MADDEN BEEZIE

Going For The Gold

going foR thE golD it was the second day of show jumping competition at the 2004 athens olympic games and beezie madden was walking the course with her husband John and her brother-in-law frank. you couldn’t read anything from her expression. t here was no nervousness or angst, nor would you have known that beezie was in the lead. for beezie it was all part of a day’s work. on that day her team usa would win a silver medal. fast forward one year after her team and individual silver medal finish at the 2006 aachen world Equestrian games, with the fastest time but the last rail down. she is now at the 2007 world Cup in las vegas; hands in her pockets, looking relaxed and eyeballing the course with her husband. no change in her facial expressions. the only thing that indicates something might be up is that b eezie is dressed in jeans and not the typical riding gear. and if you were there the day before for the first round in the world Cup you would have seen beezie and her o lympic mount a uthentic take an uncharacteristic fall eliminating them from any further competition at this event. yet for beezie, that’s all part of the path she is traveling on. sometimes you have good days and other times not so good but you keep moving on up one step at a time.

“i am even tempered,” admits beezie. “and i think it helps me to not get too low when things don’t go well. Rather, just try to figure out why and realize that things will go better. when things do go well i also don’t get overly excited. i look at the good times the same way and attempt to figure out why they went well and then try to learn from that and do the same the next time.

“it usually pertains to a certain horse,” continued beezie. “i think about what made that horse perform well that week or what didn’t. when i’m in a championship i take it one day at a time. that way it is the same thing you do week after week. we try to do well in the competition each day and then generally by the end of the week you are close to the top or leading.” beezie uses as an example the athens olympic games where she was clear all the way until the very last individual round and her problems at the world Cup.

“at the world Cup i was taking a real shot to win (not necessarily that leg, but the overall world Cup final) and a couple of little things went wrong resulting in a crash. authentic was a little rusty in the ring due to a lack of showing this year and very rusty indoors. we knew this going in, but we were hoping we could pull it off anyway. in an effort to give him a good break after wEg in aachen, he didn’t show indoors at all in the fall of 2006. then when we planned on showing him in Palm beach, the footing had deteriorated and we opted not to show. if i had to do it over again, i would have shown authentic in some European indoor shows