the Horse in Sweden – more important than you think

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Commitment and fellowship Perhaps what most distinguishes people with an interest in horses is their passion. There is a lot more involved than just practicing the sport itself. After all, horses can’t just be put in a box after use and taken out again several days later. They have to be taken care of. They have to be fed and looked after – every day! And it is also during the everyday routines that are such a part of horse keeping that people meet on a social level – at the trainer’s, at the breeder’s, at the riding-school and at public or private stables. For the great majority it would seem that the opportunity to mix with horses and other people is of greater importance than taking part in competition. For example, almost 90% of the members of the Swedish Equestrian Federation’s clubs lack competition licences. And the picture is similar elsewhere on the Swedish horse scene. Just 10 percent of the country’s Icelandic horses are active competition horses. Only 10 percent of the members of Sweden’s Western Riding clubs hold competition licences. There are some 60 000 horses of competition-age within trotting, of which circa 24 000 are trained every year with 12 000 making it to the racetracks. The act of competing, achieving within the sport, can thus be seen as a spearhead of sorts. We are used to seeing top performances from Swedish harness riders both in Europe and the USA. We have seen international success in show jumping, carriage driving and dressage. Progress has been noted too in Three-day event and vaulting. Swedish Arabian racers win races abroad. And Swedish horse and rider teams in Icelandic horse riding and Western riding have achieved success with top-rankings in international competition. Grassroots tradition Behind this ‘spearhead’ of achievement lays a broad range of efforts from a great many people. Here we have a true grassroots movement, with everyone working together to get things done. They do the odd jobs, take care of the horses and muck the stables, mixing with one another regardless of which stable or field they may come from. They run clubs, arrange 4 The horse in Sweden – more important than you think meetings, displays, competitions, outings and courses, they practice DIY, maintain the tracks, guard the car parks, clean, serve refreshments - and sometimes argue! These are horse loving boys and girls, men and women, parents, families, horse-owners and fellow riders. It is thanks to this voluntary work that a select few of all of those involved can practice his or her sport at the highest level. The horse in Sweden has a grassroots tradition of availability for all. Trotting has its roots in the use of Coldbloods in farming and logging. People would race each other to church or hold yearly competitions on the frozen winter lakes. The connection between logging and trotting is still very evident. More than half of all the land’s trotting racetracks with betting are to be found in the woodlands north of Lake Mälaren. The backbone of Swedish trotting is perhaps its mixture of amateur and professional trainers. There are almost twenty times more amateur trainers than there are professional. Many are the successful horses that have been trained in amateur stables. That equestrian sport in Sweden has a profile of being accessible to the general public has its beginnings in Ridfrämjandet (“Promotion of Riding”), which opened the stable doors for anyone that wanted to ride. Ridfrämjandet became a part of the Swedish Equestrian Federation, SvRF, on its foundation in 1993. And as statistics from The Swedish Sports Confederation, Riksidrottsförbundet, clearly show, horses really are for everyone: after football, horse riding is the largest youth sport in Sweden! Not counting all of the young people that ride that are not part of SvRF.
Successful breeding There are quite a few examples of top Swedish horses. Many of them have been bred “small-scale”. The Swedish system of having a few larger stud farms combined with part-time stud farms and in particular many hobby-breeders is paying off. Commitment to this approach is the uniting factor. Combining this sense of commitment with a stubborn attitude and purposefully sticking to a vision is the key to small-scale success. The typical breeder in Sweden today is no longer a farmer but a woman in her lower middle ages with horses as a free time activity. This trend is common to all breeds across the country. The hobby-breeder has experience of horses, knows her mare’s origins and chooses her stallion with care, and thus has a professional attitude in the business of breeding. The internationally top-ranked show-jumper H & M Butterfly Flip with Malin Baryard in the saddle is one example of successful small-scale Swedish breeding. Behind Coldblood trotter Järvsöfaks’ success lays a great deal of personal commitment. Breeding involves the selection of individual horses of certain types for mating, with the specific aim of carrying certain desired qualities over to their offspring. This process can have varying objectives. When it comes to working- and sport horses, the aim is to change and improve qualities such as pulling-power, or the ability to trot or gallop, jump high, perform dressage etc. For other breeds it is a heightened similarity in appearance that is desired. Some breeds allow cross breeding, others do not. Sometimes horse breeding can be about helping to prevent a certain breed from dying out. For domestic breeds, it is the Swedish studbook rules that apply for breeding. For foreign races it is the respective land of origin’s rules that apply for registration. As a precautionary measure, these rules must in turn be recognised by The Swedish Board of Agriculture. Breeding organisations are responsible, amongst other things, for ensuring the breeding values of stallions of types in question. Fertilisation of trotting and riding horses is chiefly car- Horse breeder Christina Larsson still owns her fine jumping mare H & M Butterfly Flip and is a keen observer at competitions. ried out by means of artificial insemination. With sperm being so easily transportable, in principle all of the stallions in the world are accessible. For these breeds plus the Icelandic horse, there is also BLUP, a statistical method of analysis that is used to value breeding-animals. From production to consumerism The horse’s function in our daily lives has changed from production to consumerism. It is no longer needed in cultivation and transportation, nor to carry timber or defend the country. Instead it helps satisfy our need for meaningful relationships, leisure and sporting activities. As the number of horses grow, so too do the amount of breeds and the ways in which we use them. This in turn provides a need for new companies, old and new products and indeed new ideas. There is also a need for accommodation with links to horse tourism and horse keeping in different parts of the country. Consumerism through the horse business is a billion crown affair. The horse in Sweden – more important than you think 5
Page 1 and 2: the Horse in Sweden - more importan
Page 3 and 4: Contents The horse in Sweden today
Page 5: The horse in Sweden - more importan
Page 9 and 10: Horse breeds in Sweden Akhal-Teke A
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Page 13 and 14: Jumping is indisputably the largest
Page 15 and 16: Since 1973, Aktiebolaget Trav och G
Page 17 and 18: The horse in Sweden - more importan
Page 19 and 20: Social importance and the potential
Page 21 and 22: Horses create employment and stimul
Page 23 and 24: Over 200 exhibitors and almost 80 0
Page 25 and 26: Around fifty veterinarians have suc
Page 27 and 28: Do you want to know more about hors

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