By Kim Lundin
Photography: Kim Lundin, Emma Thim

In just one decade, the ‘ELiTH’ name has come to mean capable quality horses with success in jumping. With the sale of their star offspring to one of Sweden’s top riders, Jens Fredricson, the recent bronze medalist at the world cup final in Leipzig 2022, the hope is that ELiTH horses will go international.

The sisters Emma and Lisa Thim have had breeding running through their veins since childhood when they spent a lot of time in the stable with their grandfather: Karl-Anders Olsson, breeder, and stallion keeper for several decades with Swedish Warmblood. Since a humble start around the turn of the millennium, there have been around 36 well-planned offspring, with the majority born post 2012. Last year, their own fourth generation was born in an embryo transfer to the mare Diarado’s Rose ELiTH (SWB), one of Sweden's three best eight-year-olds.
What started as a pure hobby for the sisters has over the years become an ever-increasing investment with horses in training, embryo transfer, and more foals’ year by year. In a short time, they have produced several horses that have made an impression in the ring and today there are both jumping and dressage horses carrying the ELiTH suffix. The name istself is a clever play on words from the sisters Emma and Lisa THim. It was added to their horse’s names when they grew tired of start lists not including breeder information. (See op-ed under ‘Briefs’ on page 9.)
It started in earnest with the mare Tarantella (1991/SWB Tabac - Brisana x Brilliant), an all-round talent who became her riding horse, which Emma bought from her grandfather Karl-Anders Olsson. Tarantella was covered in 2001 by Irco Mena, and with her filly foal Irma the sisters’ breeding work begins for real. Irma was shown as a three-year-old in Tingsryd, becoming a dual talent with 46 points in both jumping and dressage. She was put in foal that same summer with Cardento – Athens 2004 Olympic team silver medallist – with the mare Carisma was born in 2006.

Breeding with a purpose

To date, among the sisters’ own-bred horses are those for both showjumping and dressage, although there is a clear predominance of jumping ELiTH horses. In terms of interest, both Emma and Lisa have always leaned more towards jumping, as they both follow the sport which naturally directed their own breeding in that direction. “We have taken our breeding several steps farther through specialization,” they explain, compared to the all-round talented horses with which they once started. Their grandfather Karl-Anders Olsson moved more in the dressage direction, and the diploma mare Eliaza, with two Kungakannan winners as mother and grandmother, gave the Roosevelt daughter Electra... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber

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