Story by Chris Hector and Photos by Roz Neave
Sharmayne Spencer, who recently won the Horseland Three star at the Bates International Sydney 3DE on Mega Star, is one of the legion of riders that make up the amazing depth of talent and experience that keeps Australia one of the world’s great eventing nations – and as with so many of our riders, and horses, she comes from a background of the rich legacy of horsemanship that is the Thoroughbred racing scene.
“I am ‘bred’ to play around with horses,” Sharmayne explains. “My grandfather was a jockey and then trained at Randwick in Sydney. Mum rode trackwork for him, so I think I was destined to ride horses.”
How did you get into eventing?
“Whether it be good or bad, I was a hackie as a junior. I bought a pony from Bud Hyem so my first One Day Event was at Gunnedah. My Dad has even ridden Tic Toc – the whole family is involved with horses. That’s a long time ago but we started eventing back up there with Mrs Hyem. I went to pony club, started eventing…”
Who did you learn from along the way?
“A lot of people have helped me along the way. Definitely mum, she’s been fantastic. I have had lots of lessons, but when I got back into eventing, Prue and Craig Barrett helped me a lot. I’ve had lessons with George Sanna, and now with the NSWIS squad, with Sam Lyle and Wayne Roycroft. That’s been good.”
You ride very neat flatwork?
“I’ve had lessons from Roger Fitzhardinge, but I don’t think I necessarily base myself with one person. I learnt little bits from a lot of people…”
The cross-country thing, that just comes from being slightly crazy?
“I think so, I think it’s the thrill at the end of the day, as you come through the finish flags… I think anyone who says they are brave and want to be out there as they are standing around in the start box, they are really crazy. I don’t think you can claim you are not feeling nervous as you sit there in the start box, but getting through the flags makes up for it.”
Do you work a lot on your cross-country technique?
“Recently I have. After Melbourne where I fell on Mega Star’s head in the water – although I stayed on – I went back to have a look at that problem with the help of my partner, Michael (Ruddy). He was a steeplechase jockey in England, and we went cross-country schooling together. He really knows how to sit up and stay there, and I knew Adelaide was coming up, and whether that bank was going to be in there or not, I had to sit up. So we really went away after Melbourne and made sure that if I was dropping down into water, my legs were going to be well and truly forward.”
“We went schooling to the new place at Wallaby Hill, we always go out to MacArthur, and we went out to SIEC, there’s a little cross country schooling area. Just popping around. I can’t fake it up here at home, not jumping down into water, and that was really where I knew I had to work. Different things like grids and arrow heads– I can replicate them at home, but I can’t replicate banks down to water.”
The questions on the cross are getting more technical?
“Absolutely, more lines, a lot of related distances, you have to know how to jump in at a particular pace so the distance comes up. At Adelaide, the double of apexes – one stride – so many questions just that one fence, and it could be ridden in a number of different ways. You really needed to have your plan of attack as you came down that hill, otherwise you were in big trouble. The plan was to jump it in one stride and attack it, and it came up just like that. But definitely the jumps are more technical, a lot more questions, a lot more decisions to make.”
Where did you find Mega Star?
“He came off the track, from Warwick Farm as a four year old. He was a $900 horse. I thought he would either be good or bad – you never know. I trotted him around the yard at the track, put him on the float and brought him home. There was not a lot of decision-making on that one. He turned out to be good – I always knew he was talented but luckily it all came together.”
How long did it take for him to show you he was a bit special?
“He’s always had a flamboyant trot, and has always been very careful with his jump. I knew that was there. Being a Thoroughbred, he was always a little bit spooky but with the time, he’s got it together. It’s six years now I’ve had him and he has well and truly proven himself this year. There have been the usual ups and downs with him but he’s definitely there now.”
Big thrill winning Sydney?
“Absolutely – we had a ball. That’s the first time I’d ridden around Sydney three star track.”
Where did you pick up the time in Adelaide, you looked pretty good where I saw you?
“Fence seven, the oxer, down the hill to the double of apexes on a five stride left hand turn. I jumped the oxer, and instead of saying, ‘come here and be sensible and canter down in nine strides’, he is so bold and so willing, he just cantered down and jumped the first apex out of eight strides and the turn in five was just not going to happen – so I had to flick around and jump the black flag (alternative fence) at B. I wasted a bit of time there, but still I should have kept kicking… I’ll know that next time.”
“I would have been on the National Squad with Mega Star, but I’ve sold him to the UK. Now I’m concentrating on my youngsters.”
The mare you were working with today, she’s by Carbine, an imported Warmblood, is that a big change from the racetrack refugees?
“Jaybee Star Celebrity is the first Warmblood bred horse that I’ve had. Anne Serrao had her and the idea originally was to sell her on, but mum fell in love with her and bought her – so that’s mum and dad’s little project.”
“She’s got such a big trot but she still feels so soft to ride, soft in the back – different to the Thoroughbreds. Although Mega Star had a bit of a trot, she’s different, with floating movement. The jump is slower, steadier and has a lot more elevation. Some of the Thoroughbreds can get a little quick, a little worried. She spooks but she spooks and then backs off and jumps bigger, she doesn’t flatten when she spooks.”
Will she gallop fast enough?
“I don’t see why she can’t. She’s athletic enough, she’s soft, she’s not dead to your leg, like I imagine some other Warmbloods to be. She will definitely go, she’s got a bit of turbo charge there. I hope she’ll have her first one star start at Sydney in September. We’ll see, hopefully she can maintain it and get on into the top ranks.”
Are you driven by a desperate ambition to ride at an Olympic Games or a WEG – what keeps you doing it?
“I love the thrill of riding at Advanced level, but I also get a kick out of bringing the young ones through, the feeling that I have brought something from nothing and produced it to the highest level – that’s the thrill. Yeah, everyone wants to go to the Olympics, you do, but you have to be realistic as well. For me the thrill is to take a horse like Mega Star and produce him from nothing to National Squad level, and that’s what I hope to do with the mare.”
You have two good sponsors, does that make it easier?
“Equissage has been fantastic – it gets my horses more relaxed and I don’t have to work them so hard, they are soft over the back. My horses all get Equissaged before they are ridden. The Thoroughbreds stay a lot more relaxed on it. Prydes my feed company, has been awesome, they supply me with all my feed, and they come and regularly do feed analysis of my horses. We’ve been on Prydes for over a year now and they have really helped me make sure my horses are getting the correct feed. I’ve also got Value Plus as a sponsor, they are a generic brand of all different sorts of things like wormers, biotin, selenium husks, electrolytes, they sell the same things everyone else has but cheaper for the same products. They supported me throughout Adelaide with all their range.”
This article first appeared in THM April 2007.