# McLain Ward disqualified



## SJFAN (17 April 2010)

More bad publicity for show jumping: the leader after the first 2 legs of the World Cup Final has been disqualified. McLain Ward's mare Sapphire was found by the vets to have a hyper sensitised foreleg.  No appeal is being allowed. This info comed from KNHS and there is due to be a press conference to explain the situation this evening. Vets have said there's no evidence of malpractice by Ward or his team.  However it is not the first time that he has been under suspicion - at least once before in a WC Final.


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## swellhillcottage (17 April 2010)

Oh dear   oh dear - Barney his father  has interesting history  courtesy of Google ;>)


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## 3BayGeldings (17 April 2010)

I don't see why this would be suspicious, and why his Father has to be brought up, to be frank. Plenty of horses get spun during vet inspections afterall so why is it bad publicity? The horse wasn't found to be drugged or anything. Unless I've completely got the wrong end of the stick? I feel very sorry for McLain Ward and am certainly giving him the benefit of the doubt.


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## swellhillcottage (17 April 2010)

Mclain and his father  are a team and have worked together forever -  many years ago in another lifetime  I was stood next to a horse  that Barney Mounted it was  Grand Prix Sunday in Wellington Florida   - the fear and the reaction of that horse when he picked up the reins sticks in my memory now 15 years on .........


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## swellhillcottage (17 April 2010)

_JH_ said:



			I don't see why this would be suspicious, and why his Father has to be brought up, to be frank. Plenty of horses get spun during vet inspections afterall so why is it bad publicity? The horse wasn't found to be drugged or anything. Unless I've completely got the wrong end of the stick? I feel very sorry for McLain Ward and am certainly giving him the benefit of the doubt.
		
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Rereading your post i am curious am wondering whether you do have the wrong end  of the stick  - A hypersensitised foreleg in a showjumper at that level would make me wonder ... especially if it were the shin area ....


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## 3BayGeldings (17 April 2010)

but cant hyper sensitivity just occur naturally, rather than being inflicted? Excuse my ignorance.


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## swellhillcottage (17 April 2010)

_JH_ said:



			but cant hyper sensitivity just occur naturally, rather than being inflicted? Excuse my ignorance.
		
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 Ignorance is Bliss ...


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## koeffee (17 April 2010)

These showjumpers know what they are doing to the horse. At that level it would make me suspicious.having worked on international yards here and in europe i have seen enough to make me quit working for others.


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## Ignition (17 April 2010)

swellhillcottage said:



			Ignorance is Bliss ...
		
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Or maybe innocent until proven otherwise? You never know - might just be a lame horse.


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## SJFAN (18 April 2010)

There's no suggestion that the mare was lame.  It's rare indeed for me to defend the FEI, but in this case I think they were probably right in this instance. They have to wait for the results of the tests to see whether the sensitization can be attribute to any malpractice.  Had they let her jump today but had to disqualify them after the event - possibly changing the winner and/or top placings, that would truly have been very bad for the sport we would all have been complaining about their failure to act immediately.


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## Kiribati_uk (18 April 2010)

Capsaicin!! Showjumpers as a breed are defo not the kindest to their horses, Win at all costs!! Yes i know what im talkin about as i worked for Int. SJer who gave his horses human epilespsy tablets!!! ( Left as soon as i found out)


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## SJFAN (18 April 2010)

I don't think you can judge them all by the malpractice of what I hope and believe to be a minority.


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## FinnishLapphund (18 April 2010)

Originally Posted by _JH_ View Post
but cant hyper sensitivity just occur naturally, rather than being inflicted? Excuse my ignorance.
		
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swellhillcottage said:



			Ignorance is Bliss ...
		
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When somebody says they don't know something and they ask to be enlightened and another person answers in a cryptic way without an answer, I always suspect that they don't know the answer either.









I'm not a fan of McLain Ward, but the fact that I don't keep my fingers crossed for him doesn't prove that he has done anything.


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## Rambo (18 April 2010)

I don't know Maclain Ward (or his father for that matter)...but the one thing that does strike me as a little strange is that the FEI chose to 'randomly' perform a hypersensitivity test  And more so, that that 'random' test happenned to show a positive result (for whatever reason). Random blood sampling i can understand, but a specific test for hypersensitivity would suggest to me that they either 'suspected' something...or were tipped off.

Or maybe i have gotten the completely wrong end of the stick


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## arden (18 April 2010)

it wasn't random, all the horses were being tested


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## eahotson (19 April 2010)

Criptic replies are necessary on here to keep some topics on board.If I saw Top Showjumper beat the **** out of his horse and put it up here, he would threaten to sue and the post would be closed down.Youtube is wonderful!As for the showjumping world, well guilty unless proven innocent is my personal experience.


