The 2020 FEI Dressage and Show Jumping World Cup Finals were scheduled to take place this week in Las Vegas. They were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe. In honor of the event, we’ll be hosting a variety of articles on coth.com highlighting special moments and horses from previous World Cup Finals.

Would you believe that McLain Ward’s 2017 victory in the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping Final (Nebraska) wasn’t the first time a McLain has won the World Cup Final?

Leslie Howard (nee Lenehan) being awarded the 1986 FEI World Cup Final trophy. Findlay Davidson Photo

In 1986, Leslie Howard (then Leslie Burr-Lenehan) topped the Final on a horse named McLain. And yes, the horse was named after Ward.

Ward’s father, Barney, imported McLain the horse, a 17.2-hand black Oldenburg gelding, from Paul Schockemöhle in 1984. The horse’s name was Bonheur, but Barney renamed him McLain after his then-8-year-old son. And then he sold the horse to Debbie Dolan, who rode with Howard.

“It turned out not to be a good match for Debbie. He was a big German horse, and she was still pretty green in her top-level career at that point. So I took over the ride in 1985, and the rest is history,” Howard said.

“He was an incredibly powerful horse, very strong. It took a while for us to gel because he was used to being ridden by big German guys. He was very scopey but also very quick on his feet for a big horse. He was a super-competitive horse, very fast,” she recalled.

Leslie Howard (nee Lenehan) and McLain on their way to the FEI World Cup win in 1986 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Findlay Davidson Photo

On April 10-13, Howard and McLain traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden, for the World Cup Final. “It really was an amazing week for me. We were fourth the first day, and then we won the second leg, which put us into the lead overall, so I went into the last day with 0 faults,” Howard recalled.

Australian rider Jeff McVean was in second with Furst Z and fellow U.S. rider Conrad Homfeld was in third on May Be. But Howard and McLain jumped two clean rounds—the only pair to do so on the final day—to finish on the 0 score and claim the win. It turned out the hardest thing about the week was getting McLain near the brand new Volvo in the ring that Howard won!

Howard remembered one bold move that helped pull off the win. There was a line on the last day that was an oxer to upright planks to a square oxer that caused a lot of problems. In the Chronicle’s coverage, Findlay Davidson wrote: “When the fences went up in the second round, the 2 ½ strides from the planks to the final fence created a problem that was not far from unfair.”

Howard remembers how she dealt with the awkward distance. “Frank Chapot walked it and told me, ‘You can do this in two strides.’ The three was really that tight. I’m assuming the course designer didn’t imagine two strides as an option; it was a bit of a ridiculous leave-out!” she said.

“I went last, and as the class went on, it got to be pretty obvious that the three was very hard to get, and McLain was a very scopey, very long-strided horse,” she continued. “So I did two, and I was clear!”