Petplan Prelim Silver Freestyle Summer Area Festival Champion: Andrea Sparkes & Kazan

The final class of the 2023 Petplan Equine Summer Area Festival Championships was the Prelim Silver Freestyle, which drew this year’s fantastic competition to a close in the indoor arena. The 28th prize giving of the week saw Andrea Sparkes doing the final lap of honour with Kazan as she finished top of the class with 72.315%. 51-year-old Andrea only started dressage around 18 months ago, but has taken to it unbelievably well, having started off competing in the Saracen Horse Feeds Quest series in 2022 and going on to win the Open Novice at the Quest Championships in her first season, “Quest I thought was brilliant, I had no understanding or expectations of how it was going to be – the first test I ever did was in my jump saddle, I didn’t even have a dressage saddle! And I had to borrow a girth, but he did quite well so I thought I’d carry on.” She then went on to compete in the Petplan Equine Winter Area Festivals earlier this year, qualifying for the Winter Area Festival Championships and finishing in sixth place in the Prelim Bronze class. On winning her first ever Petplan Equine Area Festival Championship so early in her dressage journey, Andrea said “it’s absolutely amazing. I’ve had such a good weekend, we won the Area Festival at Wellington – both the freestyle and the Prelim Silver straight, but I just thought there’s so many nice horses here we’ll just come and have a go. We did the Novice yesterday, which we got on a wildcard, and I was really pleased with him yesterday. Today we did two solid tests. He really, really loves the music and he really performed to the music today. It’s a really nice series to do, and the standard of horses is exceptional, to win in this company – I'm really amazed because there’s lots of really nice horses here and lots of really nice riders, I’m thrilled – and I came sixth in the Prelim Silver too.” Andrea and Kazan performed their test to a combination of Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Coldplay songs “Coldplay are my favourite band, so I have Hymn for the Weekend as my entrance music because that’s my favourite song, Equidance put it together for me, and I was really pleased with it. I think the trot music suits him really well – it's quite rhythmical and he's got quite a rhythmical trot. I felt a bit behind the music at some points but we managed to keep going and get there at the right point.” Based in Berkshire and a member of Wellington Riding Club, Andrea has owned the 17-year-old gelding for ten years, describing him as “a horse of a lifetime, he’s really unique in his build and the way he goes, and also he has a really kind temperament. He tries his hardest all the time for me, he’s been an amazing horse to have, he’s really special.” And Andrea is not the only part of the duo who is new to dressage, with Kazan spending his former years as an eventer, “he never used to like the dressage, he used to event with my daughter, and he did it because he knew he was jumping next. But I’ve stepped him back from jumping now because of his age, and also I’m not very brave! We started training with our trainer and he was quite spooky to begin with but she’s really helped me to get him through that. So now I feel I go into an arena like today and I’m not thinking “he’s going to spook at everything” but that I can ride him through it. He's got much more trainable over the last 18 months and as he’s got stronger and better with the movements, he’s easier to ride.” Andrea and Kazan have no plans on stopping anytime soon, with their sights set on Elementary in the future.