Shelley Chapman

Shelley Chapman riding Cameo Bizarck (Photo Credit Sarah Sullivan Photography)

AERA Hall of Fame Inductee – Shelley Chapman

Shelley Chapman, QERA 40373, was accepted into the AERA Hall of Fame on 25 October 2023 on nomination by QERA.

Shelley Chapman is a Queensland rider from Shanelli-Park at Kilkivan. Since beginning her endurance journey in 1992 in Far North Queensland, Shelley has amassed 22277 kms in 248 endurance rides, and 2733 kms in 69 Intermediate and Training Rides. Her first endurance horse was a Purebred Arabian gelding LIBERTAD, bred by renowned Arabian breeders of the Gulf and the Darling Downs, Jack and Iris Makim. Shelley competed on Libertad for 4 years before taking a break from the sport to raise her twin daughters who also rode and competed in endurance for many years.

Shelley and her husband Michael, who is team farrier and also breaks and starts the young horses, travel thousands of kilometres annually both within Queensland and interstate following their sport. Consequently, she is frequently placed in the annual High Point Scoreboards both State and National. In 2023 she is heading into another National High Point win for Distance Rider with 2628 kms, almost twice as many as the next LWT Rider. She also leads the LWT Points with 188 points. Shelley is also proud to have 3 horses in Top 10 LWT Distance and 3 in TOP 20. 3 horses are in TOP 10 Points. Interestingly ALL points scored in 2023 were in Queensland!

Since relocating to SE Queensland, Shelley has had the opportunity to enter and complete 8 Quilties, 6 of them on her amazing chestnut pocket rocket, Sahala Astronomer. She had hoped to complete with him in every State but Covid intervened, leaving them with completions in all States except WA. Most recently Cameo Bizmarck [2022 in NSW] and Shanelli-Park Pirouette [2023 in Qld] have taken over Quilty duties.

Sahala Astronomer has 5978 kms and 610 kms in intermediate rides. Current Shanelli-Park endurance horses being competed by Shelley include Box Hill Nitro (2107 kms and 200 kms in Intermediate rides), Cameo Felspar (2730 and 532), and Cameo Bizmarck (3432 and 701) along with Shanelli-Park Phoenix (4985 and 650). In the same time, Shelley has brought on a number of young horses for herself and other owners, and ridden carefully paced rides with many young riders from here and overseas.

Some of Shelley’s career highlights include her first Tom Quilty in Kilkivan, where she finished in Top 5 on Sahala Astronomer, and most recently the 2023 Quilty where she achieved a personal best time of 10 hours 38 minutes riding her homebred Shanelli-Park Pirouette. Queensland State Championships
have also provided some highlights, most notably a 1 st LWT in the 2022 Championships riding Box Hill Nitro, and a 3 rd LWT in 2023 riding Harry Who te. And that’s not to forget a 1 st LWT and Line Honours way back in the 1995 Pioneer Trek Marathon of 400 kms!

Proudly sponsored by Stance Equitec and Sauer’s Produce and Garden Centre, Shelley generously supports Rides with prizes and hopes to continue her passion for our great sport for many years to come.