for us.
After I went into the ring, I pulled up HH Azur and took a moment to tell myself, “Okay, it’s a little bit disappointing. But now there’s a job to be done, and I have to focus on the things I can control and let the bigger outcome sort itself out.”
The mission had become bringing home the silver, compared to the possibility of no medal and a fifth-place finish. For me, what happened there is a moment I’m very proud of. We delivered and made it happen, and it ended up being a phenomenally successful Olympic Games.
At the 2018 WEG, the pressure was really on. We thought the formula for determining the team medals would preclude a jump-off, so everyone was surprised when after the second round, Sweden and the United States had the same score, 20.59 penalties. That triggered the first team gold medal jump-off in the history of the WEG. How close was it? After four members of the Swedish team had gone, and three members of ours, it was all down to me and my mare Clinta. The Swedes had three clear rounds; we had two to that point, so I needed not only to be clear, but also fast.
I’d dropped a rail during the afternoon, which set up the need for the tiebreaker. In a situation like that, I’ll get tunnel vision. I’ll get into a little bit of a zone before a jump-off where that focus is pretty hard to cut through. As I’ve matured, before getting on a horse in a tough situation, I’m a little more loose than I used to be. I talk with people I’m comfortable with. There are people over the years you’ve learned to rely on and you trust what they have to say. They’re not the sort of people who say the wrong thing in the wrong moment. I’m more relaxed before getting on because I understand the job better than I used to. When I’m in game mode, I don’t notice a lot of what’s going on around me.
A joyous and relieved McLain Ward raised his arms in triumph after a ride on Clinta under pressure to clinch team gold at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games.
McLain Ward went for his second straight Olympic team gold medal in 2008 on the remarkable mare Sapphire, in front of a crowd of 18,000 at Sha Tin Stadium in Hong Kong.
At the WEG, I had two chances. I had messed up the first one earlier in the day and I figured it was on my throat for the second one. I knew what the time was I needed to beat and I knew I had a super-careful horse. She did it, and she was brilliant. We got the gold. All the horses were brilliant all week. Our team, our staff behind us, all of the owners—this is an army that produces this gold medal on our home turf. It was a very emotional moment for all of us.
How do I withstand pressure like that? I’ve had a lot of practice coming back from some really difficult times, whether they are personal or family situations, good and bad, my own regrets and missteps.
What am I proudest of in my career? It’s not an individual win or individual moment, though I’m proud of those. They do, however, become a blur.
Instead, I’d say, when those difficult times are public, I’m proudest of being able to deal with and face them, to be able to find the right course—that doesn’t mean whether I was at fault or not at fault—to always move toward being a better rider, a better horseman, a better person.
I do it all against the backdrop of the many changes in show jumping that have taken place during my career. It’s evolved as all sports have, and all businesses, for that matter. We certainly have gotten more and more away from the nature of the sport—it’s become more of an arena sport. That’s to do with public relations and selling our sport and making it interesting for people to follow. At the highest levels, the sport is being done better than it’s ever been done. You realize it when you sit in Barcelona for the Longines FEI Nations Cup Final and see rider after rider from a pretty wide number of regions of the world come in with almost perfect form.
For sure, there are things lost in the evolution of the sport, which is being done at a higher and more intense level than ever. We’ve gotten further away from nature and riding just for the sake of riding. We’ve lost the beauty of simply interacting with the horse on a daily basis to some degree. But when you weigh one against the other, it’s really phenomenal at the highest level.
I was very blessed to have people who helped me and saw the way forward. My father believed in taking the U.S. Equestrian Team concept and making it accessible to the masses. That’s what has changed in our country. Everybody has a chance for this now. That’s a beautiful evolution.
I remember Billy Steinkraus, the Olympic individual show jumping gold medalist and chairman emeritus of the USET, used to say that in his time, the old guys told him the sport wasn’t as good as it was at the turn of the twentieth century. Billy said, “I can’t do anything about that. I live in my moment.”
So you take the sport you have and try to be the best at it you can be. That puts you in a position where you can try to leave the sport better than you found it. That gives you influence. When I look at my time in the sport, we’ve lost some good things, but we’ve gained so much more. We’re in a much better place for the horse and entertainment factor, for the level of the sport, for the opportunity for people. Even though it’s so much more expensive, there is more opportunity in some ways. Forty or fifty years ago, a lot of people couldn’t even imagine riding for the team. Now there’s a route to get there.
At the 2016 Hampton Classic, McLain Ward turned his focus to lifting his delighted toddler daughter, Lilly Kristine, into the air after the awards ceremony.
In order for that to happen, the riders that were from the wrong side of the tracks had to get to the level where they were beating the people from the right side of the tracks. My father saw it was the way forward, and maybe it wasn’t accessible to him, but it would be accessible to me. I was the crossover where subjectivity has given me the benefit of the doubt at every turn. You see it from both sides.
The best compliment I ever received from trainer George Morris was this: “You’re a perfect blend of your father and Billy.” That happened for two reasons—because my father was a great rider with a super feeling for a horse, a great athlete but a little rough around the edges. And Billy was open-minded enough to accept someone from my background when he saw a difference in what I was.
Team silver medalist McLain Ward at the 2016 Rio Olympics on HH Azur, who also was his mount for victory in the 2017 FEI World Cup Finals.
What I want to define my career and my life is my ability to rise, no matter what happened; to learn from it, be better for it, and become what I am today and what I hope to be tomorrow. For me, that’s the greatest accomplishment. You’re trying every day to be the best you can be. You become more educated and get better experience.
Someone who isn’t flawed and has not had to face challenges hasn’t accomplished very much because he or she isn’t putting it on the line. Since I was 14, I’ve been putting it on the line in every way. There have been some bad moments for a variety of reasons. But to be able to face those challenges, to be able to be where we are, that’s the accomplishment.
Rich Fellers
It Pays to Be Flexible
Rich Fellers began his show jumping career at age 11 when he received a two-year-old Appaloosa, Sure Chic, for his birthday and then taught him to jump up to World Cup qualifier level. Rich has had many successes since, including a team bronze medal at the 1991 Pan American Games on El Mirasol, and two U.S. Equestrian Federation Grand Prix Horse of the Year honors with McGuinness and Stealth Sprenger. But he is most closely identified with Flexible, the USEF’s International Horse of the Year in 2012. Flexible and Rich were the top-placed American combination in the London Olympics, finishing eighth. Four months