Lec Bruggisser catches up with Sharmayne Spencer Photos – Alex Makauskas

Her rise to stardom has been one that has developed over time. First a successful hack rider for Kibah Stud she has progressed into a self-made, internationally successful Event rider. With a champion husband, charismatic daughter, hot new property and a string of exciting horses it’s little wonder that the Treasure of the Aussie Eventing world, Sharmayne Spencer, is stoked beyond belief!

When I first met Sharmayne I was little more than an over-enthusiastic squirt of a teenager. It was back in my Eventing days and I had a talented but unpredictable gelding that I was dead-set on turning into a four-star eventer. My goal then was to ride at all four four-star events – Adelaide, Burghley, Badminton and Kentucky.
Before meeting mother duck (aka Sharmayne), I had happily followed the life of a bushie kid. In those days I spent my days riding through the rainforest, scrub, rivers, over ranges, through gullies and even rode to school (which continued until I reached an age, approx Year 7, where my schoolmates and I became aware of a brown circle of dirt left on my legs and shorts from riding bareback).
It wasn’t until Sharmayne took me under her wing that I was properly introduced to Eventing. And I loved it from the word ‘go’! It seemed to be a sport made for me… And Shar understood that. She showed me odds and ends like how to shampoo properly, clean a sheath and that good turnout is imperative.
She taught me about life away in a truck; the singing on the road trip and the fast food on the way home. She even helped me convince my parents that an Eventing NSW Summer school for young riders in Mirabooka (NSW South Coast – 18 hours from Coffs) was a must. Wow… Was it ever! What fun, and what an introduction to my ‘relatives’ - the Eventing clan!!
A family atmosphere is exactly what Sharmayne and her husband Michael Ruddy are fostering around their new home at Heritage Hill, Moonbi, NSW. Now, if Moonbi sounds familiar it might be because it was one of the locked down events during - shudder - EI. As a neighbouring suburb to Tamworth the Spuddy (Spencer-Ruddy) family unit, complete with their eighteen-month old, master-of-the-quad-bike daughter Reese, are setting up a boutique horse and rider training facility. Complete with potential for training, breeding, spelling and rehabilitation, Heritage Hill certainly has a relaxed, comforting and productive atmosphere.
The motto of the property, Passing on the Experience, is a reflection of one of Michael and Sharmayne’s life philosophies. As Sharmayne says: “How many people get to live their passion and pass it on?!” Fringed with gum trees the property has spectacular forest and mountain views to the North-East and North-West, so it’s no wonder the Spuddys are so happy and content with their lives.
As the name also suggests, the lie of the land that makes up Heritage Hill is on a slight incline with tiered steps creating space for a 60 x 40m jumping arena, 60 x 20m Dressage arena and stables. A racetrack circling around the perimeter of the property is to be installed shortly and maybe even a few racehorses will be on the cards to make use of Michael’s experience with racing and steeplechasing in the UK. In Sharmayne’s words: “It’s enough to keep us busy and support our little family and that’s the main priority now. There are our competition horses here and the school horses, but I’m not into riding horses for other people, you only have to sell them or give them back. At the end of the day, I like to know that if I’m putting all the work in, I’m getting the rewards. But that’s something I’ve always done.”
It was most likely Shar’s inclination to share and pass on skills that led to her selection as Eventing NSW Junior Coach. It wasn’t long before she had progressed to the post of President of the organisation. In 2006, she took the honours with Megastar at Sydney three-day in the *** and was 7th later that year at Adelaide ****. Currently the Star Team is headed by the ** mare, Jaybee Star Celebrity. From the mare’s first four Intermediate starts, she won her first at the Eventing Equestriad and followed it up with a win at Camden remaining on her Dressage score. It was little wonder that Sharmayne was looking forward to Sydney three-day event the following weekend. A quick check of the results reveals that her anticipation was with good reason as they finished in third place, again on their Dressage score.
