Madison Temkin competed in her first FEI competition, the then-CCI1* at Galway Downs at the age of just 14. Her horse, Kingslee, the former ride of the late and loved Geriann Henderson, was 16 years old and they finished in a respectable 12th place with a clear round cross country. Fast forward to 2023, which finds Maddy and her family recently relocated, having uprooted their life in California to live in Kentucky in a quest to further Maddy’s burgeoning eventing career. Samantha Clark popped in to visit their new farm in Lexington to say hello to Maddy and find out a little more.
Madison Temkin and MVP Madbum. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.
Double B Farm is an easy and scenic 20 minute drive from Lexington. Surrounded by iconic, immaculate horse farms and a mere 10 minutes to the Kentucky Horse Park, it’s essentially the perfect location.
“The location was absolutely to die for!” Maddy agrees. “We’re so close to the Horse Park, we’re so close to the vet hospital and the interstate, all of that, and in addition we’re pretty close to Lexington as well. We kind of joke around that everywhere you go is 25 minutes away, so that’s a huge aspect of it.”
A true paradise! Photo by Samantha Clark.
75 acres of prime, gently rolling bluegrass, three houses and three barns were obviously also attractive. “There was just something about it, it kind of just called to all of us,” Maddy muses. “The infrastructure of the barns was definitely a huge bonus, as well as the houses because it’s hard to run an operation without extended family, and you want them to be able to be on the farm. It had very, very good bones.”
Maddy lives with her family (mom Beth, step-dad Brian, and younger brother Parker) in the main house, while their working students live in one of the smaller, modular houses. They rent out the third home as an Airbnb property for some residual income during summer circuit. The Temkin family moved a year ago last October, driving themselves and their belongings across the country, and since then they’ve added an enormous (80 x 240) indoor arena with a viewing deck, spruced up Maddy’s barn and the paddock fencing, and despite a short winter in Ocala, have begun to settle in.
Horses graze peacefully on the Bluegrass. Photo by Samantha Clark.
Part of the new facility the Temkin family now calls home in Kentucky. Photo by Samantha Clark.
“I’ll sometimes be walking horses and I’ll look around and think to myself, ‘Wow, we really live here!’ Everyone is extremely nice here, and extremely welcoming. The horse community has been especially wonderful. I do feel like it’s home.”
Maddy’s first visit to the Bluegrass State came in 2014, when she traveled as a groom with the Area VI Young Rider team. She would then return the following year as a competitor with Kingslee. “Each time I came out here it was spectacular,” she recalls. “Now to be able to have the Kentucky Horse Park less than fifteen minutes away is incredible, and to be able to gallop around the Kentucky Horse Park at home town events is pretty cool, that’s for sure.”
“It’s amazing how fast it’s all come together,” Maddy says, describing the purchase process, much of which she was involved with from afar as she was unable to travel back and forth due to her commitments at the California farm. While initially worried the property might be too work-intensive, “In all honesty I looked at my parents and said, ‘This is going to be so much work.’” she laughs. “I wasn’t even thinking about all the things we know now: the mowing, every night it seems a horse tries to push a board off our brand new fencing… there’s always something else that needs to be done. Everyone tries to break the barn down if you don’t turn them out on the dot when they’re supposed to go out…they absolutely love the Kentucky bluegrass and massive pastures.” Here she credits step-dad Brian, who worked as a contractor in California, for taking on a lot of the property maintenance and updating.
“My step dad Brian loves the farm and he loves the horses, and he has definitely brought the farm back to life,” Maddy says. In his previous, pre-Temkin life, Brian was not at all “horsey”, Maddy explains. “Before he met my mum, the only thing he knew was you’re not supposed to give horses lawn clippings, because one time he thought he was doing a nice thing for his neighbor’s horses in California and got severely scolded! But he’s horsey now, and he’s kind of what keeps it all together here at the farm. He has these ideas which aren’t necessarily what you’d think of as horse ideas but it’s amazing how his line of work crosses over to what we do.”
The Coast Swap
Madison Temkin and Dr. Hart at Galway Downs (CA). Photo by Sally Spickard.
