The person I dated is still friends with GL.
I watched PV give a lesson to an older adult while he tried to sell my client two very inappropriate horses for very inflated prices…I have never seen such verbal abuse in my life, and I rode with GM quite a bit. I asked my employer/client if she really wanted to go try horses at his place, did she know who he was??? She didn’t care (of course she also had horses with AK at the time so…) I only wished I’d had the thought to video it, but I suppose there will still be people who don’t care.
5 Likes
I still see it coming up re: McLain Ward in the comments section when he wins. Obviously, it hasn’t stopped him from having one of the most storied careers and producing some of the top showjumpers in the US, but it definitely crops up.
Here is a link to the obituary.
I’m sure the main reason Barney Ward got the obituary was because of his son’s success. Still, I am sure McLain isn’t happy with the attention given to his father’s past with this new documentary.
3 Likes
Burns came across to me as a very damaged guy, though he’s certainly guilty of animal cruelty and he knows it. His description of Barney Ward makes Ward look seem pretty Machievellian-- he’d just do whatever it took to get something to go his way, too. Either Burns or the FBI guy pointed out that Ward came from nothing and had scratched his way up in the horse world. Comparing those guys to the rather untouchable owners in the sport reminds me about the huge gaps in wealth and power that are endemic to our sport. It doesn’t always have to go badly, but there’s such opportunity for severe arm-twisting.
3 Likes
Meh, the junior Ward should just chalk that unhappiness up to “the cost of doing business” and keep his head down. You’d have to show me that McLain Ward would have had the opportunities and advantages he did without his father’s success in the industry, both before and after his conviction. He got to where he was, at least in part, because the AHSA allowed sh!t like Ward standing just off the edge of show grounds but still sending horses in to compete to stand.
17 Likes
I agree 100%.
1 Like
I was working for Chip Hudson and Pam Strom at Druck’s Eagle’s Nest the winter that Tommy was taken into that world. Jim Druck was lucky he got Cancer. His name rarely comes up in the discussions on this topic but Druck was a major player in the insurance scams. I also had bad vibes about his very inappropriate behavior towards Lisa Jo.
1 Like
Why wouldn’t COTH report Ward’s death? Charles Manson’s death was widely reported in countless news reports across the entire country - certainly no one thought that was because the publishers or anyone else thought he was a decent guy.
2 Likes
And did he not continue to train closely with his father, or at the very least collaborate with him (I believe he said at one point that Barney had selected/purchased/trained Rothchild)? There was clearly still a close connection, so there are also consequences to maintaining that connection (i.e. having your father’s name come up when you’ve been caught doing something wrong, or having your name brought up when people talk about what your father did wrong). It’s not as though he cut contact when everything came out, right?
4 Likes
Ah, that makes me sad. I knew from the NY Times article I posted above and many previous statements McLain has never distanced himself from his father, really, but Rothchild was one of my favorite showjumpers of all time.
2 Likes
Looks like the same quotes were used in various articles about it, including in one by COTH.
1 Like
Being a scumbag did not prevent Barney from having an incredible eye for a horse.
24 Likes
Yes. Barney is definitely not the only scumbag with a fabulous eye for a horse.
IIRC McLain talked very warmly about his dad during an acceptance speech for an award. He may have even prefaced that part of his speech by saying that some people might not like what he was about to say.
4 Likes
Well considering McLain lives at Castle Hill Farm which was where Barney lived, I’d say he was in pretty close contact with him until Barney’s death. I remember those days like it was yesterday. McLain was 8 years old and still riding small and medium ponies.
Barney was a funny guy, he could be the most generous person ever - he bought me paddock boots and offered to buy me custom chaps, let us keep our horses there for free, would buy everyone dinner out, buy us lunch, but then he’d turn around and be extremely cruel and hurtful.
8 Likes
I watched Barney beat the crap out of his girlfriend at MSG in the 80’s…in the horses stall because there was no room elsewhere. He of course won the grand prix of NY that very night…sigh
5 Likes
This is what I was telling my husband last night! I have a very fancy, $$$ horse who’s been laid up for a few months due to an issue uncovered at six-figure PPE. 
Is it frustrating? Yep. Did him not selling create a slight hardship/inconvenience for me? Yup. But when that big head looks out through the stall window and hunts me up and down for cookies, I could care less. I just can’t imagine.
15 Likes
When I started working there, he and Chris were separated although he was around every day to work his horses. Barney lived at a nearby hotel and Chris was at the house/farm. She was sporting a cast on her arm and it was rumored he broke it.
[edit]
2 Likes
I truly believe that all people are a mix of bad and good. With some having a great deal of bad.
It’s not impossible that Barney would have been a mix, and that McLain experienced and had memories of the good in his father.
8 Likes
Yes, just reading all of these stories–the ability to spot talent not just in a sport-typical horse, but a scrappy little pain in the ass like the wonderful Rothschild, these stories of abuse, and his relationship with his son. It’s depressing to read and contemplate, in addition to everything else surrounding the crime.
4 Likes
Thanks for the recommendation, the episode was informative and very well done. I knew that these things happened but I didn’t know the details. To be totally honest, it repulsed me so much that it made me glad I’m not showing in the H/J world anymore. I know there are bad people in every sport, but the portrayal of the horse show world as a place where the uber rich paid off working class people to do their dirty work just makes the whole industry look gross.
I was also disturbed by comments that Tommy made and one that Barney made in a home video (of what looked like Tommy’s wedding? they didn’t really specify) that heavily hinted at Safe Sport violations.
As far as those saying Barney was not a completely terrible person as he truly cared about “his” people. Sure, I guess you could say he cared about them, but I got the impression he only did nice things for people to get them on his side. It seems like he took in broken people, gave them a home, and then used their trust in him to make them do his dirty work. Textbook grooming behavior. As soon as they were no longer useful to him (or a liability), he abandoned them or had them “taken care of”. Just like the horses he had killed. But I never knew the man so I could be wrong.
28 Likes
I last minute filled in for Barney’s regular groom at MSG the year he won the GP. I would have noticed and remembered if he beat a woman in a stall that night.
3 Likes
