An investigation was launched into the results of the three-star competition in Belgium, which took place on March 2, after suggestions that two Ukrainian judges had favoured their countrywoman Inna Logutenkova.

The athlete, riding on her horse Fleraro, received scores of 73.235 and 74.412 from the two Ukrainian officials at the competition.

By contrast the three other judges gave her routine scores of 64.902, 64.020 and 66.569.

Logutenkova eventually finished in seventh position.

“This was a clear example of nationalistic judging and the FEI takes this very seriously,” said Sabrina Ibáñez, FEI secretary general.

“The FEI has a duty to take the appropriate measures if it is shown that nationalistic judging has occurred.

“Judging at all FEI events must be absolutely fair and the integrity of the competitions and of the judges themselves must be beyond reproach.”

Following the investigation, the FEI Dressage Committee ruled that the results of the competition will not be included towards the Olympic or world rankings, due to having the right to remove an event if it was found to have not “been organised in accordance with general principle of fairness”.

Despite the removal of the results from the rankings, it has had no effect on Logutenkova's participation at Rio 2016, with the Ukrainian still occupying one of the 40 spots available for the individual event.

Riders’ best four events during the qualification period, from March 9 last year to March 6, are counted with the full list of athletes available here.

The FEI Executive Board have also announced that they will recommend to the FEI Bureau, with the support of the Dressage Committee, a review into judging by establishing a working group.

Composed of Committee members and external experts, the group will look into and supply proposals to address issues.

The case comes a week after the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced it had disciplined two officials for biased scoring at the 2015 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart.

Azerbaijan’s Yevgeniya Zhidkova was suspended from all participation in FIG activities and other competitions for a three-month period.

She was found to have been favourable towards three gymnasts and the Azerbaijani group during individual and group qualifications.

Maja Selak of Croatia was warned after her scores were found to be biased in favour of a gymnast from her country.