Switching coasts is a monumental decision, and obviously not one the family took lightly. “We thought about it for quite some time,” Maddy says. “We went back and forth quite a bit on whether or not we should leave California, and it was really hard. The community of the eventing family as we like to call it in California is something that is very hard to find; everyone is very close and that’s who I grew up with, and my mom grew up with. We had been there so long and we had a really great group of clients but luckily we’re all still in touch.”
However, Maddy and Beth are hoping that with the University of Kentucky (and its burgeoning equestrian team) on their doorstep, they’ll be able to slowly replicate their formula for success. “A huge aspect of why we moved to Kentucky was the University of Kentucky essentially,” We have a lot of clients and a full barn now, all of which are UK eventing students, Maddy explains. “We hope we’ll be able to create a little bit of what we had in California here in Kentucky with our clients basically. At the end of the day my competitive career is very important, but I would really love to be able to have a business and clients, and help produce young riders and teach people all the knowledge I have learned over the years and continue to learn. There is so much opportunity here in Kentucky for both clients and trainers alike, I can’t really think of a better place for horses, and horse people to live.”
Despite having to adjust to different aspects of horse care in Kentucky versus California – learning to be ok with horses turned out in the rain (here Maddy shares the hilarious story of panicking the week of Kentucky when it was raining, and fellow West coast rider Bec Braitling reassuring her that her California horses would survive the rain, and wouldn’t melt!), using grazing muzzles to acclimate the horses to the rich bluegrass, for two examples – it’s become home for her and her family.
The Line-up
Madison Temkin and Fernhill Bertus. USEA/Meagan DeLisle photo
Maddy typically rides between 6 and 14 horses each day. She has MVP Madbum, her OTTB mare that she got off the track as a two-year-old (when Maddy was 15 years old) and who just turned 10 and is now competing at the Advanced and 4* level. They got 2023 off to a cracking start, placing ninth in the Advanced at Chatt Hills and 15th in the CCI4*S at Tryon in May. They’d then go on to finish second in their first 4*-L at Rebecca Farm.
“It’s pretty crazy to think she’s done all that,” Maddy reflects. “She’s an incredible cross country horse and show-jumper, she’s very careful and very brave.”
“Madbum”, as she’s fondly known (she raced as MVP Madbum after former San Francisco Giants pitcher and World Series MVP winner Madison Baumgarner, and Maddy thinks it’s unlucky to change a horse’s name), is one in a string of ex-racehorses that have found promising second careers thanks to Maddy. “Someone had already restarted Hollywood, but he came to us as a horse in training and we matched quite well and I also produced him up to the four-star level from Intro/Beginner Novice. We got Georgia as a two-year-old and I produced her up to Training level, and then there’s been a couple of others that I’ve sold on.”
Georgia, a gorgeous, big bay mare, was bred to a jumping stallion this spring and will be both Beth and Maddy’s first foray into breeding, “I love producing young horses and I’ve always produced thoroughbreds off the racetrack for myself and if they don’t work for me I sell them on to someone who they will work for,” Maddy elaborates. “I really hope that I can do the same thing with some homebreds.”
The latest to join Maddy’s personal string are two stunning grey five-year-olds, sourced in 2022 from Fernhill’s Carol Gee in Ireland. Fernhill Fairytale is an Irish Sport Horse mare, and Fernhill Bertus a Hanoverian gelding. Maddy has been talent spotted and a member of the USEF U25 and Developing Rider program for many years already, and it’s that foundation that spurred the overseas buying trip.
Fernhill Fairytale is a part of an exciting group of young horses for Maddy. Photo by Samantha Clark.
“Through the U25 program — how they’ve developed us — we know we need to be looking at our four-, six-, and eight-year plans, and two four-year-olds that are of team quality are what I had to look for,” she explains. “It’s hard to know obviously because they’re so young! I went to a couple of different yards although they were the only two we did see twice.”
Those two four-year-olds are now five and competing at Training level, with Fernhill Bertus winning Reserve Champion in the East Coast Young Event Horse Championships at Maryland 5 Star in October.
“Those were the two that really stood out to us and we’re very, very lucky that Carol worked with us,” she continues. “I feel very fortunate; it’s always been a childhood dream of mine to be able to ride a Fernhill horse, and now to have the two of them, it’s pretty cool.”
