The Rejected Champion
by Lisa Harkema
French trotters that visited Sweden in the 50s tended to dominate and the desire to bring in French bloodlines were very strong. When the French-born Tibur was brought to Scandinavia, however, the colt was rejected by the Swedish breeding commission. However, following the old adage that “cream always rises to the top”, Tibur proved himself a true elite stallion but only got his chance because of a loophole in the rules.
The French-born colt was purchased by Folke Fredriksson and Magnus Lundahl for 30,000 French francs at a yearling auction in 1964. A son of Fandango and out of a Kairos mare, Tibur was a relatively small horse measuring 155 cm (15,1 hands) and a near clone of his famous sire. Except for his color, the beautiful chestnut had a distinctive white blaze and three white socks just like Fandango, and, also just like his famous sire, the front right foot had no sock.
In Sweden, Tibur spent time at several different trainers. He started at Gunnar Nordin, before moving to Bertil Karlsson in Kalmar. It was in Kalmar where he scored his first win, but not long after he was moved to trainer Algot Scott at Åby in Gothenburg. Scott recommended a patella operation, relatively common back then, which set the French chestnut back for a while. During his recovery, Tibur was moved to Stig Engberg’s stable at Solvalla. The horse was then advertised for sale, and a month later Engberg found a buyer. Tibur then was sold to Ture Gillberg (Stall Family) and assigned to Bertil Rogell who ran a stable together with Engberg at Solvalla.
Rogell recalled Tibur as a talented trotter who had a fair share of issues, both on and off the track. One caretaker had asked Rogell “that devil Tibur, can I please not have to deal with him?” Although Tibur was not generally aggressive or mean he had plenty of willpower, something very common in French trotters. Tibur’s biggest challenge, though, was that he had a lot of problems with his hooves. Rogell recalled that Gunnar Nordin would later complain that it was almost impossible to shoe the trotter. On the track, Tibur was described as a “heaven or hell” horse. Being linegaited he would occasionally kick himself. If he was on his best behavior, however, he was very difficult to beat. He never even started in mile-long races since he completely lacked gate speed but was exceptionally strong. In one race over 3100 meter (almost 2 miles long) at Kalmar he was roughly 100 meter (90 yards) behind after one lap (on a 5/8th track), but then he got going and won by roughly 70 meters (more than 60 yards). Tibur would simply wear down his opponents with brute strength.