Spooner could equitate when he wanted to, as that video shows!
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I’m glad I’m not reading the facebook comments then. There is enough nasty criticism of Cook and other riders on this thread. At least here, they can be put down to ignorance.
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Someone in the comments of one of the shares also just brought this up… The blog NF shared is from 2022, not even recent comments. Maybe Karl has changed his tune a little.
Add me to the list of “getting a bad taste” from some of these comments for the top people in the sport.
Also if one more very wealthy person with extremely wealthy clients & backers mentions KC’s wealth and privilege I might slam my head into a wall.
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It’s a little annoying when they recycle old stuff just to get more mileage out of it.
But maybe they figured it would get more attention now. And it looks like they were right! Lol.
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Have you ever seen Roger Yves-Bost? He’s French and his style is something to watch.
I’ve noticed something. I am able to watch a lot of grand prix jumping on YouTube. Many of the riders are SITTING in the saddle between jumps. NOT the hunter riders of today who are in the forward seat, butt-out-of-the-saddle position.
What style and riding abilities I had 45 years ago has long left me. My first English instructor taught me to SIT THE CANTER. The only time my rear end was out of the saddle was when I was going OVER a jump. Later, my eventing instructor stressed the same thing, and I started earning equitation ribbons. (Again, I probably couldn’t ride a mechanical horse in a store with any effectiveness NOW.)
It makes me wonder how much the riders nowadays are/can influence their mounts. I mean, my hunter, eventing, and finally, dressage instructors always seemed to find SOME way for my ample rear to help ‘ride’ the horse I was on at the time.
I’m NOT saying that the hunter riders in the ring are WRONG. They are ALL much better riders than I ever was. I have just kind of wondered why it changed…
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Breaking my Facebook boycott to say OMG —- Hervè Freaking Godignon weighed in on that conversation. The man who brought you Quidam de Revel. To say he probably lost more classes than he won for lack of basics. Absolutely remarkable.
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This very timely Facebook post on the subject just popped up in my memories yesterday.
I don’t think I know him, but I’ll check youtube to see if I can find any videos. Thanks for the tip!
ETA I do remember him, those legs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcSFni0iuE&pp=ygUPUm9nZXIgWXZlcy1Cb3N0
Oh would love to see his comment - do you have a link or screenshot?
Sadly I don’t, but his one sentence remark was pretty much what I put down. Who will show up next? David Broome? 
If McLain was 100% correct here, no one would ever be able to beat Lillie Keenan because no one looks more “correct” on a horse than she does. Karl has a point in what he said and as a huge McLain fan I’m incredibly disappointed in his latest two Facebook posts. There’s just no excuse or reason for the pile on he has allowed towards Karl on his FB page. If all McLain had done was leave out the first sentence of his post, it would have resulted in a discussion instead of an attack. Who knew McLain was such an ass?
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I honestly feel like McLain read the snippet and not the entire NF post/blog. It seems like everyone has done the same thing and didn’t even bother to take the time to try to understand what Karl was trying to say. Karl didn’t say “your position doesn’t matter at all and you can ride like a sack of potatoes.” Karl’s point is that having a proper and effective position that moves with your horse is more important that focusing on how far down you can jam your heels and how board straight you can make your back.
I am frankly disappointed in McLain and other professionals who decided to pile on and attack Karl personally. Especially considering that without Karl stepping in at the last minute and performing beautifully at the Olympics, the USA would NOT have come home with a medal.
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Post from Facebook
[quote=Herve Godignon]So well said McLain , I suffer all my life of that deficit of basic and I think I lost more classes than I win because of that 
Love you 
Herve[/quote]
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I hope to see a walking an talking from Karl soon in response 
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I wonder if Karl was told that this article was going to be republished. I could speculate that the timing of the share was due to his Friday success in Geneva and then not success on Sunday. I also wonder if he would choose to reword some things in his piece or change his opinion altogether, 2+ years down the road now, and with significantly more experience under his belt.
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I just saw he wrote it 2 years ago. Ouch. 
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Someone commented on TPH’s newest article about it that “Two years isn’t really that long ago”, and while I decided to scroll by and bite my tongue… I wanted to reply something along the lines of “You mean you can’t grow, learn, or change your philosophy within two years?”
But alas…
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Me. I knew.
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