Jonas Elvebakk's European Championship Ride Citta Undergoes Colic Surgery

Dressage

Norway

Less than two months after achieving a career highlight, representing Norway at the 2021 European Dressage Championships, Norwegian Grand Prix rider Jonas Elvebakk experienced a major set back. His top horse Citta underwent colic surgery.

Citta is a 14-year old Dutch warmblood mare by Jazz out of Hitta (by Candyboy). She is bred by W. Abbring in The Netherlands.

The Road to Hagen

Owned by Jonas in partnership with Lars Lindoe and the Grønvold-Johannessen family, Citta made her international show debut under Elvebakk at small tour level in Odense (DEN) in October 2016. They rode in one more in May 2017 in Kristiansand before taking a break from the international ring to prepare the horse for its Grand Prix debut in 2019.

Internationally that debut on the Jazz mare did not go as smoothly as planned. Starts in Lillestrom and Zakrzow were difficult, but they found their groove at the CDI Kristiansand in May 2019. They gained ring mileage in Aarhus, Exloo and Lillstrom.

This year the combination rode in Herzlake and qualified as an individual for the 2021 European Dressage Championships in Hagen, where they scored 67.531% in the Grand Prix. They also competed in the CDI tour in Hagen that weekend and posted 64.783% in the Grand Prix and 71.270% in the freestyle.

Hagen was Elvebakk's first major continental Championship as a senior Grand Prix rider. Before that he represented Norway at the World Young Horse Championships in 2013 on Cubald (by Tuschinski x Jazz) and JJ Hamsun (by Hotline x Sandro Hit) and in 2018 on Hojgaardens Santos (by San Amour x Friendship). He also rode at several Nordic Baltic Championships.

Colic

On Sunday 31 October 2021 Citta suffered from a severe bout of colic and had to be immediately operated on in the equine clinic.

"There is a short distance in equestrian sport between the ups and downs," Elvebakk took to Facebook. "The way from feeling you are on top and to the bottom is hard and brutal! Sunday we got to experience it with Citta who got an acute, powerful colic and had to have surgery."

A week following the operation, Citta is on the road to recovery but not yet out of the woods.

"She is doing better, but it is still critical and she is still in the hospital," Jonas told Eurodressage. "Despite what she has Been through it is going in the right direction. She was in super condition before the colic and she is a fighter, I think that helps the process. It(s a long way back, but I hope she will fully recover."

In 2019 Jonas and Citta won the Norwegian Grand Prix Championships, in 2018 and 2020 they scored the bronze medal. In July 2021, Elvebakk moved from his base of 12 years, Solberg Gård, to a new yard, Fredriksborg Hesesportsenter, in Borge.