{"id":104135,"date":"2026-10-20T15:10:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/?p=104135"},"modified":"2026-10-20T15:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:33:11","slug":"entweder-mittelmass-oder-schauen-wie-weit-wir-kommen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/entweder-mittelmass-oder-schauen-wie-weit-wir-kommen\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201eEither mediocrity or seeing how far we can go\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"

ADVERTISEMENT:<\/em><\/strong> On the weekend of his 51st birthday, McLain Ward won the High Star Hero Major League Grand Prix CSI5* in Tryon with more than a half-second lead, and tells The Horse Show how a horse with highs and lows became his partner for the big days.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the last Grand Prix of the Major League Show Jumping before the winter break, and course designer Nick Granat had prepared a course that demanded everything from the field of competitors. Only six pairs remained faultless, Daniel Bluman celebrated his perfect round as a victory, and then McLain Ward rode a stride over The Horse Show, in which Frederik de Backer takes a close look at the latest events in show jumping, which was still being talked about for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eI felt when we walked it, we thought it was a really challenging test\u201c, sagte Ward. \u201eI think in general for that level of a Grand Prix, Nick was very aware of that. And he really built what I would consider a real high standard five-star track. It was technical, there was size, a lot of solid short poles.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly number one in the stable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

High Star Hero was not put forward as the top horse from the beginning. Ward had lost Imperial at the beginning of last year, and the horse that was supposed to fill this gap itself had a checkered history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eWhen I had Imperial, he was such an incredible talent that all focus was on him and everything else was secondary\u201c, erkl\u00e4rte Ward. \u201eAnd then he got ill and we lost him, which was pretty devastating. I think everybody has a choice in that moment.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doing so, he drew a direct parallel to Rothchild, with whom he once came close to winning the World Championship title. \u201eI had had Rothchild for a number of years as a kind of journeyman Grand Prix horse. And then at one moment I woke up and said, \u201aWell, this is the best horse I have.\u2018 And he\u2019s a fighter and a fighter. Let\u2019s see how far we can go.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At High Star Hero he faced the same decision. \u201eI didn\u2019t receive this horse as a green horse. He was an experienced horse, but he had had some ups and downs. And there came a moment where he was the best horse I had in my stable and we were either going to choose to be average or we were going to see how far we could go. He\u2019s an incredibly great character horse. He tries very hard. And we refined the details and have produced a great season.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just don't disturb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study guest Joe Clee suggested that the same horse would not have looked so well half a year ago. Ward agreed and described a horse that reacted sensitively to any influence shortly before the jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eHe\u2019s actually a very sensitive horse and you can\u2019t do much in the last three strides in front of the jump. When I first started riding him, he would occasionally pull up if you went to do a little half-halt, a little balance too close to the fence. And it wasn\u2019t a character issue. He didn\u2019t understand and he overreacted.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His solution is called trust. \u201eWhat you saw in the turn to number three is that I have a much better chance if I stay out of his way and trust his quality than trying to fit an extra stride in there at the last moment. But as you both know, it\u2019s not always easy to do. Sometimes we want to meddle with it a little bit.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Clee had already written in the studio during the exam; he described it as \u201ethe definition of flow state\u201c. In the broadcast, he explained: \u201eEverything, every distance was there. Every T was crossed. Every I was dotted. It\u2019s like being in a kind of dream. I know it comes down to training, it\u2019s like muscle memory. But it really feels like it all just happened rather than you doing something.\u201c Niels Bruynseels added: \u201eYou saw already from one to two. He came into the ring to win that class.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-criticism instead of excuses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about the fall on the final jump in Silo Ridge a week earlier, Ward did not blame the horse. \u201eYeah, bad riding,\u201c he said. \u201eWhen I went, there were 11 or 12 clear. We all know as riders that we should be in the jump-off. You start to get maybe a little cute, a little too careful. I overchecked, stood him off too far and I was very upset with myself. I was going to make sure that didn\u2019t happen again Saturday night.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For presenter Frederik de Backer, this is exactly the crucial point: \u201eHe blames himself. It\u2019s not the horse. That is the mindset of a champion.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the 1.6 second lead didn\u2019t impress Ward much. \u201eThe reality is what I was probably trying to beat was coming behind me in the order, not what was in front of me,\u201c he said, referring to Shane Sweetnam\u2019s James Kann Cruz, for whom he is \u201ethe best horse in the world\u201c, and Mark Bluman, \u201ewho sometimes doesn\u2019t know any better than trying to beat you\u201c. And he admitted a characteristic trait that his students are well aware of: \u201eI hate rollbacks. I\u2019ll always question a rollback and tell them, I\u2019m not sure you should turn too tight. And then at the end of the order, I go and do it myself and try to win the class.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motivated and calm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current edition of the English-language ClipMyHorse.TV show The Horse Show, where the entire conversation can be seen, Ward describes where he stands after a difficult year: \u201eI don\u2019t want to complain because I live a very blessed life. But I find myself actually at this moment in time incredibly motivated for a variety of reasons and at the same time with the experience to be quietly confident. It\u2019s a nice place to be mentally and competitively.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new episode here<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ADVERTORIAL: Am Wochenende seines 51. Geburtstags hat McLain Ward mit High Star Hero den Major-League-Grand-Prix CSI5* in Tryon mit mehr als anderthalb Sekunden Vorsprung gewonnen und erz\u00e4hlt in The Horse Show, wie aus einem Pferd mit H\u00f6hen und Tiefen sein Partner f\u00fcr die gro\u00dfen Tage wurde. Es war der letzte … Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":104137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104141,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104135\/revisions\/104141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spring-reiter.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104135"}],"curies":[{"name":"well played","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}