Rio 2016 - Why Adelinde Cornelissen is not a hero.
“Dutch dressage rider quits Rio to save sick horse”’-ESPN
“Athlete Drops Out Of Rio Olympics To Save Her Sick Horse”- Huffington Post
“Breaking: Gold Medal Athlete Quits Olympic Games To Save Her Horse”- LittleThings
“Olympic rider drops out when horse is injured - Adelinde Cornelissen puts her injured mount before her medal race”- Mother Nature Network These have been the headlines the past few days on many kinds of media outlets and networks. To any non equestrian person Adeline Cornelissen is the hero of the 2016 Rio Olympic games. She has gotten that far with all the sacrifices needed and countless hours of training and victories to then kindheartedly quit in order to preserve her beloved equine partner and friend and therefore loose the chance to win a medal. That sounds very warm and fuzzy and probably makes many people feel like the world isn't such a bad place after all. But lets come back from unicorn-land and lets look at the hard facts, shall we? According to a few sources, including Cornelissen herself the reason why the horse has been withdrawn from competing was a bug bite which infected the horse with toxic fluids and made half of his head swell up like a melon. According to her description of the event on her Facebook page, which I have attached below, the horse had 40ºC temperature, a swollen face but seemed to have normal energy levels “while walking I had a hard time keeping up with him, as always...” and was eating and drinking normally. Now, I am not a vet, nor a self proclaimed horse illness expert, so I did some research. Since we are not quite sure what exactly allegedly stung Parzival, I reaserched a few kinds of possibilities and have come to the conclusion that something like that, considering the horse was in a stall and would be caused by an insect can really be reduced to two things. One, an allergic reaction to an insect’s bite, or two a reaction to an insect’s venomous attack. Now, we all know South America is also infamous for its large population of insects and creepy-crawlies among whom the most likely to have attacked Parzival would be a wasp, bee or a spider. The Brazilian Wandering Spider for example is quite common, has even cause deaths among people and is venomous.
So, considering that such venomous spider’s effect on an organism would be similar to that of a mildly venomous snake, we can use that as a good example to what the effects are. “Intense pain, nausea, muscular weakness, and shock follow a typical snakebite. If the horse has become excited or was exercising heavily prior to the bite, it is important to quiet him down. Increased heart rate causes higher blood flow and the dispersal of the poison to larger areas of the body.” - American Association of Equine Practitioners Sounds like a pretty dramatic picture and a general toxic reaction usually does not leave an animal with energy or will to eat and drink without trouble, especially if it has occurring on its face.
Going back to Cornelissen’s post describing the story, after 9 continuous hours of fluids, the horse’s swelling had been reduced by over half. Usually a simple bee sting takes longer than that to decrease, but who knows, maybe the vets at the site were incredibly knowledgeable. And what about the puncture site, there is no mention of the place where the horse has been stung which in both a wasp or spider’s case it would be visible regardless of the hairs. Then the x-rays, why x-ray a horse that you know for a fact is suffering an allergic or toxic reaction? It doesn't make much sense, but maybe its just extra precaution. Let’s also look at the conspiracy theory behind the withdrawal. The following are two quotes from the Olympic Games’ official news reporter NBC: “The Dutch’s Edward Gal holds the No.4 after Adelinde Cornelissen and horse Parzival retire due to the horses hairline fracture.”- NBC Olympics (12 August 2016) “The Dutch’s Edward Gal holds the No.4 after Adelinde Cornelissen and horse Parzival retire as a precaution due to the swelling of the side of the horse's face.” - NBC Olympics (13 Aug 2016) Notice the difference? Those completely unrelated scenarios have both been reported by NBC by editing the already online article they had published about the first day of dressage competitions. Could the horse have been mistaken for something else? Sure, but the article dated August 10 2016, was only edited three days later and without announcing the change or apologizing for the misinformation of the public. Hmmm... Being a talented skeptic of anything that raises a shadow of doubt in my brain I searched more and this time about the symptoms of a broken jaw. “When the breakage occurs across the body of the bone behind the incisor teeth, the chin is more or less depressed, the mouth remains open, allowing a free escape of saliva and maybe more or less protrusion of the tongue.” “Fractures through the neck of the jaw between the molar teeth and the tusk, without displacement, are sometimes difficult to identify at first, the only symptoms observable being a marked shyness in feeding, in the act of which the saliva becomes churned into foam.” - The Horse - Its Treatment In Health And Disease, by J. Wortley Axe
The horse above’s swollen face could be mistaken for an harsh insect bite, but instead according to its Amanda Buchanan from The Blue Ridge Equine Clinic, who told the story about her horse’s injury. It was a painful but small sinus fracture which swelled but disappeared after a few days. The problem with all these theories is that they all have PLAUSIBLE printed on them. It could be a bug bite, a fractured jaw caused by excessive use of the cub bit (which can and has happened) or another kind of fracture in the horse’s skull.
