Beezie Madden will be going for her third gold medal in show jumping this summer. She talked to BuzzFeed Shift about competing with men, how she picks a horse, and why riding appeals to girls.
Equestrian athlete Beezie Madden poses for a portrait during the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Media Summit in Dallas, Texas May 14, 2012.
Image by LUCAS JACKSON / Reuters
Beezie Madden, 48, has been riding horses since she was a child. Now she's heading to her third Olympics to compete in show jumping, one of three equestrian events (the others are eventing and dressage). In show jumping, riders have to get their horses to jump over gates up to 5 feet, 4 inches high, without knocking them over. Madden helped the U.S. team take home gold medals in Athens and Beijing. She and her horse Coral Reef Via Volo are aiming to do it again in London.
What's the gender breakdown of young riders today?
In North America, the majority of young riders are female. Historically in Europe it's been the total opposite — they're mostly male. But they're getting more and more women riding there, and we're getting a few more men riding here too. I think once you get to the more advanced ranks in both places it's more 50-50.
Why do more girls in the U.S. ride horses than boys?
Here we have a lot of riding schools and a very good system for bringing riders along. So little girls like horses and they start to ride and have a lot of success at it, because we can teach them how to be good without needing a lot of strength. I think in Europe it's been kind of a rough-and-ready sport, so the guys survive it and the girls maybe don't. But I think they're getting more girls because they're starting to teach more.
If girls dominate at younger ages, how come they don't dominate at higher levels too?
I think girls do it for a while and do it in a very concentrated way through their junior career, and then they go to college or get boyfriends or have a family. Sometimes they'll get back to it when they're older, but I think sometimes they get a little burnt out. I think the boys that do it probably do it becase they really like it and have a real passion for it, otherwise they'd be doing something that more boys do. And they tend to stick with it.
How is show jumping in the Olympics different from being a jockey for racehorses?
The jockeys don't train their horses — they just ride them for the races. So they really have to kind of rely on what the trainers and exercise jockeys say and react to what the horse is doing. We train our horses for years and the horses are much older. They're not allowed to compete in the Olympics until they're nine years old. We have much more of a relationship with the horses. While we have to react to what's happening in the ring, we also have a lot of homework to do before, right down to picking the right horse.
How do you do that? What do you look for?
Definitely athletic abilities, but that's probably the easiest to see in a horse. The hard part is knowing if the horse is going have the right temperament for it, knowing if it can compete til it's 14 or 15 years old when it's really at its peak for the Olympics.
Are you ever scared when you take a jump?
Generally not. I'm lucky — I have horses that are good. But for sure we jump very big fences and when you fall, you fall pretty hard. For the best riders, though, that doesn't enter their minds, or they wouldn't be as good at it.
Madden rides Coral Reef Via Volo.
Source: Helene H. Gallagher
