Kitara Lodge

NBN came out to Kitara Lodge today and did a short story on my road to London and how my campaign has come to and end....

Chops is featured aswell as ur foal for this year 'Peggy' and of course my canine friend, Maddison.

Click here to watch the 6pm News that i was featured on

Coco (our newest foal) has been at Randwick Equine Centre over the weekend with a very strange illness. She was found to have a heart murmur. After the specialist scanned her heart this morning its evident she has a very rare heart defect which will affect her life. Unfortunately 3 week old Coco doesnt have much chance to survive with this heart condition and will be laid to rest this afternoon.

This is very sad news for us as she was a super little filly with alot of personality. Her little heart however was struggling to keep up with the demading growth of little Coco. This is a condition that will be researched by REC using Cocos condition as a question to which they want to find an answer. Its a non-genetic problem which occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy and it cannot be detected nor treated at this stage.

We hope they can find out why this happens and if it can be operated on or treated for future horses.

Rest In Peace little girl xxx

We took a team of horses to jump club for a training day. They all jumped super.

Rambo did 2 rounds at 1.10m and being very fresh he needed it! He went clear in the first round and the second round he actually jumped better but had 1 down. He then jumped a super clear round in the 1.20m class - all set for his 1 and 2** classes at SIEC in 2 weeks time.

Ari was a pro (of course) I cantered him around the 1.10m and 1.20m class and jumped both lovely clear rounds all set for his first start back since Melbourne 3 day event in June 2011.

Bud and Jonathan also had an outing. He was just going to canter around the 1.20m class but he was too busy helping me with mine that we ran a little late. Bud did however pop around the class at 1.30m and jumped well. He isnt real fit and hasnt been out for a while, but being the pro he is he cantered around nicely.

Kitara Bon Jouet (Bonnie) who is on eof Budweiser's 3 year old daughters also came along for the ride and she was perfect. She also had a work out and popped over some of the fences in the warm up arena and we are very proud of this lovely fillies attitude. Bonnie will now join Bella in the spelling paddock for another break. Kitara Chandon (Chandy) will be the next of the rank to have her first outing.

All in all happy ponies, happy riders

With all this rain is hard to tell what is going to be on and what is not.

Ari and Rambo are heading to their first jump club day on Sunday at Mangrove Mountain (if its still on) and Bonnie will come along for the ride and her first outing.

Ari, Rambo and the now gelded Veuve are also gearing up for their first eventing starts back at SIEC in a few weeks.

There are a selection of horses for sale in the newly updates 'Horses for Sale' page. Click HERE to browse through. There are some good bargains to be had- offers considered.

We have had both our foals for this season and both foals were born healthy and happy as are their mums. Scout had a beautiful tall chestnunt filly that we have named 'Kitara Karingo' (aka Leggy Peggy). She is by Budweiser of course and possesses a lovely outline, straight legs and lots of bling. She was born 2 weeks after her due date but well and truly cooked to perfection.

Dolly had her filly that we named 'Kitara Crystal' (aka Coco) who is a full sister to Kitara Bellefon, Kitara Boston and Kitara Cattier. She was born 2 weeks early so slightly smaller than her siblings when born, however we are confident she will mature in the next few weeks and catch up to her siblings. All of Dollys foals have been a smaller horse, however they have plenty of quality, form and movement! (as seen by the results from the ACE tour)

Both of these girls are due to be judged at the ACE tour in February so we are eager to see the results.

All the horses are now back in work inlcuding the eventers and the youngstock with 10 horses in work between Jonathan and myself. We look forward to tkaing the babies and the eventers out and about.

We did take Moet, Veuve and Bella to the first jump club of the year at Mangrove Mounain and both Moet and Veuve jumped super rounds at 80cm and Moet had a go at the 90cm class with a beautiful clear round. Bella had a cnater aroudn the warm up arena and did some flat work in the main arena for exposure before she has been tipped out for a spell to grow a little more. She was amazingly well behaved from the moment she left the property. This 3 year old has a super bright future as a top quality competition horse.

Xmas is here and a few changes have occured in the last couple of weeks here at Kitara Lodge with the announcement of a new rider basing and working at Kitara Lodge. Jonathon Angeli who is from Queensland has joined the team and brings a wealth of knowledge and young horse experience. Riding at some very credible top class riders such as Rod Brown, Vicky Roycroft and also breaking in and training the horses at Carol Chapman's place (Niki Rose's mum). Jonathan will be helping us along with the education and backing of the young horses now that we have so many due to start their education including Bollinger, Bon Jouet, Bellefon, Moet and Veuve.

