Grooms: the unsung heroes of equestrian sports

But while most equestrian sports fans are familiar with these names, there are other people outside the spotlight who are essential to their success, including stable managers and grooms. This week, a look at grooms.

The word ‘groom’ is generally thought to have its origins in medieval times, possibly coming from ‘grome’ (boy, youth, servant), ‘grommet’ (young man in service), etc. Its specific meaning relating to horses – a servant who attends to horses and stables –  is said to have arisen in the 17th century from earlier terms like horse-groom and Groom of the Stables.

The International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) has called grooms, “the unsung heroes of Equestrian sports who work tirelessly behind the scenes to allow our equine friends to fully realize their potential and perform to their best on the international stage.” And ‘tireless’ is an appropriate adjective to describe this job, which is nonetheless personally rewarding for the people doing it given their love of horses. 

Indeed, grooms have an intimate, daily contact with the horses they take care of, adapting and responding to each one’s unique character. Today at the elite level of the different disciplines, that can involve travelling to international competitions with the mounts in their charge. And as Show Jumper Jessica Springsteen’s groom Esther Bukkems told Noelle Floyd Style, one of her biggest goals is, “To make the horses feel at home wherever they are in the world.”

For Bukkems, who hails from the Netherlands, some of her activities in a typical day include feeding and providing water to the horses, cleaning out stalls, organizing the stables, taking the horses out to graze, and feeding and checking in on them later in the day and evening. Another description of a groom’s daily schedule was provided in an article in Equus Magazine in 2015, related to a video about Sara Lord: “She drives the van, she grooms the horse, she prepares the tack, she threads a needle to sew on a competitor number, she loads the stallion in a flight container, she even helps groom the rider by braiding her hair as well as the horse’s tail.”

To recognize the work of grooms, the FEI created the Groom of the Year award as part of its FEI Awards in 2009, with the 2017 honours going to Alan Davies of Great Britain, who had been nominated previously after taking care of top horses like Valegro and Nip Tuck for Dressge riders Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester.  “Words can’t describe how I feel, it’s just amazing!”, said Davies. An interview with this ‘super groom’ can be read here. The 2018 Groom of the Year award will be given out later this year at the annual FEI Awards.