I grew up a block or two from Sharonshire Farm, south of Boston, which (way)back in the day was the Ward family. Very big into H/J.
Used to host shows next to the train tracks–Amtrak and the purple, commuter rail T to Providence. (yes, it got interesting at times! :eek: )
They moved, and I worked at that farm just after they moved for a brief period.
Just wondering if it’s the same Wards by any chance.
His father is Barney Ward.
He has generally been located in NY/CT.
Wasn’t he a football player before he became a horse killer?
Don’t know about football but he was definitely the latter. 
He – meaning BARNEY – was a football player at one time. McLain has nothing to do with his father’s issues. And if you are going to be so nasty, you might at least specify to whom you are referring.
Pretty sure that Mclain trains with Barney, he says it frequently in articles.
From what I’ve heard, MaClain doesn’t exactly have a spotless record, either. Studded boots, anyone?
hey - I know that family you are referring to
Adele and her family are not related to Barney as far as I know. She had several daughters - Rebecca (who owned Sharonsire after Adele moved to Middleboro), Melissa, Michelle, Adele and 2 sons- I can’t remember their names. The sons were like 6 and 8 when I knew the family when they had a farm in Middleboro. Adele, the mom, was married a few times and is related to Nancy Ciesluk of Cerulean.
I understand that Adele ran some race horses at the fairs and previously showed and evented. I also remember reading somewhere that she had won the lottery and moved from Massachusetts to TN - don’t know about that, however.
If anyone has contact information for Adele I’d appreciate it to send her a note.
Darden
oooh, bet there is plenty of bandwidth available on horseshowspy for you guys. Meanwhile can the rest of us just relax and enjoy it for oh, let’s say 12 hours, mmmkay?
Hay
Barney Ward had Shannon Stables in (I think) Brewster NY for years. Interesting old, old barn on about 5 - 7 acres. Very, very old fashioned. I’m sure it’s not there anymore…
And, yes, he is a nefarious fellow…When I went there to get a job as a groom in the 70s, Barney was not there and another groom told me basically to leave now, it’s not a good place to work as a young starry-eyed, horse lover teenaged girl. In hindsight, I’m glad I left and went to work for other nefarious individuals.
Shannon is in Bedford NY. Still there, currently on the market for $15M- do a search for and earlier thread. I think it is more like 30 acres.
http://chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?p=3347380&highlight=shannon#post3347380
http://thejournalnews.2.homescape.co…06/id-36175796
There were plenty of rumors about what went on when Barney was there.
AFTER Shannon, he moved to Brewster.
Shannon Stables is in Bedford, and is for sale.
When BW was starting out there, my father used to take me over there (I was about 5) to sit on the fence and watch.
Later years, under different ownership/trainer, I restarted my riding there as an adult.
Wards have always been in Westchester, Greenwich area.
chio aachen 2003…
life time ban for maclain from the holy aachen grounds given his disrespectful behaviour - big deal overhere and hats off to the aachen jockey club (institution sponsoring/organizing the chio) for showing that much strength and consequence.
people loved them for having set a sign.
up until in 2004 george morris started strongest offenses and pressure (didn’t really make himself many friends overhere…) forcing the aachen organisation to allow maclain back in since the chio 2004 was the official pre-selection trial for the athen olympics and he insisted the US team MUST be allowed to compete completly - … said to have been told by the aachen org to f… off and consider ground rules of horesmanship PRIOR to let such things happen in his team …
no chance.
morris got the FEI involved and they did what they can do best:
ignore priniciples of basic sport&horesmanship - aachen was forced to let maclain back in.
the nation was disgusted.
aachen is considered “holy grounds” and it was bad enough to have a creature like maclain back in - but on top of that having to accept that the FEI can force them to do what a single individual person wants to do in their own country - completely debasing…
so what happened was that a single reporter at the major german national TV station would show his protest by not commenting on maclain every time he would compete:
pretty cool thing, this reporter is one of the most popular sport commentators overhere and the only equestrian specialist - and basically he dared his job as this was a public news channel…
(you need to understand that aachen is the biggest thing overhere and the public TV owe it SEVEN days a week broadcast…)
so the public however loved him for that and it was amazing what SILENCE can do - he probably gained much more attention and tought the public more about maclains disbehaviour by simply saying NOTHING at all than he could have ever achieved by talking it all over again…
not sure if he got sh… ,too (by the channel, morris or the FEI. who knows? money is mighty…) but he did start commenting on maclain in the following year again - didn’t seem to be delighted to have to do so but no more silent ward-approaches - too bad…
so as much as i am happy for the us-team to have won the gold medal today:
the fact that a man with a background like this is still active on horseback is a shame to say the least.
i switched off my lifestream when they were about to hand the medal on to him.
that much about horsemanship.
i’ld rather see him fight with wrestlers and his alikes.
[QUOTE=pines4equines;3452793]
In hindsight, I’m glad I left and went to work for other nefarious individuals.[/QUOTE]
:lol::lol::lol:
Can we PLEASE just enjoy this great performance?
