Meet Spike the Supercob, whose story is an inspiration for all!
Feedmark’s four-legged customers come from all sorts of backgrounds and achieve many kinds of success, but few have defied the odds as spectacularly as WHW Spike.
World Horse Welfare found Spike as a starving yearling, infested with lice and worms and with badly overgrown feet. He was shut in a shipping container with other neglected horses and only survived thanks to the dedicated care and rehabilitation work of WHW staff in Norfolk. Seven years on – thanks to Pat Pomp, who re-homed him and recognised his potential – he is a dressage star, with an impressive record and an equally impressive personality.
His story proves that sometimes, horses have hidden talent and that all it takes is for someone to spot their potential. Spike’s original role was as a companion, but now he’s working at Medium level dressage and his trainer, Elly Darling, affectionately describes him as a “mini Valegro.”
Pat, who is responsible for management and groundwork, first saw Spike on the WHW website. “He looked like a furball,” she recalled. “I had a retired police horse called Trevor and when his friend – Mandarin, a retired cavalry horse – died at the age of 32, Trevor was very upset. We needed to find him another friend and when I saw Spike, it was love at first sight.”
When Spike finished filling that role, Pat backed him lightly with the help of a young rider, then turned him away. “I thought his movement was very nice,” she said. “But the next year, when we started him working properly, I thought: there is really something special about that trot.”
No one knows Spike’s parentage, but Pat’s educated guess is that he is part Shire. “It’s the way he looks, and his movement,” she said. “I always think Shires are very athletic movers.”
As Spike’s work increased, he also got a new look. “He had mites in his feathers, so we took them off,” said Pat. “Then his mane came off, and he was transformed!”
Suddenly, the fluffball was a streamlined show cob type standing 15.1hh. “We took him out to a few unaffiliated dressage competitions and he won several,” said Pat. “The judges loved him. We thought we ought to show him for experience, so we took him in a showing class and he won that, too.”
Spike scores high marks for his personality as well as his performance. “He was a doddle to back, and he’s never been a problem,” said Pat.
He soon captured the hearts of everyone who met him. “He wants to be a warmblood, but in a smaller body,” said Elly, a dressage trainer and rider. “He finds everything easy – he’s doing half steps towards Piaffe, and his half passes are coming along nicely.”
Spike has just started a new chapter in his career, as Pat and Elly have teamed him up with talented young rider Eloise Read. Eloise, aged 14, already rides one of Pat’s other horses, Spellbound Tobias, and Elly believes that once Eloise gets to know Spike, the pair has the potential to get to Advanced level.
“Spike loves his work and tries really hard. He’s a pleasure to teach,” she said. “Pat keeps him slim and fit, and he has the advantage that he naturally has a great quality canter – something that you don’t always find with cobs. He’s very ‘off the floor’ in canter, which will help him with movements such as pirouettes.”
Pat takes enormous pains with her horses’ management. “Spike has never been allowed to get too fat,” she said. “He’s been brought up on Feedmark’s Benevit Advance to ensure he has a balanced diet, as he doesn’t need a lot of hard food. I think it’s fitness that gives horses stamina.”
As Spike’s work increased, Pat added Feedmark’s ActiVet to his regime for joint and muscle support. He’s now moving up to Best-Flex HA, Feedmark’s new product with optimum levels of ingredients to support flexibility and suppleness.
The teamwork that goes into Pat’s horses has paid huge dividends. This year, Spike and Tobias have qualified for the BD winter regional finals at Elementary Silver level and will both be ridden by Eloise.
To make it three in a row, Elly has qualified Pat’s up and coming young star, Forever London, at Novice Gold level. They have brought on this 18.1hh, five-year-old Oldenburg gelding slowly and carefully – Pat’s policy with all her horses, but especially important with one of this size.
Pat is delighted with their success but says that rosettes are not as important as the pleasure she gains from making sure they are happy, fit and well cared for.
“Even if Spike didn’t win competitions, he would still be our superstar,” she said.