We are also awaiting the arrival of out first foal for the year from Scout by Budweiser. She was due on friday so we are expecting little bubs arrival soon.

in the meantime Budweiser has been chilling out waiting for his mares for this season to be ready for insemination. He will be excited to know he has 2 collections this week aswell as a foal at Shane and Niki Rose's due at the end of the month.

Budweiser will be collecting unitl March 2012 so if your thinking of breeding, why not check out the information on our amazing stallion HERE and view some of his fantastic progeny HERE

Ari is also retunring to work next week and i look forward to again competing him next season

Merry Christmas from the Kitara Lodge team and we wish everyone a fantastic family day!

Dressage:

Corambo inthe 1* did a lovely accurate dressage test with international judges includingIndonesian’s dual gold medallist at the Asian Games Dressage and judge scoringhim the top score of the day with 70.43% and the other 2 judges giving closescores aswell and finished the dressage 3rd in the class with 52.8penalties just 4 penalties from the leader.

KitaraDiamond Edition in the 3*** also did a lovely test to impress the internationaljudges and scoring a 51.7 penalty for 4th place after the dressagewith Australian Gold Medallist Stuart Tinney leading the class on 44.4penalties.

CrossCountry:

Corambo inthe 1* did a fantastic clear Cross Country Round and 25 seconds under theoptimum time – unfortunately there were a second set of flags that I missed whilstwalking the course and although we were lying in 2nd place afterCross Country I was disqualified. This is a very disappointing result as wewere in prime position for a good end result.

KitaraDiamond Edition in the 3*** was travelling fantastically around the CrossCountry course clear and on time until the 2nd last fence which wasthe water fence. The A element in the water was not riding very well as thehorses were not reading it too well. I rode to the A element strong trustingthe horse would jump it well – once he got to the fence he jumped it, howeverpecked on landing and due to the landing side being downhill I got shot out thefront door over his head. Although with great effort I tried to hold on, theforce of the forward motion was too much and I fell onto the B element of thewater jump. The horse on his own accord continued to jump the B element withoutme. This was a MAJOR disappointment as we made it over the A element, and thehorse was honest enough to jump the B part into the water by himself – I justdidn’t have any chance of staying on him.

This ofcourse an even more disappointing feeling knowing he was on time and clear upuntil then. The water jump was the 2nd last fence from the finishline. With this clear round and good time on the course I would have beensitting in a very competitive 3rd place going into the showjumpingsection. The horse has been jumping amazingly and with a great showjumpingrecord over the last few months with 2 clear rounds and 1 4 fault round in thelast 3 starts I was positive I would have jumped a good showjumping round tofinish in the top 3 placings. This would have given me the neccissary points required to almost be guaranteed a spot in the top individual rankingin ridersfor London Olympic Games.

After the win at Canberra int eh 3 star class i was invited to ride in teh grand final eventing exhibition as a wild card entry at Equitana. I jumped at the chance for some fun and nominated Rambo for the class to allow Chops a break from the spot light :). The class consisted of 15 top riders who placed in the top 4 of the eventing exhibition class at Sydney Royal and Melbourne Royal, then the remaining spots were made up of Australian riders based overseas including Clayton Fredericks, Sam Griffiths, Paul Tapner - all on borrowed horses as well as Emma Mason (won Goulburn 3 star), Craig Barrett (won Melbourne 3 star), Christine Bates (won Sydney 3 star) and the already qualified riders from previous event at Sydney Royal (Tim Boland, Shane Rose, Cassie Webb, Sandy Lucas). The class consisted of each comibination doing a short 3*** test which was judged by Dutch judge (each movement being scored out of 10 possible marks) the results then from the dressage was carried forward to teh jumping and XC phase whihc consisted of 6 showjumps and 6 XC jumps all incorporated in the one course all against time. The jumping pahse was ridden in reverse order of the placings after dressage. It was great fun and the crowd really got into the jumping phases and it felt fantastic to gallop around and have fun with all the support and cheers.

