Sharn had quite the successful weekend at Live Oak, capturing the blue in Friday’s $10K Power and Speed 1.4oM Class aboard Caiman des Sequoias (owned by Wordley and the Sky Group)!
In addition to this great win, his unique choice in stirrups caught the eye of The Chronicle, who ran the following great article. Just like Sharn, always thinking outside the box! Many thanks to Ann Glavin for the great photos and article.
Sharn Wordley’s Strange Stirrups Keep Him In The Saddle To Win At Live Oak
In the show ring there are colorful stirrups, black stirrups, plastic stirrups, bendy stirrups, stirrups with magnets—but have you ever seen circle stirrups?
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We sure haven’t, and we were intrigued by Sharn Wordley’s unique choice of stirrups when he galloped away with the win in the $10,000 Waldron Private Wealth 1.40-meter Power And Speed class at the Live Oak International Horse Show.
“I have really bad ankles, I’ve had surgery on my left ankle twice, and I couldn’t find a stirrup that worked for me,” Wordley said. “I sprained it really badly once and I think there was some sort of small break and I never rested it. And I had bone spurs taken of the front, and I have lesions on my ligaments—my left leg is just shot.”
New Zealand native Wordley is based out of Lexington, Ky., and he spotted these ErgoIrons in a booth at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in 2016.
“It’s got a really big foot plate with big spikes in it, so you feel really steady, and what’s great about them is you can change the angles of the foot pad,” Wordley said.
ErgoIrons are the brain child of Heather Pearson of Zimmerman, Minn. A lifelong amateur rider herself mostly in the sport of endurance, Pearson was convinced there was a better way to design stirrups.
View Full Article Courtesy of COTH.
“He’s a good horse, he’s only just coming nine and I’ve done a few ranking classes with him at the end of last year and he was getting some mileage, and today was the first time I actually went faster to try and actually win,” Wordley said. “So I think he’s ready now to go and win some classes, he’s very fast.”
Click here for full results from the class, and don’t forget to check out the March 27 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine for more pictures and stories from the Live Oak International Horse Show!