Sparky aka "America's Sparkling Firecracker"
Sparky’s Stats:
Height: 14.2 hands
Weight: 860 lbs
Color: Flea-bitten Gray
Bred: Quarter Horse/ Arab
Sex: Gelding
Age: 20-ish
Sparky is as close to perfect as they come. I am biased when it comes to Sparky if you can’t already tell. He has been a part of my life since I was seven years old and I can’t remember my life with out him. I have known and loved Sparky for 18 years. Before Sparky became part of my family, he was a pack horse in Montana caring heavy packs up and down mountains. A rough job for such a short horse!
My mom, Patty, was actually the first person to lay eyes on him. I remember coming home from school when I was in first grade and her being so excited telling me all about this short white pony she saw standing alone in the snow covered field. She knew that she wanted him and I couldn’t wait to meet him. (At this point I had been riding for a couple years on my Shetland pony mare, Pixie, but was getting too tall for her.) It was love at first sight. I will never forget how I felt when I saw him for the first time. He was shaggy and run down looking, but I loved him immediately.
I rode him for over a year, before my parents purchased him for me. It was Valentines Day, I was eight years old. I walked into the barn for my lesson and I had known that Sparky was for sale for several months. My mom and I had already purchased a three year old quarter horse gelding, Marty, because Sparky was not for sale at the time we were looking. My parents were pretty adamant that we were only going to have one horse. Even though I had Marty, I always wanted to lesson on Sparky and hoped more than anything that they would buy him for me, but it wasn’t looking good. Anyways, I went to get him out of his stall and there was a large “SOLD” sign on his stall door and I immediately felt my eyes swell up and tears ran down my face. As my mom walked over I saw her holding a red halter and lead, she handed it to me and told me to “get your pony out, you are going to be late for your lesson.” To this day that is still the happiest day of my life.
Sparky was purchased for the bargain price of $1,200 dollars which is extremely cheap for a horse. But at this point in his life he threw me off just about every time I rode him, he did not know how to pick up the correct canter leads, spooked at just about everything and getting a bridle on him was pretty much impossible. But I didn’t care. He was magical and I never gave up on him. All I wanted to do when I was little was horse show and jump (I guess not a whole lot has changed…) both of which he and I had never done before. We were both learning together, which is not the ideal situation for an inexperienced horse and rider. I know I made many mistakes with him, but we learned together and became a great team.
Fast forward a few years and Sparky and I are showing all over Wisconsin in hunter/jumper shows and beating all the kids on their $30,000 plus “made” ponies in the 3 foot large pony divisions. He walked into the ring every time with a confidence about him that I will always admire. He went from being the pony that no one wanted to this fancy show pony who won just about everything.
I could talk and talk about how wonderful Sparky is and how much I adore him. But I will cut this off here. Today, Sparky is retired as a show horse (don’t tell him that though) and has turned into a pleasure animal enjoying his turn out time and has even become a certified service animal volunteering as a therapeutic riding horse for autistic children and handicapped adults. That does not mean his jumping days are over, I still jump him over small jumps once a week. He feels exactly the same as he did when I did the large pony shows on him. Out of all the horses I have known and ridden he is still the most fun for me to ride, but as I said, I am very biased.
Height: 14.2 hands
Weight: 860 lbs
Color: Flea-bitten Gray
Bred: Quarter Horse/ Arab
Sex: Gelding
Age: 20-ish
Sparky is as close to perfect as they come. I am biased when it comes to Sparky if you can’t already tell. He has been a part of my life since I was seven years old and I can’t remember my life with out him. I have known and loved Sparky for 18 years. Before Sparky became part of my family, he was a pack horse in Montana caring heavy packs up and down mountains. A rough job for such a short horse!
My mom, Patty, was actually the first person to lay eyes on him. I remember coming home from school when I was in first grade and her being so excited telling me all about this short white pony she saw standing alone in the snow covered field. She knew that she wanted him and I couldn’t wait to meet him. (At this point I had been riding for a couple years on my Shetland pony mare, Pixie, but was getting too tall for her.) It was love at first sight. I will never forget how I felt when I saw him for the first time. He was shaggy and run down looking, but I loved him immediately.
I rode him for over a year, before my parents purchased him for me. It was Valentines Day, I was eight years old. I walked into the barn for my lesson and I had known that Sparky was for sale for several months. My mom and I had already purchased a three year old quarter horse gelding, Marty, because Sparky was not for sale at the time we were looking. My parents were pretty adamant that we were only going to have one horse. Even though I had Marty, I always wanted to lesson on Sparky and hoped more than anything that they would buy him for me, but it wasn’t looking good. Anyways, I went to get him out of his stall and there was a large “SOLD” sign on his stall door and I immediately felt my eyes swell up and tears ran down my face. As my mom walked over I saw her holding a red halter and lead, she handed it to me and told me to “get your pony out, you are going to be late for your lesson.” To this day that is still the happiest day of my life.
Sparky was purchased for the bargain price of $1,200 dollars which is extremely cheap for a horse. But at this point in his life he threw me off just about every time I rode him, he did not know how to pick up the correct canter leads, spooked at just about everything and getting a bridle on him was pretty much impossible. But I didn’t care. He was magical and I never gave up on him. All I wanted to do when I was little was horse show and jump (I guess not a whole lot has changed…) both of which he and I had never done before. We were both learning together, which is not the ideal situation for an inexperienced horse and rider. I know I made many mistakes with him, but we learned together and became a great team.
Fast forward a few years and Sparky and I are showing all over Wisconsin in hunter/jumper shows and beating all the kids on their $30,000 plus “made” ponies in the 3 foot large pony divisions. He walked into the ring every time with a confidence about him that I will always admire. He went from being the pony that no one wanted to this fancy show pony who won just about everything.
I could talk and talk about how wonderful Sparky is and how much I adore him. But I will cut this off here. Today, Sparky is retired as a show horse (don’t tell him that though) and has turned into a pleasure animal enjoying his turn out time and has even become a certified service animal volunteering as a therapeutic riding horse for autistic children and handicapped adults. That does not mean his jumping days are over, I still jump him over small jumps once a week. He feels exactly the same as he did when I did the large pony shows on him. Out of all the horses I have known and ridden he is still the most fun for me to ride, but as I said, I am very biased.
