Bert would come downstairs for inspection and all of us were there to make sure the horses were turned out appropriately and everything was done right. John took that knowledge and the other knowledge he gained through his career to establish with Beezie what they have today at their business in New York State. It’s a mini-Gladstone that didn’t just develop out of thin air. Bert’s system lives on, even though it’s not all under one roof in New Jersey.
At the 2012 Olympics, Robert Ridland consulted with Beezie Madden as he was learning the ropes.
It was a big change when we went from the team structure of my era to the professional sport we have today, but in many ways, it’s the same at the top level. Our top professional riders have the same degree of perfection and control of the details that Bert oversaw in Gladstone.
Since that job already is taken care of by our top riders, I don’t have to look over their shoulders and micro-manage every single professional. What I have to do is manage the chess pieces, and that’s a completely different job. I have to make sure what the objectives are, as well as how we get there and how each rider has the priorities for reaching that goal. Those priorities are, of course, different from the priorities of individual riders and owners. My job is to mesh the two together.
While I may lead the way, I’m not going solo on this. The U.S. Equestrian Federation in effect also has its own team, from Lizzy Chesson, the Managing Director of Show Jumping, to my Assistant Coach, Olympic medalist Anne Kursinski, and Young Rider Chef d’Equipe DiAnn Langer, as well as members of the USEF committees who work on behalf of the sport’s best interests.
From the horse side, some things haven’t changed. Over-competing and not adhering to a strict schedule of long-term goals and long-term scheduling still will be detrimental. Bert knew what our schedule was in the beginning of the year, as well as when the training sessions would be. He knew when we would select the team for Europe, when we would prepare for Europe, what shows we would do in Europe, which Nations Cups we were going to compete in, what the fall circuit would be. He was always 12 months ahead of time in his planning.
I do the same thing, but I do it with each individual rider instead of with a group. Unless our objectives are very clear about what our priorities are, it’s too easy to add a little too much to the schedule because the world is so much different in our sport from Bert’s time.
The opportunities to compete in big money Grands Prix have proliferated. Even in our own country, the number of FEI events has ballooned. It’s really crucial that the riders who are part of this program, who we feel can really contribute to the team’s important goals and markers we have for the year, stick to the plan and the schedule. That’s what I do in the early weeks of each year at the winter circuits in Florida and California, getting together with each rider to develop the plans so we can stick with them. I have always stressed that I will defer to sound horsemanship and long-term planning over short-term results.
What has made a huge difference for my job is technology. I can monitor the riders and watch their Grands Prix performances from my office. I’m seeing live-stream Grands Prix from Europe and all over the world from there. That helps me spend more time at home than I would have if I were doing this job in the 1970s or ‘80s.
At competitions, we go in there one horse at a time, one rider at a time, and it’s our course to do. What I pay attention to is how we can be our best and lay down as many clean rounds as we can. If we do that, we’ll be in a good position—it doesn’t really matter who we’re up against.
We have had a situation where it was felt that in order to really compete, you had to be in Europe. For us to be and remain competitive for the next 20 years, we need to truly level the playing field so people don’t feel they have to go to Europe in order to compete at the highest level. While I like to see the best competitors spending more time riding in the United States, that doesn’t mean we should never show in Europe. But if the top riders are always in Europe, it means they are not in the U.S., inspiring a new generation of riders and generating star power for the discipline.
McLain Ward
The Pathfinder Becomes
the Anchor Rider
The son of professional equestrians Barney and Kris Ward, McLain rode before he could walk. Born and trained to be a top show jumper, McLain began fulfilling his destiny early. At age 14, he was the youngest person ever to win the USET Medal Finals East (now the USEF Talent Search Finals East) while taking the team’s Talent Derby in the same year.
At the time he said, “I’ve had so many experiences most 14-year-olds haven’t had. If it continues, I’ll be ahead of the game.” He was right. Those early victories foreshadowed enormous show jumping success. At the age of 24, he became the youngest rider to earn $1 million in his discipline. Eventually, he would rank as number one in the world—an Olympic, World Equestrian Games, and Pan American Games multi-medalist. McLain’s persistence is as legendary as his ability—he took the 2017 FEI World Cup Finals on his seventeenth try at the title.
His horses have included more than a few superstars, including Sapphire—after whom the Grand Prix of Devon is named; Rothchild; his winning World Cup mount, HH Azur; and his 2018 WEG team gold medal anchor ride, Clinta. McLain, his wife, Lauren, and their daughter, Lilly Kristine, live where he grew up, at Castle Hill Farm in Brewster, New York.
When I first began competing on the team at championships, Beezie Madden was the anchor rider. That was appropriate, since she is older than I am and had a little more experience at the time. Our international championship careers basically coincided for 15 years. I generally was the lead-off rider and everybody was very comfortable with me as the pathfinder. We were very successful for a long time with Beezie and myself in those roles. I had ridden anchor on a few teams, though not very often.
In 2016, however, there was a transition and I became the anchor and kind of remained in that spot. The qualities you need to go first and those you need to be the anchor rider are sometimes a little bit different, but the order in which you ride for the team is heavily determined by the horse you’re riding. Some horses fill one of those spots better than the other, but you have to be very cool and have a great amount of experience, so that you’ve been in most situations you encounter as part of the team—wherever you ride in the order.
You’re always going to be more successful in the long run if you’ve been in a situation before and can figure out how to handle it. Either way, you understand your job is to jump two clear rounds. That’s all that you are responsible for. You can’t get distracted by other things, and need to be as prepared and ready to go as possible to do that job.
Most people would say there’s more pressure for an anchor rider than a lead-off rider because you understand the consequences of any penalties you accumulate pretty clearly and know what has to be done. You’ve been put in that position because they’re expecting a certain performance from you. The pressure is greater for the anchor rider, but someone who has more experience and been in more positions can bring that to the table. You’re using all that knowledge to be mentally and physically in the right place.
The Rio Olympics was a huge moment. We went into the 2016 Games thinking that with four faults or better in the Nations Cup overall, we would win the gold medal. It seemed logical. And then France had what I considered an out-of-body experience that day. Roger Yves Bost went right before me and jumped a clear round to clinch the gold medal.
So there I was, the U.S. anchor rider, walking down the ramp with a focus 100 percent on jumping that clean round and winning that gold medal. Then all of a sudden, that wasn’t possible. It was a blow, but I had only 45 seconds to digest that information