16-year-old gelding Hansson can still. Thursday evening's second place in the opening jumping class at Sweden's international horse show showed that the hard-working old pair can still deliver.
Then they had to settle for second place.
In Friday afternoon's 1.45-meter jumping, the faultless round and time of 60.72 seconds were enough for victory all the way.
But it was close. National team colleague Henrik von Eckermann did what he could to snatch from Fredricson. The world number one (28 months in a row) drove the 11-year-old Calizi hard.
When the clock stopped, the pair were only five hundredths of a second too slow, perhaps because von Eckermann chose to take one too many strides on the mare.
When Henrik is behind, it's (five hundredths) a lot, says Fredricson jokingly in the victory interview on TV4 play.
You think when you're going around the course if you can take away a stride here or there. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but today it did.
Belgian Jérôme Guery on Hoselinde broke into the Swedish dominance and came third, followed by Malin Baryard Johnsson/Diamantino and Rolf-Göran Bengtsson/Caillan.
In the 1.50-meter jumping, the second-toughest in the competitions at Strawberry arena, Rolf-Göran Bengtsson/Zuccero came third after Belgian winner Abdel Saïd/Arpege and second-placed Harrie Smolders/Mr Tac from the Netherlands. Swedish Amanda Landeblad/For Killy became fourth.
On Sunday, Sweden's Grand Prix will be ridden, the most prestigious jumping competition and the one that gives the most ranking points and has the largest prize money pot.
