He's out of the woods!

Sparky and Lucy looking super cool in their new Savvy Touch halters!

Sparky has been very sick lately. Came down with a lung infection. Had a temp of 40.3 degrees! Thankfully my vet is super onto it and came down hard with penicillin and gentamicin. She said that kind of thing very often turns into full blown pneumonia. Crikey! He was almost put onto metronidazole as well but thankfully he turned a corner and improved. It's so awful seeing your horse sick but he is feeling so much better now yay!

Hopefully start riding him again soon when i get the OK from the vet :)

On a more positive note i got the photos from Showfields dressage. Not exactly a showcase of my finest riding ;) I bought one off Libby anyway though. My shirt makes

me look like i have a hunch back and my reins are far too long but oh well.

I also need to find him a new saddle that actually fits. Rode in an NSC that fitted perfectly and i could actually SIT to his canter in it. Saddle fitter said my Isabell is unbalanced on him hence why i was having such a hard time riding properly in it. So it wasn't my bad riding after all!

If i had a money tree i would so love an NSC but with my rather large vet bill i can't be going around buying new saddles. Maybe once i have cleared it up i can look into getting one. That would be pretty awesome!

Hot hot hot

Showfields dressage today!

I really had no clue what to expect of Sparky at a show or how he would react. Admittedly i rode very defensively (badly) in my first test the 1.4

Was so very nervous and subconsciously expected him to throw his toys in the arena like every other horse i have ever ridden! He was very obliging though and even with my poor riding ended up with 56.80%

He did feel very fresh warming up initially. Not like the Sparky i'm used to! By the time test 2 came along. the 1.2 he had well and truly run out of gas. Someone has no concept of conserving energy... I just walked him around trying not to tire him but i think a combination of heat plus the very deep sand in the arena made it hard for him. Test went what i thought was well. Admittedly we were going snail pace, rider wasn't feeling very confident! Towards the end of the test i did start asking him for a more active trot though. No results for this one. Class finished at 5:30 and wasn't keen on hanging around. Hopefully they will post results online.

Confidence will only come with time and outings. Ringcraft is one thing i need to work on. My circles became squares and transitions not quite on markers. But at least no course errors thanks to my caller Hayley! Was very pleased with how he reacted in the show environment. It was quite a busy day with the races going on nearby and lots of horses around. He was happy to chill at the float and munch on his hay net :)

Draw is up!

So excited and sooo sooo nervous. I have vomiting butterflies in my stomach already...

My preliminary 1.2 test is at 3:04pm and my preliminary 1.4 test is at 2:21pm

Both tests are in the "beach" arenas so no indoor for me this time. Probably a good thing as last time didn't go so well and i have no idea if Sparky will react to being indoors. A visit to LVF may be in order. Otherwise i might sneak a quick ride in the indoor at Showfields just to test what he thinks of it. Will see how brave i am feeling on the day.

I think i have conned Hayley into coming and calling my tests for me. I am learning them but knowing me i will probably get muddled on the day and i don't want to get course errors like last time!

Will update the blog with some photos soon. He has put on weight since i have had him. The Hanley doing the trick! Photos from the show i will get from Libby Law who takes A-MAZING photos and can even make me look good which is no easy task...

20 rising 2!

When i bought Sparky i was warned that he could be mean to other horses in the paddock. I was cool with this because i hate clingy horses. Well he has now decided that Lucy is his best friend for life and he cannot bear to be parted from her. GREAT! Just what i didn't want to happen...

When i do take him away from her for a ride etc he gets all stressy. In the arena he wasn't even really listening to me. I could feel him looking over at her. Mole rat! On a positive note i actually manged to sit to a Sparky canter today. He has quite a big canter compared to what i am used to and i haven't been able to park my bum properly in the saddle until today. So every cloud has a silver lining.

Tomorrow i plan on doing some ground work before my ride. Getting him focussed on ME instead of Lucy goose. Working on park and some overshadowing if i need to. If i was cleaver i would have done it today lol. Got to love the TBs with ADD...

Finished off our ride today by putting him in the paddock with Lucy. Hopefully that will settle him down a bit. But this was not before he acted like a stallion and tried to kill the horse in the next paddock. Smooth sparkle boy! Secretly deep down inside he's actually 2 years old...

Entries done!

Sent off my entries this afternoon to Showfields dressage next weekend. That's very soon i know but he's doing so superb at home i really want to get out and get a mark on paper to see where we are at. A benchmark so to speak.

Every ride we are getting better and better. As i get more confident on him i can push him on for a bit more active movement instead of just shuffling along. Wow he can move! So different to riding Scotty who didn't really have much movement at all. While asking him for a bit more active trot yesterday he even threw in 2 strides of extension. Not quite what i wanted but wow it felt A-MAZING! Today went for a big canter down each long side of the arena, across the diagonal with a simple change in the middle. Such a clever pony! He's so much fun to ride :)

Lesson tomorrow with Nic and will be interesting to see how we have progressed since last week.

Sparkalicious

Had one of those "ride like a complete muppet" days today. Would think of some excuse to explain but i really can't be bothered. Sparky however was ever so obliging with his extraordinarily useless rider.

Muppet rider looking at something amazingly interesting on the ground. Sparky just looks oh so cute as always!

Cooling off walk

Sparky and Lucy had a brief moment of getting to graze together. Then i decided it was too much hard work with feeding them different things and amounts. They just have a tape between them so they can smooch over the fence if they wish. Sparky is good with her and puts her in her place when he needs to. She thinks he's the most divine thing on 4 legs (she's in season a

t the mo). It is nice they get along well as it makes some things much easier. Like leading two at once, which is always nicer when they don't try kill each other. Sparky has actually become my

babysitter for Lucy teaching her correct floating techniques aka don't move or i will bite you. He sets a great example for her! :)

Cute horses making friends

Sparky!

The first post is always the hardest. I will do my best to think of something intelligent to say on behalf of Sparky.

I went and tried Sparky on 26th December on recommendation of a friend. I thought he was far too old and far too tall but i went for a look anyway. Then i fell in love with him! We picked him up the next day.

He has settled in so very well. You wouldn't even know he has just arrived! He very much enjoys his food and as mum discovered yesterday, he LOVES apples. Mum was quite excited by this and now has insisted on bringing him apples on a regular basis. Don't seem him complaining!

Had a lesson on him today which went well. We are still very much figuring each other out (from the 4 times i have ridden him so far) so it's all a learning experience but he's so obliging and sweet! My aim with him is to build up my confidence and do some dressage shows. There are a couple coming up in January at Showfields. It's not exactly the closest of places but i LOVE the venue so it's well worth the drive.

Sparky has been started on The Hanley Formula same as Lucy, hopefully i will see as good a results!

No photos from "home" just yet. My camera seems to have sprouted legs and walked off somewhere. In the meantime here is and older photo :)