By Hillevi Brasch
Photography: Private collection, Roland Thunholm
In the beautiful countryside of Östergötland county in Sweden, the #1 ranked FEI horse in the world for the 2018 competition year was born in 2008. Hansson WL (SWB) by Hip Hop 1045 (SWB) out of Indra WL (SWB) by Iowa x Landlord with his international rider Peder Fredricson (SWE) had a great year, that ended with the duo successfully topping the leaderboard in the worldwide FEI showjumping rankings.
The men behind the horse – the Hansson brothers, Ulf, Per and Anders – all grew up on the family farm. Walltorp Lantbruks AB was acquired by their parents in 1955, and its thanks to their work that SWB now has a horse at the very top of the game.
The farm today encompasses 245 hectares of prime farmland producing wheat, barley, rape seed, beans and choice haylage, of course. They have an integrated production of pigs, producing 11,000 piglets every year, finishing 7,000 and selling the remainder.
However, the family has made a name for themselves producing exceptional competition horses, aiming for showjumpers but along the way some super dressage horses have emerged as well.
From humble beginnings....
It all started in the 1970s when the brothers developed an early interest in riding horses, starting with ponies and moving on to Warmbloods as they grew into their teens. As the story goes, one of their ponies was sold and being delivered to its new owner. On the way home the boys’ dad stopped and picked up two SWB foals, one of them; Dragant (Dragon x Drabant x Effendi) who, in the end turned out to be a team horse many years later under the saddle of Anders Hansson.
The brothers were very successful riders – all three eventually competing at international level, two of them for team Sweden in the 1980s. A sponsor emerged and wanted to fit Anders with a promising horse who later became one of the foundation mares in their breeding program: Yaki Lee (SWB) (Dragon 465 (SWB) - Jungfrubär (SWB) x Jovial x Navarro), a successful showjumper with placings up to M-level jumping...To read the complete article you need to be a subscriberCLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO BREEDING NEWS
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