When she was three, sophomore Madi Tegtman found a passion for horseback riding, at just five years old she began to ride in competitions. Eleven years later Tegtman still has her passion for horse jumping.
This wasn’t the beginning of Tegtman’s horse jumping career, she’s lived a life of it. As a first grader, Tegtman started to travel all over Illinois and the United States to compete in competitions. Tegtman has had to face challenges and along with achieving big accomplishments along her path of becoming an amazing horse jumping champion.
Over time Tegtman has had many physical and mental challenges when she practices and at her competitions.
“There are mental and physical challenges, every horse is different and you never know what it could do. In any bad situation, we have to know what to do within seconds,” Tegtman said.
A big accomplishment that Tegtman has achieved in her horse jumping career is that, she got second in Illinois in the A circuit division.
“In 2015 I was second in the state in one of my divisions, it was my first year in the A circuit. That was a huge accomplishment for me,” Tegtman said.
Recently, Tegtman bought an Argentinian horse, from the city of Buenos Aires. Tegtman had to buy a new horse, due to the loss of her previous horse Quinn. Tegtman thought it would be interesting to buy a horse from a different country.
“Bentley came here on March 3, 2016 after a 16 hour flight to Florida and a 24 hour trailer ride home. We taught him everything he knows to this day. I had a horse named Preston and sadly we had to put him down due to colic,” Tegtman said.
During Tegtman’s competitions she competes in the jumpers and equation. Equation is judged on how well she makes herself and her horse look. While in jumpers it’s all about speed, if she hits a rail, it will be 4 seconds added to her time. Tegtman also has to go around the course and not get any faults. When Tegtman succeeds she goes to the jump off, she has to memorize what the obstacles in the second course had, and Tegtman also has to memorize what hurdles and other obstacles were in the first course.
“You have 30 seconds to get to the first jump,” Tegtman said.
In order to control her horse, Tegtman needs a lot of strength in her legs to guide her horse and more importantly gain balance so she doesn’t fall off. Tegtman also uses her muscles that she never has to use on a horse.
“It’s important to be fit so you have more control of the horse. The horse will do anything to take advantage of its rider, so you have to be ready for it and control whatever is going to happen,” Tegtman said.
In order to prepare for competitions, Tegtman trains at Kinvarra Farm in Saint Charles, IL. She has two lessons every week and then the other three days she rides at her farm, Tegtman practices anytime she can.
“I plan to show out of state more next year in 2017,” Tegtman said.