It would be nice if these issues can be resolved but when the BNT engage in behavior such as: making grooms ride in the truck WITH the horses from Florida to Connecticut; show at the beach show in Palm Beach, Miami and not provide grooms with food, water or transportation to obtain such and the show had only the VIP tent and one lonely vender, expecting grooms to work for 5 weeks without a day off, expecting grooms especially not FEI grooms to sleep in their vehicles at major shows . . . .The list is long. It is hard work for low pay and terrible working conditions. Until people are prepared to pay as much to their grooms as they are paying their trainer, their lawyer and their masseuse, grooms will come and go and horse welfare will continual to suffer, not to mention groom welfare.
I had a friend who was a groom/rider in hunterland. It was around 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. She’d done all the stalls, all the longeing, grooming, tacking,etc and was warming up horse after horse for the rider, without time for even a drink of water. One of the owners texted her and asked her to ride over to where she was sitting in her air conditioned car, so she could give the horse a carrot. After she did that, my friend handed the reins to the rider, started walking, and never went back. This action left her homeless, as well, of course, but she just couldn’t continue like that.
The British Grooms Association (www.britishgrooms.org.uk) is a growing organisation that was established in 2007 to support and help the people working in the horse industry, to assist with legal issues such as contracts and employment rights, to offer specific insurance policies, to offer education and professional skill development, to provide emotional and mental health support to members, to list job opportunities and, overall, to raise the profile of Grooms as trained professionals within the horse industry. It has a good website that is well worth looking into.
The FEI has come on board and it recognised the International Grooms Association in 2022, specifically for grooms who travel around the world working at international shows. It is noticable that grooms are increasingly being recognised alongside riders and owners e.g. at the Olympics.
I was really shocked by how poorly grooms were treated at the WEG in Tyron in 2018. There were massive problems in putting on such an event in only 18 months rather than 4 years of planning but the grooms accommodation, rather than being a core part of the planning process, ended up as an inadequate after thought. Team GB pulled everyone out and provided accommodation off site.
This kind of crap has been going on forever. In the late 1960s I was 19 and grooming for Ray Francis, who made me ride in the van with the horses from Ohio to Darien, Connecticut. I collected that week’s pay and said bye-bye.
Discussion in Europe about grooms. Again the problem is money. Even the uber rich don’t want to spend for their grooms. https://www.worldofshowjumping.com/en/Exclusives/WoSJ-Focus/IGA-s-Lucy-Katan-on-late-night-classes-We-need-a-change-of-culture.html
I had years taken off my life - ha - from this sort of thing. When I was a groom over 40 years ago I was told to ride with the horses. One well-remembered trip was riding in a trailer designed to transport six horses and I stood in middle “aisle” holding two additional horses. I was surprised my hair wasn’t white when they finally let me out. I can laugh now but that type of thing was not funny when was happening.
I cannot imagine that! 
I hate having to even lead a horse into the trailer. For years I had horses that self loaded. The last two did not / would not and I hated walking in the trailer with them.
When I attended Potomac Horse Center as a working student back in the early 80s a small group was able, with one instructor, to attend a steeplechase but it would mean we’d miss lunch and likely dinner. We walked around and admired the elaborate tailgate set ups and watched the races. The instructor with us knew one of the woman with all this food set out and invited her (the instructor) to lunch. So there’s the instructor, gushing over the delicious fried chicken while all us students stood around with our stomachs rumbling with no food to be had. Really poor form on her part.
When I was about 16 years old I rode in the trailer with 2 horses on windy back roads to a steeplechase. It stuck with me. Forty years later I believe that EVERYONE that drives a horse trailer should take at least one ride in the back before they drive a truck and trailer. They need to be standing up and balancing through turns, braking, and accelerating. It is my personal opinion that by doing that the horse trailer driver will have more empathy and better understand the physics of trailering and how it negatively and positively effects the comfort of the horse.
When a friend was teaching her husband how to drive her trailer, she made him ride in the back of the empty trailer so he would understand what it was like for the horses.
