You could remove the horse from that picture and McLain would be perfectly balanced on his feet.
I can’t figure out how to post videos on here but my favorite one of Ilex in Calgary goes -bell - WHEEEE - round the trees -boink - boink - boink- Arrested - turbo restart - absolute unit turning and jumping clean. Crowd goes wild.
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Perfect example. Thanks for finding it. I seem to recall there were many, many, many similar pictures over the years.
I’ve seen that horse a couple of times at his retirement home over the last few years, and he did not look anywhere near as animated. Lol.
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On the topic of bucks losing time, I watched JJ with Vitus K at Devon and upperville and, despite some impressive bucks, he got an impressively fast time, winning at least one class at Devon iirc. But I think it just comes down to how naturally fast the horse is.
I was sad to hear this too as I loved watching them together, that horse is SUCH and athlete and I thought McLain did a great job with him. I also really really like the La Serra mare he had at Devon, she is freaking awesome!
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Who is that rider? Was that the previous rider from before McLain had him?
The scoop:
https://www.worldofshowjumping.com/en/News/Marlon-Modolo-Zanotelli-takes-over-the-ride-on-Ilex.html
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He’s a Brazilian rider I believe. Lives in Sweden and married to a very good Swedish rider. I could have the countries incorrectly named, but he’s from S America and she’s from Europe and they are based in Europe. Pretty good rider.
Thanks!
