Hello, This is not something that seems to be common on the West Coast but it appears that it is very common on the East Coast - that the grooms ride for as long as 24 hours in the container part of the semi truck with the load of horses. Isn’t that illegal? Why aren’t they using the remote camera video and stopping to water/feed horses so the grooms are riding in a seat with seatbelts etc. This seems very strange.
I am confused by your question. Are you talking about something like this?
If so, are you talking about a shipping company or individual barns/trainers having staff ride with the horses? I’d assume the latter.
You are correct in that it that is illegal (all human passengers need a seatbelt). I also can’t imagine anyone safely hauling for 24 hours straight. Besides needing to stop for water/feed for horses, there is a need to switch drivers, get gas, go to the bathroom, get food. Anyone trying to haul that long or having their grooms do it is… well unethical, but also probably cheap and unpleasant to be around. Why would they do it? Cheap and mean.
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Good question. Not sure if it is legal or not but is extremely common unfortunately
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Okay it is obviously too early. I thought the title meant riding the horses in the container. It is too late to go back to bed.
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It apparently does happen and I assume they have 2 drivers who alternate shifts??? I am shocked that someone would ask another person to ride in the back with the horses but then I am shocked by many things . . . .
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There are semis like the one shown above several days per week that shuttle race horses from Pimlico to Laurel for example. The grooms go with the horse because that is the only way they can get there. Not unusual for there to be 6-7 people back there every trip.
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Illegal and dangerous. But of course, most of the people who own expensive horses view the caretakers of their horses as worse than peasants. If that truck was full of undocumented persons fleeing oppression, a hue and cry would be heard.
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I don’t disagree with the dangerous part, I don’t know about the illegal part since it is the racetrack that is providing that transportation and they are very regulated by the state. Either way, I always drove my own horse and my own groom but not everyone has that option.
Super common I did it in the 90s on the regular. Didn’t seem weird at the time. It’s not like they don’t stop for bathroom breaks etc. But yeah not particularly safe.
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“But of course, most of the people who own expensive horses view the caretakers of their horses as worse than peasants.”
I’m thinking this is overstated.
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When I have had grooms that needed to ride with the horses, they went in the cab behind the drivers. I think some cabs have a sleeping space there. As a junior I hitched rides with shippers too. Always in the cab.
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I am more surprised that there is such a perceived contrast between the opinion of rich horse horses towards grooms and towards undocumented people fleeing oppression, especially since these are not mutually exclusive categories! However, I appreciate the poster for bringing these important issues up, I rarely see anything about human rights on here, I have never brought it up either.
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???
Check out the current events section.
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About grooms? I’ll check it out.
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No, human rights stuff.
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Oh, sorry, I meant grooms specifically…
I’ve ridden back there plenty of times with race horses. Not as much with show horses, but my jobs were primarily with Tb’s and when I worked with show horses or foxhunters, I was typically driving the rig shipping the horses.
One fateful night a groom and myself rode in the back with one Tb who literally was in AWFUL shape on it’s way to New Bolton from Belmont.
That ride it was imperative that both the groom and I were there. It was like fighting a Marlin for 3 hours down the road.
Mercifully the horse survived and we rode back in the cab to Belmont as the sun came up.
Em
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I’m not super surprised. Some barns still make the grooms sleep in an empty stall on the floor or on cots for an entire circuit and provide them living quarters at home that should be condemned while making them work 80 hour work weeks.
A friend of mine (who was white and American) worked as a groom for a barn and worked 14 hour days 6 days a week for enough money to rent a room at a nearby house and this was just a few years ago.
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Hmmm? Camera to watch the horses and a separate vehicle, ones with human safety features and comfort, for the grooms if there is no room in the cab.
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When I was around 19 or so my boyfriend and I worked for about 2 weeks at a barn owned by a fairly BNT (HHV) in New Jersey as grooms. The provided “living quarters” if you could call it that - the rooms were dark and had bug infestations, the bathroom and the kitchen(!) were in the same room which didn’t have electricity. The kitchen didn’t have a refrig or stove so cooking wasn’t an option, you had to eat out or get take out every day. Meanwhile the owners on the other side of the wall had a large sunny apartment, with all the amenities a normal house would have and they were pissed when we quit because of the LQ. They didn’t see anything wrong with treating their employees like crap.
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