Text © World of Showjumping

“For me, horsemanship embodies the overall management of your horse's performance, health and well-being,” Beezie Madden tells World of Showjumping. “When horses are used for sport, horsemanship to me means organizing their competition and training schedules with the aim of maximizing their performance, quality of life and happiness.”

The 61-year-old four-time Olympian is one of the world’s most decorated riders: She has two Olympic team gold medals – from Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 – as well as an individual Olympic bronze from Beijing in 2008. Madden also has six medals from Pan-American Games, and at the World Equestrian Games in Caen in 2014, Madden won individual and team bronze, while in 2006 in Aachen she claimed individual and team silver. From the twelve FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals Madden has attended, she has won two – in 2018 in Paris and in 2013 in Gothenburg.

After the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, Madden announced a shift in her focus; while she still competes internationally, she has now turned her attention more towards nurturing future talents rather than aiming for major championships herself. Based out of Cazenovia, New York, and Wellington, Florida, Beezie runs a training and sales barn with her husband of 26 years, John Madden.

To World of Showjumping, Madden shares her thoughts on horsemanship and the challenges the sport currently is facing.

For Madden, horsemanship was learned at home. “I was lucky because my parents had horses, so I grew up in the barn,” she tells about her background. “They did everything on their own, taking care of the horses as well as training them, so all of that became second nature to me. I was also very lucky to be a working student at Katie Prudent's farm when her barn manager Pancho Lopez was there. My husband John also worked with them, so when I went to work for him, it was all very similar as we had the same background.”

We are more in the belief that horses need to be horses in order to be happy enough to perform as well as we like

“We try to keep it as simple as we can and just add in things that we think are specific to one horse or another,” Madden tells. “However, I think it's always a balance in everybody's stable between how much you let horses be horses and how much you protect them, how much do you work on keeping them fit and how much do you work on keeping them fresh – you got to balance that as well."

"We are more in the belief that horses need to be horses in order to be happy enough to perform as well as we like," Madden says. "We have our horses out in the paddocks every day and we try to keep them moving as much as possible because moving is, by nature, what they are built to do. We are lucky to have a farm where we have beautiful grass fields where we can work them up and down the hills so we can keep them fit without pounding them.”

After entering a more quiet phase of her career in terms of her own competition schedule, Madden has focused even more on passing on her knowledge on horsemanship. “In our stable, we try to have our students involved in a lot of the decision-making and everything that goes on in the barn,” she tells. “When the vet is there, we encourage our students to come and be a part of trying to evaluate the horse. We encourage them to be there and be involved in not just what their horse is doing, but in what all the other horses are doing as well. When I'm competing or training, if they're there to see all of that, I think they can learn as much or more than when they're riding themselves.”

“I'm not saying everybody has to get a blacksmith education and be able to shoe their own horses, be a vet or muck their own stalls all the time,” Madden continues. “However, in order to manage your horses and your stable, you need to know at least the basics. You can't be the boss over somebody doing something that you don't know anything about. I also think that when you have problems – let’s say you have a lame horse, or things just aren't going right – you can't just take a shot in the dark and fire your blacksmith because you believe it could be the blacksmith’s fault, or fire your vet because you think he or she did something wrong. You have to have some knowledge to be able to make educated decisions.”

You can't be the boss over somebody doing something that you don't know anything about

For Madden, a good team is essential in ensuring the horses are well taken care of. “We have five employees that have been with us for a long, long time,” Madden tells. “Consistency in the staff you have is important in a system. We've been very lucky to have loyal people over the years and so there's very few glitches in the system – the barn kind of runs itself with the staff we have.”

“When we do need to hire, we tend to lean towards people who can be green; they can come in and learn from the people that we have already,” she continues. “Sometimes it can be better than hiring someone with a lot of experience because it can be hard for people who are used to a certain system, to come in and do things differently. We've had good luck in finding our people.”

With 89 five-star shows in the FEI calendar for 2025 compared to the 67 in 2015 and 20 in 2005, the sport of jumping has evolved immensely over the past two decades. “The schedule these days is so busy,” Madden says. “Riders tend to go from show to show and meet their horses at different venues. There's not much time spent at home anymore. That's changed a lot in my career. That’s why it is so important now to have a good team behind you; not only is it essential to have good horsemanship as a rider, but to have a team that also has very good horsemanship and is able to keep your horses fit for competition.”

“There are just so many more competitions available. For the riders to stay at the top of the ranking list and to be able to get invited to shows, they have to have quite a few horses in their string,” Madden explains. “I think it's more difficult to manage your horses’ schedules now than before, and it requires a lot of awareness from the riders.”

I believe variety is probably better for the horses and also makes better riders

“At the same time, the shows have become more and more cookie cutter – you don't have to do any special training anymore to go to many of the shows – except some of the very iconic shows like Dublin, Aachen and Spruce Meadows. Other than some of the traditional venues, it's a lot of jumping in sand rings and a lot of the same fences all the time.”

Madden points out how the repetitive concept of shows can make it harder to keep horses interested in their job, while riders might not become as well-rounded as in the past with so many venues being more or less the same. “I believe variety is probably better for the horses and also makes better riders. However, because people spend less time training at home, the sport has evolved this way out of necessity,” Madden says.

“Keeping our sport in the Olympic Games is important,” Madden replies when asked how she sees the future of equestrian sports. “I also think keeping the Nations Cups as a highlight of our sport is important. At the same time, we have other, more commercial, series rising up that people are really embracing. However, I don’t think there is any child or potential owners out there dreaming about being champions of those series more than they are dreaming about representing their country in Nations Cups and especially at Olympic Games. I think the sport is probably going to keep growing, but a lot depends on the grassroots systems everywhere and how we can handle the social license to operate.”

I think we have to take a step back and look at our sport from the general public’s perspective as well

“I think people are starting to be more aware and acknowledge that they have to be conscious about the social license to operate,” Madden continues. “The more we can illustrate and promote the fact that our horses have a good life with what we do, the better. The environment we work in has changed, especially in the landscape of social media. In some sense it's positive that riders have to be more conscious of what they are doing and how it’s perceived by other people – because what becomes habitual to us, can look different to a wider audience. I think we have to take a step back and look at our sport from the general public’s perspective as well. At the same time, we have to keep in mind that we need to create a safe environment for our horses and for the people working with them – some discipline is required when working with animals.”

“I’m optimistic though. We are all going to have to find a balance, also in regard to what we need to regulate and what we don't need to regulate. At the moment, we probably have some areas that are being over-regulated and other areas that maybe would need more regulation. Right now, everyone is trying to navigate towards what they believe to be the right direction, and I’m positive that together we can find the right balance also in terms of how the general public perceives the sport,” Madden concludes.

20.8.2025 No reproduction of any of the content in this article will be accepted without a written permission, all rights reserved © World of Showjumping.com. If copyright violations occur, a penalty fee will apply.