– But she can also be an ordinary day for no reason. She’s not really like everyone else, and I’ve lived with that for many years, she continues with a laugh.
– At the same time, she is perhaps the best of them all when she is in the right mood. Then you can live with the fact that she is a little special. She is different, but has an incredible ability.
This week, Malin Baryard Johnsson and Indiana, known as Indie, will compete in front of the home crowd at Stockholm’s Stadium, where this year’s edition of the Global Champions Tour will be decided.
It will be the crew’s first competition after segern i S:t Tropez. Since that went really fast in the jumping, Malin Baryard Johnsson knows that her mare will be extra on her toes in the first class at the Stadium.
But she also knows how to handle it.
– For seven years, Malin Baryard Johnsson and Indiana have been a duo, and today they know each other inside and out.
Photo: Nicklas Thegerström
In August last year Malin Baryard Johansson and Indiana came fifth in the individual competition at the Olympics in Tokyo.
It was Baryard Johnson’s best individual placement ever in an Olympics, but afterwards she was still really disappointed. At the same time, she was also clear that she had not been able to ride much faster in the jump on time that day.
– In the jumping I do what I can, but unfortunately it was some of the world’s fastest crew that is in it, Malin Baryard Johnsson told DN after the individual final.
With her sensitive and headstrong mare Indiana, most things are a balancing act. Had Malin ridden her at a higher pace in the final, it could have resulted in Indiana becoming too hot and therefore tearing an obstacle from just the speed.
In addition, she could then also have been too much on her toes for the team competition which was decided just a couple of days later.
Now the picture is different.
– We both develop all the time. Nowadays she is very much with me even when we ride fast, says Malin Baryard Johnsson.
– Admittedly, as I said, it is still the case that the round we do after I have ridden fast is not easy. Then she wants to go just as fast again. But we have both learned to handle it better.
How did you work to get there?
– It’s nothing I’ve ever practiced at home. She is almost impossible to jump at home, so there is absolutely no way to let her go in any way. Rather, it is about calming her down, says Malin Baryard Johnsson about Indiana.
– But for all the rounds we do, and all the competitions we do, things fall into place more and more each time.
– The mare Indiana is owned by H&M heir Charlotte Söderström. It was she who seven years ago saw the mare during a jumping tour in Italy, and got stuck for her.
Photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT
14-year-old mare Indiana, which is owned by H&M heir Charlotte Söderström, was only seven years old when she came to Malin Baryard Johnsson.
She is the best horse that Malin Baryard Johnsson has had – then you should keep in mind that Malin during her career has ridden many skilled horses – but also difficult to ride.
Malin has described it as Indiana can be “a little in the blue”. The mare has her own thoughts and ideas while she is sensitive.
With a gentle hand, Malin has patiently guided her towards the top, and today the mare completely trusts her rider even when it goes fast.
Just a month after the Tokyo Olympics, the crew won a prestigious Grand Prix jump during the Global Champions Tour in Rome, and a couple of weeks ago it was time again.
In the GP jump in St. Tropez at the end of May, Malin and Indiana accounted for an impressively fast jump that no one could match.
In both victories, a Brazilian played an important role.
– Brazilian Marlon Zanotelli is often Malin Baryard Johnson’s ballpark before jumps in time.
Photo: Erik Simander / TT
In pole vault lift it often show how much the active people support each other across national borders. The same community and generosity exists in the equestrian world.
So when Malin Baryard Johnsson needed a ballpark in both Rome and St. Tropez, it was the world six Marlon Zanotelli, who is married to the Swedish national team rider Angelica Augustsson Zanotelli, she turned to.
– Marlon knows my riding and is very knowledgeable, so I communicate a lot with him. He suits me, so to speak, says Malin Baryard Johnsson.
– In connection with these major competitions, all riders who are on site are obviously skilled and knowledgeable. But you have a little different ways of doing things. When Marlon and I stood talking before the jump in St. Tropez, for example, there was another rider standing next to him and he said: “if you do not ride seven gallop jumps to the second obstacle, you can never take them.”
– But Marlon said I would stick to my plan and make eight. Which I did. And won.
Another international star that Malin Baryard Johnsson likes to play ball with is the former Olympic gold medalist Marcus Ehning from Germany.
Ehning and Baryard Johnsson have competed against each other for over 30 years, and their riding style is similar.
– Even though we are competitors, we are also colleagues. We meet regularly around the world, and everyone is supportive and helpful.
This week meet some of the world’s best riders in Stockholm when the Global Champions Tour is decided at Stockholm’s stadium.
The team competition, where Malin Baryard Johnsson rides for Stockholm Hearts, will be decided on Friday and Saturday.
On Saturday, the individual Grand Prix jumping will also be decided.
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