At the 2010 Swedish Young Horse Championships hosted at the state stud in Flyinge, Sweden, the German bred Sohn der Sonne shone in the 3-year old dressage horse qualifier for the finals on Friday 22 October 2010. This stallion by Sir Donnerhall has excellent rythm in all shown gaits (walk, trot, canter), and stellar shoulders. It is a strikingly beautiful horse, who is relaxed and totally undisturbed by the crowd on the arena stands. He is even undisturbed by enthusiasts in the audience firing off camera flashes at point blank and careless people slamming the sheet-metal hinged doors mid ride.
I sometimes wonder what the constructors were thinking when they built Flyinge's 40 x 80 m arena and didn´t put in quiet sliding doors for the spectator? Maybe it has to do with fire safety regulations? Anyway this arena has the noisiest doors of any competition ring I know with its constant slam-slam-slam, sometimes by thoughtless people and sometimes when the wind catches it and blows it shut with a tremendous BANG rattling the whole building. I think a sliding door with a panic pushbar would be the ideal solution, but apart from that it is a really great arena.
There are several really good horses among the 12 finalists for the 3-year old Championships, but barring unforeseen events Sohn der Sonne will become the champion. He´ll be a winner not entirely without flaws. My first impression was "this is an almost stunning horse". It took me a while to figure out the "almost" part of that gut feeling. It is in the confirmation. To put this "almost" thing into perspective, there has so far only ever been one 3yo I thought in every aspect truly stunning, and that was last year´s 3yo winner Bellagio, and Sohn der Sonne nears being the second one.
He is a slender horse and with super good shoulders, which I like a lot. This I appreciate extra as it is so unusual for such a slender horse. He has a perfect angle of the shoulder bone. Yummy! The temperament and the willingness to cooperate with the rider is excellent. The ability to focus on the job is excellent. The radiance is there, and so is the sheer beauty. This is beauty in motion!
Sohn der Sonne is German for Son of the Sun and he is definitely a father´s son. He is a very balanced on both leads. When it comes to keeping and regaining his body balance he´s like any good, rapidly growing 3 year old. The neck is a tad too short (but otherwise excellent, although some might consider it too high) but he is a bit too long in the loin for my taste. In this case it is just a taste thing, not a problem thing. I´ve seen better and I´ve seen "worse" among successful GP horses. Just don´t couple this guy with a long-backed mare with weak back muscles and you´ll be perfectly fine when it comes to the back. And it goes without saying any slightest hint of disc problems in the mare just forget this type of long-backed stallion, especially if the mare has weak abdominal muscles. Scrap that. Do yourself and everybody else a favour and don´t breed a mare with a disc problem at all.
The real potential problem is further down. The pastures are very long indeed. Any longer than this would, in my opinion, be bordering on a confirmation fault. Combined with the very elegant and slim fetlocks and ankles that is a very serious risk factor for tendon overload, particularily in a tall and long horse like this who is going to develop a lot of powerful muscles all over.
The good news is that if you have a good mare whose faults are somewhat short stubby too upright pastures, boring, restricted and unexpressive shoulders, slightly short loins and a general lack of true star quality gaits this might very well be the perfect stallion to fix all of that and get offspring with qualities you´d think impossible from that mare. And with just the right mare, the sky is the limit. This stallion has the potential to sire absolutely magnificient horses, but it takes two to make perfection.
Another notable thing, which I think is just a growth-phase issue and which will be completely gone by itself when he´s five or six, is the rigid non-elastic kind of one-dimensional movements of the croup. As a direct consequence thereof he has somewhat static hips). I like to see a circular and highly elastic movement of the hip joint, and right now he simply does not have that. It is most visible in the walk, but it is pretty much consistent in all three gaits. The reason I think it will correct itself is that there is complete 100% symmetry in this horse, and that the rythm of the gaits is simply perfect. This enables natural gymnastics for the croup and the rigidness in that area will vanish as he stops growing. The risk factror here is that if I´m wrong about this and the rigidness of the croup and hip stays there. This would result in a considerable lack of expression in some of the GP movements.
With what he´s already got he´ll be able to do all of the GP movements satisfactory no matter what, but if the stiffness goes away it will be far more exciting. This is not about GP or not GP. This is about fair GP on the national level versus potentially great GP on the global scale.
Speaking of gaits, Sohn der Sonne s a natural leg extender, all the way down to pointing the tip of the hoof all of the time. And the hoof points exacly at where it will land in every single step. It is just wonderful to see it in a 3-year old. Remember Briar putting on his "I love life and I love this arena, I love the cameras and I wouldn´t mind winnning today thank-you-very-much-my-dear-judges" best trot and although two totally different types of horses you get the general idea as to the expression.
And at the end of the trot step the hooves just levitate off the ground and go up and forward (as opposed to forward and then up) due to the outright poetic hock/stifle action. Again Yummy!
This guy's head is small and elegant and very beautiful even when seen from in front. The ears and tail say this is a relaxed and alert chap who enjoys life and trusts his rider. I think this is a happy horse with a sound mind. I do put a very high value on a horse´s mind. Others may empahsis performance only, but for me "performance" without a good mind is worthless performance.
Jessica Andersson leads Sohn der Sonne to Victory
A few words on the rider Jessica Andersson. This is an exceptionally well matched combination. She has a superb riding style with a very balanced and steady seat. She did a splendid job showing off the very best of this stallion with her sensitive and friendly riding style. Shoulders relaxed, hands steady and firm but fair. Carressing the horse with the inside of the lower legs, never forcing the horse with the back of the heels. Kudos for that!
I must insert a side-note: This class is ridden without spurs and thus some other riders who normally have a nasty spurring-in-every-step habit tend to dig and kick the heels into the horses instead. Sometimes it is effective but shameful and they seem careless to think nobody will notice The root cause is probably that the correctness of the aids is not at all judged in these classes, thus indirectly rewarding bad riding practices. And the "Rideability" part of the judging seems to ignore the aids used to achive the perceived rideability, as long as
the horse does not openly resist the aids. Either way it's frankly not my cup of tea. For me rideability means the ability of a horse to respond to good riding, not the ability of the horse to endure sloppy, unfair or outright borderline brutal riding while performing. That is docility, not rideability. Most riders are fairly good, and the good news is this year the least skilled riders in the 3-year old class were a whole lot better than the least skilled riders the previous years, so things have actually improved.
Jessica Andersson has obvious love for the horse and it shows again in the trust the horse has for her. This is young horse riding as it should be. A minor comment could be that while riding this splendid horse and having a great communication with it, it would give an even stronger impression if she were to be proud enough to spend a little less time watching the shoulders of the horse and a bit more time watching the horizon. If she keeps everything else just as it is, except this tiny detail of her lifting her head, she will be so good on Sunday.
The rider is also the owner. As some humans are not inclined to properly recognize one's job well done, especially when one cannot see it oneself (except briefly inf the mirror wall of the arena), please let me make a suggestion: I think this owner should treat the rider to something really nice as a reward. She truly deserves it!
Text and Photos © David Svensson
(Editor's Note: Andersson went on to win the 3-year old championship on Sunday though the performance was a bit more tense compared to their ride on Friday)
Related Link
Scores 2010 Swedish Young Horse Championships