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## TarrSteps (19 April 2010)

I'm not the greatest fan of the way the FEI operates but if you go by people's reactions, they can't win for trying. As SJFAN said, if they'd let the horse jump and then revealed that they'd been waiting for tests, everyone would have screamed.  But if they take the horse out on the grounds of immediate evidence without waiting for corroboration, then that's the wrong path, too.

SJers have their legs, tack etc inspected regularly (as do others, hence the "weighted boot" Olympic business) and I would HOPE the horse in question had a relatively cut and dried reaction in order for the FEI to proceed as they have.  

As far as whether or not McLain would have been singled out, I can't say and I hope in the interests of fairness and proper procedure he would not.  However, there are lots of situations (in life not just international equestrian competition) in which, if someone has been previously suspected/proved of a breach of the rules they are subject to more stringent testing in the future - testing alone does not imply guilt.


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## SonnysHumanSlave (19 April 2010)

can someone please explain what hyper sensitivity is please.


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## cefyl (19 April 2010)

LUCRETIA - Shame she is not here to give us the real insight.  Sorely missed.


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## TarrSteps (19 April 2010)

MistralS_shining said:



			can someone please explain what hyper sensitivity is please.
		
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Pretty much what it says.  They do a "touch" test on the front of the leg (I don't know if they still do it by hand or use a machine now) and if a horse shows extreme response it's deemed to be "hyper sensitive".  Same if there is obvious redness/bruising/scurf etc.  The assumption is it might show signs the horse has been treated with a sensitising substance, rapped, has had chips in its boots (what McClain got in trouble for last time) or similar.  The further tests will be for a substance on the skin or something in the blood which could provide corroborating evidence.

I don't know how "sure" they need to be - there must be horses that are just really sensitive - but I'd guess they wouldn't remove a horse from competition without real suspicion.


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## Lila (19 April 2010)

Thanks for that explanation glad im not the only one who wasnt sure but what does it do? sorry never heard of it before


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## TarrSteps (19 April 2010)

The idea is to make the horse reluctant to touch a fence and, if it does have a "rub" then it won't want to have another one.


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## Faithkat (19 April 2010)

I love Sapphire and I do hope that the "hyper sensitivity" isn't caused by   . . .  er, shall we say - something nefarious - but given his/his father's history I have my doubts


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## FinnishLapphund (19 April 2010)

eahotson said:



			Cryptic replies are necessary on here to keep some topics on board.If I saw Top Showjumper beat the **** out of his horse and put it up here, he would threaten to sue and the post would be closed down.Youtube is wonderful!As for the showjumping world, well guilty unless proven innocent is my personal experience.
		
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Your example I could understand and if he/she had answered "I can't answer that, without risking that the thread gets deleted", I have no problem with such answers. But some cryptic answers, I interpret as that they don't know the answer either. 




Lila said:



			glad I'm not the only one who wasn't sure but what does it do? sorry never heard of it before
		
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My very simple layman explanation to what the hyper-sensitivity we are talking about here does, is that when the nerves on e.g. a leg, have became much more sensitive than normal, it would make a show jumper even more careful about absolutely not touching any poles with their legs, while they are jumping. And as TarrSteps said, if it still accidentally would touch a fence, it is really not likely that they will touch any more fences...


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## SonnysHumanSlave (19 April 2010)

TarrSteps said:



			Pretty much what it says.  They do a "touch" test on the front of the leg (I don't know if they still do it by hand or use a machine now) and if a horse shows extreme response it's deemed to be "hyper sensitive".  Same if there is obvious redness/bruising/scurf etc.  The assumption is it might show signs the horse has been treated with a sensitising substance, rapped, has had chips in its boots (what McClain got in trouble for last time) or similar.  The further tests will be for a substance on the skin or something in the blood which could provide corroborating evidence.

I don't know how "sure" they need to be - there must be horses that are just really sensitive - but I'd guess they wouldn't remove a horse from competition without real suspicion.
		
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Ahhhhh i see, that must be hard to test for i imagine, so there must be alot of evidence to disqualify him.

I did think it would be something along those lines, but wasnt totally sure.


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## MsD (19 April 2010)

Ok this is the actual story, there is way too much ambiguity on this topic. Sapphire was thermographed before the class started and the result was not abnormal. She was declared fit to compete and went clear. After the class she was thermographed again, there was a small red dot that was there before that was fine. They decided to palpate it and poked the mares leg 57 times until she picked up her leg 7 times. There and then she was disquailified by the head of the ground jury. Mclain requested that she be jogged up, blood and hair samples be taken which was refused. The fei are no allowes refuse this. No appeal was allowed and dicussion closed. To reiterate the mare was tested before the class was approvwd, jumped clear was tested again and was disquailified. The bald facts right there!


