Riding for the Team. United States Equestrian Team Foundation
all, not only by riding for the Team, but also by supporting it in so many different capacities, from the veterinarians to the coaches, grooms, volunteers, sponsors, and contributors, to the athletes’ families who have shared a dream and helped make it come true. The officers and staffs of the USET Foundation and the U.S. Equestrian Federation, the governing body of American horse sport, also play instrumental roles in the sporting triumphs that make a nation proud.
On a personal note, over the last half-century I have known most of those whose stories appear in these books. Some I have followed since their days in equitation, interviewing them after they won those championships and then again, years later, once they stepped down from the podium after the Olympic medal ceremonies. From the sidelines at nine Olympics, all eight World Equestrian Games, and dozens of World Cup finals, I’ve had a ringside seat from which to follow triumph and tragedy, victory and loss, all of which play their role in the vibrant panorama that is equestrian sport today. It’s been a privilege.
Nancy Jaffer
Gladstone, New Jersey
Special thanks to Sara Ike of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation, who was kept busy obtaining and organizing the many photos in this book.
In addition to the USET Foundation, the organizations referred to in this book are:
■ The U.S. Equestrian Federation (USEF): The governing body of horse shows in the United States, as well as an umbrella group for a variety of breeds and disciplines, it is an official member of the FEI (see below) and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC).
■ The American Horse Shows Association (AHSA): The original U.S. governing body of horse shows, a predecessor of the USEF.
■ The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI): Based in Switzerland, it is the governing body of international equestrian sport and formulates its rules.
■ National Reining Horse Association (NRHA): Dedicated to the promotion of the reining horse, it serves as the standard-setting body for the sport of reining, while promoting public interest in agriculture and ranching through reining horse shows and programs.
■ American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC): The organization that sanctions endurance riding in North America, it also promotes the establishment, maintenance, and preservation of trails.
SHOW JUMPING
SHOW JUMPING IS THE MOST POPULAR OF THE OLYMPIC EQUESTRIAN sports, with the greatest number of participants and spectators. Its roots are in fox hunting, stemming from the era when fences were constructed around previously open fields in Britain and the jumping horse became a necessary and desirable mount.
Competition naturally followed, and the discipline became a fixture at shows in the late nineteenth century. It grew increasingly more sophisticated as the years passed. The Olympics included show jumping starting in 1912. At the time, participants were limited to members of the military, but that changed after 1948, following mechanization of the armies.
Show jumping at the international level today involves obstacles of up to 1.60 meters in height, including brightly painted rails, faux stone walls, gates, and water jumps. They are arranged differently for every competition, requiring not only power on the part of the horse but also technical expertise on the part of the rider.
Some classes are one round against the clock; others require jumping an initial round within the time allowed, which is followed by a jump-off over a shorter course among those who are tied, with time deciding the winner for those tied with an equal number of penalties. Entries are penalized for knockdowns, refusals, and exceeding the time allowed.
Beezie Madden
A Focus on Excellence
One of the world’s most successful show jumpers, Elizabeth (Beezie) Madden is among the most admired for her gracious demeanor, modesty, and quiet dignity.
Her accomplishments are many, with Olympic team gold medals from Athens 2004 and Beijing/Hong Kong 2008, where she also earned individual bronze. She was on the silver medal U.S. teams at the 2016 Rio Olympics and at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, winning individual silver there as well. She took individual bronze at the 2014 WEG in Normandy, France, where she also was part of the bronze medal team. Beezie twice has won the FEI World Cup finals and four times has been the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Equestrian of the Year.
Beezie accounts for many firsts: She was the first woman to earn more than $1 million in show jumping, as well as the first American and the first woman to reach the top three on the world ranking list.
Her horses have included such stars as Northern Magic, Authentic, Judgement, Coral Reef Via Volo, Simon, Cortes C, and Breitling. She is based at John Madden Sales in Cazenovia, New York, with her husband, a former FEI vice president who has managed her career and works with sponsors and owners, as well as teaching and supervising the barn.
A believer in giving back to her sport, Beezie serves on the boards of the U.S. Equestrian Federation and the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.
At the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong, Beezie Madden guided Authentic to team gold and an individual bronze four years after riding him to team gold at the Athens Games.
My parents, Kathy and Joseph Patton, had hunters, so I basically grew up in the stable. I’ve loved horses since I can remember. I was five years old when my brother, Stewart, and I got our first Shetland ponies, Flicka and her dam, Fudge, along with their bridles—but no saddles.
I jumped and did everything with my pony bareback. I would ride so much that my parents would tell me when Flicka had had enough, because otherwise, I would have ridden her all day.
They didn’t have pony classes at the shows in Wisconsin at that time. So at a couple of shows, we had to ask them to just lower the fences for us. I trained with Michael Henaghan and didn’t show a jumper until my last junior year, when we converted my junior hunter, Storytime, to a junior jumper. I only competed in the equitation finals during my last two junior years. My best finish was eighth in the hunt seat Medal on a borrowed horse.
But I got more from equitation than a brown ribbon. Equitation teaches you to ride technical courses smoothly, which I think is important, because our sport is a game of concentration on the part of both horse and rider. The more effective you can be while still being smooth is critical because the horse has to concentrate on his job as well.
One of my best qualities is being able to focus and block out distractions. When people say there was a big crowd for a class I was in, I say, “I couldn’t tell you, I didn’t notice.”
When I feel like I’m under pressure and have the honor of being on the team and riding for my country, I approach it one round at a time. You can’t think of a multi-day show or a championship as a whole. I think of that competition and that course. I want to do it to the best of my ability in that round. You’re behind the eight ball if you worry about making a mistake; you’ve just got to show them how good you are.
After my junior career, I went to Southern Seminary College in Virginia for two years because Russ Walther, who headed the riding program, wanted me there. I was on the intercollegiate team and won the 1984 Cacchione Cup, the most prestigious award at the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association’s national show.
Intercollegiate competition was a fun experience, hopping on strange horses and having to get it done (as I would do decades later in the Final Four at two World Championships). It also was a valuable experience because I learned to work with a team. When you do that, it’s not all about you and your success.
I graduated as valedictorian and was accepted to the University of Virginia, where I had been turned down when I first applied for college. But then trainer Katie Monahan offered me a job and I had to decide whether