{"id":24310,"date":"2015-09-09T15:12:38","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T05:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=24310"},"modified":"2017-02-09T16:47:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T05:47:48","slug":"sharmayne-spencer-making-it-happen-for-the-sport-of-eventing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/09\/sharmayne-spencer-making-it-happen-for-the-sport-of-eventing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharmayne Spencer: Making it happen for the sport of Eventing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spencer-<\/a>Story & Photos by Terri Kolb<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s the week before the Tamworth International Eventing ODE and Sharmayne Spencer\u2019s day includes riding a few horses and teaching several lessons.<\/b><\/p>\n

This week every eventer in the district and visiting student wants a tune up\u2026 But wait, Sharmayne is the event organiser.\u00a0 How could she possibly have time to do this? She weaves in getting her young daughters, Reese and Rhani off to school in the morning. She\u2019s interrupted constantly by phone calls \u2013 all of which she receives warmly and signs off with a laugh and a word of encouragement. Much of the day she will be working on the exciting new TIE cross country course at the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre, joined by the fantastic TIE Committee, volunteers and course builders Richard \u201cTich\u201d Massey and Darryl Burgess. There seems to be no shortage of helpers or enthusiasm.\u00a0 Clearly, Sharmayne\u2019s passion for this project is infectious; Tamworth\u2019s eventing community is endemic with a \u2018can do\u2019 attitude.<\/p>\n

Heritage Hill Farm is a popular place at the moment. Husband Michael shows up in the middle of the night with a truck full of horses \u2013 he transports them for Tamworth Horse Transport (but he\u2019ll take a couple days break to serve as TD for the eventing). I am one of a several riders who is either staying or wanting to drop in and train before the competition, so I have a chance to meet quite a few locals. I have to ask myself, \u2018Is there anyone in this town who is not swept up in eventing?\u2019 And I realise, it\u2019s all Sharmayne\u2019s doing; while most professional riders\u2019 main ambition is to ride at the highest level, her aim is to build the sport to the highest level right on her doorstep\u2026<\/p>\n

In getting to know Sharmayne, perhaps it\u2019s best to start at the beginning. And for Sharmayne, from the very beginning, it was always going to be about horses. Both of her Grandfathers were jockeys and she grew up in the heart of Randwick; here it was not unusual that her Mum\u2019s Dad, Baden Hasler, had stables for 16 horses in his residential backyard and trained Sydney Cup winners. So young Sharmayne fell asleep to the sounds of racehorses breathing and she spent her days riding in Centenntial Park on grey ponies.\u00a0 Things began to get exciting when Sharmayne gained the ride on some nice little horses belonging to Mrs Bridget Hyem, including Kibah Puff who she competed at the Royals in Brisbane, Canberra, and Sydney \u2013 winning Champion girl rider here at the age of ten. Notably, Mrs Hyem bred Matt Ryan\u2019s dual Olympic gold medal ride at Barcelona, Kibah Tic Toc, and with horses like these around, eventing was bound to be injected into the equation. Sharmayne competed in her first event at Gunnedah Horse Trials on the Kibah property when she was 12. Hacking gave way to eventing and notably her junior peers in Pony Club at that stage included Shane Rose, Amanda Benson and Wendy Schaeffer \u2013 rather inspiring company.<\/p>\n

\"SharmayneMegaSarDressEDIT\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the stars – Megastar at Adelaide in 2006<\/em><\/p>\n

But following school, Sharmayne, who describes herself as \u2018a practical girl\u2019 stopped riding altogether for six years to work as a vet nurse, specialising in surgical nursing at Warwick Farm Equine Centre.\u00a0 When she did return to riding it was with a view to produce and sell top eventers through her business of Star Performance Horses. Sharmayne says, \u2018it was never my aim to try and represent Australia,\u2019 pointing out that, \u2018so few riders actually get this opportunity\u2019. According to plan, Star Phantom competed 2* and was sold to America; Star Portrait competed 3* and was sold to Malaysia; Star Am I is now in Victoria; 2006 Sydney Three Day Event winner and Adelaide 4* competitor, Mega Star was sold to England and now lives in Ireland; and Jaybee Star Celebrity, also a 3*competitor, now lives in England, ridden by an American girl, Logan Rawlings.<\/p>\n

\"Aurelia2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aurelia at Werribee 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

Sharmayne recounts 2006 as a \u2018pretty exciting year\u2019 because, besides the eventing success, she met Michael Ruddy.\u00a0 This Scottish steeplechase jockey had travelled to Australia to promote Equissage and was all too happy to meet rider Sharmayne.\u00a0 In 2007 Sharmayne and Michael were married and in 2008 they welcomed Reese, their first daughter.\u00a0 In 2009 they attended a friend\u2019s wedding in Tamworth and Michael saw opportunities in the region; the pair purchased 20 acres in Moonbi, which they have developed into Heritage Hill Equine Centre.\u00a0 Sharmayne says, \u2018Michael is the vision man and together we make it happen.\u2019 Sharmayne is not new to making things happen for the sport of eventing, having served as the Eventing New South Wales President from 2006 to 2009.<\/p>\n

