Is Amber Marshall a Real Cowgirl? 9 Facts Heartland Fans Should Know

When the Calgary Stampede picked Amber Marshall to lead its 2019 parade, its press release called her a local "cowgirl," in quotation marks. After nearly 20 years of watching her as Amy Fleming, plenty of fans have the same question: how much of that is real?

Most of it, it turns out. Here are 9 facts that show how much.

1. The horses came first, long before the acting

Marshall grew up in London, Ontario, and her horse story starts with a pony ride at a local fair. She didn't want to leave her "new best friend," Tony the Pony, so her parents worked out a deal with the owner and she started leasing him. She has given that age as three, four or five in different interviews.

At 10 she began formal English riding lessons. By 12 or 13 she had her first horse of her own, Monty, whom she describes as "a handsome redheaded Quarter Horse… with four socks and a blaze". A palomino mare named Laney came later, when she moved into Western Pleasure and natural horsemanship.

2. She paid for that horse by working at a vet clinic

Owning a horse as a teenager isn't cheap. At 15, Marshall took a job at a veterinary clinic near her high school to cover the costs. On weekends she rollerbladed to work with her Border Collie, Dallas, who "would then sleep under my reception desk as I checked in the many cats and dogs all day".

As a child she wanted to be a veterinarian, and she volunteered at an animal shelter from age 10. The Heartland audition came during a year she'd taken off school to work at a vet clinic.

horses, dogs, and plenty of other farm animals. When she isn't filming, she also manages Marshall’s Country Store, h

3. Her ranch is a real working place, and so are the chores

Marshall moved west for good in 2009 and bought a small farm outside Calgary. She met her husband, Shawn Turner, a year later, and they married on that farm in 2013, "surrounded by friends, family and the many animals." In 2020 they moved a little farther out, to a treed property with a log cabin and a barn. Today it's home to horses, cows, dogs, cats, a rooster and a peacock named Peter. She and Shawn are active in rodeo, and Shawn team ropes.

On filming days in 2013, she said, her morning started around 5:30 with feeding her horses, steers, cats, chickens and dogs before her ride to set. At night she went "straight to the barn to feed and clean pens" before learning her lines. "Every night when I come home, the first thing I do is go do chores," she told Horse Canada. "I find that's the best way to just let go of the day".

4. The horse playing Spartan now is hers

Stormy, the original Spartan, started on set at four and played the part for more than a decade. By around season 14 he was 18 and dealing with arthritis. Marshall went to the writers herself. "He was sore and starting to get grumpy," she said, "and I don't want to have a horse on set that doesn't want to be there." The show wrote Spartan's arthritis into the story, and Stormy retired to live with one of the show's original wranglers.

The black horse playing Spartan now is Hawk, a Quarter Horse gelding Marshall has owned since 2011. She credits him as Spartan from season 17 on. "Now I get to work with my own horse every day, which is really cool," she told Cowgirl.

5. Several of her animals have been on the show

Hawk isn't the only one. Her miniature horse Talon plays "Monty," which happens to be the name of her first horse. He first showed up in season 9 as a starving rescue pony. In real life he's so naturally round that she lunged him every day to make him look thinner.

Her late cat Mouzer played the kitten Amy brings home in her coat. Her late dog Remi played Heartland's farm dog for years. After Remi died, the show honored her in episode 1702.

6. She helps shape the horse stories behind the camera

Marshall is sometimes credited as a consulting producer on Heartland, and most of what she contributes there is about the horses. "Pretty much the entire writing team has never lived in the country," she explained, so she weighs in when a scene won't work in real life: "Can we tweak it to suit the horse's needs?". In season 5 she trained in liberty work with Niki Flundra, and she says she still uses those techniques with her own horses.

7. She led the Calgary Stampede Parade on Spartan

In 2019 the Stampede's theme was women in western culture, and it chose Marshall as Parade Marshal. "Their strong, independent, and hardworking attitudes are something I have always looked up to," she said. She led the July 5 parade riding Stormy, her on-screen Spartan.

She also had fun with her own last name. For weeks she counted down on X with the hashtag #ParadeMarshalMarshall, and afterward she wrote, "Someone had a whale of a time serving as #ParadeMarshalMarshall!".

8. Before Amy, she played Elizabeth Smart

Before Heartland, Marshall played the title role in CBS's The Elizabeth Smart Story, a TV movie about the 2002 kidnapping that aired in November 2003, when she was 15. The role earned her a 2004 Young Artist Award nomination for leading young actress in a TV movie.

9. Her side projects keep coming back to animals

Marshall founded the Foothills Animal Support Society (FASS), a nonprofit that provides pet food, veterinary care and low-cost spay and neuter clinics for families in the foothills. On her store's website, an "Amber Cares" page highlights the charities she supports.

She also publishes and writes A Marshall Life & Style, a fan magazine. Its product listings say part of the proceeds go to an organization featured on Amber Cares. Then there's the store itself, Marshall's Country Store, which she opened because "my winters were quiet." Its storefront has closed, and it now sells only online.

So, is she the real thing?

Marshall put it best herself: almost two decades after that audition, she's "still playing that horse girl who lives on a ranch in Alberta. But now – I essentially am that girl".