104 SIDELINES APRIL 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
e
Dressage
By Kim MacMillan
W
atching
Tinne
Vi lhelmson-Si lfvén
ride down centerline
in her elegant and exacting
style, you can’t help but be
impressed. She is quick to smile
when talking about her horses
and her family, but she is also a
very analytical thinker and loves
to fgure out how things work. A
native of Sweden, her intensity
and grace come through as
she talks about her riding and it
quickly becomes clear why she
is at the upper echelon of the
international dressage scene.
Quoted in November 2004 in
the Swedish magazine Ridsport,
Tinne explained her motivation,
“Passion is my driving force.”
She is a veteran of six Olympic
Games and three FEI World
Equestrian Games spanning
from 1992 through 2012. At
press time she was ranked
seventh in the FEI Individual
World Dressage standings with
the 11-year-old Hanoverian
gelding Don Auriello (by Don
Davidoff, out of Wey o mey by
White Star, owned by Lövsta
Stuteri, Sweden), her 2012
London Olympic partner. She
also has two other horses, both
owned by Lövsta Stuteri, in the
top-50 FEI standings: Favorit in
40th place and Divertimento in
42nd.
Tinne lives with her family in
Upplands-Väsby, Sweden and
works for her sponsor Antonia
Ax:son Johnson, who owns
Lövsta Stud. Tinne and her
husband, Jan Silfven, have one son, Lucas, 11, and two dogs,
Molly, a Fox Terrier mix and Wilma, a black Labrador Retriever.
Since the Olympic Games last summer, the pair has just been
getting better and better. After winning the Stockholm CDI-W
Grand Prix and the Freestyle in December 2012, “Anton” and Tinne
have been tearing up the 2013 Florida dressage circuit, winning
the World Dressage Masters 70,000 Euro Exquis Freestyle CDI5*
with an impressive 84.075% in January. They went on to win the
Florida Dressage Classic CDI-W Grand Prix in mid-February,
where Tinne also took third in the Grand Prix with Divertimento,
a.k.a. “Tim”. Tinne hopes to represent Sweden in the World Cup
in Gothenburg in April.
Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfvén -
Sweden’s Shining Star
How did you get started in
your riding career?
I started in a riding school.
In Sweden the riding school
system is extremely well
organized and the riding
schools are very, very good.
It’s a big issue in Sweden that
every child who wants to learn
to ride goes to a riding school
and learns how to take care of
a horse, how to ride and how
to behave around horses.
We are very proud of our
riding schools. I started like
everyone else. I think I was
seven or eight when I started
riding seriously at the school,
although when I was four I
was already hanging out at
the stables while my mother
was riding.
I did get a horse
of my own when I was 10.
When I was 11 or 12, I started
competing in dressage with a
pony. Also I did do quite a lot
of jumping actually, but not in
competition.
Who has been your most
infuential trainer?
I think the German trainer
Walter Christensen and then
Louise Nathhorst, of course.
She still rides, although she
does not compete anymore.
She is my trainer and is
in Florida this winter. She
also worked with Walter
Christensen, so it is the same
school.
What has been the biggest
highlight of your career so
far?
To me it is Don Auriello - he is something very special. He was a
step up and opened possibilities for me. It is such an honor to ride
a horse like him. I think the most important part of my career is to
get this horse and to be a part of that journey with him. He has a
lot of things. He has the movement and all of the quality he should
have; but he also has a mind that is impressive - he wants to do
his best and he wants to show himself. He really enjoys when the
people are looking at him. In the stable he behaves like a star, too.
He wants all of your attention and thinks you should be petting
him, not anyone else. He is a very cool horse, but in an easy way
Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfvén is all smiles after her winning freestyle
ride on Don Auriello at the 2013 World Dressage Masters in West
Palm Beach, Florida.
Photo by Allen MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
Continued on page 106