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‘The more time you “waste”, the better your relationship’: how less is more for Olympic ‘mare of all mares’
In this exclusive, subscriber-only interview, H&H caught up with Polish dressage rider Sandra Sysojeva about her precocious dressage star who made her Olympic debut during her first season competing at grand prix, aged eight, and their rocky road to the top of the sport
Polish dressage rider Sandra Sysojeva caused quite a stir at the Paris Olympics when she steered her eight-year-old mare, Maxima Bella, into the freestyle final. This daughter of Millennium x Christ 3 was two years younger than any other horse in the field, and waltzed her way into 15th place with a score of plus-80%. Since Paris, they have been unbeaten in six international competitions, including a massive personal best freestyle score of 83.41% to win at Salzburg CDI5* in December.
Sandra Sysojeva and Maxima Bella notch one of their 16 victories in 2024.
(Image credit: lerasalash.photo)
With such success at such a precocious age on the world stage, it’s easy to assume Maxima Bella was a prolific young horse winner, but the reality is rather different. This Olympic season was her first at grand prix – and the pair didn’t compete at all in 2023. While Sandra loved the look of Maxima Bella when she first set eyes on her as a three-year-old, it’s been a rocky road to the top.
“I knew from her pedigree that she might be quite hot and sharp, but she was frightening me a bit,” says Sandra. “So we took time. We worked on building up muscle, with exercises on the ground and walking up hills in the snow. We have a lot of snow in winter, and working in the deep snow helped her to gain muscle. We also walked in the river together, and all the time I was building a nice relationship with her.
“I would take her everywhere with me, walking beside me and cuddling her all the time – and that has made our relationship really special. Putting her in the stable and taking her out for half an hour a day would not work for her. I found that you had to give her attention for two or three hours a day, walking, patting, taking her to the paddock, the forest, and training.
“She was not the easiest character,” adds Sandra. “She was quite wild and difficult in all new situations. It took a lot of time and patience to enable her to understand and learn what she has to do and how to behave. It’s not been easy to get her trust.”
Six years on, Sandra feels she understands this “mare of all mares” well, and vice versa – even if the horse “changes her mood 10 times a day”.
“Maxima Bella’s character is a mystery – one day she’s friendly, another day she’s screaming at other horses,” Sandra says. “One day she likes to eat this, another that. You need to understand what she wants every day. In competition she’s in one mood, at home she has another mood, in the forest she is different again. But you can never be tough with her because it goes against you. I’ve had to learn so much about her, to have a lot of patience and to be calm.”
“Cuddles” form part of Maxima Bella’s daily routine as Sandra continues to nurture their relationship.
(Image credit: lerasalash.photo)
“We trained grand prix in the forest”: Sandra Sysojeva on Maxima Bella’s route to the top
In Maxima Bella’s early competitive outings, she wasn’t exceptional – “she finds the easier work boring”. But Sandra knew almost from the outset that she had a grand prix contender in her hands.
“I could see it from her very early years that she had huge talent for piaffe-passage, she was offering it all the time,” she says. “If she was trotting she’d try to stop and passage, so I’d pat her, give her a sugar lump and she’d offer it more and more. The hot horses can often become grand prix horses if they have a talent for piaffe-passage.
“Of course I had to teach her all the basics, it wasn’t like I put a saddle on her and she’s doing grand prix. But she has natural talent for piaffe-passage, flying changes, self carriage and collection. I asked, and she offered it. Some horses you have to teach for a couple of years how to collect and carry themselves – she was doing that from the first day. I’d work her in the forest and the field, that’s how we trained all the grand prix stuff, just playing in nature.
“But it took me a long time, because she only started to communicate me when she was six and to get to grand prix you have to have a special connection with your horse; all grand prix horses have an exceptional character. That’s why I’m so happy I’m doing everything with her myself – not just riding but grooming, walking, doing the groundwork. Every day it’s me and that’s really important. The more time you ‘waste’ with your horse, the better relationship you have with them.”
Sandra Sysojeva and Maxima Bella performing their grand prix freestyle in front of Versailles.
(Image credit: Alamy)
The final cog in the wheel is Sandra’s team, particularly Dominica Krasko, who always travels with her, and Sandra’s 11-year-old daughter Emilija – who is set to start competing internationally herself in 2025, and was on site cheering her mother on at Versailles.
“We are a small team but very friendly and supportive,” she says. “It shows it’s not all about money or big trainers behind you. We’ve done all this by ourselves, with the help of this wonderful horse.”
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Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