Knowing that, is however incredibly unlikely that a horse would be able to have two bits in its mouth with a broken jaw. But that’s not actually the point; or my point at least. Cornelissen decided to warm Parzival up and enter the ring. In case you missed the pictures out, this is what he looked like in the show ring.
I see two main issues with all of this. First of all it does not require a vet to see that a horse looking like that, foaming and with this mouth open and tongue sticking out, should not be ridden, let alone with a double bridle.
That would have shown respect for the horse. If her horse was her first priority, more than a medal as she claims, she would have left him alone to rest and recover, as even though the swelling had reduced the horse was evidently in much pain and I doubt all the pain showed up suddenly after having entered in the ring. Unfortunately we have no photos of the warmup to further support this claim, even though bare logic supports it already. Secondly, Cornelissen is now the social media hero, she is defined as ‘honorable’, ‘respectful’, ‘kindhearted’, ‘the true winner’ and a user commenting “We would have a better world if there were more people like you ..putting the welfare and life of other beings before our own…”. Which would all sound great and coherent with her action, if only she also wasn't one of many riders who have a quite bad reputation in the equestrian world.
The photos above show not only a bleeding mouth during WEG 2010, which would be caused from the horse biting its own cheeks or tongue, but considering the force applied to its mouth, it is far more likely the bits pinching and pressing on the tongue and gums caused it. In that occasion she had been stopped and disqualified. She has also been photographed while riding Parzival who's tongue turned pale purple from the lack of blood flow. She is also infamous for approaching training with extreme hyperflexion which has been widely proclaimed by many vets such as Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, trainers and riders as a forceful, useless and damaging practice which causes the horse long term physical and psychological damages. Horses are just not built to be flexed in like that. Its a contradiction to their anatomy and biomechanics other than being straight up cruel. She has shown this in numerous occasions as in warmups in Aachen and at the London 2012 Olympics. Unfortunately The Press does not seem to acknowledge this raising problem the same way and fails to identify or ignores this riding style sending a message to all readers, that its acceptable because the sport stars do it.
The chosen caption for the photo above, proudly published on the 27th August 2009 by dressage-news.com is : “Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival in their consistent ride at the highest level.”
I guess they didn't notice the hyperflexion when they chose this photo… or maybe it didn't matter.
The second photo in this article on Eurodressage.com, is a clear example for rollkur and it is captioned: "Cornelissen schooling Parzival at the 2010 World Equestrian Games". This is also the reason why so many people seem to not understand the seriousness of this 'training' technique where a reader might actually think this can be considered schooling a horse. The FEI Dressage rulebook which can be found by googling it states on page 10 under the Article 401 ‘Object and General Principles of Dressage’ :
1. “The object of Dressage is the development of the Horse into a happy Athlete through harmonious education. As a result, it makes the Horse calm, supple, loose and flexible, but also confident, attentive and keen, thus achieving perfect understanding with the Athlete.”
5. “In all the work, even at the halt, the Horse must be “on the bit”. A Horse is said to be “on the bit” when the neck is more or less raised and arched according to the stage of training and the extension or collection of the pace, accepting the bridle with a light and consistent soft submissive contact. The head should remain in a steady position, as a rule slightly in front of the vertical, with a supple poll as the highest point of the neck, and no resistance should be offered to the Athlete.”
Now, this doesn't quite at all match up with all the pictures we've seen until this point...does it?
The FEI has also concluded upon discussions about hyperflexion that "Any head and neck position obtained through the use of aggressive force is not acceptable." Now why don't you go back and look at the photos above once more... It is claimed that those photos show a ‘moment in time’ but how come some riders are able to never have such moments? A horse not trained to be behind the vertical or in hyperflexion WILL NOT hyper flex (unless its scratching its chest, which it doesn't seem to be the case). So let’s face it, a horse that is confident with the bit and ridden with soft hands will not place his head in such an unnatural position unless asked to. Further discussion about hyperflexion can be found in ‘An insight into Hyperflexion or Rollkur’. Cornelissen has definitely not proven in the past years that her approach to training her horse was respectful, honorable or like any other adjectives that have been attributed to her since this incident.
Even the last games in London in 2012 she entered the ring with her horse’s nose on its chest also raising negative responses. For whatever reason she decided to not continue the performance, the justification that her ‘friend’s’ well-being is close to her heart is not something I can really believe, she probably understood the horse wouldn't be able to perform as required, loosing the race to a medal regardless. The entry in the ring was unnecessary, as a seasoned rider and champion she should have realized in the warm up that the horse was not okay.
Its surely good that she has but that does not make her a hero; or at least not my definition of it.
How low are our standards if we define it HEROIC when a rider quits, avoiding her horse further unnecessary pain? I’d say its OBVIOUS. Regardless of level, competition or prize.
I will believe her action was from 'the heart' when her training will reflect her affirmations and she will show respect and care for her equine friend’s emotional and physical well-being.
To know more about hyperflexion read "Why do horses hyperflex?"