The young Olympic ‘mare of all mares’ who everyone’s talking about – and the unusual way she was trained

There’s one horse everyone is talking about after the Olympic dressage grand prix: Maxima Bella, ridden by Sandra Sysojeva.

She is the youngest horse in the competition at eight years old – two years younger than any other horses contesting the dressage. Add to that a rider competing for Poland, a nation that could be described as “emerging” in dressage circles, and there were few expectations ahead of her grand prix test today.

No one had told Maxima Bella that, though. She pounded into the Paris Olympics arena in a ball of bouncy black energy and proceeded to put in a brilliantly expressive test, qualifying for the individual final, the freestyle, on Sunday (4 August).

“If you were to ask me how I got her to grand prix so quickly, I don’t know – it seems like she was doing it all her life,” said Sandra. “It’s like a child in school that is very talented and has nothing to learn there so can go straight to university. She was born to be a grand prix horse.”

Sandra has owned Maxima Bella since she was two or three years old, buying her from a video. But she didn’t like her at first and tried to sell her for a couple of years.

“She was the mare of all mares – [pulling faces] in the box, difficult to catch,” said Sandra. “Nobody bought her so I said to myself, ‘Enough, we have to start somehow to be friends’.”

Sandra employed a tactic of just spending time with Maxima Bella. When she was training students, she’d have the mare standing beside her.

She explained: “She was just standing by my shoulder and after some time, everything changed and rather than trying to fight against me, she started protecting me, like a dog. Nobody could come near me or she’d start screaming and lashing out. So that’s how our relationship started. She’s crazy talented and very, very smart.”

Sandra Sysojeva, 40, is Lithuanian by birth, but changed nationality last year to ride for Poland, where she is based. She is the only Polish rider to make the cut for the freestyle and their team have not qualified for the team final, the special, but Sandra and Maxima Bella will give them something to cheer about during the rest of the week here in Paris.

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