While they love making their new life, Michael and Sharmayne admit there is one downside to living out of the big smoke. Sharmayne ticks off the minuses: “Probably the only thing about being so far away is the traveling. It takes us about six hours to get back to Sydney with a stop-off with Reese. It’s normally myself, Reese, the dog, five horses and Michael follows in the car. We all meet up at the event after he’s finished work. So it makes it a pretty big trek back down. But when you’ve got all of this and we’re able to stick here at Heritage Hill it’s awesome.” Michael adds, “It was really just nice being down there because you’re so central, but now we’ve got the added interest that we can go to Queensland for events up there.”
Shar chimes in that she’s “just looking forward to AELEC (Australian Equine and Livestock Event Centre – for a more comprehensive description see the NSW State Dressage Championships report from last month) having a course set-up so that we can have a local event.”
Is that in the pipes?
“It will be. Yeah, there’s lots of talk about it so hopefully we’ll be able to get in their ear a little more and put a proposal together and work on setting up a local committee backed up by Eventing NSW. Then we’d need to set up a course, maybe with a resemblance of something to do with the Country Music Festival… It would be pretty cool to be jumping guitars!”
As I ponder over the organisational feat of pulling an event together, Michael fills me in that event coordination is not an unfamiliar prospect to this wonder-couple… “We were lucky enough to be involved with the Eventing Equestriad at Camden. It was much more spectator oriented with heaps of trade stands everywhere and we even had hospitality tents in the middle of the arenas so people were right next to the action! Really it’s the next step for Tamworth, they’re getting involved with Dressage and Show Jumping now so it can’t be far off!”
You just need to keep drumming up the kids to ride at events now!
Sharmayne is ready: “Absolutely! Yesterday I couldn’t have had any more lessons. Any weekend we’re not competing it’s just jam packed out here!”
Life at Heritage Hill seems quite familiar to me… There’s a lot to do on a daily basis but long-term targets are planned and being pursued at the same time. If our lives were a type of fabric, they would be a kind of silk/canvas knit – quality, sturdy and durable, but prone to unraveling at any point when things get too much. At the moment, Shar and Michael are like a tag-team juggling act – Michael’s days off driving for Tamworth Horse Transport are spent keeping an eye on Reese and vice versa. “There was one Sydney three-day where I went up and down to Sydney seven times! Up and down for work and then back to watch Sharmayne ride.”
And so, times have changed for Sharzi since she was based at her parents’ place (now the satellite stable) in Western Sydney’s, Leppington. “We are even more family orientated now. When we go to an event Michael is there, Reese is there and if one of them isn’t, it feels really strange.” Married for two and half years it’s been, “A pretty full on time for us! Between Michael arriving in the country, me meeting him, getting engaged and married within the year, a baby some months after that, a move… Yeah it’s been a pretty full on three years for us.”
And so additions to the family coming up??
“We were at Berrima when that comment first came up. I had just cantered around on the course on Jaybee Star Celebrity and Star Am I who are both super, and Michael came back to the truck and said, ‘Ok, are we ready to have another baby?’ and I said, not likely honey these horses are too good. So more kids are on the agenda, but on the backburner at the moment!”
No loss of nerve after having kids like we hear happens to women?
“I think I’ve gotten better! Life’s pretty rosy when you’re full on with work and family and horses. I’m so happy and I think that’s what shows through your riding!”
So are you still competing as much as you were?
“Yup! So I still see everyone just as much as I ever did even though I’m physically not as close. Probably the worst thing at the moment is that I miss out on squad schools.”
I practically squeal when I realize someone else is in the same position as me – the loneliness of the long distance competitor!!
“There was one down in Sydney just before Camden last weekend, and realistically I couldn’t go down there for the school, come back, go back down for Camden, home again and then back for Sydney three-day, it was just too much. It’s just too hard to get to schools and to keep things running up here. So we definitely need more regional squad schools!”
A feeling I know well! Apparently Michael can read my mind…
“Also we need junior squad schools. There are a lot of really talented young riders up here and they need help as well. Shar’s trying to help as many of them as she can, but every second kid rides up here and they’re so keen! It’s not like in the city where they pump money in and once the kids get to the age of fifteen or sixteen they realize they don’t want to keep going, up here they continue. The showground down the road is heaving every weekend, whether it’s tent-peggers or whatever. These are all kids that could come and learn how to sit and go from there, end up in Dressage or whatever they want. Brett Parbery is probably a really good example or even Rachael Sanna, she’s also a local girl. There just doesn’t seem to be the backing for these kids there is for others in metropolitan areas.”
