Tuesday, September 28, 2010

overwhelmed, but this made my day!! Dutch rider eliminated at WEG due to blood in horse's mouth!

Daughter dislocated her finger last night and after a trip to the ER she is now wearing a splint for the week and is of course not able to do her usual chores. I went out this morning, took one look at the stalls that have to be cleaned due to rain and horses being in most of the night, and decided that at 72 degrees and sunny today, they are all proceeding to daytime turn-out, at least as long as this weather holds.

I spread hay all over the back field, checked the water trough, and after their breakfast tubs were done, said "see you later!"

Now I'm back in dealing with some very annoying ants, and basically am ready to bomb the house with ant poison.

It's just one of those days.

But then I took a break to check in on WEG and found this, which really made me happy. Thank you, judges. I applaud your doing your job!!

Photo added, from Dressage-News:



Adelinde Cornelissen eliminated from World Equestrian Games

Sarah Jenkins, H&H reporter at WEG
28 September, 2010
Dutch number two Adelinde Cornelissen is out of WEG after blood was seen in the horse's mouth in the grand prix
Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival, gold medal prospects at the World Games, have been eliminated after blood was seen in the horse's mouth.

Judge at c and head of the ground jury Britain's Stephen Clarke had to ask Adelinde to leave the arena after her halt and rein back on seeing the red in the foam around the horse's mouth.

Speaking to Stephen Clarke at the national championships last month he said that he was honoured to have the responsibility of judging from C, but was dreading something like this happening and having to send a rider out.

Adelinde shrugged her shoulders and patted her horse, dropped her reins and walked out.

Up until that point she was well in the lead, scoring nines for their halt, extended trot and both half passes.

The Dutch still lead the team competition but being down to three riders Edward Gal cannot afford to have a big problem this afternoon on Totilas.

This puts Adelinde out of the individual competition too, and throws open the possibility for our top rider Laura Bechtolsheimer to stand even higher on that podium.

The following photo is (I think) Adelinde during warm-up. Is that Sjef in the background? Big fat clue: if your body is that torqued out of position, what you are doing is WRONG. End of story.

13 comments:

Valentino said...

Sad for the horse but PSYCHED overall.
Kudos to Stephen Clarke for doing his job!!

Thanks Billie - this made my day :)

Grey Horse Matters said...

That poor horse! I'm so glad a judge actually stood up for the horse and did the right thing. If this sort of judging continues we do have a chance of making it better for our equine partners. This made my day too.

On the home front, hope your daughter is feeling better soon and can get back to normal activities. I hate ants, we've got some of those itsy ones show up in the kitchen sink once in a while. The poison traps didn't work for us, so I just squish them.

jme said...

oh that poor horse! apparently it wasn't such an unusual occurrence for her, though, since she seems to have just shrugged it off. i guess if you're going to kick and yank and twist horses up like that, a little blood is to be expected? what on earth is wrong with these people? if my horse had blood coming out of his mouth i'd probably have jumped off in the middle of the arena and called the vet out!

but stephen clarke is my new hero! of course, he is still a part of the judging culture that allows riders like this to get to the top in the first place, but the fact that he had the guts to draw the line somewhere and stand up to the worst of it is refreshing and an encouraging sign; maybe it will inspire other judges to do the same. yay! it's about time!

thanks for posting - this made my day too :-)

Anonymous said...

It's good news about the elimination, but I'm sad that it took bleeding to get it - how come people are still getting away with abuse like this in the warm-up ring without anybody saying a thing?

ponymaid said...

Billie, kudos to Stephen Clarke but how sad that he has to dread doing his job.

billie said...

Agree with all - I would have been horrified if my horse had a bleeding mouth and would not be holding my white-gloved hand over my own mouth leaving the arena in disappointment, but would have RED gloves from checking and taking the freaking bridle OFF!

A number of folks in various forums are saying that he bit his tongue, all in a day's ride, just a random thing.

All I can say is that in my entire life I have NEVER had or even seen a horse bite his own tongue and bleed from it. So how common can it really be? I'm sure it happens occasionally but it seems certain that if it does happen, there is something wrong in the mouth to start with - points on teeth, an improperly fitted bit, or extreme pressure on the bit causing the tongue to swell and be more prominent in the mouth.

Claire said...

well done Mr clarke!

and britain won silver...

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/weg/dressage/article.php?id=302321

billie said...

Congrats to Britain - wish I had photos of their warm-ups!

forever in blue jeans, Beth said...

thank goodness someone had the guts to draw a line - too sad the horse had to be bleeding to get the line drawn - Kittle should be horse whipped and then banned for life from riding anything but a mechanical bull. thanks for sharing, billie, hope your Daughter's finger is feeling better - plz let her know that I'd love to see more picture of THE Pony and the "Long-Ear'd Ones" :)

billie said...

I'm not even sure the mechanical bull deserves such a rider. :/

Thanks re: daughter - she is off the camera until splint is removed but I'm sure she'll be back in the saddle (literally and figuratively) soon.

billie said...

It's always entertaining when someone posts anonymously, neglects to use spell check and other basic writing skills, and then bashes me and commenters here saying we didn't read the facts.

Alas, if YOU had read what I wrote, and what folks had to say, you'd see that no one is disputing that the horse bit its tongue - we are saying the horse bit its tongue b/c of the way it was bitted, bridled, and then warmed up.

If you expect to take a side with any prospect of being listened to, for god's sake: read coherently, write intelligently, use basic grammar skills, and sign your name. Otherwise you simply have no impact at all.

Anonymous said...

This is just the Dutch training system in action. Horrible! Horses trained that way do not show true self-carriage, amongst others. Don't wanna see this kind of riding! It's just WRONG!!! Sad that she still gets that high scores probably simply because her horses has the legs high in the air... *shakeshead

billie said...

Agreed, Anon - thanks for stopping by AND for commenting!