Sidelines Magazine

Horse Show

Five Questions for Bjorn Ikast

By Lincoln Rogers

Bjorn Ikast and most of his family (left to right - Diego, Bjorn,
Clara, Isabel) during a show at the Colorado Horse Park in July,
2008. "I couldn't do it without them," said Bjorn of his family.
"There's no 'I' in team."
Photo by Roger Branch

Bjorn Ikast is a Danish rider who lives in Mexico with his wife and family. The forty-four-year-old Bjorn started riding professionally at age nineteen, picking up his first grand prix victory three years later at twenty-two. The wins and awards have piled up ever since for the personable competitor. Bjorn was the Danish Champion three times, the Norwegian Champion once, the Scandinavian Champion once, and has sixty grand prix victories thus far in his successful career.

Sidelines: When did you first start riding?
BI: I first started riding at twelve years old. As everybody knows, soccer is the number one sport in all Europe, and as any other boy, I played soccer. I was a goalkeeper and we lost 24-0, so I said, 'I've got to find a different living! I'm not sure I can make a living at this!' I started riding instead. I think I am much more suited to this.

Sidelines: With twenty-five years of experience, what is it you like best about grand prix competition?
BI: Its excitement, you know. It's the highlight of the week and it's exciting. If you are a competitor, it is the biggest class of the week. If you are a rider you want to be in the grand prix. This is a dream of every young rider, to compete with the very best and what we train for every day. If you have a horse that jumps in grand prix competitions, you have a very special horse. I'm very privileged; we actually have six horses that are competitive in grand prix. Out of the six, all of them have won two or more grand prix competitions. I try to pick the right shows and the right grand prix for the right horse, as much as I can. That way we'll have a horse for a long time. When you finally have one that comes along, you take good care of them.

Sidelines: You have 60 grand prix wins to your tally, what do you believe makes you so consistently successful?
BI: "I think it's taking care of your horse, first of all, to be a horseman. You don't try to win every class. My priority is the grand prix. I don't win many other classes. I try to save my horses for the grand prix. This is what it's all about, all week, for me. We have younger horses, but we seldom ride to win before it's grand prix time. Save your horse, take good care of them, and set them up for the grand prix. The horse's safety and everything comes first. I don't sacrifice my horse to get a grand prix win. So we actually have more second place finishes than first places. I think we have over two-hundred top three finishes.

Sidelines: It seems like you've made a conscious choice over the last number of years to focus on competing in the south, southwest, and Colorado. What is behind that choice to stay away from the huge, big-name horse shows on the east and west coasts?
BI: First of all, we try to search for the shows where our horses are competitive. Don't go to shows where you don't have a chance of winning. For example, I like the shows in Wellington also, but we have many horses that are more competitive to be in grand prix contests that are not so big. We do the 1.50m grand prix, plus you are only allowed to ride one horse in the grand prix there. So it's better for me in these other shows; I can ride six horses if I want to. We go to shows where we have a good time, where the family has a good time, and the horses are competitive. This is what we are looking for. We don't think the grass is #00421Eer on the other side. We know it here and we like the people in the shows we attend. They treat us very well. And we choose shows where there are not so many horses. You might as well be honest with yourself. We pay all this out of our own pocket, so to go to Wellington, it will cost us a lot of money and the risk of winning it back again is a little more difficult than these shows here.

Sidelines: It looks like your whole family is involved in this as much as they can be. How much of a help is that for you?
BI: That's an enormous help for me. My wife (Clara) is with me 24/7. She was herself an international rider, and we can sit and discuss the horses and go over the plans for competitions and what the individual horses need. My wife is the one that organizes everything - the papers, the feed, the horse show office - she takes care of all of these things. She makes everything for me. I couldn't do it without my family. There's no 'I' in team. If I do well, everybody does well, and that's because of my wife, my daughter, my sons, my grooms, and my horses. I couldn't do it without my family and my horses. I'm just the rider! It's wonderful to be on the road together as a family. Of course you get tired, but then we get home for one week and my wife always says, 'Okay, when are you ready again, Bjorn?' She is more horse crazy and show crazy than I am. She loves it. We are all together in this. They all back me up.

»To view the rest of this article please login or Subscribe for just $29.95 or $10 for online viewing!