The good news for the region is that they gained an enthusiastic and experienced team when Sharmayne and Michael landed in Tamworth.\u00a0 The pair were both foundation members of the Eventing Equestriad Australia, held in Camden. \u2018In fact the first meeting for that event was held in our living room in Leppington,\u2019 notes Sharmayne, adding, \u2018Shane Rose is an amazing driver of that competition.\u2019 It seems pretty clear that Sharmayne has successfully translated the experience from her involvement in Camden to her role as President of Tamworth International Eventing – these events held at the Australian Livestock and Events Centre are quickly gaining recognition for their top courses and rider-focused organisation. This facility already has a 3* track in place and certainly has the scope for expansion, and TIE has Sharmayne, who is constantly working to \u2018build relationships between sponsors, officials and competitors\u2019.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Sharmayne\u2019s greatest passion is coaching, and she reveals she \u2018gets a buzz out of seeing improvement in horses and riders\u2019.\u00a0 Consistent with her mantra of building from the grass roots, she has students who she started on ponies who are now successfully competing at 1*, and she teaches riders who took up eventing at the age of 50.\u00a0 Currently, she travels to Armidale weekly to coach at New England Girls School. On the top end, Katie Roots was a student from Leppington who she helped springboard to international opportunities, including working and training with Zara Phillips.<\/p>\n

\"Sharmayne<\/a><\/p>\n

Brisbane Royal 1983<\/em><\/p>\n

While Sharmayne and Michael claim it is a work in progress, Heritage Hill Equine Centre is already well set up for coaching and producing young horses \u2013 with a dressage arena, a jumping arena and a small cross country training track.\u00a0 There are stables, paddocks and yards to accommodate horses in training, students and travellers.\u00a0 Michael comments, \u2018Whenever I come home, there seems to be more horses, but Sharmayne assures me they belong to clients.\u2019\u00a0 Of course, Michael\u2019s business of transporting horses also contributes to the revolving door for equines. PS: If you do visit HHE, watch out for the two blue heelers, Babbs and Brian \u2013 they are kleptomaniacs! If anything goes missing they are the likely culprits!<\/p>\n

Daughters Reese and Rhani take it all in stride \u2013 they\u2019ve grown up amidst this ever changing scene of horses and people, including their wonderful nannies who double as grooms while they are in school. There are cheers of \u2018Yeaaaa!\u2019 from the girls when Sharmayne looks at the diary and spots a riding time for the family. It is nice to see that amongst all this putting into her sport, students, and family, that Sharmayne finds the time to compete herself in eventing.\u00a0 Her top horse at the moment is the lovely bay mare, Aurelia De Gwaihir who won the Quirindi CCI at 1* last year, has started 2*, and is aiming for 3* next year.\u00a0 Sharmayne says, \u2018She\u2019s amazing cross country and only seven, so I have high hopes for this one\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Trainng<\/a>TRAINING WITH SHARMAYNE SPENCER<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m driving back from the AELEC and put in a call to Chris Hector on my hands free.\u00a0 \u201cDid you get my story about the TIE event?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, thanks…did you not get my email?\u201d \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet, I\u2019ve been out riding. I\u2019ve had the chance to go train with Sharmayne on the AELEC course this morning.\u00a0 You see the event didn\u2019t go so well for us \u2013 we ended up retiring on cross country.\u00a0 But in one morning, Sharmayne\u2019s managed to rebuild us. It was amazing\u2026she\u2019s given me some great tools and upped our confidence.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cGood,\u201d replied Chris. \u201cYou should include that in your article.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

So I recount: In the days following the TIE Event, that was what Sharmayne was doing\u2026building and rebuilding horses and riders.\u00a0 Immediately after running a major competition, she was running a clinic! I wasn\u2019t alone, there was a long list (and a waiting list) of riders lining up for Sharmayne\u2019s coaching.<\/p>\n

My horse Anamazze and I have been competing at 1* for a while now. An honest assessment of our position at this level would be: sometimes competitive but not yet consistently confident. Schooling opportunities have been hard to come by in our home district, and several seasons of wet weather have compounded the challenge.\u00a0 Sure enough, the TIE course exposed the chinks in our armour.<\/p>\n

You know you\u2019re keen to be in the first group on a three degree morning, but no one seems to be feeling the cold once we get started\u2026least of all Sharmayne who is in her element coaching. Her advice is practical, positive and gets right to the point of the matter. In my case, she wants me to, \u201cdo the work earlier\u201d\u2026meaning to have my horse both balanced and forward well in advance of the fence, rather than in just the last few strides.\u00a0 By the end of the session the jumps that had started out looking big and scary were riding fantastic, and we finished on a high note over the ditch and roll-top combination.<\/p>\n

But improvement doesn\u2019t happen overnight. To be honest, the next weekend, around the course at Quirindi, I was having to use those tools Sharmayne gave me to get my horse home clear, but I could feel it working.\u00a0 A month later at Frasier Coast Horse Trials back in Queensland in the CNC 1*, he feels terrific.<\/p>\n

Thanks\u00a0Sharmayne!<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the December 2013 issue of THM.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terri Kolb caught up with Sharmayne Spencer at Heritage Hill Farm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1292,1244,1137],"class_list":["post-24310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-eventer","tag-eventing","tag-sharmayne-spencer"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24310"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32252,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24310\/revisions\/32252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}