Or maybe the trainers didn’t want to deal with so many riders. Did they stop the barn management training as well?
I believe they’re still doing the barn management aspect, but I won’t swear to it.
Thanks, I should pay more attention.
It did not dawn on me until I saw a picture of this year‘s group, but this might be the first time I can remember not seeing at least one boy among the riders.
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You’re right, I didn’t even notice.
You know this is not censorship, right?
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Ugh now we can’t watch anything until later today? Ridiculous
I’m a CMH Premium member, and I’m able to watch this am (while working from home on a cold, snowy day). Interestingly, I started with the first McClain session, and I have not heard him mention anything about social media - I wonder if it was edited out?
On a more positive note, even with the editing, these clinics are so wonderful to watch/listen to. It’s a great resource and I’m grateful they’re available in some format to view. I’ll keep looking for them every year.
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I’m watching now and I like that with the editing they have the name of the rider and horse when they’re onscreen. Normally you see a sea of bays and you’re not sure which is which.
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I think she is making the opposite point. Because he talked about (paraphrasing) teaching position being about looking pretty she’s saying, we don’t teach this position to be pretty, we teach it because it is the most effective.
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I don’t think that is what he is saying. He said the strong emphasis on rider position in the US, and the equitation division is great, but “the problem arises when function becomes secondary to the way it looks.” He is saying we need to make sure we’re teaching position for the purpose of functional and effective riding.
She is saying the same thing.
I think people took his statements to mean “we shouldn’t teach position” when really I think he was saying, “if you’re teaching position to teach someone how to look pretty, you’re teaching position wrong.”
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I would say if Cook is going to keep making public statements on the subject, he needs to learn how to communicate better so that there is not so much confusion about exactly what he’s trying to say.
How many posts have we seen just in this thread with different people saying, I think he meant this, or I don’t think he meant that?
There have also been a couple of people claiming that it was an old video, and his opinion has probably changed since then. But I came across a more recent video of him saying that he had not changed his opinion on the subject one bit since his earlier videos.
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Its a quote pulled from a longer video. I don’t think its fair to say his communication is the problem without actually listening to what he communicated. Everyone flew into a tizzy off of some cherry picked quotes from what I understand was a much more comprehensive video.
Also, I don’t know what you mean by “a couple people claiming it was an old video.” The post itself says “originally posted on our blog in 2022.” It is not some mystery that it is a years old repost.
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It’s not a mystery that it was an old post, although a lot of people seemed to miss that part initially.
However, my point was they were claiming that because it was an old post, Cook’s opinion may have changed in the interim. But according to the more recent video I saw, he specifically said that was not the case.
From a 2021 article, when asked about riding difficult or unconventional horses:
“I prefer a horse that jumps clear. As a rider, you have to give the ride that’s right for the horse, morally and ethically, but also structurally. So many people focus so much on what is correct: building that ability to ride in a classically correct manner. But that often holds people back because they’re so stuck on it being classically correct; they don’t open their brain for the effective. If I know I would be less clear by pushing to be more classically correct, that is me being a worse horseman. A happy horse that’s sound, that’s what the horsemanship is.”
I just don’t think he connects the principles of classical riding with the why of riding correctly. I think he sees ‘correct riding’ as the stiff equitation model rather than the fluid, effective model and justifies his own lack of good riding this way. FWIW I dislike the way he rides, I think it’s jerky and wild and just a bit scary. I remember watching him crash a horse in a big class when he saw no stride and just gunned it
Here’s the entire article:
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I have no dog in the McClain/Karl fight but just jumping on here to say:
I LOVE watching Beezie ride even more than I like watching her teach, she is truly one and a million and I learn so much. I also love watching McLain teach as well, I think he does a fabulous job with the kids and is very kind and encouraging. I only watched one of each of their sessions yesterday and am looking forward to watching the rest this evening.
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Agreed on all fronts. I don’t know that I’ve ever watched a whole clinic with McClain but I thought it was excellent. He was fair and encouraging but put a lot of (appropriate) pressure on riders of that caliber. I thought he held them to a very high standard and I would guess they all got a lot of it. I certainly did. And Beezie….what a masterclass.
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Watched McLain’s sessions today. I really liked both of them. He really put a lot into the sessions - non-stop observations and explanations that added so much to the sessions. Every observation was accompanied by an explanation - ie, why he gave that direction to the rider, so that it was a learning moment for everyone.
And wow, these young riders are so good. Such strong positions - those lower legs are to die for!
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