First of all, I’d like to introduce myself to all of you. I’m John Madden, also known as Beezie Madden’s husband. Our partnership has been my greatest accomplishment in and out of the horse world, and my greatest source of pride, period.

I am happy to be a new writer for this column, which has been so well run by George Morris and the other columnists. I can assure you that I will continually seek insight and advice from George.

Through my columns, I hope to be able to provoke some meaningful thought about our sport. The horse business has encompassed my entire life and professionally, my entire adult life. I’m both happy and proud to be involved with it. My hope is that in some little way, I’ll be able to contribute to the future of the sport.

To me, it’s important to acknowledge from the outset that we owe it to ourselves and to our horses to be educated. In order to really do this well, we need to know the history of our sport. As I think on this, I want to express my thanks and great appre-ciation to the horsemen and horsewomen of previous generations who have put in so much. We owe it to them to pass along this knowledge to future generations.

To name just a few of these great horse people, I’d like to point out and thank Bert de Nemethy, Bill Steinkraus, Bobby Burke, Dave Kelly, Cappy Smith, Gene Cunningham and Gordon Wright. They are but a few of the many who have made our sport what it is today.

I think we should further acknowledge the many great people who are still active in the horse business, such as George Morris and Frank Chapot. These greats continue to carry on the legacy of previous generations. Now the onus comes upon a new generation. Past generations made our sport what it is today and put us in a position to enjoy what we love so much.

Along with that enjoyment comes great responsibility.

Our love for the sport and our horses must be complemented with an equal amount of respect and empathy, especially for the animals that we rely upon.

This respect isn’t fulfilled through blue ribbons, higher jumps, bigger commissions, a flawless hunter round, or any of the little things that we all get caught up in. This respect is satisfied by better care, improved management, better riding, enhanced conditions for competitions, and, most of all, continuing
education. These are the things that will fulfill our responsibility to our horses.

If you take personal responsibility, are hard on yourself and are always trying to improve, winning and sustaining success will result as a byproduct.

Our team at John Madden Sales is continually working and striving to do everything better. I can only indicate that these principles have guided Beezie and me. The two of us believe that sustained success is a byproduct of education, preparation, dedication and a total commitment to the horse.

With all of this in mind, I’m optimistic about the future of our sport because more people than ever are involved. There’s such great potential for sharing knowledge and educating one another. We are enabled by great technology and have inherited a great system of horsemanship. What we need to do is to realize and embrace our responsibility to the sport. I’m encouraged by the positive changes happening in Wellington, Fla., and in other places all around the country and the world.

At the same time I’m feeling positive, I also acknowledge that this goal is a real challenge that takes a significant amount of dedication and commitment. Many people are taking on the challenge of improving the sport in all ways.

As just one example, I was impressed and heartened by the George Morris Horsemastership clinic held in January in Wellington. Many of the young people came in not knowing what to expect. All of them embraced the opportunity to learn, got a lot out of it, and will be able to use this exposure to horsemastership as a seed to help grow their competitive lives.

I think it’s wonderful that so many people are showing energy and commitment to improve. Everywhere
I look, I see people striving to improve their riding, veterinary care and shoeing. I see horse shows, training, horsemanship and I see all of it improving, little by little.

At the same time, I fear that many of us look for easy answers while the traditional methods of horsemanship remain the best. There are no revolutionary new tricks to get the job done.

A quote attributed to author James Charlton echoes in my mind all the time: “Don’t waste time learning the tricks of the trade. Instead, learn the trade.”

I think the easiest way to say it is that the solution is simplicity. Simplicity is hard and simplicity is elusive.

This leads me to what I believe is our greatest pitfall.My main concern is our cultural infatuation with technology. We have become so accustomed to technology improving our everyday lives, and there’s no doubt that many innovations make our lives much easier.  E-mail, for instance, is the culmination of tremendous amounts of technology and certainly makes our lives easier.

Though the benefit of technology is unquestionably valuable in our daily lives, it doesn’t much help us with horses. People have to be careful not to use complicated methods.

When working with horses, we have to make a conscious attempt to step out of our everyday life and cultural habits.

We must be like a virtuoso musician reviewing ad nauseam the scales, or a prima ballerina perfecting their barre work–these masters of their art finally perfect a simple move at the end of their career. The rider has to embrace and perfect fundamentals. 

Another cultural pitfall lies in the highly competitive world of education and commerce. There, questions and review are so often seen as a weakness. If one doesn’t get it the first time and get it quickly, he’s often left behind. In horsemanship, review must be revered and cherished. Never confuse simplicity with ease, and never confuse traditional methods with not learning new things.

I’d like to wrap up by reiterating my positive outlook and hope to take on more specific topics in future columns.

For now, I would like to challenge each of us to challenge ourselves. We should try to meet a higher standard, as excellence for the sake of excellence is always worthwhile.

We should try to leave a valuable legacy, to rise to the challenge of the greats before us, and make the sport better than we found it. I’ll surely find timely and relevant topics and always attempt to scrutinize them with these fundamental thoughts in mind. I hope that through this underlying theme, the readers can find
relevance in this and future columns.

John Madden likes to joke that he’s “just Beezie’s husband,” but his achievements go beyond marrying the Olympic team gold medalist and World Equestrian Games individual silver medalist. Madden grew up working as a groom and barn manager for George Morris’ Hunterdon and Katie Monahan Prudent’s Plain Bay Farm. He started John Madden Sales in 1988 in Cazenovia, N.Y., where he and Beezie run a
thriving import, training and sales business. He also trains amateur jumper riders.