Beezie Madden
Born: Nov. 20, 1963
Residence: Cazenovia, N.Y.
Horse: Authentic (12-year-old KWPN gelding; owned by Abigail Wexner)
Beezie Madden and Authentic have continued their winning ways in 2008. Together they won the $200,000 CN Worldwide Grand Prix in Wellington, Fl on March 16 with a lightning fast jump-off round. That was on the heels of a WEF Challenge win three days earlier. With those two impressive efforts, Authentic proved that he has maintained his unbelievable form from the previous year. At the Olympic Games in Beijing, Madden helped lead her team to the gold medal in the Team Jumping competion and also took the bronze medal in the Individual Jumping event.
Her greatest accomplishment in 2007 involves her win at the Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen in Aachen, Germany in July. Madden again rode Authentic for this prestigious win over 40 of the world's best. To add to this honor, she was named leading rider in Aachen, one of the most coveted leading rider titles in the world. Madden was also a key member of the Samsung Super League Squad again in 2007 with Judgement. She was a member of the winning squad at Hickstead.
In 2006, Madden had multiple successful rides, including her role in the Samsung Super League tour as part of the U.S. team that won the silver medal. In the past few years, Madden has been a critical member of the United States' teams. Riding in six out of the eight competitions, she anchored the team for the 2005 Samsung Super League, which the U.S., the only non-European team competing in the League, decisively won. Also in 2005, she won the $1 million CN International at Spruce Meadows in Canada on Judgement, and won the $200,000 Budweiser American Invitational in Tampa, Fla., on Authentic (in both 2006 and 2007).
Few will forget Beezie Madden's remarkable performance at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, with only eight faults accumulated during the entire competition. Madden anchored the U.S. team that brought home the silver medal, and added the individual silver medal in a masterful show of horsemanship against the final four top riders. Her performance is widely considered as one of the most impressive drawn-out series of show jumping rounds ever to be seen in a world championship.
Her accomplishments are currently rewriting the equestrian world's record books. She has won back-to-back honors as USEF Equestrian of the Year - the first rider ever to do so, and is only the second rider in history to win the honor twice in their career. In addition, her main competition mount - the bay Dutch Warmblood named Authentic - was named as the 2006 top horse in the Farnam®/PlatformTM United States Equestrian Federation's Horse of the Year Awards.
"It's an unbelievable honor and privilege to have a horse like him," said Madden. "Not only is he a top-class athlete, but he also has a great personality, and he seems to enjoy his life."
Madden was the first woman - and the first U.S rider - to ever reach the Top Three in the Gandini Show Jumping World Ranking list (achieved in 2004), and she was the first woman to pass the $1 million mark in earnings for show jumping. She is the second leading money winner in history at Spruce Meadows in Canada.
In 2004, she breezed through the Olympic Selection Trials, finishing in first place on Authentic with only eight faults accumulated for all six selection events. With her contribution of double-clear rounds in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, she helped the U.S. team win the gold medal, while her success on U.S. soil earned her the American Grand Prix Association (AGA) Rider of the Year title that year.
Originally from Milwaukee, Wis., Madden has been riding since the age of three and made her grand prix debut in 1985. Four years of continued success followed, which included participation on winning U.S. Nations Cup teams, which led to her being named the 1989 United States Olympic Committee's Female Equestrian of the Year.
Married since 1998, Madden and her husband, horseman John Madden, reside in Cazenovia, N.Y.
