– Maybe the horse stops – or something else happens – and you have to start over. It then jumps high over the obstacles (a combination consists of two or three) with pointed ears, and says I’ll fix this. Then you have the answer, he continues.
– Because it is only when you put them to the test that you know if it is a horse that then shifts up or down.
The countdown to the Equestrian World Cup in Denmark is in its final stages. The championship will be inaugurated on Saturday. First up are the dressage riders. On Wednesday, it is the jumpers’ turn to begin their medal hunt.
But the foundation for what will happen inside the ski jumping course in Herning during the WC days was laid many years ago.
The road to a championship is a slow process where there are no guarantees that the most promising young horse will also be the best horse as an adult.
It is also a story about listening to the horses, and not being in too much of a hurry during the training phase.
– If you have your own children, you know that the most important thing when the children start school is that they keep up, are interested and have fun. But if they have two or five mistakes on the tests when they are in elementary school, it doesn’t matter that much, says the skipper’s national team captain Henrik Ankarcrona.
– It’s the same when it comes to horses.
– The national show jumping team’s national captain Henrik Ankarcrona emphasizes several times how important it is not to be in too much of a hurry when training a horse.
Photo: Petter Arvidson/Bildbyrån
Under them first years of their lives, the horses spend most of their time walking around the paddock with their friends and eating grass. When they are three years old, they experience for the first time what it is like to have a rider on their back.
– We usually say that all horses have a birthday on January 1, and at the beginning of that year we start getting them used to someone sitting on them, start teaching them what the aids mean and find an interaction, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
– It is usually a job that takes a few weeks. When it’s done, I think they should be out in the paddock all summer and just be horses.
The next step will be to loose-jump them in the autumn, that is, let them jump without a rider on their back.
– I think in and of itself that it is very difficult to assess free jumping. It could be a three-year-old jumping fantastically, but with a rider on his back it looks just as good. Or just the opposite, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
According to Swedish rules, the earliest horses can start competing is in the late spring of the year they have turned four.
– The competition itself is only part of the training. There is so much around them that they also have to learn, for example how to take transport.
Sometimes I can feel that there is a little excitement around it, and we do everything to dampen it.
On the educational ladder there are so-called vintage classes where horses of the same age compete against each other. They take place during the horse’s “youth period”, which lasts until it is seven years old.
– With some horses you only have to do things twice for them to understand, with others it takes ten. That is why we must constantly listen to the horses, and be prepared to back down if the horse is not mature, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
– Because what they do as four-, five- and six-year-olds at competitions really has nothing to do with whether they become an All In or a King Edward.
– Sometimes I can feel that there is a little excitement around it, and we do everything to dampen it. The horse is not behind just because it is not good as a five-year-old.
– In the end, it’s about sustainability. The horses must be healthy and feel good in bud and body.
– Jens Fredricson, who is part of the Swedish WC team, trains his horses by asking questions.
Photo: Mathilda Ahlberg/Bildbyrån
55-year-old Jens Frederickson is not only a high-class show jumper, he is also stable master at Strömsholm and Flyinge, with responsibility for the art of riding, sports and horse training.
He agrees with confederation captain Ankarcrona that it is of less importance whether the horse ranks high in the so-called vintage classes.
There are other things that are much more important.
– The young horse period is about building up the horse partly physically – heart, lungs, skeleton, joints, ligaments and tendons – but also about exercising it so that it learns to use the right muscles, says Jens Fredricson.
– The horse must lift its belly and withers and release its neck, and go from being a leg walker to becoming a back – and belly walker. It’s called dressage, and that job takes a couple of years.
Some athletes are referred to as exercise products. They have not been the most talented but have trained themselves for success. Can even a top horse be a training product?
– All horses are really products of training, Jens Fredricson answers quickly and then elaborates on the answer.
– Horses are herbivores with a strong escape instinct. We are the ones who put it in a box and put a saddle on it. As a young horse, it has no idea what riding or jumping is. They have to learn it.
It is the way in which they are taught that is decisive, and for Jens Fredricson the interaction between rider and horse is a and o.
– I’m not so much for the dominant riding and training. If you constantly tell the horse what to do, it will eventually become disinterested.
– The best way to train a horse is to constantly ask questions of the type “do you feel like doing this”. Then the horse thinks it’s funny, and then it goes better. That’s my philosophy anyway.
– Malin Baryard Johnson’s WC horse Indiana is a big jumping lady.
Photo: Pontus Lundahl/TT
When the horse has left the young horse age, it is time for the next step in development.
– Yes, at the age of eight we usually say that they have graduated from university, says union captain Henrik Ankarcrona with a laugh.
With the degree completed, the eight-year-old can go along to international competitions, but then he does not attend the highest classes for the first time.
In the horse world, the horse’s rideability is often talked about. However, Jens Fredricson believes that one should be careful about placing too much importance on the rideability of the young horses – at least if you are looking for a super horse.
– With big jumping horses, the rideability can be a bit limited because they have an incredibly large canter, and you therefore have to take it in on all lines on (the track). This means that horses with smaller canters – where the distances are right and you don’t have to hold them – are often perceived as more rideable. But those horses rarely have enough capacity, says Jens Fredricson.
– Rideability is something that you have to work on and develop, and when the horse is strong enough it is no longer a big problem.
An example of how rideability is not always decisive is Malin Baryard Johnson’s WC horse Indiana. The mare’s talent was clear at an early age, but for a long time there were question marks about the mare’s rideability. She had a strong will of her own, and didn’t always listen to the rider.
That question mark is today erased – at least when it is Malin Baryard Johnsson sitting on the back – through patient and methodical work over many years.
– In order for All In to continue to think it’s fun to compete, Peder Fredricson matches the gelding with care. Nowadays he rarely competes indoors, and for long periods he walks in the paddock and is fine.
Photo: Christian Örnberg/Bildbyrån
In last summer’s individual Olympic finals were an overwhelming majority of the 30 final horses between the ages of eleven and 13.
– Around the age of ten, it is usually said that the horses are ready for a championship, but once again, age does not say everything, either when it comes to horses or people. There are nine-year-olds who go to championships, but then it is important that they are very ready for it, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
– The championships are stressful for the horses, and we want a sustainable sport. Bringing out a championship horse is so difficult that we want them to be able to do many championships, then getting impatient and letting them make their championship debut too soon can be risky.
When the horse is somewhere around 12-15 years old, it is usually at its best. In the individual Olympic final in Tokyo, for example, the four oldest horses were 15 years old.
But then there are exceptional horses. Those who question what year is on their passports.
In the Swedish WC team there is such an example.
Peder Fredricson’s gelding All In is 16 years old, but still holds top world class.
– To give you food for thought, you could compare All in with athletes such as Zlatan or Ronaldo who have also had long careers. Some individuals have something extra that is difficult to explain, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
– In May this year, 40-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrated that his Milan had become Italian champions.
Photo: TT
Somewhere exists however, on the racing career of all horses. When that day comes is also individual, but horses older than 17 years are not part of the norm on the big international stage.
It happens that some of the horses after that continue their career for a few more years at national level as a teacher for a young rider, but for most a different life awaits.
The circle closes and they get to return to a life in the paddock. The unclaimed retirement can last for several years. Many live until they are 25 years old, some even 30 years.
– When you get to the big stables, it’s fantastic to see how well the old servants are taken care of. They get to walk around and enjoy themselves in large pastures, and get a lot of love, says Henrik Ankarcrona.
– It warms, and is something they really deserve.