The Inside Scoop of the Grooming Industry

Before I qualified as a vet physio, and started my business, I was a full-time equine groom.

 

I started grooming at 19, and have worked at a range or different yards, for different types of people, and within different disciplines.

 

I have worked for an equine charity, at a livery yard, a private hunting & showing yard, a private eventing yard, a private western reining yard, a racehorse rehab & pre-training yard, and at a high-end show-jumping yard.

 

And although this vast experience of different horses and work environments has been invaluable for my equine knowledge, and vet physio career. It drilled into me again and again that grooming is a hard career path, often with very little progression or recognition.

 

One or two yards out of all of them were respectful and appreciative of my experience and knowledge.

 

Most of them treated me like how they treat most grooms – you’re just a dog’s body. But you must have a wealth of experience, knowledge, capability, competence, adaptability, flexibility, and skill.

 

Basically, they want to pay, and work you as a base level labourer, but with the mind of a seasoned, educated equestrian.

Don’t forget, to be a good groom you need to have a level of knowledge and experience in:

-        - Equine management – not just the day-to-day care, but perhaps clipping, plaiting, bathing, trimming, pulling.

-       -  Stable management – poor stable management can easily lead to poor equine health!

-       -  Field management – You must be able to identify poisonous plants, repair broken fencing, roll and harrow rutty ground, keep troughs clean.

-       -  Equine first aid – Chances are the horse will find the most creative way to injure themselves; you need to be able to treat the wound in the first instance. Especially if it’s severe enough to warrant a vet.

-        - Human first aid – Horses can find creative ways to injure you too!

-        - Equine nutrition and hydration

-        - Equine disease – identification, and treatment.

-       -  Equine farriery – Horse has a shoe hanging off? You may have to get it off before the farrier can get to you.

-        - Equine dentistry – You need to know if the dentist needs to come out sooner rather than later.

-        - Equine gait assessment – Is the horse lame? Which leg? Is it an abscess? Blown tendon? Kicked in the field?  Do we need to get the vet?

-        - Equine riding and exercise – This could include schooling, hacking, lunging, long reining, jumping, hunting, cross country schooling. You don’t learn those skills in a week!

-        - Tack cleaning and maintenance – You’ve got to make sure that £5,000 saddle is properly cleaned and cared for.

-        - Some grooms will have HGV and/or trailer licenses and experience hauling livestock.

 

When it’s all written down, it’s quite a lot, isn’t it? Certainly, worth more than minimum wage for that level of experience and skill?

 

However, there is still the mentality with a lot of equine yards that grooms are 10 a penny, and you can be easily replaced.

 

And that may be true for your entry-level, or inexperienced grooms.

 

But certainly not your good, and seasoned grooms!

 

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the young and inexperienced grooms.  

 

We certainly need the new grooms to come up and start their grooming career!

 

But they are not on the same level yet.

 

And they must learn from someone!

 

And so often, the seasoned, educated, experienced, and competent groom on the same yard, will be practically earning the same wage as the entry-level groom.

Plus, they’ll be expected to take on the responsibility of training up the new groom. Usually without extra pay or even recognition.

 

Would anyone take a job anywhere else if that were the case?

 

Unlikely!

 

So, what’s the point in my ramblings?

 

The fact that good grooms, certainly aren’t 10 a penny.

 

They are actually incredibly rare, and worth their weight in gold.

 

But why are there so few?

Well, I think my aforementioned ramblings should give you a good idea.

 

There are far too many good grooms who are treated as unskilled labourers and paid as such.

 

Yet will be expected to have such vast knowledge of all things equine and will certainly be reprimanded if they are deemed to have made a mistake in their judgement or application of knowledge.

 

Often these mistakes are made due to lack of ability to care for the horses in the manner the grooms see fit.

 

By that, I mean there is often a lack of time or resources to be able to do things properly.

 

Some yards will be expecting grooms to complete the work of 3 people, yet will become irritated with said groom if the work is not completed in a timely fashion, or to a high standard.

 

One thing I have said to a boss before was ‘I can either do it fast, or I can do it well’

Many expect you to do both, and it’s quite often impossible.

 

Even if most of the time you can do things fast and well, every now and again something will fall through the cracks.

 

And man, oh man, will you ever get pulled up on it!

 

This is often when the decent grooms start to lose interest in their role & look for something else.

 

The boss will them replace them with a ’10 a penny’ groom, before realising that, they were actually pushing their decent groom pretty hard.

 

Now they’ve got someone much less experienced, who try as they might, just cannot keep up with the work demand that the old groom was managing.

 

But is the boss likely to hire someone else to help the inexperienced groom out?

 

No. Just flog the dead horse harder.

 

Now, I have bashed grooming employers pretty hard so far.

 

And I’m sure you can appreciate that there is good reason for this.

 

However, I cannot ignore the fact that there are also some pretty awful grooms too.

 

Because I have worked with some!

I have always said to any groom who needs training that I will happily explain the same thing to them 100 times, if I can tell that they are trying their best to understand!

 

But.

 

I have also come across inexperienced grooms who are incredibly arrogant and firmly believe that (for want of a better term) that they are the dogs bollocks.

 

Absolutely untouchable, and (in their mind) completely holding the yard together.

 

Whereas in reality, they are hardly working at the rest of the team are picking up their slack.

 

Sadly, these types of grooms are the ones who often cosy up with the boss, making sure they look golden in all lights & it is in fact everyone else who is the problem.

 

Naturally, the other grooms will eventually start to dwindle away & the ‘golden groom’ will be left alone and will soon be showing their incompetence.

 

The boss then believes that all grooms are incompetent, and liars. And will then treat the next batch of grooms as such.

 

Can you see a bit of a pattern here?

Again, I appreciate that I have very much focused on the negative side of grooming.

 

But there can be the incredible partnership of good groom & good boss!

 

These partnerships are very much the holy grail & don’t come along very often!

 

But it really is incredible when you get to work with horses, and for a boss who respects and appreciates you.

 

This then creates a positive reinforcement loop, where the groom wants to work hard, and do as much as they can for the horses, and the boss.

 

And the boss is happy to give the groom freer rein (pardon the pun) and allow them to make more decisions and amend the yard schedule in a way that suits their working style. As they want the groom to work at the best of their ability and stick around for a long time!

One thing I haven’t mentioned is money.

 

You are probably never going to get rich being a groom.

 

However, some jobs can have brilliant perks.

 

The biggest of which is that many jobs come with free accommodation, and some will also allow you to stable your horse with them, free of charge.

My sister used to say that free accommodation at work is worth about £10k a year, so if you add that onto your existing salary, it’s usually a pretty sweet deal!

 

But, to be honest most grooms aren’t actually too bothered about the money anyway.

 

They do the job for their love of working with horses.

 

And when you have a boss who appreciates you, and provides you with a good working environment, that is more or less what most grooms strive for!

 

Don’t get me wrong … good pay definitely helps!

 

I think my point to this ramble, sorry, blog is simply this:

Employers – be good to your grooms!

Grooms – Work hard and be honest about your abilities!

 

When the right combination comes together, it’s a beautiful partnership!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog.

 

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments about topics you’d like me to write about, or any suggestions to improve my blogs.

 

For any other information, or to book a veterinary physiotherapy appointment, please contact me directly.

 

All the best,

Emma, The Biomechanic.

BSc(Hons), FdSc, MIRVAP, RAMP

07861195709

emma@the-biomechanic.co.uk

www.the-biomechanic.co.uk