Working as a groom... who has some stories then??

[Keltic]

I was working for the Hunt Sec for the season whilst doing my AI. She insisted she cook every night and used to come down from the house to our bungalow with our tea, everything she cooked had a sauce on it (to hide the burnt bits) even burger and chips had its own cheesey sauce smothering it, we got food poisioning twice! so we used see what she had bought us and eat it if edible if not wait a bit then go to the chinese!!

If i hadnt done something right she would punish me by making me stay at the yard whilst they went hunting and rake the shingle in diagonal patterns.

She used to always park a little away from the meet and ride up, if i was not riding she used to flag cars down on the road and ask the shocked driver to take me to the meet!

I used to have visions of me being kidnapped or murdered getting in strangers cars....

 

[lauraanddolly]

Worst requests I ever had from previous employers, the time i was asked to clean their muddy wellies! (I was already cleaning the show boots)
A few days after I started, I was introduced to their chalk marks, on the walls to dictate how big the square of shavings in the corner of each box should be (I had been doing them 1/2 in too big!)
When I found out about the hidden cameras they watched what I was doing on every minute of the day - I left - quickly! I mean who needs cctv in the loo!

 

[Keltic]

CCTV in the loo?? caught you using too many sheets of andrex then!

 

[PoppyAnderson]

I once worked on a famous show jumpers yard and the cruel practices that went on there were too much for me - I left after a week. I know all kinds of things go on but when you see it for yourself, it's very hard to stomach.

 

[MooMoo]

This isnt quite the same but i was doing work experience when i was 14/15. I spent a week working for a semi-well known eventer (dont know how many people have heard of him- he's not english, rode in the olympics i think).

They had a few youngsters and i had no experience of young horses so i was a bit wary of them. I was struggling to get in to muck out so i asked one of the grooms for help. She went in and beat the horse with the broom handle a few times.

I was shocked, it was one of my first experiences outside of the riding school work. I really wished I'd never asked...

He wasn't being horrible it was just my inexperience, poor boy!

 

[jnet]

Whilst working once for a dealing yard, we had a good jumping mare, me and rider used to go to shows with the mare Millie, we will call the rider R, one night Millie slipped and fell through the fence and bust her nose, R lay motionless on the floor, I rushed in, grabbed Millie, made sure she was ok everywhere else and took her back to the wagon holding a tissue to her nose, and then remembered R.lol.

Another time same mare, same R, he at the VIP tent chatting away, me stood holding Millie as usual checking the situation of the board, cider in hand, Millie takes an interest in the cider, so I give her a bit, give her a bit more, ooh she drunk the pint, me thinking its quite funny, R comes, gets on Millie, she only wins the class, jumping better than ever bold as brass!!

Another time, on a different yard, famous SJ, pompous teenager at that time, says to me, clean the tack, get the wagon ready and then you can leave, such and suchabody is giving up and his groom is really good so I've offered her a job. (My job!) So I clean the tack really well, oh I cleaned and polished that saddle for ages until it was like a sheet of ice, rubber would have slid off it, got the wagon ready and went to the show just for the enjoyment, he was sliding all over the place and nearly fell off several times, oh how I laughed. Pratt!

 

[jhoward]

working for a very famous dressage rider, i was doing a week as a freeance groom to cover holiday, i got hes horse ready for him, took it to the mounting block and waited for him (yes im serious) he says to me, very good my dear, only one problem... whats that i ask, u havent pulled my stirrups down! i let go of the horse and walked away!

have many more stories from over the years!

 

[PoppyAnderson]

I know I'm going to remember more and more incidents!! I once worked as a hunt groom in Cheshire for a very well known family. Mister was, and still is, Maser of a hunt and was actually a pleasant guy. The head girl however, was not in any way shape or form pleasant. In fact, she was, and still is, an old cow, and that's putting it nicely. One day, me and another groom arrived back 5 minutes later than scheduled (exercise was planned military style!), so said head girl roared at us if we wanted to actually work there or not. We both said nothing and carried on with the day. The next morning when I arrived, with only the head girl and me on duty, I went to her and said, remember the question you asked me yesterday, well I've had a think and the answer's no, I don't want to work here, so shove the job up your bum. Happy mucking out love!!! I used to be a right hot head and leave jobs on a whim if they peed me off! I've grown up since then I hasten to add!

 

[jnet]

Poppy you reminded me of myself once, I got a job through word of mouth, my current employers were moving away and they had basically sung my praises to these people till the sunliterally shone out my proverbial.

I went to the new yard, to see that they had bought me a lovely static caravan to live in on my own whilst the other girls shared a barn attic, I agreed to stay and went on the yard next morning to a yard full of glaring eyes and dirty teenage looks. So I just looked at the list of jobs for the day and delegated to the girls and myself, in fact I gave myself the mucking out and yard sweeping to gain some brownie points, which didn't work.

Day two, we had a lesson, like a riding school lesson for novices, I wasn't impressed, YO put me on a donkey of a plod, call me a snob but I'd been riding Grade A and B's for years and bringing on youngsters so I wasn't happy.

