{"id":7040,"date":"2012-01-03T23:30:12","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T23:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=7040"},"modified":"2017-10-27T16:27:10","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T05:27:10","slug":"the-story-of-sparky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2012\/01\/the-story-of-sparky\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Sparky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I still don\u2019t know why I bought Sparky:\u00a0 He was 9 years old (older than I wanted), 15.1h (smaller than I wanted) and had only really done some hacking (I was looking for an eventer).\u00a0 But there was just something about the horse – and I was a blonde 15 year-old – so the next thing I knew, Mum and I were loading him onto the float and driving him from Noosa to my (then) home in Gumdale, Qld.<\/p>\n

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As with any new horse, it wasn\u2019t all plain sailing right from the start \u2013 Sparky had a canter with a genuine 4 beats, so achieving collection without his nose poking out in protest was challenging.\u00a0 And he was a careful jumper, so if I had a \u201cmiss\u201d at a fence, he would gently decline to jump it.\u00a0 But Sparky was honest and generous, my misses became less frequent, and we soon formed a partnership.<\/p>\n

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Although a thoroughbred (he apparently won a race at Doomben in the early days!), Sparky was essentially quiet \u2013 he rarely got hot, he understood the concept of \u201cimmobility\u201d in the halt, and he could be relied upon to do a neat, accurate dressage test.\u00a0 In the showjumping, once our confidence was intact, he was a magician \u2013 I honestly think I could count on one hand the number of rails Sparky had in his entire career.\u00a0 At the time, I didn\u2019t really think anything of it, but I\u2019ve ridden countless horses since and there aren\u2019t many who turn themselves inside out to leave the rails up like Sparky did.\u00a0 Cross country probably took the longest to sort out \u2013 as a horse with a huge amount of self-preservation, Sparky was suspicious of the cross country fences, and it took a bit of time before he was truly confident in this phase.<\/p>\n

Sparky and I posted some good results, and apart from the odd \u2018glitch\u2019, were having a lot of fun.\u00a0 One such glitch was, strangely enough, winning the junior pre-novice at Goondiwindi in about 1999.\u00a0 It was a win I\u2019d rather forget.\u00a0 I was leading after the dressage and determined to win the event, but still had painful memories of being eliminated at about fence 4 on the cross country the previous year.\u00a0 So I took off out of the start box like a woman possessed and hurtled around the course at a speed that must\u2019ve made the spectators\u2019 stomachs churn.\u00a0 I think I was more than a minute under the time (this was in the days before time penalties were given for going more than 20 seconds under), and I worked out later that I\u2019d averaged steeplechase speed around the course.\u00a0 If I was sitting on a less clever, less sharp horse, I\u2019m pretty sure my time would\u2019ve been up that day on the cross country.\u00a0 Needless to say (and particularly after some stern words from my coach), I didn\u2019t make that mistake again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A significant turning point for Sparky and I was at the Toowoomba ODE late in 1999, where we were competing in the one-star.\u00a0 The drawcard of that event was Heath Ryan, who was judging a special Junior event.\u00a0 The prize?\u00a0 A lesson with Heath at the conclusion of the event.\u00a0 Sparky and I won the one-star class, and (perhaps because he felt obliged), were named the winners of Heath\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

I had the lesson, and after an animated discussion with Heath (well, Heath was animated; I couldn\u2019t get a word in) about gold medals, Australian teams, gold medals, Olympics and gold medals, I found myself making arrangements to put my planned vet science studies on hold and take Sparky to Lochinvar to base with Heath as a working pupil.\u00a0 As far as Heath is concerned, every horse in the country is a potential Olympian, so the fact that Sparky was barely over 15hh did not much matter, and I too began to dream of riding in the green and gold.<\/p>\n

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It seemed like no time before Sparky and I were competing in Intermediate and Advanced classes, as they were then called.\u00a0 Sparky took it all in his (short) stride, and whilst it seemed like for a while there I spent more time hitting the dirt than in the saddle, we had some good results, winning the Open Intermediate at Scone and then the Kooralbyn CCI** in 2002.<\/p>\n

A memorable moment in Sparky\u2019s career was at Equitana in 2001.\u00a0 Heath had been invited to compete in the \u201cWorld Short Course Eventing Championships\u201d, but his horse Flame was a bit too green at the time.\u00a0\u00a0 So it was agreed that Heath would ride Sparky, and we\u2019d go halves in the $9,900 up for grabs if Heath won.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019ve admittedly had a grumble about tricky owners in the past, but I\u2019m pretty sure I was the owner from hell that weekend, giving Heath pointers as I sipped wine and swanned around the VIP marques.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But because of ( in spite of?) my bantering, Heath and Sparky finished the event at the top of the board, and the old \u201cwinners are grinners\u201d adage has never been more fitting.\u00a0 Heath signed autographs, I signed autographs, and Sparky even had a request for a hoofprint.\u00a0 I found myself in the gleeful, albeit rare, position of having made a profit out of an equestrian sport, and purchased a broodmare (who went on to make me a decent amount of money with the wonderful foals she produced), with the proceeds.<\/p>\n

