Press Releases

01/2008
The Horseman http://www.brunswickbeacon.com/

By CAROL TRAPANI, Staff writer

On 63 acres in rural Brunswick County, Scott Spencer’s dream is coming true. It is here where Spencer, 41, has begun to create the farm where he plans to board and train horses.

“It will be designed …with an emphasis on fun, family and faith,” he said. “I’d like to give every kid a free riding lesson one time. Not a pony ride. I’d like to teach them something about horses.”

The dream begins at an unpaved drive that passes by an old barn, leading eventually to a white farmhouse-style house. Nestled to one side of the house is the tiny 19th century cabin once occupied by the original owners, who are interred in a family cemetery on the property.

“This place has everything,” Spencer said, expressing his appreciation of its history, and its trees, pond and wetlands that border the property.

Spencer lives here with his family. He and his wife, Kristy, have been married 20 years, and they have a 12-year-old-daughter, Haley, who apparently shares her father’s love of horses. She barrel races and shows Western pleasure, a walk-trot-canter class in horse showmanship.

Property near the house is a checkerboard of horse pens, fenced for now with wire. Nearby, stacked board wood waits to be made into fences. The old barn, once obscured by underbrush and forest, will be expanded.

The horses lift their heads and perk their ears as Spencer gets out of his truck. Cowgirl, an Australian cattle dog puppy, runs up to greet him, then scrambles after Fluffy, a snow white barn cat.

With a spring opening of the stable in mind, unpaved roads have already been cut to make the other acres of the property accessible.

Spencer bought the property with Randall Morrison, a Sunset Beach real estate agent. The plan is to create the stable and training facility and also devote a number of acres to new homes.

A certified horse trainer who trained under Matt Gabel of Gabel Horsemanship who is a John Lyons certified instructor, Spencer has devoted years to what he calls his passion. His actual job, born of his hobby, is chainsaw woodcarving. He sells his pieces from his Spencer’s Sign Studio shop at 860 Highway 17 S., in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. From there, all manner of signs, plaques and animal figures are shipped to various parts of the country and the world.

“I just shipped a piece to the North Pole and to Jamaica,” he said.

“We probably sell $100,000 worth of carvings a year,” Spencer said.

“He’s a great guy,” said Stephen Hutchinson, who has worked for Spencer at the sign shop for 18 months. “He gives a whole lot to everybody. He’s great to work with and for.”

As an honor art student growing up in Martinsville, Va., Spencer was told he should make a living from his art.

“This is the only way I could figure out how to do it,” he said. He carves cypress and red cedar.

“Woodcarving was a hobby I turned into a job,” Spencer said. “Horses have been a passion. If I can make a living doing what I love, I feel like I’m not working.”
It’s not too hard to figure out where his love of horses came from. Spencer’s father, Sonny, was a gaited horse trainer.

Learning horse training never stops, he said.

Asked why he thinks people have such affinity for horses, Spencer said a horse can adapt to every person’s personality.

“They can be your best friend and give you purpose in life. It’s a true, personal relationship. A horse will search for the right answer every time.”

As a horse trainer, Spencer said he believes training horses also involves training their owners.

He would like to be able to board at least 10 horses for the public and offer lessons and training, including horses with behavioral problems.

“Most of the time it’s not the horse, it’s the person. I just don’t train the horse; I train the person as well.”

His training philosophy: The horse learns respect, then the trainer can build confidence through a conditioned response of wanted behavior by applying pressure and then releasing. His goal: a finished, well-trained, soft and supple horse.

It can be difficult, though, to tell the owner that he or she is the cause of the horse’s problem behavior, he said. Going to clinics and listening to other, respected trainers helps, he said.

Spencer is a devotee of natural barefoot training—of the horse. In other words, his horses do not wear horseshoes.

A barefoot horse will acquire calluses on its hooves over time, though they would never be as tough as those a mustang develops, he said.

Spencer leads a yearling, AtAGirl, a buckskin foundation-bred quarter horse, from her pen, brushes her, and persuades her to bow for a picture. A foundation-bred quarter horse is one that retains quarter horse blood lines, conforming to the breed by being small and compact, well-muscled, big-jawed, rather short-necked and with medium withers. AtAGirl sticks close by Spencer after checking out the human stranger come to visit. She is unperturbed by Cowgirl whisking around her, but she bends her head down to check out Fluffy. Spencer lifts AtAGirl’s leg to display her barefoot hoof.

Spencer trims his horses’ hooves to utilize their natural design. The durable, healthy hoof that results will increase blood flow, benefiting the whole animal, he said.

Barefoot horses, he said, seem to be healthier overall than their shod counterparts, avoiding foot problems that can affect their entire systems.

For rocky areas, he dresses his barefoot horses in a sort of equine high-top, which protects the foot but still allows the horse to be barefoot. Wild horses, unshod, manage just fine, Spencer said. But, those conditions can rarely be replicated in the domesticated world. Given its druthers, a horse will roam 20 miles a day, pretty near impossible to do on a farm. So Spencer encourages roaming by placing feed in various spots. He feeds his horses oats and coastal Bermuda hay.

Asked if he wants to do anything else, Spencer didn’t hesitate.

“I’m doing everything I wanted to do. I want to do more of it.”