They’ve turned the comments off on the interview, I’m sure Frances meant no harm but of course he and his sister had incredible horses and financial family back up, you don’t travel Europe with a team of horses without someone paying.
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Only if they leave Ireland and find wealthy owners to bankroll them.
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I’ll bet they did. Lol.
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Mclain was the only rider on the podium not to hug or hi 5 Martin Fuchs when he won the big prize in Geneva. Unless I missed something.
I don’t see McLain as a very emotional person in public. Pretty New Englander to me.
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I’ve never seen a place for comments on any WofSJ article.
I’m guessing they turned the comments off on their Facebook post. It scrolled by my feed early morning, shortly after posting and before much activity. I caught the cute little excerpt they chose to use and knew it was going to be a shitshow.
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You can make it even if you don’t have money? If you work hard enough?
Does he even hear himself? He grew up having literally hundreds of different horses to ride, constant access to good trainers, and seemingly no financial worries. Okay dude, whatever.
On a bitchy side note he looks weird over jumps. 
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Dang McClain brought up the social media drama about position in his clinic today on ClipMyHorse. 
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I was actually thinking that in a couple of pictures, his position looks a bit like Darragh Kenny’s. I think Darragh has trained him some, according to the article.
So that made me wonder if he was trying to ride like Darragh, or if they both try to ride like some Irish ideal, maybe with the hip angle a little more open.
I have to say it’s worked pretty well for Darragh so far. He’s won a lot.
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Folks, in particular boys-to-men, at that age say a lot of foot-in-mouth things that don’t age well.
I’m not condoning the comments he made–they are tone deaf–but I also think this is a case of “not enough lived experience” vs writing someone off completely as a terrible human (not saying you’re doing this in your post; just more general how the internet tends to crucify folks).
My hope would be a few more years down the line he’d reflect back and say “yeah I’ve changed my viewpoint.”
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That thought certainly crossed my mind as well.
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Slightly off-topic: one of my friend’s mothers saved all the choice quotes he said from ages 15 - 22 and then shared them in an inspirational quote book for his graduation from med school. It was kinda wild. I didn’t know him until a little later in life so I missed the majority of growing pains. There was a lot of cringe she decided to hold him accountable to. I’m grateful my parents didn’t think to do that; plenty I’m not proud of
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Ouch! Lol.
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OMG, my brother and I - both “good kids” - would have quite the book of stupid things we said to our parents!
“You look like a damn accountant!” would be in mine, said to my father when he shaved off his beard. (He did grow it back as it had been camoflauging his very weak chin…)
OTOH my parents would have their own lengthy list.
“Ann, do you need birth control?” from my father after I’d been out most of the night with my first boyfriend. I was 17 at the time, and deeply offended that he’d think I’d risk getting pregnant. I didn’t need contraception until a couple of years later. My poor father; he was visiting me at college around when it happened, and had no idea.
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What did he say?
I did think this was interesting, from the COTH article about Beezie’s session:
“Position is not because I want to look pretty, but because I want to be effective and be able to communicate with the horse in the most effective way with the least amount of distractions for him,” Madden said.
Isn’t that exactly what Karl was saying?
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Pretty much, yes.
Much ado about nothing, here.
For anyone commenting and criticizing here, who hasn’t done so, please watch the video of Cook that I linked to at the start of this thread. https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/video-karl-cook-keeps-the-heat-on-to-win-la-world-cup-class/?_gl=1
What would be your complaint about his position?
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My first thought was Kent Farrington, but your Darragh comparison obviously makes much more sense. But it’s actually a style I like and try to emulate myself, keeping my chin up like they do helps keep my upper body correct.
Kent has a similar style on top of the jumps.
There was a hilarious Facebook post some years back with pictures of Kent as a little kid on a pony jumper and what he looks like today over a 1.60 jump. His position is remarkably consistent.
Edited to add: Found it!
Also, if you want some fitness inspiration, you can scroll through Kent’s Facebook page for some of his workout videos from a few years back, which are just unbelievable.
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Do you emulate his leg position over the jump? (I’m not asking in a bitchy tone, I’m curious if you do the leg thing)
