What a trip it has been to Sweden with the HorseWorldTV team! As many of you know, I am Imagine a Job Title here* (I honestly do not know what my exact job description is, as I wear a few hats in the company) at HorseWorldTV, an international infotainment video platform founded by Jesse Drent and Matt Harnacke. Of course, amazing content has to be created every once in a while, so off to Sweden we went.
Watch my German vlog on YouTube!
The Week in Numbers:
1.721 Kilometers travelled by car
4 stops at McDonald's
2 evenings at a spa
1 rooftop dinner, feeling like being in the cast of Gossip Girl
1 Taco Tuesday on Monday
41 boops on horse snoots
4 different apps for electric car charging downloaded
5 hotels
21 mosquito bites
4 bags of chips
1 (almost) lost watch
listened 23.794.575.839 times to the medieval version of "Africa"
went for 1 run…on the first night (talk about motivation)
1 missed flight
11 people and 29 horses filmed
countless memories and conversations
We arrived on Sunday in Oslo and got our rental car - not the one we were planning, as it was not available (although pre-booked and pre-paid). The only big car they had left was an electric car. Spoiler: fun car, but it was just not made for our purpose, as we had to charge quite often and even the fast chargers took a while to charge back to fully charged so we "lost" a lot of time during that, but at the same time we also had fun breaks with kind of healthy and not really healthy food. But that’s already taking a bit too much away, let me talk you through the week!
Monday: Cuteness Overload
Monday’s motto was definitely "Cuteness Overload." We filmed at Titanium Curly Horses, a breeding program dedicated to breeding miniature curly horses. Worldwide there are only about 250 of them, and we visited Priscilla in Ekshärad, the biggest Mini Curly breeder in all of Scandinavia. We did an interview with her about her own breeding program, filmed a portrait of the Miniature Curly Breed (is it really a breed? That’s also a question we tried to answer and even the breeders are not on one page if it really is a breed of its own…) and also a portrait of her beautiful stallion Titan. As if we had timed it perfectly, the weather was great until we started packing the gear back into the car - then it started to rain, which was totally fine, as we had 4 hours to drive to our next location.
We arrived in Sparreholm at EquiAction on Monday evening and were welcomed by Sofia & Vlad, who made tacos, and we had a lovely evening with good wine, great conversations, and good vibes. What made me even happier was my room! As they also host clinics at their place, they invited us to stay with them instead of going to a hotel. My room looked as if it was straight out of a pony camp movie, so cute! With a view of the fields and entering through the arena, what else could a horse girl wish for?
Tuesday: Learning and Exploring
We filmed with Sofia and Vlad on Tuesday and covered a lot of topics that we’ve never covered before with HorseWorldTV: riding with a Garocha, explaining the Spanish saddles (the traditional ones are made of straw, did you know?), and riding one-handed. Not only did they explain really well, but Jesse also tried riding one-handed and also learned how to ride with a Garocha - definitely a must-watch video on HorseWorldTV.com, as he did amazing! Sadly, we had to leave them after filming, I could have stayed much longer, but I talked to Sofia that I might be returning soon with an idea…but more of that later!
Wednesday: Knights and Liberty
Wednesday was quite busy, as we had two destinations planned. The morning started at Cross Creek Castle Equitation, where we met up with Åsa and Klasse Cidh, who do Working Equitation, but also Medieval Jousting. First, Jesse got dressed as a knight and put on armor. That was truly an experience, especially as I never knew HOW MUCH work that actually is. Imagining people had different armor for different occasions is absolutely baffling and no wonder they really needed squires to help them get dressed and even to orient themselves during jousting, as they could not really turn their heads sideways and couldn’t see or hear that well when wearing a helmet! Afterwards, Åsa showed us how a young horse gets introduced to a rider in full armor, as armor can weigh around 100 kilograms and makes a lot of noise while riding it, as you can imagine. She rode a young horse that is also her future Working Equitation prospect. I loved how dedicated they were and also when she explained the rules of how the horses always come first and that people are actually getting banned from the competitions if they harm the opponent's horse while jousting.
