Trotting Veijo Heiskanen returned from Sweden to Finland and found that it no longer existed – “I had completely disappeared”

Jari Kurrin the namesake roars and rustles with satisfaction at carrots at the Vermo stables in Leppävaara, Espoo.

The name of the main owner of the jokers and the well-known NHL hockey player in this connection is warm-blooded greyhound Kurri Jari Boko. The five-year-old stallion is Veijo Heiskasen and Henna Halmeen the most famous trainee on the Swedish register.

Heiskanen and Halme are the returnees of horse racing. Heiskanen, 62, trained trotting horses for 37 years in Sweden. Halme, 27, cared for and guided horses in the Heiskanen stable for four years.

The couple returned to Finland last autumn and took care of a 20-horse stable on the country’s main track in Vermo. Two of the horses are their own, the others are guests.

“The coaching staff is now full. The beginning has been okay. There have been no disappointments, we are satisfied, ”says Heiskanen.

He is still the youngest trotting director in Finland who has achieved a thousand wins in his career. He achieved the pile of a thousand victories at the age of 25 in 1984.

Decades spent in Sweden fill the prize cabinet with trophies, trophies and photographs. One prize may rise above the others: In 2001, Heiskanen was chosen as the best Swedish-Finnish athlete in Sweden.

In After the trash accident in 2019, Heiskanen has rarely ridden in a stroller. This year, he has driven just one start, where he directed the € 1,700 first prize.

Heiskanen fell off a stroller in Sweden and seriously injured his hip.

“I immediately noticed that it went badly, even though the pace was non-existent and I fell low. Twenty screws were inserted into the hip. Now you have to take a couple of screws out of there when they interfere with the operation of the foot, ”Heiskanen says.

A couple of months after the accident, Heiskanen and Halme still had a deer crash at night, which could have been bad.

“There was a bang that you can imagine. All the lights went out of the car, and I had to look at the road from the side window, ”Heiskanen says.

After the food accident, the couple’s rough division of labor is for Heiskanen to coach and Halme to guide. Because there are a lot of horses, several hands are needed during training times.

“I’m first in the stable in the morning, and Veijo comes when we start riding horses in training. In practice, I do all the work in the stable. I even like cleaning the stalls, ”Halme says.

In addition to Halme and Heiskanen, the stable has two other employees.

Catering moving from one country to another does not happen in a twist. Some of the stable’s horses first stayed at the Balltorp training center near Gothenburg.

“The coaching center was closed down and there were few customers. There was no suitable food stable around Gothenburg. Had to move somewhere. I wanted to get a new light on the hustle and bustle of Henna’s coaching license in Finland, ”Heiskanen explains the move.

Among other things, Kurri Jari Boko came to Vermoo in the aftermath at the turn of the year. In Sweden, it earned SEK 900,000, or just over EUR 87,000.

In Finland, it has run in three starts this year, of which it won two and was third in one. Prize money departures generated EUR 9,800. Heiskanen and Halme expect a lot from “Kurr” when summer comes.

Boko-ended horses are bred by a Dutchman John Bootsman stables in the Netherlands and Sweden. At the age of 17, Bootsman received the initial capital from his father, with which he bought a foal from New York.

Bootsman now has more than 70 running horses running at least 100,000 euros. Many of them have the name of an athlete, such as a football player, at the beginning: Neeskens, Isco, Iniesta and Higuaín.

Heiskanen also follows a lot of sports, more than just raving.

He has attended the Olympics and the World Championships in Athletics. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, he watched the Finnish and Swedish hockey finals among the wives and girlfriends of Swedish hockey players.

“Mats Näslund your ticket. He is an avid pharmacist and has driven more than 50 starts, ”says Heiskanen, a well-known Swedish hockey player of the same age and winner of the NHL Stanley Cup.

In 2009, Heiskanen followed in the auditorium when Usain Bolt ran the world record in Berlin by a hundred meters.

“We were born on the same day as Bolt [21. elokuuta]”Halme says next door.

To Finland there were also personal practical twists and turns in the return. Heiska did not officially exist in Finland.

Heiskanen, who has a background in Kuopio, had a Finnish social security number in Sweden, which could no longer be found in the files.

“I was completely lost. There was no information about me anywhere, not even in Kela, ”Heiskanen says and laughs now that the problem has been resolved.

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There were also personal practical twists and turns in returning to Finland.

In Vermossa, Heiskanen and Halme installed feeding machines for horses in their stables for their first jobs. In Sweden they are commonplace, but in Finland they are rare.

“Now there are vending machines in all stables in Vermo. Automatic feeding makes it easy for everyone from caregivers to horses. The horses are allowed to eat in the morning in peace, and we will be able to drive as soon as we get to the stable, ”Heiskanen says.

The culture of shaving in the neighboring country is even longer than in Finland. Prize money is better, as are tracks and stables.

As one example, Halme cites the warm pens of the Swedish racecourse.

“Horses can be cared for in them during the races in peace. There is no hurry like in Finland, where one pen can be used three times during the trotting night. ”

In Sweden there are also many more female directors than in Finland.

In addition to Henna Halme, Finnish professional mentors include Emma Väre and Janita Antti-Roiko. They compete among men regularly in cart starts.

There are a lot of active female instructors in Montele’s races, on the other hand.

Halme says he has been treated equally in the male race.

“I got good feedback even before I left for Sweden,” Halme says.

According to Heiskanen, attitudes have changed a lot in 40 years, that is, since he left for Sweden.

“The female driver was not happy to be ridden, but the horse was rather left out of the races if there was no male instructor on offer. There are no physical differences between male and female directors. ”

H&H: n (Halme and Heiskanen) Sahara Peyote runs in cart starts and rarely in Monté.

“Monté has a good variety for it, but preferably it races with carts. This has big lungs, ”says Halme, stroking a large warm blood clot from his neck.

Sahara Peyote has run more than 220,000 euros in prize money in Finland. It was exported to Sweden in September 2020, but now it has been brought back to Finland.

Each other In May 2017, a pair of races were found at Cityrave in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki, where the centennial Finnish horse was celebrated.

“Love ignited even then. We started calling, and Henna came to visit Sweden, ”says Heiskanen.

She has one daughter and two grandchildren.

Halme, who is from Kouvola, says that he had already thought before the meeting that he would like to go abroad to learn more about races and horses.

“Then Veijo asked for work.”

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