Guten tag, my name is Spotta. This is my story.
My name is TJC’s Champaign, otherwise knows as Spotta. I was born in 2000 in Germany, I am a dapple grey holsteiner gelding, and I am 17 Hands high; that is equivalent to 6 ft! I was imported as a 7 year old to the United States by my previous owner. In the US, I was very successful in the 7 year old jumpers and then moved up in height. By the time I was 8 years old, I was doing the grand prixs; the highest level of show jumping. My previous owner then decided to sell me as my value continued to rise. As such a talented young horse, the Jaeckle’s bought me initially as an investment horse to resell. Then I met this little girl named Evie. At the time, she was 13 years old and learning the ropes of the jumper discipline. Even though I was very big, I was very cautious with Evie. Constantly making sure that I was watching out for her and teaching her every step and technique of the jumpers. The Jaeckle’s then decided in 2010 that I should become a part of the family. Evie was over the moon and I was so happy to have my person to love me until the end of time.
I taught Evie everything that I knew. I taught her how to work and condition a jumper, how to jump a technical jumper track, and how to find the correct distances to the jumps on course. We traveled everywhere around the US from Florida to Michigan. We were the best team.
One day, I came back from a horse show and realized there was a pain in my right front leg. It didn’t hurt much at first but as time went on, it continued to get worse. Evie was determined to find out what was wrong and fix it so that I could feel better.
After hauling me all over the US to see every specialist there was, it was determined that I had injured my suspensory ligament. This required me to have a year off from work. Evie was devastated. She came into my stall every day to check on me and ensure that my stall was fluffy with extra shavings so that I had the comfiest bed for me to lie down on to relieve the pressure off of my leg.
Time and therapy equipment finally healed my suspensory and then it was time to rehab and start back to work. It took Evie and I 6 months to get back to where we were previously. Evie decided that since the suspensory had a greater chance of recurring that it was time to turn me into an equitation horse. This discipline was less strenuous on my body and allowed me a longer career.
It was hard at first, I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go fast anymore over the jumps. Evie had to completely retrain me at 12 years old. Eventually, we got the hang of it, together. In fact, we became so good at it that Evie and I qualified and competed in all 5 national finals in the US. These finals were extremely hard to qualify for since they only took the top 30 riders in the US per final.
We had a blast. We competed in the ASPCA National Equitation Final, Pennsylvania National, Hunterdon Cup, USET Finals, and Washington International Finals.
After finals, Evie gave me some well deserved down time while phone calls were coming in left and right to lease me because I did so well. This created a hard decision for Evie to either keep me and continue to show me or lend me to a good home to give another rider the opportunity to go to finals. She sacrificed her ride on me to maker another little girl happy.
After that, I went to finals 6 years in a row. Each year with a different rider to experience their time at a national final with me. I showed each rider all the skills they needed to execute each final after Evie and I had experienced it for the first time. What an amazing Adventure I had with 9 different riders in my life who loved and adored me.
At the ripe age of 19 years old, I was then leased out to my 10th and 11th rider who did small jumps and that I taught to learn how to ride.
In July of 2021, my suspensory was re-injured. I was taken back to the Jaeckle Centre to promote the healing process of my old injury with therapy and rehabilitation. Evie made the decision to allow me to a well deserved retirement after my long career. I am ever so thankful to be back at home with my owner and my horse friends. Evie wanted each and every one of you to enjoy my sweet personality and loving affection as I live the rest of my life at my home as a happy and retired horse.
Please enjoy the story of my journey through my wonderful life and let me know if you have a spare apple and ill be your best friend (they’re my favorite).
Thank you for the love and affection and I hope to bring happiness to each and every one of you.
Much love,
Spotta
