The U.S. Show Jumping Team got off to a very solid start today in the first individual qualifying round at Markopoulo Equestrian Center. All four team members are among the top tier riders as Beezie Madden of Cazenovia, NY, and Peter Wylde, an American residing in Maastricht, The Netherlands, had perfectly clear rounds. McLain Ward of Brewster, NY, had just one time fault and Chris Kappler of Pittstown, NJ, pulled one rail for four time faults. There were ten clear rounds in all.

"It's an incredible feeling to have such an animal," said Wylde of his mount, a mare named Fein Cera and a veteran international horse. He characterized the course as "difficult but not crazy difficult. . . but for sure the volume is going to get turned up, no question." We've been excited ever since the Trials about the team we've got," said Beezie Madden. She observed that there were some optical illusions on the course that were a bit tricky, but it certainly didn't seem to bother her gelding Authentic.

This is just the beginning of the show jumping competition which will see both the individual and team medals hotly contested between likely leaders the U.S., Germany, The Netherlands, and France. Today's qualifier was for the individual medal competition. On Tuesday, August 24th, the second and third qualifier rounds will take place and they will also determine the team medals to be awarded that evening. The individual medals will be decided on Friday evening, August 27th with two final rounds of jumping and then the medal ceremony. Individual riders to watch include all of the U.S. riders, Ludger Beerbaum of Germany, Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil, Marcus Fuchs of Switzerland, Ludo Philapaerts of Belgium, and Nick Skelton of Great Britain.

ENDS
For more information, please contact Maria Partlow, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications on (859) 225-6941 or via email at mpartlow@usef.org. USEF press releases are available on our web site - www.usef.org.

The United States Equestrian Federation Inc.(USEF), as the National Equestrian Federation of the U.S., is the regulatory body for the Olympic and World Championship sports of dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, reining, show jumping, and vaulting, as well as 19 other breeds and disciplines of equestrian competition. As the country's largest multi-breed organization, the Federation has over 80,000 members and recognizes more than 2,800 competitions nationwide each year. It governs all aspects of competition, including educating and licensing all judges, stewards, and technical delegates who officiate at these shows.

VISION STATEMENT
The vision of the United States Equestrian Federation is to provide leadership for equestrian sport in the United States of America, promoting the pursuit of excellence from the grass roots to the Olympic Games, based on a foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare of its horses, and embracing this vision, to be the best national equestrian federation in the world.