Polish dressage rider Sandra Sysojeva precipitated fairly a stir on the Paris Olympics when she steered her eight-year-old mare, Maxima Bella, into the freestyle ultimate. This daughter of Millennium x Christ 3 was two years youthful than some other horse within the subject, and waltzed her means into fifteenth place with a rating of plus-80%. Since Paris, they’ve been unbeaten in six worldwide competitions, together with an enormous private finest freestyle rating of 83.41% to win at Salzburg CDI5* in December.
Sandra Sysojeva and Maxima Bella notch one in all their 16 victories in 2024. Credit score: lerasalash.photograph
With such success at such a precocious age on the world stage, it’s straightforward to imagine Maxima Bella was a prolific younger horse winner, however the actuality is quite totally different. This Olympic season was her first at grand prix – and the pair didn’t compete in any respect in 2023. Whereas Sandra cherished the look of Maxima Bella when she first set eyes on her as a three-year-old, it’s been a rocky street to the highest.
“I knew from her pedigree that she is likely to be fairly scorching and sharp, however she was horrifying me a bit,” says Sandra. “So we took time. We labored on build up muscle, with workouts on the bottom and strolling up hills within the snow. We’ve got quite a lot of snow in winter, and dealing within the deep snow helped her to realize muscle. We additionally walked within the river collectively, and on a regular basis I used to be constructing a pleasant relationship together with her.
“I’d take her all over the place with me, strolling beside me and cuddling her on a regular basis – and that has made our relationship actually particular. Placing her within the secure and taking her out for half an hour a day wouldn’t work for her. I discovered that you just needed to give her consideration for 2 or three hours a day, strolling, patting, taking her to the paddock, the forest, and coaching.
“She was not the best character,” provides Sandra. “She was fairly wild and troublesome in all new conditions. It took quite a lot of time and persistence to allow her to grasp and be taught what she has to do and the right way to behave. It’s not been straightforward to get her belief.”
Six years on, Sandra feels she understands this “mare of all mares” properly, and vice versa – even when the horse “adjustments her temper 10 occasions a day”.
“Maxima Bella’s character is a thriller – sooner or later she’s pleasant, one other day she’s screaming at different horses,” Sandra says. “Someday she likes to eat this, one other that. It’s worthwhile to perceive what she needs daily. In competitors she’s in a single temper, at dwelling she has one other temper, within the forest she is totally different once more. However you possibly can by no means be powerful together with her as a result of it goes in opposition to you. I’ve needed to be taught a lot about her, to have quite a lot of persistence and to be calm.”
“Cuddles” type a part of Maxima Bella’s each day routine as Sandra continues to nurture their relationship. Credit score: lerasalash.photograph
“We educated grand prix within the forest”: Sandra Sysojeva on Maxima Bella’s path to the highest
In Maxima Bella’s early aggressive outings, she wasn’t distinctive – “she finds the better work boring”. However Sandra knew nearly from the outset that she had a grand prix contender in her fingers.
“I may see it from her very early years that she had big expertise for piaffe-passage, she was providing it on a regular basis,” she says. “If she was trotting she’d attempt to cease and passage, so I’d pat her, give her a sugar lump and she or he’d supply it an increasing number of. The recent horses can typically change into grand prix horses if they’ve a expertise for piaffe-passage.
“After all I needed to train her all of the fundamentals, it wasn’t like I put a saddle on her and she or he’s doing grand prix. However she has pure expertise for piaffe-passage, flying adjustments, self carriage and assortment. I requested, and she or he supplied it. Some horses it’s important to train for a few years the right way to gather and carry themselves – she was doing that from the primary day. I’d work her within the forest and the sphere, that’s how we educated all of the grand prix stuff, simply enjoying in nature.
“However it took me a very long time, as a result of she solely began to speak me when she was six and to get to grand prix it’s important to have a particular connection along with your horse; all grand prix horses have an distinctive character. That’s why I’m so blissful I’m doing every little thing together with her myself – not simply using however grooming, strolling, doing the groundwork. On daily basis it’s me and that’s actually necessary. The extra time you ‘waste’ along with your horse, the higher relationship you’ve got with them.”
Sandra Sysojeva and Maxima Bella performing their grand prix freestyle in entrance of Versailles. Credit score: Alamy
The ultimate cog within the wheel is Sandra’s group, significantly Dominica Krasko, who all the time travels together with her, and Sandra’s 11-year-old daughter Emilija – who is ready to start out competing internationally herself in 2025, and was on website cheering her mom on at Versailles.
“We’re a small group however very pleasant and supportive,” she says. “It exhibits it’s not all about cash or huge trainers behind you. We’ve executed all this by ourselves, with the assistance of this glorious horse.”
You may additionally wish to learn…
Sandra Sysojeva and Maxima Bella on the Paris Olympics.
Credit score: Peter Nixon
Laura Tomlinson using Rosalie B within the FEI World Cup qualifier on the London Worldwide Horse Present at London Olympia in 2016.
Abi Lyle at her base with one in all her prime string, Farrell.
Credit score: Peter Nixon
Becky Moody and Jaegerbomb with one in all their flags from Paris which adorns their indoor faculty.
Credit score: Steve Dawe
Lottie Fry waves to the group as she go away the world on Glamourdale following their grand prix check on the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Credit score: Peter Nixon
Keep in contact with all of the information within the run-up to and all through main exhibits like London Worldwide and extra with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe at present for all you must know forward of those main occasions, plus on-line experiences on the motion because it occurs from our knowledgeable group of reporters and in-depth evaluation in our particular commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Arrange your limitless web site entry now
H&H options editor
Martha is an skilled journalist who’s mad-keen on horses and canines. Her reporting CV contains the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Competition and World Cup finals. After rising up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she loved 14 years with two rescue canines. Now, her fixed companion is Fidget, a particularly energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on subjects as various as a prime horse’s clone to the most effective GPS trackers for canines, in addition to equestrian and rural issues for Nation Life, The Discipline, The Occasions, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
