United States Show Jumping Team Celebrates Jaw Dropping Victory at CHIO Aachen World Equestrian Festival

Aachen Germany, Friday, August 26, 2005 - McLain Ward, Beezie Madden, Jeffrey Welles and Laura Kraut teamed up to pull out all the stops Friday giving America one of the most sought-after show jumping wins in the world, the Samsung Super League Nations Cup at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany. The team is under the direction of coach George Morris or “Magic Morris,” the affectionate nickname now circulating.

“To win at Aachen is only second to winning a Team Gold medal at the Olympics,” said McLain Ward of Brewster, New York. One of only two in the entire competition to jump a double-clear round, Ward summed it up beautifully when he indicated, “It’s a good day for America.”

McLain Ward’s participation seemed questionable at first, after breaking his collar bone in the Samsung Super League competition at Hickstead, England at the end of July, but the 29-year-old Silver-medal athlete from the Athens Olympic Games rode through the pain, which he admitted, “is interfering to some degree.”

“It suddenly got better today after winning the Nations Cup!” he laughed. “I’d been struggling a bit all week, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but I put my trust in my horse, Sapphire, and it turned out fantastically well.”

Teammate Jeffrey Welles of Ridgefield, Connecticut, a first-timer to the scene at Aachen was equally thrilled. “To win today was just an awesome feeling,” he said. “In the first round, there were quite a few who rode clear. For the second round, they raised the jumps a little and with the horses being tired, the scores across the board weren’t as good. Our team was very consistent from the first round to the second round, which is what counts at the Nations Cup. It’s great to be here representing our country—we’re so psyched!”

“This is the biggest Nations Cup of the year,” added the other Silver-medal winner from Athens, Beezie Madden, one of the United States’ star riders. “Everybody had their best team here and the United States came out on top so it’s very exciting.”

Madden, who has represented the United States in all but one of the 2005 Samsung Super League competitions, said it helped that she could breathe a little more easily going into the second round, thanks to the “nice cushion my teammates gave me. They helped to take a lot of the pressure off being the anchor rider.” After an admittedly slow week, Madden said, “to have it all pull together today, it worked out really well.”

As happy as the riders were, the excitement of their coach, legendary show jumper George Morris, of Flemington, New Jersey, couldn’t be outdone.

“We had four super, super riders,” beamed Morris. “Beezie, Laura, Jeffrey and McLain—they don’t ride better than that, and with lovely horses. They were all at the top of their game.”

But the message he’s most looking forward to sharing is the solidarity of equestrian sport in America. “These people should not underestimate American riding, American training and American management. They’re too quick to look to other countries to solve their problems. They should solve it with our system. It’s second to none!”