Rambo was amazing - he was first in for the dressage phase and had to set the standard. He has never had to do a test with flying changes and half pass, being only a 2** horse, nevertheless he did it with great confidence and we got a fantastic score of 70%!!! We led most of the class until Craig Barretts test where he just creeped ahead of me on a score of 70.667% and then Claudia Graham coming in and doing an even better test to lead going into the jumping phase with 71.333%. Close scores but the jumping would change all that. Rambo was 3rd last to jump as he was 3rd after dressage and carried 3 penalities into the jumping phase. He loved it!!!! he was fantastic! Fast and jumped everything well. We had 2 showjump rails down to finish our competition on 11 points total. Craig jumped well with 2 down aswell to finish on 10 points and unfortunately Claudia had a few rails which took her down the list, however Shane Rose took a punt at the joker fence which he kept up and althoguh having another 2 rails down he was sitting in 4th place after dressage and managed to finish on a score of 8 points.

It was a great class with fantastic prizes and prize money and an even better concept to get everyone involved. it showcases the sport of eventing and shows how talented the horses required to be to be the best.

picture taken of Rambo over the final element 11b - Photo by Furdography

WOW this is bar far my biggest win yet!!!

Chops was AMAZING and Rambo was great too...

A winning performance from Dom Ingvall (FIN)in the CIC3*

2011 Canberra CIC

Photograph:fiona GruenCanberra International Horse Trials, Wednesday, 26 October 2011Don Invgall riding Kitara Diamond Edition, takes out the hard fought Hewatts CIC3* at 2011 Canberra Horse Trials.

A gutsy and determined XC ride put Dom just 0.2 penalties behind Shane Rose on Taurus going into the final showjumping leg. Shane and Dom recorded the fastest rounds of the in the XC phase both just over the optimum time. The 3* course looking stunning in the sun ,was designed by Dan Olson. It had some tough new fences and a more open feel from previous years, but time was still the most influential factor rearranging the top spots.. Tim Boland saw his over night lead slip after a super XC clear but just too slow, the Italian Fabio Magni had a fantastic XC round on the former Tinney ride Watermark Grayson and climbed from 6th to 3rd. Stuart chased him all the way, also climbed from 7th to 4th after a big effort from Panamera. Local rider Nat Blundell riding the diminutive Algebra put a nightmare first phase of dressage behind her and pulled out all stops on the final day.. She blitzed clear around cross country track and to climb a massive 12 spots from 17th to 5th to the delight of the local crowd. Edith Kane on ESB Irish Justice lying second after dressage didn’t have the best of rides xc and was eliminated .Showjumping designer from Farmline, Brad Longhurst built a technical and challenging track in the Vibe FM arena, the riders having to concentrate every step of the way. Jumping in reverse order riders rose to the challenge. Placings changed the final 6 positions. Fabio Magnis’2 rails dropped him from 3rd to 8th place, Shanes ride APH Mortiz had 1 rail, dropping to7th .Pressure mounted as Emma Scott, Nat Blundell ,Stuart Tinney and Tim Boland all posted fantastic clears. With 2 riders remaining and less than 0.2 penalties between them, not even a time fault was afforded. Dom Ingvall mounted enormous pressure on Rose by jumping a foot perfect round on Kitara Diamond Edition.. Rose, riding Taurus was all clear until the final combination of fences only to take out the second element that cost him the 3* crown. This element in the treble caught him on each of his 3 rides in 3*, and was the most influential fence on course.

See article in the Canberra Times

Another Weekend, another event.

Both Chops and Rambo ran really well.

Rambo was 4th after dressage in a class of 48 riders in the CIC*. He also performed really well in the jumping phases with a clear and under time XC round and just 1 unlucky rail in the showjumping to finish 6th. the scores were extremely tight as you can see, 1 rail took me from 4th to 6th. still very happy with the boy as it was a tough and big class. (one dressage judge had him winning the class after dressage, the other 9th - with a big gap in scores for rambo meant we had to settle for a lesser placing)

Chops also did really well. he did a nice, accurate test but unfortunately not expressive enough for the judges. although he scored over 60% he was only sitting in 19th place after dressage in the yet again, big 38 rider 3*** class. Nevertheless - chops ran clear XC with 8 time penalties to climb up to 15th. he was AWESOME! He then managed to jump a fantastic 4 fault round SJ just 90 minutes after he ran XC.

canberra CIC next...then a 4 week wait until the final event at Lakes and Crater 3 day event.