About the Manufacturer

 
My introduction to Tidaholmsvagnar (carriage maker) came with the purchase of a used CD 207 in the  spring of 2002 on the recommendation of Olaf Nyby, carriage driving clinician and also the distributor at that time for Tidaholm in Norway.  I travelled to Norway in August 2003 to attend the first Nordic CDE in Starum, Norway, at Olaf's invitation.  Another objective was to meet Matts and Matilda to discuss the possibility of setting up a North American distributorship for his carriages.  This was my first trip to Norway in the summer and the scenery was breathtaking.  Norwegians are incredibly friendly and generous hosts.  I managed to see a lot of fjords (of both varieties) but the chance to see top drivers from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland compete was the highlight of the trip.   In addition to the excitement of the competition, I was able to see several Tidaholms in action in the marathon and the Tidaholm Gigg Elegance, driven by the Finnish team and others to perfection in cones and dressage.  The fact that the Norwegian team swept the pony class, winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, driving Norwegian Fjords - our breed of choice, was icing on the cake. 
 
In February 2004, my husband and I paid Matts and his partner Matilda a visit to learn as much as we could about the various models and features on site at Matt's home base in, guess where, Tidaholm. Sweden.  We spend several days watching them put together carriages and sampling Swedish meals catered by Matilda's mother.   In May of 2004,  Matts and Matilda (and her mother) travelled to Canada to participate to help us launch the company in Bromont, Quebec, where we were delighted to watch Peter Trainor, our first customer competing in his very first CDE, driving his beautiful mare Bally in a Freedman harness win Presentation in Prelim with  his brand new CD 207.
 
Matts is not only a skilled carriage maker but a driver whose interest was sparked in 1980 by his father's purchase of a pair of New Forest ponies for his his sister.  Within short order, Matts was involved, first riding and then driving, entering his first competition in 1983.  Three years later he won the regional championship in his area.   As an aside, it's interesting to note that Swedish competitions are all CDEs - they don't hold pleasure driving events.  In 1992, Matts won the Bronze at the national level and in 1995 was Sweden's top driver, pony pairs.  Along the way, he encountered a number of problems with different carriages in in 1988 opted to build his own.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

Tidaholmsvagnar - the carriage company, housed on the family farm outside of Tidaholm, Sweden, was formally incorporated in 1992 and quickly grew to take up more and more of Matt's time.  The last 14 years have been devoted to constant improvement and innovation, with numerous variations on the 7 basic models that Tidaholm produces, from 2 wheeled training carts to top level FEI marathon vehicles.  Matts has a hands on approach to the production process.  He oversees a small staff of skilled craftsmen but works alongside his team on every carriage, introducing changes to the needs of clients, based on their experience, the type of horses and ponies they drive and their interest, simple recreation or the toughest competitions.  He builds carriages for clients who are just starting out, as well as those competing at the highest levels.  Recently, he has been responding to strong interest from the large harness racing community in Sweden for his basic training cart, the Rockard. 

Tidaholmsvagnar hasn't needed to advertise their products beyond attending a few trade shows and combined driving events each year.  The satisfaction felt by his customers, and their success at every level, has been enough to bring a steadily increasing number to his shop door.  Matts is also committed to staying relatively small, and close to the work, in order to ensure continued quality and innovation in the making of his carriages.  In 2005, however, he recognized the need to expand to reduce wait time and in February of 2006 moved into a new facility on land adjacent to the family farm, which more than doubles the previous work area and will allow him to increase, in terms of efficiency.  He has also added a new employee with many decades of experience in carriage building to his team, with the retirement of another of the few remaining carriage makers in Sweden.  The building of this carriage shop represents the first in over 100 years, in Sweden and as such has been a source of interest from the media.  The company maintains a showroom in Tidaholm as well but will welcome visitors to the new facility once it is completed. 

The quality of his work, the strength and excellence of the welds, and attention to detail has attracted the attention of top drivers in Sweden and other countries who often agree to test his designs.  In 2003, Ben Simonsen, from Finland, had the fastest time in the marathon at preliminary trials for the World Singles in 2004 at which he was bronze medallist and also FEI Top Driver, Singles.   Ben drives an Xtreme, the stripped version of the very popular CD 207, and in 2005 opted to move into the world of driving pair, again with a carriage from Tidaholm.  Ben has had a lot of input into the evolution of the Xtreme and continues to help Matts in his program of continuous improvement.  
 
The other influence on design, for the pair carriages, has been Yngve Käll, (pronounced "shell"), 7 time National Pairs Champion and winner of the 2001 FEI Top Driver, Pairs.   Yngve instructs as well as drives, and was behind the idea of modifying Tidaholm's training cart to create a teaching version that allows for easy exit and entry off the back, and better positioning of student vis a vis the instructor.  This version also include a higher dash, for better protection from possible kicks when working with young horses.  We were honoured to have the opportunity to visit Yngve at his farm with Matts and Matilda to look at his carriages and horses.  I was also treated to a drive behind Val d'Isere, his top horse, in the Rockard along the snow covered roads around his farm and Yngve let me drive (overestimating my abilities but also very sure of his horse!).

In North America, we are building the same sort of relationships, working with top drivers to learn more about how to make these carriages perform to their full potential. Sterling Graburn, FEI Top Driver in North America in 2004 and 2005 purchased his first Tidaholm X-treme from us after visiting our booth at the Driving Forum in 2005 and a test run with Ben Simonsen, FEI Top Driver and bronze medallist at the Worlds in Astorp in 2004. We have been delighted to be able to persuade Ben, the dealer for Tidaholm in Finland, to come over again in 2006, to attend the Forum and watch Sterling compete at Live Oak. Both are great ambassadors for the carriages and we look forward to working closely with Sterling in particular over the next few years to bring in other models and test them out against the best drivers in North America. We are also benefiting from his advice in helping new drivers and those keen on competing to find the right carriage for their current needs.
 
We have been privileged to serve as the sole distributor for Tidaholm marathon carriages since November 2003.  Until this year, it has been difficult to obtain more than two or three containers per year, with 6-7 carriages on board, at a time.  With the expansion of the production facility in Sweden, we expect to be able to bring more in more carriages, more often.  But don't expect Tidaholm to become a high volume producer.  They know the value of attention to detail and building relationships.  Check out what some of our customers are saying and then give us a call and we will be happy to discuss building a carriage to meet your needs, be it for training, recreational driving or serious competition. 


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