Swedish Grand Prix rider Sandra Dahlin has retired her number one horse, Ichi, from competition sport. The 15-year old mare will continue a career in breeding.
Ichi is a home bred Swedish warmblood mare by Bocelli out of Dynastie (by Donnerschlag x Amiral).
Lottery
In 2003 a 15-year old Dahlin visited the Gothenburg horse show with her mum and bought a raffle ticket in the hopes of winning the grand prize, a horse. As by miracle, Dahlin won and returned home with the 6-year old mare Dynastie, which was donated as a prize by Birgitta Bentzer, the director of breeding at Flyinge.
Dynastie turned into a brood mare after an injury and Sandra's mother Birgitta picked Rose Mathisen's Grand Prix stallion Bocelli (by Don Schufro) as the sire. The filly Ichi was born in 2006.
Dahlin's family company Miota AB (a metalworking machinery manufacturer) is registered as breeder of Ichi.
To the Top Over Hurdles
Ichi turned out to be a handful as a youngster and their way to the top was full of hurdles. As a youngster, she was prone to rearing.
"My father was increasingly anxious and worried about Ichi and was not happy I when I got up on that ‘crazy’ horse," Dahlin told Breeding News in 2020. "We have a racetrack in the vicinity, and I decided one day that I was going to take her out there for a hack – one way or another. Ichi was not cooperating and almost launched me a couple of times. My father saw all this and yelled ‘I’m going to shoot that crazy horse before she kills someone!’ He has regretted that statement many times over since then."
Based in Sala, Sweden, Dahlin persevered with Ichi with the coaching of Kyra Kyrklund, team trainer Louise Nathhorst. The young professional also worked for Kristian von Krusenstiern and Mette Rosencrantz. Sandra pair worked out the glitches and produced her to Grand Prix level.
They made their international show debut at small tour level in 2014 at the CDI Oslo. Ten months later they showed at the CDI Malmo. A four year gap followed between their last small tour CDI and their international Grand Prix debut at the 2018 CDI Sint-Truiden due to injury and a long training process. Starts in Flyinge and Helsinki followed and the scores climbed spectacularly over the months.
Sweden's Shooting Star of 2020
Dahlin immediately promoted herself as the one to watch for Sweden with the Olympic Games in Tokyo coming up. Despite finishing fourth at the 2020 Swedish Grand Prix Championships, they could not continue that upward trend internationally.
Sweden went in full lockdown in the first corona year (2020) and Dahlin only showed at the CDI Aarhus in October 2020, where they posted 61.348% in the Grand Prix. In 2021 they rode at three more CDI's: in Doha (71.978), in Exloo (66.565%- and in Parnu (61.217%).
Retired from Sport
"She was the most difficult young horse I have ever had but it was worth everything; the blood, sweat and tears. Her competition career became so much more than I dared to dream of," said Dahlin who has mixed feelings about the retirement of her career starting horse.
Sandra continued, "due to an old injury in a hind knee, her show career is now over. She does everything with ease except the maximum collection, then she feels it. The plan now is for her to become a mother "for real" and it feels so nice that she will have her own foal to take care of. She has already given us three fantastic offspring via embryo transfer and I am sure they will follow in her footsteps eventually."
The three Ichi offspring via ET are Avichi (by Zuidenwind, born 2015), Borichi (by Van Vivaldi, born 2016) and Michigan LVST (by Van Vivaldi, born 2018).
Photo © Astrid Appels
Related Links
Sandra Dahlin and Ichi Turning Heads at 2020 CDI-W Gothenburg
Dufour and Cassidy Stumble in Grand Prix, Pick Themselves Up to Win 2020 CDI-W Gothenburg
Mattsson, Jonsson, Kittel Win 2020 Swedish Dressage Championships