At 24 years old Anna Forsman is where she needs to be, working at the top of international dressage. Based in Stockholm at Lôvsta Stuteri she works for Swedish dressage star Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén but she could just as easily be sitting behind a desk.
Forsman began riding when she was seven at a local riding club in her home town of Lund. “My interest just grew and grew,” she said. Her first pony came along when she was 15 – a New Forest bred ball of fluff named ‘Daim’ “like the candy bar,” she said.
At 17 she took on the challenge of producing her own three-year old Swedish Warmblood. “That was fun,” she said. “He knew how to go around on all four gaits, but he didn’t know much more than that.” They went on to compete in medium level dressage competitions before she came to the realization that the partnership had run its course. “He was a very sweet horse,” she said. “But he didn’t have super talent. When it got a bit harder and I wanted more, he didn’t want to do it very much.”
Horses were a mainstay of her life at this point, but Forsman decided to try a few different paths. She studied economics and law. “For a while I thought that was my plan,” she said. “But sitting at a desk every day and books! That’s not my thing at all.”
Having finished school at 19, she worked briefly at a smaller dressage stable and then took a break from working with horses to take two jobs – one in a shoe shop, and one in a kindergarten. “I just wanted to try different things,” she said. “But I always felt something was missing and I did not enjoy it as much as working with horses.”
Forsman applied for a job with Lôvsta and after working as part of the team for some months, she was assigned to Vilhelmson Silfvén. “I was super excited and really proud that they wanted to ask me because it’s a lot of responsibility to take care of the competition horses. They were happy with my work and they wanted to give me the chance to develop even more.”
In Wellington this winter, Forsman has three horses in her care including Hyatt, with whom Vilhelmson Silfvén won the CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle during week eight of the Global Dressage Festival. “She’s very personal,” said Forsman of the pretty chestnut mare. “So when you get to know her, she’s the best. But when you don’t know her, she can be a bit introverted. When you get inside of her shell and she starts to trust you, she’s just so cute and she’s so funny. She really gives you her whole heart when you get to know her.”
Friday night was the first Wellington Freestyle for the pair and Forsman, while admitting to being “super nervous” when watching, also enjoys witnessing the journey. “They’ve only performed the Freestyle four or five times now,” she said. “It’s just so fun to see it better and better each time they get the chance to show it.”
Forsman is a big proponent of letting horses be horses and she trail rides all three of her charges around the canal paths of Wellington. “They need to think about something else,” she said of her trio. “It’s really good for their bodies and their minds.” Trail riding is also a tranquil respite from the job of grooming, that can be demanding and far from glamorous. “Working with horses means early mornings and long nights,” Forsman said. It’s definitely a lifestyle.” She has no doubts though, about the path she chose to follow. “I think I found what I love, or I know that I love,” she said. “Working with the horses every day – it’s just a blessing.”
Sarah Eakin has a long history of sports reporting and covering equestrian disciplines – particularly show jumping, polo, racing and dressage – for a range of international publications as writer and editor-in-chief. In 2024, Sarah launched Paper Horse – an online magazine with an eclectic mix of stories from the horse world at www.paperhorsemedia.com. Paper Horse is an official Media Partner of Wellington International. Sarah was born in England and came to the US in 1996 as Sidelines’ Polo Editor; at the time she was chief polo writer at the Horse and Hound and Polo Correspondent to The Daily Telegraph. She married US professional polo player Gary Eakin and stayed Stateside traveling throughout North America while covering equestrian events. She is also an author; Wed, White and Blue, her first novel is on Amazon.
