An Olympic rider rode a horse in a 'Mankini'. Australia loves him.

When Australian equestrian and three-time Olympic medalist Shane Rose mounted his horse for a costume competition, wearing only a G-string bikini, or 'mankini', he thought it was all in good – if slightly uncomfortable – fun.

Mr Rose, 50, did not expect to receive a call from the Australian Equestrian Federation letting him know he was under investigation and temporarily banned from competing. But he did, and a few days after the competition on February 11, he feared the episode would derail his preparations for the Paris Olympics.

On Monday the body, Equestrian Australia, said it had cleared Mr Rose of wrongdoing at the event. But in a country of selfless beachgoers, where small, tight swimwear is even the order of the day prime ministersthe incident had already made national headlines and led to a barrage of jokes and criticism of the investigation on social media. A few supporters even wore mankinis of themselves in solidarity.

Matt Shirvington, a news presenter on Seven Network and a former Olympic runner, jokingly threatened in a television broadcast on Monday morning that if Mr. Rose could not attend the Olympics because of his mankini, current and former Olympians would start wearing them too.

“We have to take a stand here,” he said.

Mr Rose, a horse trainer and rider from the New South Wales town of Werombi, specializes in eventing, an equestrian sport that includes dressage, cross country and show jumping. He won silver medals at the 2008 and 2020 Olympics and bronze in 2016.

Last weekend he competed in the Wallaby Hill Extravaganza, a competition in the town of Robertson with a fancy dress component. He wore three costumes: a gorilla suit, a Duffman beer costume from the Simpsons and a mankini, an outfit popularized by the 2006 film.Borat.”

“It's a costume contest and I thought it would be funny to go in a mankini,” he said in an interview. “That's what I was going to do: just to laugh.”

He rode in the costume for about 10 minutes – “a short period if I could make it” – and said it was not an experience he was keen to repeat.

“I've never worn a G-string before and I can't recommend it to anyone,” he said.

A few days after the competition, he said, Equestrian Australia told him it had received a complaint about his costumes and planned to investigate. The group later said that publiclynoting that Mr Rose was bound by the agency's code of conduct.

Last Friday, the group told him he could not compete until the investigation was completed, Mr. Rose said. It was unclear what specific part of Equestrian Australia's code of conduct Mr Rose had breached.

The penalty for breaching the code of conduct could have ranged from a warning to a suspension, according to Equestrian Australia's disciplinary policy.

Mr. Rose posted an apology on Facebook and then deleted it. Equestrian Australia's statement on Monday said the finding accepted the apology and the fact that the event in question was not a professional competition.

The research struck some as particularly strange as tight, revealing swimwear is common on Australian beaches. “Parakeet smugglers” – small, stretchy swimming trunks that look as if the wearer is trying to hide a budgerigar or small parrot – have been worn by so many prime ministers that one newspaper described them as 'part of the unofficial political uniform'.

As news of Rose's mankini swept the country this weekend, many Australians voiced their support for him.

Bowral Kubota, a construction and agricultural equipment supplier that sponsors the Wallaby Hill Extravaganza, promised that it would provide free mankinis to all participants in next year's event “to embrace Shane's sense of humor.”

Matt Williams, another Australian rider who has competed in three Olympics, said on Facebook: “Shane's mankini was a great example of someone willing to do whatever it takes to entertain publicity and zip in what to the outside world is otherwise a very boring industry.”