This will go down in the history of that Olympics…
Not every person is as close to their animal as this girl, who took the loss for the good of her four-legged friend. Worthy of respect.
Dutch rider Adelinda Cornelissen refused to participate further in the competition at Rio 2016.The reason for this is admirable and is described in detail by Adelinda in a letter she published on her blog
“My story… So many things happened… The first days in Rio went according to plan: we flew well, acclimatized, trained. Parzival felt good and was in a good mood.Everything changed one day… I planned to start training early in the morning, so at 6 o’clock I was already ready.
After saying good morning to Parzival, I noticed that his head was swollen on the right side and he was driving it on the wall.We took his temperature – he had a fever over 40 degrees, but he didn’t look sick.Parzival ate as usual. I kept an eye on him the whole time.
“Then he was thoroughly examined by veterinarians and concluded that the horse had been bitten by some insect or animal, which leaves poison.
To get the poison out of his system, Parzival was given plenty of water.From 06:30 to 15:45 he drank quite a lot. This helped cleanse his kidneys and flush the toxins out of his system.The vets took a nasal swab and checked his blood.By 3:30 p.m. his temperature was down to 38.4… They x-rayed his head just in case. Everything was fine.
By the end of the day, the temperature was down and we went for a walk with Parzival. He looked much better and the swelling on his head had noticeably diminished”.We petitioned the International Equestrian Federation to postpone the event from Tuesday to Wednesday.
I hoped that it would be better for Parzival and his health. We were turned down.At that moment I had no desire to participate in the Olympics… Parzival’s health is more important than anything else in this world!I slept in the stable and checked on Parsi’s condition every hour… I wasn’t going to leave him alone! Of course, no sleep was out of the question…
Most importantly, his temperature was down to 37.5. His swelling also went down a little. The next day brought new problems.
Yesterday I decided that I would not compete, but today Parzival’s temperature came back to normal, he looks good, he eats and drinks. I didn’t want to let the team down… I didn’t know what to do.From 7 to 8 in the morning we were allowed to walk on the field.
“After talking to the vets, we came to the decision to practice for 10 minutes and see how Parzival would feel…So that’s what we did… We went to the field, did a couple of laps, Parzival was feeling good.We got to the stables, the temperature was normal.It’s a tough decision… What to do? Right now he’s fine, but who knows what will happen tomorrow?
If I leave the team, no one can fill in for me.What should I do? What is the right decision?I went to different vets. The vet from the Federation also examined Parzival – everything was fine.Everyone gave the green light. We decided that I would try…”.
“The temperature was normal, which meant that the toxins had been eliminated from his system.The swelling was a little noticeable, but we were constantly monitoring it, putting something cold on it, and it was slowly but surely disappearing.I agreed to give it a try.That very day came.
At the warm-up we didn’t warm up to our full strength, I didn’t want to give Parzival much of a workout.He felt good, but it was noticeable that he had less energy than usual “When we entered the field I noticed that Parzival gave his all, all his strength… He is a fighter, he never gave up.
But to protect him, I gave up… My friend, my sweet friend… The horse that has given me so much in his life does not deserve it…I greeted the audience and left the field…”