It’s not something you really think about until you’re in that position, is it?
“I had it pretty cruisey down in Sydney,” Sharmayne remembers, “We were twenty minutes from SIEC. So for me to go to squad school was just twenty minutes down the road. I never really thought about all the people from out West… I think I used to just wonder why would you come all this way just for a lesson?! But now that I’m up here, it is a big thing that you miss out on and there aren’t really the coaches for me up in this area… So I’m pretty much flying by the seat of my pants a lot of the time! Yeah sure, at the moment it’s working I know, but it’s not ideal and it would be good to have some eyes on the ground.”
“The last few weeks I have been down to Vicki Robertson in Murrurundi and she’s been really good and helped me move up those couple of places. I said at Sydney midweek (three events ago). ‘I need to win the Dressage’ so Vicki’s really helped me make that happen.”
The ever-doting (and probably very realistic) hubby…
“And again that just shows how committed this one is because Vicki’s two hours down and then two hours back. She’s the closest person she can really get help from. So really regional people need a lot more help than the others in the city. They might not have the big bucks to buy the horses and have help readily available, so they have to be committed and travel a long way to get help, not so much the lower level riders but the higher levels do need help. And it costs us a fortune in time and money!”
And now, tell me about your old working pupil, Katie Roots.
“Katie Roots, now isn’t that a story. Far out, do I miss her. Anna’s just arrived and I’m sure she’s going to be fantastic too but Katie was one of the family… I think I taught her from when she was thirteen years old. Then when she finished school she came and worked for us. She groomed for me for three years - she went to Sydney when I won that in 2006, she went to Adelaide when we went down there and by the end she ran the show and I just turned up and rode. We miss her. We would basically be at an event and she would be telling me to hurry up and get on this horse, go and get dressed. She would be telling me what to do, she was the boss and I was the rider. It was great because I could go and coach riders at the event and come back and just ride knowing that I could trust her implicitly.”
“And now, she’s in the UK at Zara Phillips’. She didn’t really poach her… We helped get her the job through family connections but she’s not only gone in as groom, she’s actually gone straight up to head traveling groom. She’s riding horses and Zara’s just given her a horse to ride and campaign next year. This weekend she’s grooming at Burghley. I feel like we’ve produced somebody to go on and do that, which is pretty cool. She really was one of the team!”
“She’s at Burghley right now… I’m getting teary now just thinking about it, and Mega Star who Polly Jackson now rides is over there as well and Katie has her horses two doors down from him. Katie groomed for him at Sydney when I won there and so to have Mega Star and Katie over there… I’ve made a horse and made a groom and they’re together at the moment. She sent me a photo the other day of them having a cuddle.”
Michael quips in, “She said that he sticks his ears back at everybody that walks past him except for her.”
So how long until you’re off overseas?
“No, I’m not going I can do everything that I need to do here. People have ridden here in Australia and been selected to go away on teams so I don’t need to go away and… Why would I?!” …I look around, and have to agree.

?Anna Zakaras has a lesson on 14-year-old Koyuna Bandit

?The newest addition to the Spuddy clan is twenty three year old Anna Zakaras. Her mount, Koyuna Bandit was previously ridden by Rob Palm and it is clear the schoolmaster knows his job offering Anna a sweet ride. Having made the move up from Lane Cove in Sydney, Anna is yet to experience the bright lights and country beats of the Tamworth nightlife. Even so she is pleased with her lifestyle shift from office girl to the handyman job of a working pupil. With less than a week to go until the start of the Sydney three-day event, Anna and Bandit are in their final preparation as she admits, “I am excited but nervous too.” In the background, the ever experienced and reassuring coach Sharmayne notes that “There’s so much more to learn at a three-day event, it’s not just the test, but being prepared for the vet checks when you arrive, the trot-ups, all the inspections, the rider briefings, the minute markers… There’s a lot more to organize than for a one-day event.”
