Feature 4

From the 'back barn' to the show ring
Posted: 4/26/2010

By Walt Reichert

It has been a long time and a lot of good horses since Mike Spencer started grooming in the "back barn" for legendary saddlebred trainers Charles and Helen Crabtree.

Barely a teenager, Spencer went to work as a groom for the Crabtrees. He was assigned to work in the barn in the back of the property.

"The back barn was where all of the new grooms went," Spencer said. "You didn't get to come to the front barn until you had some experience and knew what you were doing."

Spencer was still a teenager when he got promoted to the front barn, where he got to groom for some of the Crabtree's many world champions. He learned grooming and later training well from Charles and Helen, whom he described as "very particular," and he later worked for the Crabtrees' son Redd.

"I had a chance to learn from some of the best," Spencer said. "She (Helen) was a smart lady. Redd taught me a lot. If you wanted to learn, he would really teach you."

Learn he did. Spencer now rides and trains saddlebreds and has several world champions under his belt. He has the distinction of being the only African American to win the Five-Gaited Mare's Stake at the World Championship Horse Show in Louisville. Not long ago, he and his wife, Nancy, bought a portion of the Crabtree farm, and the horses on his Gold Leaf Farm are stabled in that same front barn he graduated to after learning the ropes in the back barn so many years ago.

"It's still fun and it's a challenge," Spencer said. "You're always trying to see how far you can get."

Growing into the business

Born in Spencer County, Mike Spencer was raised by his grandparents. His grandfather worked for years for Edward Bennett, father of two of the biggest names in Shelby County's saddlebred industry, breeder and trainer Edward "Hoppy" Bennett and Shelbyville Horse show manager R.H. Bennett.

"I've known him since he was a day old," Hoppy Bennett said. "I called him my brother. We were proud to have him in our family."

Spencer was a child when his family moved to Simpsonville, not far from where he lives today. He attended the old Simpsonville High School.

On the Crabtree farm, Spencer learned that the best grooms took personal pride in the horses. 

"Anybody can groom them, but you got to care about them too," Spencer said. "We were as happy as the owner was when our horses won."

Spencer's first taste of ownership and training came when he bought, "very cheap," a horse Redd put up for auction. Spencer trained the horse, showed it, won some classes and later sold it at a profit to a family in Indiana.

Spencer's next break came when Charles Crabtree offered to sell him one of the farm's prize studs, Yorktown Magic. Spencer had earlier worked with the horse at a large show, the American Royal in Kansas City.

"When he offered to sell me the horse I just looked at him because I knew I couldn't afford that horse," Spencer said. "Then he said 'Well, I'll have to talk to Mama (Helen) about it.' And he practically gave it to me."

Spencer did well standing Yorktown Magic at stud and breaking and training some of his babies.

Over the years, Spencer has trained, ridden or driven many champions. He has won the Five Gaited Stakes in the Devon Horse Show in Pennsylvania numerous times, the Junior Class in Devon, and the Three-Gaited Class in Harrodsburg aboard Dancing with Stars. You'll see him at the Shelbyville Horse Show riding and driving harness horses for their owners.

Spencer has had so many winners he's forgotten many of the names, but two favorite horses stand out. One is Spider Red, the mare that took him to the top of the Mare Class at the World Championships in Louisville in 2006. A picture of Spencer and Spider Red hangs in the Old Stone Inn in Simpsonville.

Gobble Gobble didn't take Spencer as far as Spicer Red, but he remembers him well nonetheless.

"He was one of those horses that if I could have got to straighten him out he could have gone anywhere," Spencer said. "But he was just too hard-headed, too warm."

Hoppy Bennett, who has ridden and trained his share of world champions, said Spencer "has become an asset to the horse industry and Shelby County."

In his early 50s, Spencer said he has no plans to retire, "unless my legs give out on me or something."

"You don't retire from this," Spencer said. "It don't come out of your blood."