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## zefragile (19 April 2010)

MsD, were you there?


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## MsD (19 April 2010)

No my friend is the groom that was there. The fei corraborates this story, their reason for the disqualification is that the mare picked up her leg 7 out of 57 times. Apparent hypersensivity!


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## MsD (19 April 2010)

I apologise for the spelling mistakes my phone is tempermental!


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## zefragile (19 April 2010)

This is all very messy, I assume they took video of the examinations? I think that would be interesting to see.


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## MsD (19 April 2010)

They did, a representative of the wc riders about 6 of them came and watched the video and could see no reason for the disqualification who then considered boycotting. They also brought the mare out to the. world press, jogged her up and welcomed the press to prod and poke her as much as they like. Also mclain requested that each individual vet at the examination state that she was unfit to compete and not one of them would.d not one of. t


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## bahumbug (19 April 2010)

Unsurprisingly the USEF is spitting chips over this, and totally behind McLain. More FEI fights in the offing.......


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## rhino (19 April 2010)

Mentioned in the telegraph yesterday but obviously no real detail.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...ualified-McLain-Ward-hits-out-over-tests.html


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## rhino (19 April 2010)

USEF vet interview: http://videos.cavadeos.tv/comweb/comres/cavadeos/#Player:174957/action=alone&listing.page=1


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## Faberge (19 April 2010)

This just gets stranger and stranger...


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## NaturalAngel (19 April 2010)

I read through all the replies in this thread, and I don't believe anyone has mentioned the reason the FEI might have been suspicious of Ward to begin with (and not because of his father):

Ten years ago, Ward was suspended and fined because ring stewards at the Aachen International Horse Show found plastic pins inside his horse's splint boot. The pins make it painful for the horse to hit a rail. Ward denied putting the pins inside the boot, but I haven't found a single report about what Ward says DID happen (did he accuse someone else of sabotaging the boot?)

Here is an article about the incident from The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/equestrianism-ward-leaves-in-disgrace-1100674.html

There are many other articles about this incident, as well as articles about Ward's return to show jumping.


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## JDChaser (19 April 2010)

Yes, but if its true the horse raised its leg 7 times out of 50 (which is widely reported now) then regardless of previous convictions or suspicions then i don't think that justifies the mare being labelled as hyper sensitive in her front legs. These 'suscpicions' aren't enough, in my opinion, and if McLain is proved innocent then i hope he gets plenty of compensation from the FEI. Who knows how much cash he could have won in the next round?


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## TarrSteps (19 April 2010)

But then we do get back to the point that just because he may have done something wrong in the past (I don't think there was ever proof, per se, as the plastic chips were seen to have fallen from the boot not found embedded and no injury was discerned to the horse) and paid for it doesn't mean he's done something wrong now.  

It was also complicated because Barney had just come out of jail and there was a great deal of fuss over whether he and Paul Vallier should be allowed to attend horse shows in any capacity again.  It got even messier when Eric failed his drug test and was banned from some venues in excess of his FEI ban so there was the feeling that McLain's ban was in retribution, as it were.  None of this was stated or even necessarily true, but it made for an emotional mix.  I don't think McLain will ever escape the shadow of his father's problem but the general feeling seems to be that this is not really a fair assessment of his own practices and beliefs.


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## bahumbug (19 April 2010)

For the guys into 'same brush tarring' perhaps take a read of this? It's a very interesting article

http://www.dressage-news.com/?p=6026

The Facebook group supporting McLain and Sapphire already had over 1400 members . I'm not actually promoting any view other than fairness, and I don't this elimination was fair, nor do I think it is fair to set about McLain Ward because of his father.


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## MsD (19 April 2010)

yup thats a very good article, it states the facts bald and lets the corruption speak for itself. What I found interesting was how they eliminated sapphire. they only did it after the placings were pretty clear as to who would win. Its almost as if they were looking for a reason to disqualify Sapphire, found one and then bided their time until they could use it. Which they did and look what reared its big ugly head! God the bureaucracy in the FEI is really showing itself. George Morris said "I feel a long way from home here and I'm very sad about that" and honestly I dont blame him. The whole thing is a shambles.


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## zefragile (19 April 2010)

The whole thing stinks


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## horsedances (20 April 2010)

Before drawing any conclussions please check out the videos of all press conferences about the McLain Ward case :

http://www.topdressage.tv/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=968


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## Caledonia (20 April 2010)

Whether there is guilt or no guilt, the Americans are doing themselves no favours by pushing it as some kind of anti-US propaganda..........