Afterwards, we had lunch at a beautiful location on a hill, where we could overlook the whole area that Åsa and Klasse recommended - and we were definitely not disappointed and treated ourselves with a Swedish Summer Buffet.
Then it was time to head to Hällekis, where we met up with Rebecca and her daughter Jonna from Horsevision. We filmed Rebecca during her liberty work with not only one horse but with two horses together. Every time I see someone work with their horses in liberty or doing tricks I am so excited to try that at home, but yet I don’t dare to do it myself, as I believe you have to learn it from people who really know what they’re doing, so I don’t really dare to try it unsupervised at home. After we were done filming with Rebecca, we filmed with her daughter Jonna, who also had a show at Falsterbo Horseshow the week before. It was really nice to see her work with her beautiful horse without using tack. That is probably what I love most about this job, I get to meet so many wonderful people and get insights into the training ways of experts that I wouldn’t have in any other job.
Thursday: Grand Prix Dreams
On Thursday, we filmed with Elenore Simberg, a Grand Prix dressage rider who just bought a stable one year ago with her soon-to-be husband Johan. The place was incredibly beautiful; we filmed an interview with her and Jesse, then proceeded to a stable tour with her and Johan - I loved the vibe between the two of them and how they slowly but steadily make the barn their own dream project, without rushing things and taking the time to really see what you want and need. And for every horse girl or horse boy out there: Johan is not a rider or horse person; he is actually a musician - so there is hope for all of us that our better half will sooner or later move with us to our dream barn. After touring the stable, we filmed two riding videos with Elenore: walking and canter pirouettes!
Friday: Training and Treats
No time to relax, because on Friday we drove to the south of Sweden to film with Elina Enzian, who is a Monty Roberts certified trainer, and she showed us how to load a problematic horse into a trailer. I learned so much, not only about loading my horses into a trailer (I actually don’t have a problem with that) but also with general handling. There are certain things that I do wrong on a daily basis when it comes to communication with my horse, and I never realized until she explained how to handle "pushy" behavior. I will definitely work on that in the future!
The evening was really beautiful; we went to the rooftop bar of our hotel in Göteborg and I ate the best risotto ever, although I thought until this day that actually my husband does the best risotto in the world. He has to step up his risotto game now… This also marked our last evening in Sweden, so we treated ourselves with great food, funny stories, and a beautiful view of Göteborg in the sunset.
Saturday: Fun and Farewells
I was already absolutely looking forward to Saturday, as we were filming with Pontus Hugosson, who is known for his funny videos on Instagram. What not many people know: Pontus was also qualified for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, but as there are a few good eventing riders in Sweden he unfortunately wasn’t chosen to be part of the team. With him, we filmed an interactive video through his home stable, where he and Jesse talked about his stable, his work, his funny side, his new challenges as a dad, and many more things (also, an absolute MUST WATCH! I am so happy how the "new way" of filming interviews has worked out so well during this week, we always try something new during our filming weeks to keep the content interesting and I believe it really works out and we make something better each and every time). After that, we filmed how he warms up for eventing classes and then how he would teach a young horse how to jump narrow fences. In the end, we also filmed a funny video of Jesse and him doing a race with the one and only Katitzi, officially the best pony in the whole world. After their race, Pontus asked me if I wanted to have a go as well and let me tell you: it was so much fun, I definitely need Katitzi in my life!
With that, the week came to an end and I am so happy for the beautiful memories we’ve created on our journey. Can’t wait for the next filming week, which is already in a few weeks
My Learnings from Our Filming Stops
Aspire to be just as relaxed as Priscilla from Titanium Curly Horses
Taco Tuesdays are a must in the schedule, thank you Sofia and Vlad for reminding me
Learn from your horse and closely listen to what it "tells" you, as it is the best teacher, just like Sofia and Vlad explained
Take it slow, just as Åsa and Klasse take it when educating their young horses
Try to go on a different path and start with Liberty work, just as Jonna and Rebecca do
Be as laid back, kind, and yet as focused as Elenore
Don’t push back when you have a pushy horse, like Elina said - and remember to practice loading just as you practice everything else
Have much more fun with your horses, just like Pontus does
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