Team Sweden took a sensational win in Thursday's Mercedes-Benz Nations Cup at CHIO Aachen, beating the home favorites. There is a huge amount of work behind the success, and here the grooms from Team Sweden, Alex Gran (Irma Karlsson), Ellie Pooley (Angelie von Essen), Malin Henlöv (Peder Fredricson), Sara Ericsson (Peder Fredricson), Stephanie Sturrock (Evelina Tovek), Tiia Karhu and Isabella Håkansson (both Henrik von Eckermann) share with us how the magical Thursday evening in Aachen felt behind the scenes. 

Aachen is for sure the best show of the year, even though the week here is long. Our Nations Cup day started with a meeting with all the grooms, our Chef d'Equipe Henrik, our vet Rasmus and our physio Silvia. At all the team events we always have these meetings, where we just go and grab a coffee and go through the plan for the day and speak about whatever concerns everyone might have. 

When it comes to our Chef d'Equipe Henrik, he is always there for us when we need him and he really keeps the team together. We know he does all he can for the team, and so do Rasmus and Silvia as well. For us, maybe that is the one thing we could mention when asked about "our Swedish secret": We have an amazing team spirit. We are all giving our very best to make sure the horses and riders can perform on top. And we are all extremely proud to be a part of the team, where everyone always gives a 100%. 

We had a good feeling going into the Nations Cup. We felt like we were here with a good team and that we stood a chance of doing something great. But as always in this sport,  we knew that anything could happen so we were all nervous. However, just the fact that we were in Aachen with the team felt special, so everyone was super excited for the evening. 

As we were watching our last pair, Peder and H&M Christian K, everyone's pulse was for sure high. We were all praying and repeating something that has kind of come to be our motto: "Keep it together!" Now we are just hoping that we don't have to wait for another 90 years for something like this to happen again...

Alex, Ellie, Malin, Sara, Stephanie, Tiia and Isabella