Dayton Gorsline, who has served as the jumping youth development program advisor for Equestrian Canada since 2019, has been permanently suspended by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner, part of the Canadian Safe Sport Program, for alleged “boundary transgressions, grooming, physical maltreatment and sexual maltreatment.”

Gorsline, Okotoks, Alberta, operates Trademark Stables with his wife, Lisa Carlsen, and has been involved with youth jumping activities since before coming on as the Youth Development Program Advisor as a member of the selection committee and chef d’equipe for FEI North American Youth Championships.

Equestrian Canada was notified by OSIC that Gorsline had been declared permanently ineligible on June 11, according to EC High Performance Director James Hood.

“We immediately suspended him from all Equestrian Canada activities and terminated his contract position,” Hood wrote in an email to the Chronicle. “To ensure the immediate enforcement of the decision we immediately notified key partners—including the [Fédération Equestre Internationale], Provincial and Territorial organizations, and the United States Equestrian Federation—as well as our internal staff, Jumping Committee and High Performance Advisory Groups.

“It is important to note that Mr. Gorsline has the right to appeal the decision and thus all parties are limited in what they can say,” Hood added.

Hood said that Gorsline was not removed from his position with Equestrian Canada during the investigation.

“The information from OSIC during the investigation was only that there was an investigation underway and that the provisional measure was monitoring,” he wrote. “Once the provisional measure was announced by OSIC, Equestrian Canada reached out and asked if there were any measures that we needed to put in place and OSIC informed us no.”  

The OSIC is part of the newly created Canadian Safe Sport Program, which opened April 1. 

Gorsline did not return an email requesting comment by press time.