What is life like for a groom on the road with a four-star eventer?

Up well before the crack of dawn

By 7.30am at Tweseldown Racecourse, Francis Whittington’s groom, Sharon, has already been there an hour. Her day started at 2am when she got up and headed to the yard to start the process of feeding, rugging, booting up, and loading four horses onto the lorry. At 4.30am, the horsebox pulled out of the yard

Preparation is key

Sharon packs the lorry with all the equipment, water and feed the night before an event, so it’s simply a matter of loading the horses in the morning

Attention to detail

Sharon gets to work getting DHI Purple Rain ready for the dressage

An extensive kit list

“We keep competition bridles, rugs, boots and numnahs on the lorry at all times, so the night before, we just load the horse’s bits and saddles, and top up the water and haylage,” says Sharon

Tack confusion?

Sharon frequently checks a black book, which has details of the tack each horse wears. “With so many horses and different phases to tack up for, I sometimes forget which bit a horse wears or whether it needs a flash or martingale — they might wear three different bits in a day,” she says

Sharon Mepham (Yard Manager) getting ready to groom for Francis Whittington busy day competing at the Twesldown (2) Horse Trials with 4 novice horses near Fleet in Hampshire in the UK on the 22 May 2017

A solid partnership

Sharon has groomed for four-star eventer Francis Whittington for 14 years

Capturing the action

“When I have this many horses, I’m usually at the lorry all day getting them ready for the next phase, so I don’t get to see much of the action,” says Sharon. “If I do have time, I’ll pop down and video for the owners on my phone"

An equine conveyor belt

With four horses all running in the novice class on the day we spend with Sharon, she has her hands full – there’s only about 25mins between each horse in each section. “It’s a bit like an equine conveyor belt,” she says

Time saving tricks

Dirty boots and numnahs are put in a laundry basket ready to be washed at home. “I use the laundry basket because it keeps the clean and dirty stuff separate, and it makes it easier transporting it from the lorry to the yard,” says Sharon

On the move

The horses often share tack, so Sharon packs up a large laundry bag with boots, bits and numnahs and sets off with the other three horses in tow (with the help of an owner) to the showjumping warm up

Cross-country time

Sharon gives Francis a leg up onto DHI Purple Rain

Time for a breather

Once the horses get back to the lorry after cross-country, their tack is removed, they are offered a drink, washed off thoroughly, their studs are removed, and a cooling arnica and witch-hazel gel is applied to the tendons on their front legs

Beating the heat

Sponges at the ready: Sharon cools off Nimrod II post-cross-country

Cleaning on the go

“I try not to take dirty tack home, so I clean it as we go, unless it’s particularly wet and then I’ll let it dry before conditioning it," says Sharon

Home time

“When they get home, they go straight to bed and have a feed,” says Sharon. “In the morning, they’ll be trotted up and have their legs checked, and iced if needed, before being turned out”

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