In November 2018, the County Administrative Board of Uppsala County decided to revoke the farm's permit for horse activities after finding seriously mistreated animals.

But despite that, the riding school has continued as usual for several years.

According to documents that SVT Uppsala has read, the farm was granted, just a few weeks after the permit was withdrawn, 1.3 million in project support "to establish a meeting place for young people".

Missed the background

The project was selected by Leader Mälardalen and the grant was paid by the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

They state that they then did not know that the business lacked a permit, because they did not focus on the actual animal husbandry in the project.

The County Administrative Board has for several years tried to get this person to close down his horse business.

At the same time, it is financed by you.

Will two authorities oppose each other?

- We do not have an obligation to check for each project with all other authorities what they think of our beneficiary, says Petra Jarlros, unit manager for locally led development at the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

Changed routines

A total of 1.16 million was paid out in the end, according to Leader Mälardalen, which states that the money came from the EU (53%) the Swedish state (14%) and the eight municipalities in the Leader area (33%).

Mia Lundqvist, operations manager at Leader Mälardalen, writes in an email to SVT that they visited the farm on one occasion in the spring of 2018:

"At that time, we saw no signs that animals were hurting, but obviously there have been [...] In retrospect, it is of course not at all good that the association was granted the support.

With the result in hand, Leader Mälardalen should definitely have checked the permit.

This is also something we have now introduced in our own handling. ”

"Not equestrian activities"

The business manager at the horse farm also believes that the money that came from the Swedish Board of Agriculture went to a youth project that had nothing to do with the riding school.

- It was for a youth center for children and young people with mental illness.

But the children would interact with animals, right?

- Yes, but there was no riding school activity.

But when there are problems with animal husbandry, to then receive a grant for an activity where the animals are also in focus?

- But none of the parents have had any opinions.

The only one who has opinions is the County Administrative Board.

In the horse farm's application for the grant, however, they themselves stated that they needed funding to employ a youth leader who, among other things, would carry out pony riding and animal courses together with the children in the association.

Hailed by the trotting company

In February 2020, the riding school also won SEK 100,000 from the trotting company ATG, which praised its work.

- We chose them because they had a very nice project on mental illness for young people.

When we visited the farm, we saw absolutely no problem with the horses' well-being, says Maria Guggenberger, sustainability manager at ATG.

But the farm still did not have a permit for horse activities, and when it came to ATG's knowledge, the company changed its routines.

- It is completely unreasonable to conduct business without a permit.

Honestly, we did not look at it before.