Another highlight (with me back on board again) was placing second\u00a0in the World Cup class at Melbourne in (I think) 2003 \u2013 there was little Sparky, competing against squad-listed horses and holding his own.\u00a0 We also competed in the 3-star at Adelaide and achieved an eighth\u00a0placing, and went on to attempt the 4-star twice \u2013 the first time without much success, the second time completing the event.\u00a0 It was a pretty impressive effort for a small horse with (although I would probably have disagreed at the time) a basically green rider piloting him around.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What ended up being our last event together perhaps didn\u2019t have the fairytale ending that everyone hopes for.\u00a0 It was Melbourne 3DE in about 2005, and we were out on the 3-star cross country course.\u00a0 Everything seemed to be going well, then the next thing I knew, I was in the water, barrelling along under the surface.\u00a0 I remember thinking at the time that it was really similar to being \u2018dumped\u2019 by a wave in the ocean. \u00a0Looking at photos later (Roz from THM got a good one), it seemed that Sparky left one of his front legs on the take-off side of the jump, tipping him almost to a handstand position.\u00a0 It was a miracle that he was able to not fully rotate, and a miracle that he managed to avoid stepping on me.\u00a0 That was the end of the Melbourne event for us, and it turned out that Sparky had also sustained a tendon injury that would require a decent amount of rest time.<\/p>\n

It was fairly certain that Sparky, at his age (he was then rising 19), probably wouldn\u2019t return to 3-star competition, and I was faced with a difficult decision:\u00a0 Did I retire him from competition and keep him as a \u2018pet\u2019 at home, or did I sell him to a young rider, to give them the opportunity to learn from a true schoolmaster?\u00a0 Sparky was still energetic and loved what he did, so I chose the latter.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I was introduced to the Moxham family – possibly the nicest family in the sport – by Gordon and Emma Bishop.\u00a0 Young Anna Moxham was looking for a horse to move onto, as she\u2019d outgrown \u201cFeather Duster\u201d, her 13.3 hand pony, and it was decided that Sparky would suit perfectly.<\/p>\n

Anna and Sparky debuted at introductory level, and became a very competitive combination:\u00a0 The pair nearly always finished on their dressage score, and Anna can\u2019t recall ever having any penalties cross country, time penalties aside.\u00a0 And of course, Sparky\u2019s ability to leave rails safely in their cups helped make them difficult to beat in that phase.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anna says that Sparky taught her a lot \u2013 she learned to do flying changes, and went from competing at pony club C-grade to EA pre-novice.\u00a0\u00a0 Sparky was always a gentleman to handle, although he would get pretty revved up before the cross country \u2013 Anna says she knew it would be a good round if he did his little rear in the start box!<\/p>\n

A highlight in Anna and Sparky\u2019s successful partnership was when the pair won the 6-bar at the Coonabarabran Horse Expo in 2009, jumping a massive 1.40m!\u00a0 Another great result was a 5th<\/sup> place finish (on their dressage score) in the A Grade at the State Pony Club Championships in Canberra in 2009.<\/p>\n

Anna found herself in a similar predicament to that which I had faced:\u00a0 She was ready to move on to higher levels of competition, but it wouldn\u2019t have been fair on Sparky (now 22).\u00a0 It was decided that Jessica Sylvester, a young rider that Anna knew through the pony club circles, would compete lightly on Sparky, in the lower levels.<\/p>\n

I met Jessica at the Quirindi One Day Event last year \u2013 she introduced herself, and took me to see Sparky, who was competing in the Junior Introductory.\u00a0 My first reaction was \u201che\u2019s so small!\u201d\u00a0 He certainly had more grey hairs than when I\u2019d last seen him (his white star had expanded to about double its original size), but he looked healthy and happy, and still had a sparkle in his eye.\u00a0 Jessica was beaming, and there was no mistaking that Sparky was absolutely adored by yet another young rider.\u00a0 It was quite an emotional experience, being reconnected with a horse that had been such a huge part of my life for so many years, and that I\u2019d shared so many ups and downs with.<\/p>\n

Later that day, I heard my name called out, and Jess and Sparky trotted past me on their way out to the cross country course.\u00a0 Sparky\u2019s ears were pricked, and he had a spring in his step (well, as much as could be expected from a horse of his years).\u00a0 Of course, he jumped a clear round.<\/p>\n

Sparky is set to retire properly at the end of this year.\u00a0 The Sylvesters are concerned that their property at Coonabarabran will be too cold for him during the winter, so the plan is for Sparky to come back to me.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to see him out there in the paddock, and to be able to give him a carrot and a hug.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to forget, in the hectic schedule of training and competition, how much these horses give for us, how special they really are.\u00a0 I cringe when I think back to all the mistakes I made on Sparky, and often wish I\u2019d come across the young Sparky now, with more experience behind me.<\/p>\n

Sparky, you are an inspiration, and I salute you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emma Mason remembers the great little horse that got her going in eventing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[377,1244,451],"class_list":["post-7040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-emma-mason","tag-eventing","tag-starstruck"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7040"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37876,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040\/revisions\/37876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}