Day three, I've got clipping, YO writes down which horse has had ACP and I start to clip one, I get half way round and the git kicks me, it went through my jumper, cut my bra in half but luckily didn't mark me. Anyway I finish clipping it, and go and lunge another horse, lazy sod wont move, and so I think he's just like the mule they gave me yesterday, so I flick the whip at him a bit and he tries his hardest to comply. YO comes back from shopping, screams at me for lungeing a doped horse and storms off into the house, silly moo had written it down wrong.

Day 4 was my day off, YO comes to caravan to apologise for the day before and to tell me that she is really pleased with the yard and the staff all behaving themselves whether they like it or not and that she needed a person like me to take over, unfortunately I left at eleven that night, along with all my belongings, I'd have loved to have seen her face the next morning but I can only imagine what it was like.lol.

 

[ebbs]

I have had some experiances but the 1 that always comes to mine is when I worked at a stud for a rather posh lady who was called Dr my mum made the mistake of calling her Mrs twice and she went crazy well this one day not long after starting there I was on my own and the husband and the dog came down he was very nice introduced himself and said I could call him Mr H he then asked if I had a body brush that the dog could be brushed with as he was all wet from the river I found a brush and handed it to him to be informed that he wasnt going to brush his dog that was what I was for, Dr came down and he was rather miffed that she had not told me that my duties included brushing down the dog and cleaning his walking boots couldnt believe it I was a groom not a slave but got used to it and lasted nealy 3 years

 

[Rana]

Oh God, don't get me started!

Cleaning boots for a polo player I worked for - his boots I add, not the horses! Same guy also phoned me at 11pm to tell me we had a match the next day, 200 miles away, match to start at 10am, with all 6 horses to get ready. I was not pleased.

Cleaning out drains on a private yard (only 3 horses) on Christmas day!! I said I'd work the holiday, but would be doing the minimum to keep the horses happy and well. To me, that doesn't include drains, but I was 19 and too shy to stand up for myself. I've learnt since lol.

 

[jumpthemoon]

I remember being told off as we were taking 2 hour lunch breaks - the fact that we were on the yard at 4am and not finishing til gone 6pm didn't come into it! We were told we were lazy!

At the same yard YO was jumping his horse and asked if I wanted a go - I said no as I didn't have a hat, but YO and HG virtually made me do it (I was new and quite young - didn.t want to get in trouble). So I got on his horse and he put this MASSIVE jump up - prob about 1.40 - the horse had been round Hickstead, but I hadn't! I was wearing trainers, no hat and it was raining - I jumped it the first time and they told me to come again - put it up a couple of holes and I panicked - horse stopped and I fell off!

Luckily my head was ok, but I broke my finger

I'd know better these days!

 

[Enfys]

No really funny ones, but I did work at one private yard where I had to iron the saddle cloths and because I didn't drive, I was chauffeur driven (in the Rolls) to the feed store to order horse food. It was delivered, never collected even though we were on the spot. Appearance was everything there, the horses had to be brushed and oiled before they were turned out.

At another place the chauffeur used to take the Housekeeper and I shopping, another Rolls, he would collect us later, all smart in his jacket and cap, get out and totally ruin the effect by wearing Burmudas and sandals

Oh, and then there was the private yard in Devon and the bloody shitties! Three of them lived in a 20 acre field, when it rained I was expected to take up their NZ's, catch the buggers and rug them up. hah! Guess what they thought of that idea? I never did manage to catch them, used to get in trouble all the time for that, even though the boss couldn't get near them either.

 

[RachelB]

I've not been a groom for all that long and I think my yard must be pretty good compared to the sound of these! Not a funny story but it amused me that when the stallion arrived at the yard a few years ago, only certain people were allowed to handle him (not including me as I was un-confident and young). A few months later said stallion is dumped on me by my boss after riding - hold him in the yard and wash him down, then put him back in his box. I'd never touched the thing before but bless him, he was good as gold for me and didn't try to eat me (

)
About 6-12 months later after having spent the time handling the stallion and mucking him out with him in the box etc, I am asked to tack him up so my boss can ride... "but are you ok handling the stallion?" Err well I've sort of HAD to be ok with him since the time you dumped him on me!
My boss has a memory like a sponge - most things are absorbed and stay put for a very long time, but the oddest things get forgotten!
Oh then there's the time our resident novice got bucked off and lay in the school groaning as if he was dying... it took us ages to work out that no, he didn't need an ambulance, he was just being pathetic and actually was totally fine (he's a grown man but he's grown up a lot in his attitude to things like falling off since he came to us!)
I'm used to my job now, but I start a new one in a few weeks' time - I imagine many anecdotes will appear from that one!

 

[JanetGeorge]

Mmm - the worst one I had (I think!) was the amateur Jumps trainer. I started - mucked out 10 BIG, deep straw beds in 90 minutes, and got yelled at for being too slow. Then I was told I was doing ride and lead exercise. Riding one, leading 2. Well THAT was no problem (I thought) - I'd ridden one, led 4, with polo ponies.

But he didn't mean in trot - or even canter! He wanted full gallop!! And I didn't go fast enough for his liking (it WAS a large, rough field - not a proper track!) He got terribly abusive about my incompetence so I offered him a week's notice. He then screamed and ranted even louder - and told me to sling my hook. I did - with pleasure!