But he jumped and because of him they earned a team medal. They just don’t like him as a person. Period end of story. The spoiled rich kid angle is ridiculous. They all have big money backers he just uses his money lol
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LOUDER PLEASE!
I don’t think Karl should be above criticism where it’s due (ie his performance in Rio and plenty of other places where he’s openly criticised himself as well), but I’m so tired of people criticising him just because he’s rich.
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Yes. Just like McLain can’t help who his parents are, neither can Karl.
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I don’t think you can infer that there is some big secret about Karl that is unknown to anyone but “top professionals”. Apparently he is all over social media, and I haven’t seen anything anywhere that has intimated that he should be above criticism.
He has been competing in FEI classes nationally and internationally for years, and the people who actually show horses in USEF and FEI classes, and are familiar with his team (not the California keyboard critics) seem to have a good opinion of his and his Mom’s operation.
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Ah sorry, plastic shards.
And when Paul Valliere is commenting on mclain’s FB posts, they clearly still have a relationship. Yikes.
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Eh, I’m not so sure about that - Ward’s profile and posts are public, so he (or his team*) seem to be using it more as a page for a public figure than for a private individual. So Valliere could be commenting on it without having any kind of relationship with Ward (also Ward does not have his friends list locked down and Valliere does not show up on it)
That said, while Ward is an excellent rider, I am not so certain of his character.
*I wonder, does Ward even have a social media or PR team? Most riders don’t, so maybe he’s just oblivious to everything going on in the comments? Or even who is commenting? I know Boyd Martin has at least one person for his social media, but I think he’s probably pretty unusual in that among high level riders
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They don’t like him as a person BECAUSE he acts like an arrogant rich kid. They don’t. Spending half your time posting on IG about your “program” and how good it is and all the things you do for your horses, when you only went to the Olympics because Mom spent 7 figures on a horse for you is just annoying.
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Okay very fair point. PV is just always so supportive and vocal (or, I seem to notice his name a lot in McLain’s posts), so it just stands out more. But good callouts!
I have a good friend who worked on the east coast (I’m on the west) and was married to an Irish rider…she said anyone at the top likely does some questionable things. And I do fear that that is true. As they say…never meet your idols.
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He isn’t the first nor the last to do that. So are we just going to hate all who come from money from now on?
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It may be “annoying” to you but you don’t seem to understand that spending seven figures on a horse does not get anyone to the Olympics. There are no horses that can be ridden by a mediocre rider that make Olympic qualifications unless they are bought by countries that have little show jumping history. The nations that have tried to make it on horse power alone, have not fared well. The courses are huge and technical and the horses don’t jump around by themselves.
People who follow anything about FEI, or have even ridden in USEF level competition understand this.
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I wish I could like this 100 times. And his partnership with Caracole started off rocky at best. He has worked hard to learn to ride that mare. He gets my respect.
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Bingo.
Money doesn’t buy the skill needed to pilot these high performance horses over difficult courses. Resenting his money and funding is a curious position to hold in a world of big money horses and high stakes. It’s not like McLain clocked out of Costco just in time to change clothes and hop on a horse
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He still had better results at the Olympics than Ward.
Cook and all his social media annoy me half the time. I’m definitely not a fan of him. But he can still ride. Even if his mother is buying him fancy world class horses, he’s still got to pilot them over the fences. And it’s not like the horses he’s got are easy rides - he’s had to adjust his own riding a lot to Caracole, but he did, and he had a great Olympics until the last round.
Put me on Caracole and at least one of us would die. No matter how fantastic she may be, it still takes talent to get her around a course safely.
Can he develop a horse? I don’t know. Can his own position and style improve? Probably? Does success come to him easier because he doesn’t truly need to earn a living and so can spend his days riding as much as he can? Of course. But it still takes drive and dedication and talent to get to that level. Could he do better? Probably. But he’s also doing better than a lot of people would even if we had the same privileges.
ETA: I hate that so much about equestrian sports is driven by money and who has the most money and can but the best horse. But even so, you’ve still got to ride the horse. And that still takes skill and the more talented the horse and the harder the course, the more talent and skill you need.
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But if he doesn’t want to develop a horse that’s his prerogative. Kent wants his horses a certain way so he likes to bring them up through the levels which works for his program. McLain acquired Ilex and took him to the Olympics a few months later. What is the difference?
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Oh, agreed! I don’t think developing a horse is a prerequisite to being a 5* rider!
I think his results speak for himself. And he’s definitely done the work to be a better rider for Caracole, which I respect immensely.
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OMG. I see deliberate lack of reading comprehension is still alive and well on the COTH forums.
I wasn’t criticizing him for being rich, I said he came off as an arrogant rich kid. He’s had some wild and ignorant takes on riding and training over the years. Years where he was still a newcomer and having a hard time at the top level of the sport.
And I stand by my opinion that the big name professionals criticizing him heavily on Mclain’s post have most likely had lots of personal interactions with him and the criticism stems from their experiences with him. There are lots of rich young riders with family money backing them in this sport, riders that the “old guard” competed alongside over the years, yet no one seems to have anything negative to say about them.
As for not wanting to develop young horses, fine, whatever, but don’t buy a bunch of made horses and then go lecture on social media and to news article about how you think horses and riders should be developed.
I’ll give the guy credit where it’s due. He had that awful showing over the summer before the Olympics where he damn near killed himself and his mare and put in the work to turn it around.
It’s wild that Mclain can be criticized to the ends of the earth for the post he made or things he said, but god forbid anybody says a bad word about anything Karl has said or done.
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To be clear, this is the annoying part:
I’ve never seen McLain, nor Laura, nor Kent posting about how good their program is and how they care for and train their horses (frankly I wish they would!). Beezie does it - and I think anyone that has watched her videos is grateful - but she’s done a hell of a lot more than Karl has, so I think her program has just a bit (/s) more street cred.
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Good for him, he worked hard and improved. We can all strive for that.
You know who I’ve never heard anyone say they “had to work hard and learn how to ride that horse” about? McLain. Nor Kent, Beezie, Laura, Margie, etc. Because they have the decades of experience as professionals riding dozens if not hundreds of horses and working on their position the whole time to be stable and effective in the tack. So call me unsurprised when they get a little miffed that someone 30 years their junior is talking about how he knows so much about position.
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You may never had heard that, because people who knew nothing about it were not all over the place giving their opinions about how our best riders were training. QFP Will revisit this tomorrow. Sleep well COTH.
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