While Maddy recognizes the influence that more “purpose-bred” horses have had as the sport evolves, meaning we now see fewer pure Thoroughbreds competing at the top levels, she firmly believes nothing truly beats a good Thoroughbred. “As the sport changes a bit and the dressage has become so influential – and the show jumping as well – I think we as riders have to change a bit, but with that being said I’d still pick a good Thoroughbred to go out of the box on any day. Kingslee started that for me from a young age because I’d grown up riding ponies and whatever I could get my hands on, so I was really, really fortunate to be in the right place at the right time thanks to Hawley Bennet and to acquire the ride on Kingslee. I think he, Dr. Hart and MadBum will always keep my love for Thoroughbreds burning very strong.”
Maddy and Kingslee. Photo by Samantha Clark.
Maddy is ambitious – there isn’t any denying that. Her commitment to her craft is evident not only in her willingness to leave her hometown and friends behind, but in her daily dedication, doing the bulk of the riding and associated work at her farm herself.
Jessie Olsen is technically an assistant, but Maddy describes her as one of the family; she moved from Colorado to Pennsylvania and then to California before “we all had a discussion and made the decision together. We’re very lucky that she’s been with us for so long and she came with us to Kentucky, she’s amazing. None of this would be possible without her, she is one of the most incredible people and horsewomen I have ever met. I trust her with absolutely everything.” She lives on site with another working student and works alongside Maddy and her mom.
As a part of the Eventing Pathway Program through the USEF, Maddy benefits from training with Leslie Law, and now David O’Connor. “A huge asset that I didn’t even realize when we first moved out to Kentucky is that David O’Connor has been able to come out and help me quite a bit!” Maddy shares. “Because he is Chief of Sport at USEF he comes out to get his horse fix after his desk job, so he’s come out and helped me as well, and working with him,my mom and Leslie Law in the U25 – it’s a lot of masterminds coming together so that’s been a huge asset to me developing as a rider and developing my young horses as well.”
The Future is Bright
Madison Temkin and MVP Madbum. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.
The work and hours put in have gotten Maddy plenty of notice. Most recently, she was awarded a first-of-its-kind exchange program award from Maryland Horse Trials. As the top-placed young rider in the FEI divisions at this summer’s event, Maddy will receive a trip to Ireland next year to go to Millstreet International. The idea for the program developed after Governor Larry Hogan went to Cork County, Ireland in 2022 alongside Maryland Horse Industry Board officials, including Ross Peddicord.
“I knew about the grant, but in all honesty between being extremely superstitious and focusing on punching my ticket to Rebecca Farm, I tried not to worry about that as well,” Maddy recalls. “I was a bit shocked when I found out I had won this grant. I am incredibly excited and equally grateful to receive this opportunity to go over to Ireland and compete at Millstreet. Experiences like this are invaluable to us as we continue to develop up the levels of our sport, and I just want to say how thankful I am to each individual who is a part of making this opportunity happen.”
To stave off any homesickness (though she’s been able to keep up with her California-based counterparts at many events on the East coast this season), it was a homecoming of sorts at Rebecca Farm, a popular summer destination for West Coast-based eventers in particular. “Rebecca Farm always feels a bit like coming home but this year it was extra special,” Maddy says. “The West coast is such a tight-knit community and everyone is family. Although I’ve been east for some time now, it was like I had just seen everyone two weeks before. With my mom being an eventer and trainer, I grew up at events in California and so many of these people are truly my family.”
Maddy, Beth Temkin, and Fernhill Fairytale. Photo by Samantha Clark.
Producing and training horses successfully is a recurring theme in our conversation so it’s hardly a surprise when Maddy tells me that power couple Tim and Jonelle Price would be who she most admires and looks up to in eventing. “They consistently produce very good horses after very good horses. There are certain horses they ride that you see and you’ll be blown away by them, and others you’ll wonder how they became so good, and I think they do an incredible job producing horses that maybe other people wouldn’t see that in them. Time and time again they bring those horses up the levels and produce them to be five-star winners and that inspires me.”
It’s exciting for the Central Kentucky eventing and sport horse community to have another top rider and trainer in our midst, and exciting to imagine what the future holds for this talented and dedicated young rider. Go Kentucky and Go Eventing!
