It’s his thing, but it’s a nice thing. Regardless of his motivation, he’s bringing joy and precious memories to those children.
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McLain has a wonderful sense of humor and can “cut loose” when he’s with his family and friends. He is more of the kind, soft-spoken variety, which shows through in his rides.
I’m glad you mentioned this too… Every time I watch that one go, I am mostly struck by what a beautiful animal she is!
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Whatever his motivation, I love seeing the happy faces of the children when he gives them the ribbons. I’ve noticed him doing this at Harrisburg every year. I probably haven’t watched enough of the award ceremonies at International shows in Europe to notice him doing it there.
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Anyone who can watch Mclain ride and believe he is an abuser doesn’t know horses. He consistently gets top results from his horses, who tend to have long careers, and they just do for him, over and over. He is an effective rider and obviously lives to win, but it’s because he works with the horses, and has an obvious connection to them in the saddle. I do not understand how one could see his riding, year after year, and how his horses respond to him, and think anything but that he is a good horseman.
That whole mess with the chips and then the sensitivity thing with Sapphire was insane. Given that there was an admission later by the FEI that it shouldn’t have happened (see MHM’s link above), I think holding onto the idea that he would do anything to hurt his horses doesn’t make sense. And, again, the proof is in the pudding. Sapphire fought for the win with him at the biggest competitions in the world, over and over again- they were so clearly in sync with each other. Contagious performs above where he logically should, according to Mclain, and you don’t get that with a horse who doesn’t trust his rider or is in pain. And so on. I just watched his JO with First Lady at Pennsylvania- that is a confident mare at the top of her game who worked with her rider to win.
I don’t see how there can be any logic to holding onto a belief that is just not true (in this case: Mclain is an evil horse abuser), but of course, people do that all the time.
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McLain Ward gets questioned because of the sins of his father who was also a great rider. So it IS possible to be good and a butthead.
I don’t know McClain. At all. I hope he is not like his father.
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Famous rider. Not great. I hated to watch Barney ride, honestly (not to mention the other stuff).
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I agree that he is questioned because of his father.
What I watched Saturday night was a true horseman, very deliberate in the way he approached the course and very deliberate in the way he set his horses up for success. He was kind and respectful of the horses every second in the ring, and very positive with them when finished- rubbing their necks and speaking nicely to them.
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That’s cool because I’d rather it be that way that he’s a good guy!
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I’ve never seen complaints from people who’ve bought horses from him, or horses that were previously in the Castle Hill program/campaigned by McLain.
When Reed Kessler abruptly quit riding she trusted him to get her string sold. I’ve seen at least one of his former jumpers in the big eq ring, though that’s been some time ago.
I can grant him a little bit of grace for his defenses of his father, when Barney was still living and McLain was unhappy about the ban that kept him from the stands. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be McLain and try to reconcile the father figure with the vile horse killer. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t had a parent found guilty of some horrifically cruel breach of law can say how they’d have felt or what they’d have done in McLain’s shoes.
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It’s pretty easy to avoid being detected at a big Grand Prix if you just buy a ticket and sit in the stands. But when you are banned and you still feel the need to go to the schooling area, you are gonna get caught.
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Very true. When I typed that I had in mind the interview several years ago in which McClain complained that Barney’s ban would keep him from attending the Olympics as a spectator.
As you point out, he probably could have bought tickets to watch the showjumping and no one would have been the wiser - he may have done so. Barney would have wanted to be able to stand ringside, at the very least.
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So a couple things that I can speak to about Mclain
- In 2002 I went and helped the Media folks at the WEG Show Jumping Selection Trials in Del Mar, Ca. This was back when I was in a relationship with an equine photographer and I became a useful tag along person at Press tents at big outings. On that trip I had to grab riders after their rounds for their on camera interview. This fit nicely with my recent college schooling in video broadcasting and I was basically a flunkie that did what I was told. Remember that this is during a time when Mclain was not the “MCLAIN” that we know now. He had not become a team rider yet and while he was a very talented rider who was sitting at the top of the rankings at the time of this week, he wasn’t where he is now. Barney was still alive and still banned.
I was asked to go get him for his interview and I looked around and I saw him off in the distance on his phone. Someone told me… oh give him a sec for this call. He’ll still come. So I did. When he was wrapping up the call I approached a bit and kind of did this gesture thing to indicate we needed him. He nodded and got off and came over. He’d been on the phone with his dad. At his first selection trials for a US team. And it took a call to be able to discuss the round with his father. Softy and overly prone to reading dramatic novels then, I felt bad for him. But he was very kind and pleasant to me.
- In 2020 I was able to get Mclain to be one of my judges for the Scholarship to the RRP Thoroughbred Makeover that I fund. It was him, Gary Stevens and Victoria Keith that year. While he earnestly judged the 4 finalists and selected the outcome I expected, it was the add on extra that surprised me. My 4th place finalist was a young boy. In his essay about why he wanted to win this scholarship he wanted to help his stepmother who had helped him as his trainer. She had worked so hard and he felt very ready at a recent show but when show day came his coat was too short in the sleeves. He couldn’t stretch his arms forward enough and so his rounds were less stellar than they had practiced and this young (13 yrs at that point) boy felt like he’d let her down. When Mclain sent me his ranking of the top 4 finalists there was a note…"Please contact Erica and we will be happy to donate a riding coat for Vincent. "
Long story short, I put Vincent’s step mom in touch with Mclain’s office. Vincent didn’t just get a coat, he got a custom Charles Ancona jacket.
I appreciate Mclain for doing this, it warmed my heart so much. I appreciate what he’s done for the US team, and the publicity he has put out there about working on his mental challenges to become a better rider. (He works with sports therapists for keeping his head together in high pressure moments and has talked about it to help normalize this)
He didn’t have to help me and he certainly didn’t have to give a random kid from the midwest a new coat. But that’s the thing… he’s a great person.
Em
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Thank you for the story. Seems he’s a good guy after all!
I like that.
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From what I’ve seen, McLain is a sensitive rider who takes good care of his horses. I hope that he has taken the high road.
From what I remember (and from what I heard growing up close to Brewster NY), Barney Ward treated many horses and staff badly. People on this thread have said that horses coming from Andy Kocher’s program were fried. Same for the ones that flunked out of Barney Ward’s. For that matter, I looked at a horse once that had been at Paul Valliere’s with similar issues.
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The things that are done to some show horses are both criminal and disgusting.
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I think you can remove “Show” from that. MANY horses across many jobs in the world have things done to them that fit this description.
Em
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I lived near Barney’s farm as well back in the day. I remember seeing him at Old salem when he was banned from competing but was there watching his son. What he did was unspeakable. There is a Netflix documentary on it. Tough stuff for sure… Big money and horses can bring really unscrupulous behaviors.
I remember when the Sports Illustrated article came out and my mom was in the kitchen when I was reading it.(In a time before much internet, smart phones, etc) I set the magazine down and mom was nearby and saw the name “Marion Hulick” and commented…“What’s the article about? That’s the woman who taught me to ride.”
As is typical for a younger person (20), I looked at my mom with pure disgust and blasted that the lady who taught her to ride was a horse killer. She was shocked, read the article and you could see she was trying to reconcile what had been pleasant memories of her youth with shocking atrocities of the then present knowledge.
I found an article just now from 2010 where her dog showed at Westminster and won and she still sounds like a peach of a woman.
Em
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Yeah, she’s a peach alright.
From the article, regarding the killing of Charisma:
Last night at the dog show, she called the whole ordeal “a mistake of a young person I was working for.”
Okay, Marion. You go with that version if it helps you sleep at night. But hell is still waiting for you.
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