Spains leading horse magazine Ecuestre did this interview with me just after Festivo's success in Caravaca, thank you Eva for writing my little story! See translation in english below.
From Ecuestre November 2010
A CHANGE OF AIR
She was born 36 years ago in Halmstad, on the westcoast in south of Sweden. The home was one with a horse atmosphere, her fathers where, -and are still- breeders of Swedish Warmbloods. However, she has chosen the Iberian races and PRE breeding, with which ones she is competing here and in her homecounty. The vision that Viktoria offers can be useful when we want to analyze the interest of foreign breeders of our race and also how they are recieved in Spain.
She tells us that her horse experience started when she was six and that she had a horse that 'jumped everything'. From then on it showed she was a perfeccionist, pedantic with the estetics. Her jumping trainer told her not everything had to be beautiful and perfect, and with this Viktoria Sandberg understood her inclination was dressage and her natural discipline.
”The harmony, feeling and connection are what is most important for me”, she says now, with her 36 years of age.
She arrived to Spain 2002 to do el Camino a Santiago and this was when she had her first contact with the PRE and became the decisive moment for Sandberg, in which she decided to breed and ride exclusively the iberian horses. She says they have something that makes them different to all the other races.
”From the back of a spanish horse the world looks different, with another dimension. They have given me the character, the movements, the intelligence, the art and the spirit that I have always been looking for”.
She also focus on her other passion, the dressage, what is for her the maximum expression of the perfeccion. Following this she considers that
”there are PRE show champions that could never enter the dressage ring”. This circumstance she considers
”a little chaotic” and she thinks that this problem could be solved by focusing more on functionality, and by having more uniform movement criterias.
”There is no use evaluating horses that are not functional. The PRE has so many qualities in both morfology aswell as in functionality, it is a mistake trying to copy other races, one just has to recognize and focus on the already inherent qualities and strenghten these. It is necessary to come together with criteria because the spanish breeders are experts in morfology/composition, but I think they are not as clear with what is good movement. I am not saying I am the expert, but this is what I have studied objectively”. She also thinks (and who doesn't) that the breeders should collaborate more and be better united in the promotion of the PRE, and that they should get more direct influence in the breeding associations.
”It is not difficult to see the qualities of a PRE in exceptional horses such as ”Totilas” etc. His movements are the epitome of perfeccion and this horse is unique, with him we have the expamle... something very usuful for all of us. We have to use this moment when finally a spanish horse such as ”Fuego XII” is among the best in the world”.
Because of her long periods of travelling Sandberg has not had a specific trainer and she has trained her horses on her own, but she tells us that she has had the luck to be able to study and learn from very good riders
.”There are various people that has insipired me, Elisabet Lundholm, that used to be the national team coach of the swedish dressage team, helped me in Sweden and Eduardo Mellado, here in Madrid. Recently I have also had ocassional help from Leslie Reid (olympic canadian rider) and Gyula Dallos (olympic hungarian rider)”.
The studfarm
Viktoria Sandberg founded with Javier Villard (with whom she collaborates in commercializing PRE and PSL horses abroad), the Yeguada VIKINGA PRE. Except for the spanish horses, she has a Lusitano by name ”Start” with whom she now has competed in Spain. Her plans are to compete with him and with ”Donoso VII”, that was 'Absolute Champion' and 'Champion Functionality' last year in her homecounty.
”I get alot of satisfaction out of these two and I feel very fortunate to have such good quality horses”, she says.
In reality the studfarm has three studstallions that are/will be breeding here and in Sweden. Except for ”Donoso VII”, she tells us about Festivo MR, with a height of 174cm and offspring to Qualified Reproductors, and ”Halagador Cen” of the Cárdenas line.
”We also have a filly born this year, by ”Donoso VII”. The mares we just sold to Sweden and Norway”.
The future of ”Donoso VII” will be dressage competitions in Prix St George, and that of ”Start” will be in Grand Prix. For the moment ”Festivo MR” is classified for the PRE final in spanish championships, SICAB in November 2010, for his merits in the championship in Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia). On the other hand
”Halagador” needs alot of training until he will achieve a good level of dressage, but he has all the capacity to also be a excellent representative of the race in dressage”, she says.
Last year Viktoria Sandberg participated in the spanish championships with ”Donoso VII”, in which she did not have the best of experience.
” I knew that with a horse from a foreign studfarm there was not many possibilities, but I would have very much liked to do the ridden test, because here the horse can really prove his great quality and get good scores. SICAB was a disappointment for me as a breeder, because we bring our horse from Sweden (3000 km) and they did not even look at him! For not being selected in the 'wheel', we were left out and we were not given a protocol of judgement that indicates something of the horse”.
She is right when she thinks a breeder needs to learn from the competitions,
”they should give you an evaluation of your horse in all cases. Many foreigners buy horses from Spain and, if their owners bring their horses to compete here they have to be welcome. They have paid alot for their horse, for bringing them and for the competition... I hope this year we will have proper protocol judgements of the horses”.
On the other hand she says, there is a great interest of the Pura Raza Español in Sweden.
”The weather is not brilliant, it is a handicap when it comes to the breeding, but despite this in no case there is a lack of enthusiasm nor professionalism”.
The mayor hinder is the lack of good functional breeding stallions; there are better mares than stallions, she says. And summarizes with saying something that although subjective we should perhaps contemplate,
”There are not too many horses of high quality but on the other hand they are not always well adviced when they come to buy in Spain”.
