Update from Olympic Show Jumping Gold Medalist, Beezie Madden (USA) on her European Tour

Olympic Gold Medalist, Beezie Madden (USA), blogs about the second leg of her European Tour in Rome.

Our second Super League show has finished with mixed results. We went to Rome with the same team as in Labaule: Myself, Mario, McLain, Hillary and Richard. This time ,however, I was on the Nations Cup team with Mademoiselle instead of Hillary with Quincy B. It was not our day as far as the team result. We finished a disappointing sixth out of 11 teams.

I was very happy, though, with Maddy in her first Nations Cup with me. With a four-fault score in the first round and a clear in the second round, we were the best combination of the American team that day. Richard started the team off with what was looking like a clear round, but ended up an elimination at the final double combination. This put the pressure on the rest of us.

I followed with four faults as did Mario with Urico. McLain as our anchor rider turned in an unusual eight faults with Sapphire. With a 16 fault score in the first round, we barely made the second round and came back first in the order. Richard produced a clear followed by a clear by me and Maddy. Mario then had four faults, but our comeback was looking good with McLain left to go. Unfortunately he had a light rub that fell for four faults, and we came back from our ninth position going into the second round up to sixth. This is why Nations Cups are so unpredictable. It's hard to have four horses and riders peaking on the same day.

The rest of our show had not quite the success as we had in Labaule, but McLain won the Grand Prix with Sapphire and two other classes with his other horses, and Hillary won a class with Corlette. Mademoiselle had four faults in the Grand Prix, but jumped and went beautifully. I am looking forward to St. Gallen this week. Again I am hoping for a fantastic week with Maddy, so we can move up the rankings on the long list and leave this first Super League Tour with a bang.
-Beezie