looks like Ilex is heading back to Brazil. A bit sad to see that this morning
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Was this planned/anticipated all along? If so I think I may have missed that memo.
Maybe they are aiming him for the next Olympics and want it to be for Brazil.
Brazil has a delightfully competitive string of horses and riders right now and has shown great savvy in their selection of team coaches so if he goes there under the watchful eye of Piet Raymakers he could be in a very good position to shine (more).
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I too was surprised to see this news. If it was the plan all along, I have never seen that written up anywhere. I loved watching him with McLain and am sorry they won’t get another shot at a major championship, I’ve always felt like if they had just managed to make it to the individual final round at the Olympics, Ilex would have been well suited to that final day course and would have had plenty left to give.
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That is the down side of Pro riding at any level-it is not your horse. Remember the WC winning rider that lost the ride? Best they can hope for is a piece of the ownership group/partnership.
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I wasn’t surprised at all…they were not peanut butter and jelly…close but not
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Editing my post to update that McLain actually WAS one of the co-owners so that would suggest this was a joint decision or else McLain only owned a small share so that Bonne Chance was the decisionmaker. https://www.usef.org/team-usa/horses/ilex
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McLain used to say he’d retire from showing at 40. Last I checked he’s coming up on the big 5 0. So it might be that he’s slowly dispersing the string in anticipation of slowing down a bit.
Anything is possible.
But that would surprise me a lot more than one horse changing riders for whatever reason.
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They just acquired that top Imperial HBF horse so I doubt that is the case. His results with Ilex have not been great since the Olympics.
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Yes, and he’s already had great results with that one.
Plus Margie just had a good win in a big class at the age of 67. And Ian Millar kept going at the top level until he was around 70, as I recall.
Ilex could be a dual threat on the pro rodeo circuit if he likes. His antics are so friggin’ entertaining but sometimes very ill-timed for McLain & team.
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Maybe the ownership group did not initiate the move?
Didn’t McLain miss the individual round in the Olympics because of a few seconds over the time limit? I seem to remember thinking that as much fun as Ilex is to watch, those couple of bucks add an extra couple of seconds to his time.
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McLain has a pretty good track record of dealing with horses that have a few little foibles along with their ability.
The little chestnut gelding who won a lot with him had a tendency to do something similar, as I recall. I think his barn name was Bongo, although his show name is not popping into my head right this second.
It can definitely cost some time at inopportune moments, though.
Are you thinking of Rothchild? I don’t know what his barn name was though.
Yes, that was the one. He had a tendency to be a little bit… expressive after the jumps. Lol.
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I believe a horse has to be owned by the same nationality of the country they are representing (at Olympic level, I’m not sure about NC or other team events). I’d assume McLain joined as an owner for those purposes only then, and likely didn’t have any say in a potential sale (agreeing with you, just expanding).
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Rothchild.
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