August 30, 2006

Beezie Madden Does It Again, Retains Lead in Show Jumping at 2006 WEG
Jeannie Putney for USEF

It’s double duty again at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, as two disciplines play out simultaneously – one of them in the Main Stadium (show jumping) and the other having its first-day opener in Stadium 2 (four-in-hand driving). Both of the disciplines have fans running back and forth to take in the action.

In show jumping, it’s day one of a two-day Nations’ Cup that will decide the team medals. Some 114 riders went around the course today, with hopes of moving their teams along toward a medal. Some of these riders are classified as “individuals,” thereby competing to make it to the top 25 who will ride in Saturday’s third round of show jumping, which will decide the final four riders who will vie for the Gold on Sunday. Today, six more horses were eliminated, and one retired.

Some might wonder why the team medals are so important in a sport that seems highly geared to the individual rider. There’s a good answer. Countries must excel and win at the team level to qualify for berths in Olympic competition in 2006, and the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games are a qualifying event for the team competition in not only show jumping, but dressage and eventing, as well. With both the dressage and eventing competitions complete (and with the U.S. qualifying for Olympic competition in both disciplines), it’s on to show jumping to make their claim to an Olympic invitation. (The full procedures for this are found on the FEI website at www.horsesport.org.)

On Wednesday, the riders faced a new 17-effort course (14 obstacles) consisting of some very tricky spots, with higher fences, including a double and triple combination. As has been the norm, cool and windy conditions met the challengers.

Leading the pack going into today’s round were Team USA’s Beezie Madden and Authentic on a base score of 0.0. She repeated her performance and, again, stood in front of all the others with the end of round one of the Nations’ Cup. Madden and Authentic still stand on a score of 0.0.

As the last of the Americans to compete (at 113th out of 114 riders), she had to wait a long time, but this gave her plenty of time to study the mistakes of those before her.

“I had the advantage that I can go at the end, so I had a lot to watch, and that’s nice,” she said. “But, there are a lot of riders, and it’s a long time to wait around. Today, I have to say, was a little easier than yesterday because yesterday I knew my horse was good, and it’s always nice to get the first day over with. I have a lot more confidence now after the first day.”

Asked about today’s course, Madden said, “It felt a little bit bigger. Technical, again, we had the plank at the end, we had the triple combination that was a little bit tricky, the short double in the beginning to the Liverpool. There was just a lot of test in there. I thought it was very good – excellent.”

Leading two days in a row, Madden was asked if she has a trick or method she uses to keep herself focused, to not lose her concentration.

“I try to take each class separately,” she said. “Yesterday, I knew we needed a great score, so I just took it as a class that I wanted to try to win. Today and tomorrow, I look at it as one class with two clear rounds to win…what the team needs is for you to have a good score. You really have to look at it a little bit selfishly even though you are hoping for the team medal. That selfishness can help the team.”

Of her teammates, she had high praise and said they have been enjoying each others company, dining together at night and psyching each other up for competition.

“This team has been fantastic,” she said. “Any kind of good atmosphere is a help, so we end up doing things together, and we are behind each other 100% whether somebody has a little bad luck or little mistakes…we’re all in it for the same reason, and we’re all trying the hardest we can and we all respect each other for that, so it’s a really good atmosphere.”