A tiny speck of hope has been ignited in the danish stables after Danske Spils yearlong monopoly on horse track betting has been broken. Danish trotting is buried in a crisis that started 30 years ago. Old men race the horses, and old men bet on them, all the while trotting has moved from national sport to niche. The culture is fading away, but the trotting community keeps on fighting.

Sulky. In trot you strap a waggon behind the horse. The race waggons are called sulkys. These are training waggons and are called longwaggons, which are heavier and more stable if the horse is new and nervous. When using the longwaggons it is basically weight training for the extremely strong horses.


Superstition. The totalisator takes people's bets. Rikke Madsen works on Jydsk Væddeløbsbane and had the same job back home in Skive. “Some guests are so superstitious, that if i make a wrong ticket, i cant cancel it, because then the wrong ticket probably wins” says Rikke Madsen behind the blue machine that looks the same all over Denmark.

Sausage Mountain. Every race track has a small cafeteria in the vicinity of the stables. Thats where the locals and everyone who works in the stables comes. Jens Hansen is retired and volunteers in Staldsvinget in Billund. It's freezing outside but the grill is still running outside and the mountain of sausages is growing.