MYSTIC SPARK | 22 YEAR APPENDIX QUARTER HORSE | DRIPPING SPRINGS,TX
Sparks, Mystic Spark, is an Appendix QH. He was race track bred by Jack Shaw, and has bloodlines on his Thoroughbred side that go back to the Triple Crown Winner, Native Dancer.
Spark is the first horse of Jennifer Jarvis, owner and trainer at Galloping Springs Ranch. There is something so incredibly special about your first horse. She says he loves to reciprocate scratches when he is scratched and is incredibly brave, smart, and reliable. I think it’s safe to say that those are all traits that are perfect in a first horse.
Jennifer still rides him occasionally, in his day he was a dressage horse that was trained to 2nd and 3rd level. He won champion Quarter Horse at many of the dressage shows he attended. With age, his arthritis started getting in his way and he was no longer able to continue competing at that level. He now is a schoolmaster at Jennifer’s training barn in Dripping Springs, TX and helps teach students how to ride in their horse riding lesson program.
The pair first met while Ashley, Jennifer’s daughter, was having her first lesson at 7 or 8 years old. He was out in the pasture and he caught Jennifer’s eye. Mostly because he didn’t move like a western horse even though he was a Quarter Horse. He had been purchased by someone and was at the barn for some training, fast forward a year and Jennifer found out he was for sale again! She went straight out to try him out and he turned out to be everything she wanted, smart, sensitive, and loving. After asking about his brand, the Rafter S, for his breeder Jack Shaw, who also shared the same name as her Daughter Ashleys Grandfather who has just passed away, Jennifer knew that it was destiny!
This dependable guy will eat just about anything.
Jennifer shared a little about how she got into riding horses, “I always liked animals and horses. Back in my day, you could hour lease horses to ride, which I did with my brother. Then had a friend, who I took H/J lessons with. She got a horse and then a pony and we rode everywhere!” Jennifer has an Animal Science degree with a concentration in Equine Studies from U Mass Amherst. She rode on the Event Team, Intercollegiate Show Team (H/J), and the all Morgan Dressage Drill Team. After college, she began working in the industry for a Morgan Breeding farm that bred sport horses for Dressage and Combined Driving. Soon after that, she was a working student for Sue Blinks for a couple of years in MA. She says, “This was when Dressage became my passion!”
Jennifer’s secret to keeping the horses at her barn happy is, “Turnout is important to me, as it is natural for them and keeps them healthy!”
I am always so incredibly surprised how accident prone horses can be and the amazing recovery they can make. Sparks had a catastrophic impaling injury when he was 6. He was impaled by a pipe fence that went into his pectoral muscle about a foot deep. After stitching he still had a grapefruit sized hole. After a long 6 months of recovery, while waiting for him to heal after so much uncertainty, he healed up and was able to go back to work. Even after the injury he was still a trooper and still tried his heart out, making him able compete at 2nd level.
Jennifer’s favorite memory about Spark is, “He’s loyal to his horse friends too. He stayed with Ashley’s mare Frankie when she was a foal and got hung up in a fence. Went to feed and they weren’t at their shed. Looked way out and saw them at the edge of the pasture. He stayed with her until we helped her out.”
