four World Championships and twelve European Championships, winning 13 medals in the process..