*Exclusive* ‘I only ride her two or three times a week’: the work routine that propelled hot dressage mare to Olympic final

When Polish dressage rider Sandra Sysojeva qualified for the freestyle final at the Paris Olympics, it was the culmination of a long and delicate journey with her outstanding eight-year-old mare, Maxima Bella.

“For 30 years I have been with horses, I’ve been dreaming about competing at the Olympic Games,” says Sandra. “It took a lot to get there, thanks to my team support and my amazing horse. What could be better than scoring 80% in the freestyle? For a long time, I couldn’t believe it really happened, that the horse was so good and well-behaved. It’s the biggest present she could ever give me.”

While Sandra has spoken before about how patience, trust and time enabled her to bring this hot and capricious mare up to the grand prix level, their Olympic build-up also required a special approach.

Maxima Bella competed a little in young horse classes up to the age of six, but didn’t face the judges at all during her seven-year-old season. Sandra knew the mare had the talent, but she had been working gently at home, without pressure – playing in the forest with the grand prix moves.

“She wasn’t so interested in the easy tests, she found them really boring,” explains Sandra. “She was offering some passage or piaffe or changes where it wasn’t needed.”

Instead, in 2023 – the pre-Olympic year – she did demos with Maxima Bella to expose her to clapping, noise and lights, but never a competitive test. When they first came down the centre line, at Kalen-Towarzystwo CDI3*  in February 2024, they hadn’t competed for nearly 18 months.

“This year we started to compete in grand prix and it was quite difficult to ride her, as she didn’t have much experience in the ring,” says Sandra. “As with any horse you take to the grand prix level, we have a special connection. So she was prepared, but not for this test.”

“The less I ride her, the better”: Sandra Sysojeva on Maxima Bella

It would be a long season ahead, qualifying for the Olympics and then competing in Paris. Maxima Bella would go on to win 16 tests, and acquit herself fantastically in Versailles, as the youngest horse in the field by more than two years. She belied her lack of experience to perform personal bests in both the grand prix and freestyle in the buzzing atmosphere of the Paris stadium.

But it was a fine balance. Keeping the horse on a steep upward trajectory while maintaining her freshness and appetite for the work – a challenge exacerbated by her highly sensitive character – required supreme horsemanship.

“Maxima Bella has just finished her season winning in Salzburg CDI5* and scoring over 83% in the freestyle, and she’s still in excellent condition, very sound and fresh,” says Sandra. “It’s not like the horse is tired after competing all season long – she’s full of energy, willing to work, and that makes me really happy. She’s stayed like this all year long even though we have competed a lot.”

Sandra explains the management strategy that has brought out the best in Maxima Bella this year, which is borne out of the past six years spent getting to know her, with hours and hours spent walking in-hand and gaining her hard-won trust.

“We decided this year that she would have more rest than riding,” Sandra says. “But she’s not a horse you can just keep in a box all day and ride for half an hour. She goes in the paddock in the mornings, or if it’s bad weather I’ll walk her in-hand. Some days we train, other days we work on the lunge. She doesn’t just stand in the paddock as that won’t help her gain muscle.

“I have a rule that the less I ride her, the better she is. She doesn’t need to be ridden five times a week – she’s ridden two or three times, maximum four. Most of her time is spent resting, with some groundwork exercises and some physical training on the lunge. We just do a little bit of ridden work here and there – and this includes when we go to shows.

“But she still needs my attention for two or three hours a day, and it’s important to me and her that I am doing everything with her, because that is why we have such a special relationship.”

Maxima Bella is still a very young grand prix horse, so it’s exciting to see what 2025 has in store.

“Of course we have plans for next year, but with horses you cannot plan much,” says Sandra. “So we plan quite cautiously, but if all goes well we would like to compete in some of the bigger shows, like the CDI5* in Doha, to the Europeans, qualify for the World Cup Finals.

“But the main goal is to keep her happy, healthy and enjoying what we do, that’s the priority. She is an amazing horse, and it’s a wonderful story how she has got to top level.”

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