Meet Ingrid Bjørklund

“We have snow until June and it comes back in late November or early December, so it’s quite long winters up there.”

Tell a bit about your stable and where you are located 🙏🏻

Our stables is located in Mo i Rana, which is quite far north in Norway. It’s located in the middle of the woods, and it’s 2 kilometers from an alpine center, so we hack up there quite a lot and do interval training. We have snow until June and it comes back in late November or early December, so it’s quite long winters up there. The stables are all new except for one old stable building that used to be an old barn. The facility was bought in 2014 and we’ve built it up to what it is today, with an indoor arena and 26 stable boxes in total, where 10 of them are for my own use. I only have 5 horses of my own there though, and one is used by my brother. The rest are full boarding.

Tell us about your horses and their personalities 🐴

At the moment I have 4: Arie Z, Centogran, Staedtebahn’s Cornwell, Andora and Opportunity K.

Arie Z, “Arie”, is 17 years old now – a grey Zangersheide gelding I’ve had for many years now. He’s full of himself, a lot of self-confidence, attitude, and always holding his head up high as if he owns the world. At the same time, he’s very interested and curious, but he’s not cuddly, at all. He’s the biggest fighter in the ring, though.

“I want to be the best I can be.”

Ingrid Bjørklund

Staedtebahn’s Cornwell, otherwise known as “Corry”, is a 14 year old grey German Warmblood that I, alongside Arie, ride the bigger classes with. At home he’s completely chill, almost too much, as if he has a flat battery. But at the shows he comes to life with a swiftness and carefulness in the ring that I can only describe as a true dream horse’s qualities. He’s very rideable, very educated, and I feel safe when riding him – he’s brave and I feel like I can steer him towards anything. He’s a little stubborn though, but he probably takes that after his father Cornet Obolensky.

Opportunity K is my youngest, a 5 year old grey Belgian Warmblood gelding. He’s social, sweet, and very fun to be around, acting like the huge child he is. Super curious (in a positive, not spooky way), and very up to new challenges in the ring.

Andora, known as “Dora”, is my only bay horse and only mare among all the grey boys. Dora is a Latvian Warmblood of 8 years and I got her just recently, in October of 2023. She’s the most cuddly of my horses, very social, has got quite the attitude of a mare but not in a bitchy way, and very positive, brave and careful in the ring.

Goals for the year and for your career ⭐️

For the year: Get Opportunity out in the international shows, get to know Dora better, ride the Nordic and European Championships, defend my Nordics gold medal, and in general, be better than I was last season.

For my career: I want to be the best I can be. I don’t necessarily think about the Olympics specifically, but I mean… I want to become so good that I could’ve been elected for the Olympics, so I guess the Olympics is a goal if you look at it that way.

Highlights of your career so far 🤩

European Championship of 2022 where I ended in 13th place, Nordic Championships of 2023 where I won gold individually and got a team silver, bronze medal in the indoor YR National Championship in my first year as a Junior, and when I won the entire Baltic Cup of 2023.

Do you have any fun facts to share with us? 😜

Haha, well…

• We don’t sell horses apparently, we rather hoard them. The plan was to sell lots, but we just end up keeping them. We haven’t sold any since 2019. Oh well.
• I start every day in the stables, and I need to be early. I always strive to be the first one in the stables at the shows, before anyone else is there, otherwise I feel like I’m late.
• I do all school online instead of physically going to school on a daily basis like most others. It makes it easier to do the sport for me and in the schedule I’d prefer.
• Almost all horses use the same tack, except for saddles.
• Apparently I collect grey geldings. It’s not on purpose, but it’s become a thing. Bay Dora is spicing things up!

• The last thing I do and say when I leave the stables is “good night ponies, love you, kiss kiss” – and I do this everyday, no matter when I leave. I have to say the exact same thing every day.

Connected is our DNA. What does this mean to you? 💙

For me, it means cooperation, interaction and communication. With the horses, and with every part of your team and system in general. Working with Ecte, it comes down to the same three things. It has been a really fun year working with Ecte in terms of getting to know each other, and that my co-team riders no longer are competitors but teammates. We have something extra in common and we can work together in promoting a great brand.