Australia's equestrian governing body said Tuesday it had gone into administration, after a series of crises and scandals prompted the government to cut its funding. The sporting body's board said it had "taken the difficult decision to place Equestrian Australia Ltd into voluntary administration" -- a process similar to bankruptcy. The sport has delivered 21 Olympic and Paralympic medals for Australia, including six Olympic golds. But Equestrian Australia (EA) has been rocked by top-level personnel jumping ship, financial struggles and the deaths of two riders in competition. EA said Sports Australia -- a government agency -- had withdrawn funding having "formed a view that, until the organisation is both representative of the membership and stable in governance and operation, they could not in good faith continue to contribute public funds." "Combined with the impact of COVID-19 on our forecast revenue, this places the organisation at risk of trading insolvently," a statement said. The sport's high-performance programme, which helps top-level athletes, will now be run by the Australian Institute of Sport, a government body. arb/dm/dh