All invited to top horse lovers' show

TICKETS to the horse lovers' heaven -- Equitana Asia Pacific -- have gone on sale. With tickets priced from $28 for general admission, there is something to suit all budgets at the November 20-23 event. The Super Ticket will allow people to attend every day and night of exhibitions, entertainment and clinics. This ticket is $260 for adults and $245 for children or concession card-holders and, represents savings of more than $200.

Dr Andrew McLean is one of the experts who will be presenting daily education sessions at the event and discussing various horse training methods. While Dr McLean will be working with horses at Equitana, he recently travelled to Nepal as part of the World Wildlife Fund's Nepal Elephant Training Project. Here he applied the extensive knowledge he has learned with horse training to the training of elephants.This is the fourth year that Dr McLean has been involved with Equitana and he will be giving demonstrations on the most up-to-date equine behaviour science and training techniques over the four days. Dr McLean developed and manages the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre (AEBC).

Also involved in Equitana this year is the AEBC's Warwick McClean, who will be competing in The Way of the Horse competition where three horse breakers will be given a limited amount of time to habituate their un-handled young horses to being ridden.

The Weekly Times WED 16 JUL 2008

Shea Fisher at Western Spectacular

Country girl Shea Fisher will be singing at the Western Spectacular, a night of western sports, on Friday 21st November 2008. The daughter of former Australian bull-riding champion Eddie Fisher has sung as long as she can remember. Living in New Mexico and Texas in the late '90s while her dad competed in big-league US rodeos, Shea fell under the spell of country music. On coming home, she toook to the rodeo circuit and concert stage in her own right, and has now been signed by ABC Music/Warner Music and released her first album "Everyday Girl" in July 2007.

Shea Fisher was born in Portland Victoria in April 1988. She’s the daughter of Australian bull riding and bareback riding champion Eddie Fisher and barrel racing champion Joanne Fisher. She started to ride and compete in rodeos at the age of 3 when she entered her first barrel race and for the next few years the Fisher family travelled Australia competing in rodeo competitions. At the age of seven she won her first junior barrel race against 18 year olds and in 1997 she won her first National Rodeo Association Junior Barrel Racing title.

In March 1998, Shea and her family moved over to the United States of America where her father Eddie Fisher was competing in the Bud Light Cup tour and the PBR bull rides. He was ranked in the top 45 bull riders in the world. When they first moved over to the US they lived in New Mexico on a ranch not far from Roswell. Living on the ranch in New Mexico was a fantastic experience for Shea. Learning to drive a truck at the age of 9, mustering and branding cattle every week, and attending a small country school in Elida for half the year was just a small part of the experience. She lived the true cowgirl life.

The family then moved to Bellville, Texas and Shea began to compete in Texas Youth Rodeo Association events. She won the Junior Barrel Racing Championship, Goat Tying Championship, All Round Championship and was runner up in the Pole Bending and Breakaway Roping Championships.

Shea first became interested in country music whilst living in America. She always loved to sing but it wasn’t until then that she decided that country was truly her style of music.

In 1999 Eddie Fisher was working his way up the world standings, collecting big prize winning cheques each weekend until he badly broke his arm badly during a routine rodeo bull ride. After Eddie’s misfortune, the Fisher family decided to return back home to Australia.

In 2000 Shea was back at school on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and began competing again on the Australian rodeo circuits, making it to the National Finals Rodeo in 2001 for Junior Barrel Racing and Junior Breakaway Roping. She first began to start getting into singing and performing in 2001and began singing the National Anthem at professional rodeos including the National Finals Rodeo in addition to competing in the events.

She won her first major talent quest at the 2003 Mud Bulls and Music Festival. In 2004 she was accepted into Camerata, the country music college in Tamworth where she learnt a lot about the art of performing and then went on to be a Grand Finalist in the Gympie Muster Talent Search later that year. Shea continued to compete at rodeos but also began performing shows afterwards at major rodeo events at Longreach and Mt. Isa. In 2004 she also made it to the APRA national finals rodeo in the Junior Breakaway and Barrel Race, and was the first girl ever in history to make it to the APRA National Finals in the Steer Ride. Throughout 2004, Shea was the only girl competing in the steer ride all year but was as tough as any boy. Luckily she had the expert help of her Australian champion father Eddie. She would practice on a bucking machine during the week then on the weekend ride to win! She continued to balance Year 12 and her rodeo success into 2005 where she became the Australian Professional Rodeo Association Junior Barrel Racing Champion on her horse Jet, All Round Junior Champion and a national finalist in the Ladies Open Breakaway at only the age of 17. At the 2006 Tamworth Festival Shea performed several shows with her band, this included a couple of shows at the Australian Bushman’s Campdraft & Rodeo Association (ABCRA) National Finals Rodeo.

Shea supported Steve Forde & The Flange on the National 2006 Rowdy & Loud Tour while managing to fly to America to record her debut album in Nashville Tennessee. She also performed for the first time at the Deni Ute Muster before returning to the ABCRA National Finals Rodeo stage in Tamworth in early 2007.

In April 2007 and at the age of just 19, Shea signed a record deal with ABC Music and released her debut album, titled “Everyday Girl” on July 14, 2007. At the announcement, Tim Holland (Manager, Country Music Label – ABC Music) said, “Shea is most definitely a star in the making. She brings a really fresh and exciting approach to country music. She’s a country girl at heart with a great story but like other young woman from the country these days, she’s very aware of what’s going on around the world and you can see this in the way she conducts herself. She’ll be a great role model for her young fans and she’s a dynamic performer who just keeps getting better and better.”

Click here to listen to Shea's songs

Equine Art Prize

Following on from the success of the 2005 event which drew in excess of 140 entries, Turf Monthly will again be running the competition and curating the exhibition as part of Equitana Asia Pacific. The Turf Monthly Equine Art Exhibition will be staged at the main entrance to the Grand Pavilion.

The entry form is now available for down load.

All entries must be submitted by Friday 19 October 2008.