I recently read this article from In The Ring Media about how the new generation of grooms has changed. The author of this article is a groom who worked extremely hard to get to where she is now with all the privileges. She thinks that the majority of new grooms want; more pay, less hours, holidays off, be able to ride and to not have to work for any other privileges. I thought this was an interesting idea.
I have a lot of respect for those who dedicate their lives as a groom, especially those who have their own horses or family. It is a lot of hard work and you do not always get the best treatment. Without having the experience of working at professional yards, I can guess that a lot of people entering the industry do not understand what it is really like.
I think lots of young girls think working at a yard will be great; playing ponies and getting to ride. This combined with the education system working hard to encourage young people to reach for higher paying jobs, probably makes people entering the Equine Industry feel like they are entitled to more, because that’s what their friends are getting.
Although I agree with what the author is saying, I think she was a little harsh (but less so when she later explained who the post was aimed at.) I have worked on yards on and off over the summer. As much as I enjoy it, I know I couldn’t do it full time. However, I needed to have the experience to know that it was something I didn’t want to do – but I never complained about the work, pay or expect to ride.
Not long after publishing this post, she wrote another to clarify some of her points (read it here.) Whereas her first post complained about the ‘newbies’ to the industry, her second post goes on to explain what it really means to be a professional groom/rider in the equine industry.
Despite loving horses and doing a degree in equine science. I don’t have a huge amount to do with the practical side of the industry. I therefore found these two articles very interesting and are definitely worth a read! Please let me know what you think of them.
Last Updated on 07/08/2018