Seriously. I’m sure we all have something in our past to be ashamed of. Mclain is not his father. He is an american who went out, developed a strong partnership with that mare and showed up for the party ready to win and contributed great rounds to that effort. If not for the rider, then lets at least allow for some time to celebrate Sapphire’s brilliant effort.
Like DMK said- can we have 12 hours before skewering the man?
[QUOTE=fannie mae;3452816]
chio aachen 2003…
life time ban for maclain from the holy aachen grounds given his disrespectful behaviour - big deal overhere and hats off to the aachen jockey club (institution sponsoring/organizing the chio) for showing that much strength and consequence.
people loved them for having set a sign.
up until in 2004 george morris started strongest offenses and pressure (didn’t really make himself many friends overhere…) forcing the aachen organisation to allow maclain back in since the chio 2004 was the official pre-selection trial for the athen olympics and he insisted the US team MUST be allowed to compete completly - … said to have been told by the aachen org to f… off and consider ground rules of horesmanship PRIOR to let such things happen in his team …
no chance.
morris got the FEI involved and they did what they can do best:
ignore priniciples of basic sport&horesmanship - aachen was forced to let maclain back in.
the nation was disgusted.
aachen is considered “holy grounds” and it was bad enough to have a creature like maclain back in - but on top of that having to accept that the FEI can force them to do what a single individual person wants to do in their own country - completely debasing…
so what happened was that a single reporter at the major german national TV station would show his protest by not commenting on maclain every time he would compete:
pretty cool thing, this reporter is one of the most popular sport commentators overhere and the only equestrian specialist - and basically he dared his job as this was a public news channel…
(you need to understand that aachen is the biggest thing overhere and the public TV owe it SEVEN days a week broadcast…)
so the public however loved him for that and it was amazing what SILENCE can do - he probably gained much more attention and tought the public more about maclains disbehaviour by simply saying NOTHING at all than he could have ever achieved by talking it all over again…
not sure if he got sh… ,too (by the channel, morris or the FEI. who knows? money is mighty…) but he did start commenting on maclain in the following year again - didn’t seem to be delighted to have to do so but no more silent ward-approaches - too bad…
so as much as i am happy for the us-team to have won the gold medal today:
the fact that a man with a background like this is still active on horseback is a shame to say the least.
i switched off my lifestream when they were about to hand the medal on to him.
that much about horsemanship.
i’ld rather see him fight with wrestlers and his alikes.[/QUOTE]
You know what Fannie Mae, on at least a couple of occasions that come to mind your beloved German team members were flagged for drugging their horses and, umm, were stripped of international medals because of these incidents. Now, do I think all German riders drug their horses and are bad people (or even that those particular riders do, ordinarily)? No, of course not. But I would not be so quick to condemn others.
And by the way, thank you for announcing the results of the competition that I have Tivo’d. I was trying to avoid the threads discussing the competition, but thanks to you I guess I don’t need to bother watching after all.
burps
right on, yankeelaywer, exactly the reason my interest in olympic equestrian sport has turned down dramatically well before the rollkur-stuff popped up. too much money involved, too much individual egoism - not really a sport in the sense of sport (“horsemanship”) anymore - except for eventing, i still dare to say.
many of the german riders i’ld rather not like to see perform, either, as i had too many opportunities watch them at the warm up areas all those years.
which is the reason i focus on breeding rather than following intl sports.
condemn others?
i don’t think so.
the us team convinced through best performance - honour to whom honour is due.
and i am pretty sure my entire beloved german nation does agree with that as much as i do.
as they are pretty good in dealing with self criticism and i think so am i.
“And by the way, thank you for announcing the results of the competition that I have Tivo’d. I was trying to avoid the threads discussing the competition, but thanks to you I guess I don’t need to bother watching after all.”
???
don’t get it.
Simply amazing. The man (McLain) rode three near-flawless rounds over Olympic courses that claimed many, many point casualties (just loved the refusals by not one, but two German riders this morning) then rode a gorgeous clear round in a high-pressure jump off and you vultures can’t wait to come out start throwing crap on his achievements! :mad:
If you want to condemn every child for a parents’ misdeeds you might as well resign yourself to creating a very long list of unfortunate offspring. His father’s crimes do not deserve to be mentioned on the same day McLain rode his boots off for the country.
McLain was the superstar of our team’s Olympic competition and he did so with grace and style. Without him, we would not have won gold. I am incredibly proud he’s on our side!! 
I don’t see how discussing his past demeans his accomplishment. The truthful part of his history is what it is. You can either decide it bothers you or decide it doesn’t. He’s not the only person with skeletons in their closet, it is what it is. People talked plenty about a certain Canadian rider with past drug problems-- your past is your past. Nothing can take away from what he accomplished today and I think it would be hard from anyone to question his talent and ability (he’s amazing). But that doesn’t mean the past ceases to exist. His past is part of him and he’s seemingly learned to accept that.
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