Hi everyone

Hannah here:

Hope you all had a good Christmas!

“He’s behind you…!” Familiar words to Panto's newest star, Sparky the Welsh pony, who has been wowing audiences at the King's Theatre in Southsea.

However, Sparky has not just become a stage star, he is drawing crowds to The Phoenix pub, close to the theatre, where he has set up stable in a room at the back of the building, usually used for playing pool! Regulars at the pub have been helping Sparky keep up his strength for his Cinderella performances by feeding him loads of carrots. Apparently people have even been wandering into the pub and asking, “is it true you’re the pub with the horse?”

Pulling Cinders’s carriage off to the ball is only one of Sparky’s claims to fame and he seems firmly settled in the pool room at the pub, being no trouble at all for the landlords. With so many fans it may be hard for Sparky to leave behind his celebrity lifestyle and swap the spotlight for sunlight (well, if we ever see the sun again!)

Happy new year to you all!

Sarah and Tippy here:

Sorry, that I haven't been in communicardo for sooo long! I was poorly just before Christmas. I got that stomach bug, which seems to have been hanging around causing havoc with people's insides, and I felt like I was going to explode!

Anyway, for a catch-up - massive congrats to H+P's very own William Whitaker. He retained his Olympia Puissance title! He shared the first prize with cousin Ellen after they both jumped clear into the fifth round of the high wall competition. All-in-all a brill way to end the year for William.

Well done William!

Also, I want to give a shout-out to jockey Hayley Turner (as she comes from near where I do!) who recently became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a season. She's really had to battle to prove her worth against the fellas and truly deserves to keep riding top racehorses.

Tippy had a particularly cheeky Christmas. It turns out she's learnt a trick from her old mate Gizmo! A couple of years ago I noticed the big chap, walking from hay pile to hay pile in the field and weeing on each in turn, so his field companion Ollie wouldn't want to eat the hay. Disgusting I know! Well, it turns out a certain Tippy has been doing the same - so poor old Poppy doesn't get any hay. Poor Poppy; who needs friends like Tippy?

Tippy isn't sharing her food with anyone!

Hey guys

Happy New Year to you all.

I hope you all had a great Crimbo . I spent my New Year skiing in Italy. It was beautiful. There was due to be a big firework display on New Year's Eve but a massive snow storm was forecast, so we celebrated New Year's Eve on December 30 instead - singing Auld Lang Syne a day early was a bit weird!

Anyway, back at H+P HQ, I've received an email to cheer-away the winter blues. A lady who used to live in Kent, Gayle Lawie, and who emigrated to New Zealand, emailed to say that on Christmas Day her Thoroughbred mare gave birth to twin foals!

The reason this is a such a great story is that twin foals being born alive is very rare in horses! Isn’t that some good New Year news?

Proud mum Tarn has a colt called Rio and a filly called Holly. When they first arrived, Gayle nursed them both intensively with mum Tarn, making sure that they fed successfully. A week later the twins were well and causing mischief – a great result.

If you want to see a picture of the foals then click here:
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2009/01/010.shtml

Hi everyone

Hannah here:

I had a rockin evening yesterday when I got to meet the record-breaking 100-winners-in-a-season jockey, Hayley Turner.

I met her at a floodlit race night on all-weather racetrack Great Leigh’s in Essex. The atmosphere was amazing and seeing the steam billow off the hot horses in huge clouds when they had finished a hard race was surreal!

But night-time racing isn’t the only variation on horse racing. In Sanlucar, Spain, there is a horse race run along an 1800m stretch of beach, during August, which dates back to 1845! Rumour has it that the race started because fish buyers raced their horses along the beach as they waited for trawlers to bring their haul into port. Originally the race was for the rich and elite only but now it's a thrilling spectacle open to all. You can sit on the beach to watch with only a small mesh fence separating you from the thundering Thoroughbreds. And when the races have finished there is a massive party that’s open to the public! Where’s my passport…?!

Hey guys

We are two weeks into 2009 and who’s broken their new year's resolutions??
I have officially ruined all of mine. I had two; they were to eat more healthy and go to the gym at least three times a week.

Eating healthily went out of the window when I went to a girly sleep over and ate lots and lots of sweeties and chocolate while watching chick flicks – so that one I kept for about seven days and four hours.

The gym resolution I broke this morning, my alarm went off to get up and I snoozed, then I snoozed it again, then again and then I switched it off completed. So by the time I woke up I only just had time to do all the jobs at the yard and get to work. The gym was officially bypassed! LOL

OOPS I think next year my new year’s resolution will be to give up on making new year's resolutions completely – I think I may stand a chance of keeping that one!!!

According to our online poll at horseandpony.com around 60% of you have made horsey new year's resolutions so if you lot are anything like me that will be a lot of broken resolutions by the end of Jan!

Hey guys

Looks like it’s not just us lot that fall off!

TV's Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond took a tumble while riding and bruised his bum.

He was hoping to ride in the Hayes Golden Button Challenge ride in Gloucestershire but a fall from a horse he was trying out before the ride meant he couldn’t compete. In the end the ride was called off anyway as the ground was frozen so he and the other entrants ran the course on foot instead – energetic or what?

Everyone at H+P hopes he's back in the saddle soon and s not too sore, we all know how horrid it is to fall off and how it can knock your confidence.

Hey!

Hannah here:

Apparently you and your mates would most like the internet to take your exams for you! Despite all the other options, like traveling into the future or back in time, more than 37% of 11-15 year olds questioned by BT Connected Earth said they would like the internet to be able to sit their exams!

Well I know what I’d choose… I wouldn’t go backwards or forwards in time, just somewhere hot and filled with horses.

So what else did they find out?
44% of you couldn’t live without the internet for a single day.
64% of you were between 5 and 10 years old when you first started using the internet.

Here's guessing some of you are reading this then!

Hi there everyone

Sarah and Tippy here:

I don't know about you guys but I'm getting fed up with the winter weather. It's dark, cold and wet! You never know though; it's supposed to be snowing soon, which although it will be even colder, it'll be good fun kicking around in the white stuff. The problem with snow though, is that you can't really ride in it. If snow balls up in your pony's hooves (which is always does in Tippy's, no matter how much grease is packed in) you end up riding on stilts made up of snow. This not only poses a slipping risk but can put abnormal pressure on your pony's joints, risking permanent damage.

Anyways, this week has seen a big announcement from the British Open Show Jumping Champs... Katie Price has agreed to take part in a celebrity arena polo match. The match will be held at the show on April 19, although her fellow celeb team captain has not yet been announced. Katie has played polo before, so whoever she's up against had best get practising.

Get your British Open tickets from http://www.britishopenshowjumping.com

Katie rode in a dressage display at HOYS last year.