Story & Photos by Terri Kolb
It’s the week before the Tamworth International Eventing ODE and Sharmayne Spencer’s day includes riding a few horses and teaching several lessons.
This week every eventer in the district and visiting student wants a tune up… But wait, Sharmayne is the event organiser. 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’s interrupted constantly by phone calls – 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 “Tich” Massey and Darryl Burgess. There seems to be no shortage of helpers or enthusiasm. Clearly, Sharmayne’s passion for this project is infectious; Tamworth’s eventing community is endemic with a ‘can do’ attitude.
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 – he transports them for Tamworth Horse Transport (but he’ll 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, ‘Is there anyone in this town who is not swept up in eventing?’ And I realise, it’s all Sharmayne’s doing; while most professional riders’ main ambition is to ride at the highest level, her aim is to build the sport to the highest level right on her doorstep…
In getting to know Sharmayne, perhaps it’s 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’s 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. 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 – winning Champion girl rider here at the age of ten. Notably, Mrs Hyem bred Matt Ryan’s 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 – rather inspiring company.
One of the stars – Megastar at Adelaide in 2006
But following school, Sharmayne, who describes herself as ‘a practical girl’ stopped riding altogether for six years to work as a vet nurse, specialising in surgical nursing at Warwick Farm Equine Centre. 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, ‘it was never my aim to try and represent Australia,’ pointing out that, ‘so few riders actually get this opportunity’. 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.
Aurelia at Werribee 2013
Sharmayne recounts 2006 as a ‘pretty exciting year’ because, besides the eventing success, she met Michael Ruddy. This Scottish steeplechase jockey had travelled to Australia to promote Equissage and was all too happy to meet rider Sharmayne. In 2007 Sharmayne and Michael were married and in 2008 they welcomed Reese, their first daughter. In 2009 they attended a friend’s 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. Sharmayne says, ‘Michael is the vision man and together we make it happen.’ 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.
The good news for the region is that they gained an enthusiastic and experienced team when Sharmayne and Michael landed in Tamworth. The pair were both foundation members of the Eventing Equestriad Australia, held in Camden. ‘In fact the first meeting for that event was held in our living room in Leppington,’ notes Sharmayne, adding, ‘Shane Rose is an amazing driver of that competition.’ 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 ‘build relationships between sponsors, officials and competitors’.
Perhaps Sharmayne’s greatest passion is coaching, and she reveals she ‘gets a buzz out of seeing improvement in horses and riders’. 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. 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.
Brisbane Royal 1983
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 – with a dressage arena, a jumping arena and a small cross country training track. There are stables, paddocks and yards to accommodate horses in training, students and travellers. Michael comments, ‘Whenever I come home, there seems to be more horses, but Sharmayne assures me they belong to clients.’ Of course, Michael’s 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 – they are kleptomaniacs! If anything goes missing they are the likely culprits!
Daughters Reese and Rhani take it all in stride – they’ve 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 ‘Yeaaaa!’ 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. 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. Sharmayne says, ‘She’s amazing cross country and only seven, so I have high hopes for this one’.
TRAINING WITH SHARMAYNE SPENCER
I’m driving back from the AELEC and put in a call to Chris Hector on my hands free. “Did you get my story about the TIE event?”
“Yes, thanks…did you not get my email?”
“Not yet, I’ve been out riding. I’ve had the chance to go train with Sharmayne on the AELEC course this morning. You see the event didn’t go so well for us – we ended up retiring on cross country. But in one morning, Sharmayne’s managed to rebuild us. It was amazing…she’s given me some great tools and upped our confidence.”
“Good,” replied Chris. “You should include that in your article.”
So I recount: In the days following the TIE Event, that was what Sharmayne was doing…building and rebuilding horses and riders. Immediately after running a major competition, she was running a clinic! I wasn’t alone, there was a long list (and a waiting list) of riders lining up for Sharmayne’s coaching.
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. Sure enough, the TIE course exposed the chinks in our armour.
You know you’re 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…least 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, “do the work earlier”…meaning to have my horse both balanced and forward well in advance of the fence, rather than in just the last few strides. 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.
But improvement doesn’t 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. A month later at Frasier Coast Horse Trials back in Queensland in the CNC 1*, he feels terrific.
Thanks Sharmayne!
This article first appeared in the December 2013 issue of THM.