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## bahumbug (20 April 2010)

Errr...no favours? To whom? The FEI? The rest of the world? Well, the first, let's forget that for a sec as it is doing itself no favours and the secnd, I think there is a groundswell of support against such an arbitrary decision. If the US is just p****d that it happened,  why not ? I respect the support of federations behind their riders, it's one of their purposes.


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## SJFAN (21 April 2010)

According to the full account, the vet wanted the Ground Jury called in after the 1st test, but they could not leave their station, hence the mare was allowed to jump in the second leg, and it was their decision to disqualify her when she had been inspected after the competition.  I know that McLain was under suspicion at an earlier WC Final with a different horse because of the exaggerated leg action as he jumped. That horse soon disappeared from international competition. I stress that I have absolutely no idea whether there was any justification for the suspicion.  I do think that his protest that his disqualification is the unfairest thing to happen in the history of the sport is over the top though I can appreciate how disappointed he may be. I really do not "buy" the anti-him theory. It's another sad time for the sport whatever the outcome of the appeal.


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## swellhillcottage (21 April 2010)

Watching the video of his press conference he IMO looks like a rat caught in a trap!!
Maybe it is a sad time but maybe good could come of it -  if the scrutiny of horses is going to improve and it proves harder to pass things by the officials maybe showjumping could almost become a clean sport .......


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## Munchkin (21 April 2010)

I heard the story from someone who is there, as it was told by MsD. If that version of events is true then I am behind McLain Ward.

I was also told that 3 on site vets disagreed with the way the "hypersensitivity" test was conducted and that they would have passed the horse for competition; FEI then said no appeal would be allowed.  If someone prodded my horse's leg (or mine for that matter) 57 times he'd probably do more than lift it seven times. 

IF what I heard is true, this sounds like one heck of a witch hunt.


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## Jump2It (28 April 2010)

remember in 1999 when he was disqualified for the shards of plastic in horses boots at aachen...and goteberg when he wouldnt allow his horse to be examined.... shady character even if you ignore the dad stories


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## zefragile (28 April 2010)

Jump2It said:



			remember in 1999 when he was disqualified for the shards of plastic in horses boots at aachen...and goteberg when he wouldnt allow his horse to be examined.... shady character even if you ignore the dad stories
		
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That shouldn't really be relevant.


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## arden (26 May 2010)

leg swabs were clean.

http://equisearch.com/equiwire_news/nancy_jaffer/sapphire_negative_052610/



			
				Caledonia said:
			
		


			Whether there is guilt or no guilt, the Americans are doing themselves no favours by pushing it as some kind of anti-US propaganda.........
		
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agreed especially since the person who did it is most definitely not anti-USA in fact the opposite and notoriously anti-Europe. no secret there.



			
				SJFAN said:
			
		


			According to the full account, the vet wanted the Ground Jury called in after the 1st test,
		
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but didn't that explanation come later? They were originally on record as saying she was ok to jump, it was quoted in the press somewhere, I can't remember where I saw it.


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## cundlegreen (27 May 2010)

MistralS_shining said:



			can someone please explain what hyper sensitivity is please.
		
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Many years ago, I was grooming ( I was 16 at the time) for a SJ rider at HOYS. Her 7 yr old Grade A was under performing, so I told to put a liquid on his front legs, and wrap wet bandages round them. I imagine that the liquid was surgical spirit. The result was to blister both front legs, upon which I was told to put boot polish over the bare skin to disguise it. The horse wasn't lame, but very sore when touched. He didn't jump any better for it, probably worse as he was so "fretty" about his legs. I would think that this is the same thing. Needless to say, after that experience, I didn't groom for them again.


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## chris_j (28 May 2010)

I am so not a Mclain Ward fan but also find it very scary how the FEI are operating outside their own rules.  This article explains it all well http://www.horsehero.com/editorial/?feat=48216

It's also not just jumping - dressage is also getting hassle from the new FEI neck rules.  See Robert Dover's blog here http://doversworld.com/blog/2010/05/wiesbaden-thoughts-on-grand-prix/


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## bahumbug (28 May 2010)

Good point Chris J....but this has been going on for ages...do hope the FEI  Presidential election brings about some changes, for the good of the sport.


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## cefyl (28 May 2010)

bahumbug said:



			Good point Chris J....but this has been going on for ages...do hope the FEI  Presidential election brings about some changes, for the good of the sport.
		
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The best thing that could (PLEASE) happen is to be shut of Princess Haya at the helm.


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## bahumbug (28 May 2010)

cefyl said:



			The best thing that could (PLEASE) happen is to be shut of Princess Haya at the helm.
		
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Hear, hear!


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