And so, even with their fifth placing the weekend before Shar is at the pair for perfection… “Alright, Anna stick up here on a circle for us. When you’re ready have a trot around. Make sure you’re sitting up nice and tall, try to keep your thumbs on top and close your elbows beside you.”
“Rising trot to start, go on wake him up, more forward and stay looking up. Your position is really important, make sure you’re sitting up nice and tall, looking up and weight down in your heel. A little more forward and when you’re ready change direction anywhere just keep it nice and flowing and smooth. Wake him up if he’s a little dead. A little more forward down the long side and circle again. When you’re ready, a walk transition. Sit nice and tall and keep your leg on his side. Forward into walk. Good, lovely. Ok so he’s coming up in his poll and we want him to stay up a little more up for the competition.”
“Keep him off your inside leg. Sitting really tall and we want him to keep bringing his nose up and out so his poll is the highest point so he doesn’t close over through the gullet. Keep bringing him up with little half halts, when you’re trotting along you want to be thinking he’s coming up through the wither rather than falling on his forehand. Shorter, a little more collected. That’s a nice forward trot keep a little outside rein. Keep your right thumb up, because your body and your hand position is really important to keep an even, steady contact with his mouth.”
“Come across the diagonal, good stay tall, a little half-halt over X to bring him back and keep him balanced. More up in front, bring your lower leg back, try to keep your toe on the stirrup.”
“For me position is a really important thing – shorten your reins – because when you sit well, your horse goes well.”
“When you’re ready we’re going to have a canter, ok, keep him off your inside leg so that he’s got a touch of shoulder-in feeling. Keep him rounder throughout the transition to canter. Up in front, shorten your reins again see your hands are out in front of you. By keeping your hands out in front of you, not high but out in front, is going to change the look for the judge, ok so it keeps a better feel.”
“Shorter and slower canter, more up in front and a smaller circle around me. Shorten your reins again and a smaller circle, like a ten metre circle around me. So that’s quarter-line to quarter-line. Good active canter, sit him up, yeah, rounder, sit him on his bum, yeah go on! Grow taller with your upper body, thumbs on top, cantering on the spot. Really collected, really collected. Yeah, well ridden.”
“Back to a twenty metre circle and shoulder-in into trot. Ok, feel how he fell on his face a little there, so when you’re ready I want a canter transition that’s smooth. So go sitting trot, half halt, big half halt, come on really make him stay shorter. No, come back, not good enough for me, ok. Rounder, even rounder, even take him a bit deeper try again. Rounder, yeah good better! Good try, good try. Smaller circle once more, active canter, how round can you make him? His poll’s up I like, that but now that he’s come up you need to shorten your reins more, good. So he needs to shorten his frame a little more. His poll is up, he’s still open in the gullet and his face is on the vertical which is great, just make sure that he stays round.”
“Let’s do that movement in your test that you’re going to do next weekend. Ride a ten metre circle at K and then lengthen across the diagonal K-R. Sitting trot now, go on sit. Then I want him rounder and bigger from K to R. Rounder, up hill, keep your toe on the stirrup then collect, yeah tuck your elbows for me. Circle at H ten metres, keep him up in front, try to keep your toe on the stirrup, look around over your shoulder ok that was a little too deep. Circle again, better, look around over your shoulder so you know where you’re going to hit the marker and lengthen across from H to P. Think he’s going uphill in his medium, go on, go on! You can get bigger than that, not so much faster but a bigger trot by thinking he’s going uphill. Shorten your reins again, ten metre circle at K again, sit tall, tuck your left elbow, shorten your reins up to that second notch, tuck your left elbow, go on bigger than that! Yeah uphill, yeah.”
Final pearls of wisdom from the master, “You have to listen to everyone and make up your own mind. Everyone has their own ideas but it is you and your horse out there making the decisions, especially Cross Country. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes wrong but it comes back to you. So all the advice you can take is great but then you have to weigh it up for yourself.”
And so after a quick tune up, Bandit was straighter and clearly moving with more freedom. A stickler for perfection and a strong, correct position, the improvements Shar helped Anna make are clear. This talented young rider will be interesting to keep an eye on over the next few years! The next weekend the combination added just 2.4 time penalties and one rail to their Dressage score to finish in seventh place in the star-studded open pre-novice competition.