Kitara Lodge

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