THE USA’s recent victory in the Furussiyya FEI Nations Cup in Mannheim, Germany, was won by the all-female team of Kirsten Coe, Beezie Madden, Laura Kraut and Lucy Davis.
While more men than women feature at the pinnacle of show jumping in Europe, the success of female riders is no flash in the pan in the USA, where female riders regularly out-perform their male counterparts. Here, we take a look at some of the women currently riding the crest of the wave internationally and competing at Dublin.
GEORGINA BLOOMBERG
Daughter to billionaire and former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, 32-year-old Georgina Bloomberg is mother to one-year-old Jasper.
Hailing from New York but spending much of her time in Wellington, Florida, she has a strong connection with Ireland, having worked with Irish trainer Jimmy Doyle for the past 13 years.
Currently ranked 48th in the world, Bloomberg currently occupies the number five position in the United States Equestrian Federation rankings.
She was a member of the US Nations Cup team in Falsterbo and provided a vital double clear round which contributed to victory at the Gijon Nations Cup for her country.
Last September she scored her biggest win to date in the $210,000 Central Park Grand Prix in New York City and went on to win the $127,000 Adequan Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida. This year, she was second in the Old Salem Grand Prix and was a member of the second placed team at the Ocala Nations Cup.
LAUREN HOUGH
A former winner of the Grand Prix of Dublin (2011), 38-year-old Lauren Hough made her Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000.
She was part of the gold medal-winning team in the Pan American Games in 2003 after completing the selection trials with a broken collar bone. Four years later she was a member of the US bronze medal-winning team at the Pan Am Games.
Her career at the top of equestrian sports is perhaps not that surprising when taken into account her father, Charles “Champ” Hough, was a three-day enter rider who won a bronze medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki and her mother, Linda, was a top US-based hunter rider and operated a successful hunter and jumper show stable for over 25 years.
In recent years Hough has been a winning Nations Cup rider (Rome, 2009 and Rotterdam, 2010), as well as winning Grand Prix in Hamburg (2010), the aforementioned Dublin and Saint-Lo, France, both in 2011. Last year she followed up by winning the Credit Suisse Grand Prix at the five-star show in Geneva riding Ohlala, a mare by Orlando out of a Cardento dam.
BEEZIE MADDEN
Wisconsin native Beezie Madden made her Grand Prix debut in 1985 at the age of 22 and has represented the US for the past three decades at the highest level. The first woman exceed the $1 million mark in prize money for show jumping in the USA, she was named the USEF Equestrian of the Year four times (2006, 2007, 2013 and 2014).
In 2004, Madden and Authentic won their first of two Olympic team gold medals and two years later, added team and individual silver medals to their resume with outstanding performances at 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen. In 2007, the pair won the Rolex Grand Prix in Aachen and in 2008, they collected her second consecutive team gold medal and an individual bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Madden’s first victory on the Global Champions Tour came when she won the Grand Prix of Valkenswaard in 2011 and she went on to partner Coral Reef Via Volo to win the Longines International Grand Prix of Rotterdam.The year ended on a high note when Madden took home team gold and individual silver medals from the Pan American Games.
In April 2013 Madden went to Gothenburg, Sweden, to claim the one title that had eluded her in her illustrious career, the Rolex/FEI World Cup Final crown. Riding Abigail Wexner’s Simon, she forced a jump-off with the reigning Olympic champion Steve Guerdat and beat him.
Far from resting on her laurels, the 52-year-old has continued to make show jumping headlines. In 20i4, she won the $200,000 American Invitational, was a member of the winning US team in the Nations Cup at Hickstead and became the first woman to ever win the Longines King George V Gold Cup.
Just seven days later, she was part of the winning US team in the Aga Khan Cup in Dublin and then anchored the US show jumping team to team bronze (and individual bronze) at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
MEREDITH MICHAELS-BEERBAUM
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Meredith Michaels was a successful young rider and took time out from university in 1991 to train with Paul Schockemöhle.
Following a three-year stint at Schockemöhle’s yard, she met and married fellow rider Markus Beerbaum. Following their 1998 wedding, Michaels-Beerbaum switched her show jumping allegiance from the USA to Germany.
She won a 1999 European team gold medal riding Stella but her most memorable successes were all courtesy of the talented gelding Shutterfly. Together they won three FEI World Cup Finals, making her the first woman in history to do so. They also won a world championship individual and team bronze and came fourth individually in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In 2010 Michaels-Beerbaum was a member of the gold medal winning team at the World Championship with Checkmate 4 and gave birth to her daughter Brianne.
That year, the defending World Cup champion, was a major beneficiary of an FEI rule change which affected all female international riders. It was decided that Rolex world ranking points for jumping riders on maternity leave would be frozen and female riders would lose only half of their rankings points during their absence from competition.
Following the ruling Michaels-Beerbaum said: “This is great news for all female jumping riders, it means that we can take time out from competition to have a baby and not lose all our Rolex rankings points while we’re off the circuit.”