It is not early now and my first thought was the very same thing 
Iâm in NJ, and itâs sad how many beautiful barns you can drive pastâŠand not be surprised to hear this about many of them.
The horse industry isnât the only industry like this, but again and again, itâs disgusting how many high-end barns claim they canât afford to pay their workers hardly anything at all, work employees to the point of burnout/ seriously compromising their health.
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They thought having the kitchen and the bathroom in the same room was no big deal. Doesnât sound too good for oneâs health to me. And if they did have a stove or something, you had to run an extension cord from an outlet in another room to have power. I donât think we stayed longer than a week thinking back. We told the owner why we were leaving and he (VHV) was so surprised and angry that we âf___ed him overâ If he wants to know who did that he needs to look in the mirror.
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We commonly rode with the horses in the rig prior to the rise of gooseneck and slant load in the 60âs and 70âs. As for using those same boxes as accommodations for grooms? Torano put my husband in that situation. Admittedly it was the mid-1980s, but NOTHING changes.
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Overstated? Read the 2018 article penned by Diana Babington â Ethics of employment in the horse industry â. Itâs disgusting. The entitlement oozes from her pores. From observation this is an industry wide shame.
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When I worked for one of the big TB farms, we rode in the semi (like the one pictured upthread) with the horses. It was great fun at the time. My friends and I piled into the rig, had snacks, laptops and music. We treated it like a great adventure. Not sure how legal it is, but it certainly didnât bother us at the time.
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When I worked for Barney, the grooms shared a really nice cottage on the property. Also, the Wallers(sp?) of Mt. Kisco had a house for the grooms. Canât remember the name of the farm at the moment and google didnât help.
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The Wallersâ farm in Mt Kisco (but the mailing address was Bedford Hills) was Tanrakin Farm. I grew up across the street from the big house, and from the retiree barn.
I am not sure how good the groomsâ housing was. I know we ended up storing a bunch of household items for one of the grooms, because there was not room for it in her housing. But some of the grooms lived with their families (spouse and children) on site.
On the original question, before we had our own horse trailer we shipped to horse shows with Morrisseys, and we rode in the back with the horses.
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Thatâs it, Tanrakin. I worked there for a spell with my then boyfriend. The house for the grooms was really cute and right near the upper mare and foal barn. It was pretty small though and storage space was limited. Thanks Janet!
A friend of mine worked for George Morris for a time in Florida and when she became really sick with pneumonia or something, she hitched a ride back to NJ in his van. I used to see race horse trailers with the grooms riding the back with the horses.
Wtf that article is disgusting. Ya in the $$$$ world of wellington, itâs the grooms that need a better work ethic and should be ashamed for wanting an extra $50 a week. When the people they work for probably spend that every week at Starbucks. And again plaid horse is garbage for allowing it to be posted. Smh
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I (very briefly) boarded at a barn just outside of Miami where there was a man who lived in a horse stall. He had put up drapes over the open front part for privacy. He had a cot, a fan, a tv, and a small camp stove he used to cook. He paid the board cost as if he was a horse. I think it was $300 a month. There was a bathroom but no shower, and the place had the BIGGEST cockroaches I have ever seen in my life.
I was ashamed that someone would allow a person to live in such conditions. But the more I lived in Miami, the more I realized that man was living well compared to a lot of the people there.
Itâs amazing how we can spend thousands on our horses but not care enough about the employees to make sure they are living in comfortable housing.
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That âarticleâ was pure garbage. Such entitlement and superiority! If your employees are unhappy, that is on YOU.
I have lived in some pretty sketchy conditions- spotty electricity, no running water, pests galore. I have spent cold winter shows in a camper with no electric or heat, and no shower available. Iâve slept in my car for long stretches. It took a long time for me to realize that I am worth far more than that and to put my foot down- it becomes the norm in the industry, and grooms are gaslit into believing that they are greedy and entitled for wanting a comfortable living situation. The industry as a whole needs a serious reform.
And, to keep it on topic- I have been asked to ride in the back of a rig but never did, because I used to be a first responder and saw enough MVC carnage to scare me away from that sort of thing. I did once have someone ride in the back of mine, while transporting a critically ill horse, however the drive was very short and we had someone following behind the trailer in another vehicle to keep eyes on the situation. That is about the only scenario where I would be willing to take the risk.
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Iâve heard of cases where a groom riding in the trailer part decided to smoke with the imagined tragedy following.
I think I only rode in a trailer once in my youth for a relatively short distance. I started out sitting on a hay bale, and then ended up almost under a horse when the driver had to slam on the brakes suddenly. It is very unsafe.
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It does happen⊠and for a number of reasons.
Honestly, I think we did it a few times as kids/teens. We also had ponies tethered in the aisle space when we needed to take one more⊠so not a ton of safety protocols were clearly taken⊠on horse or on the road, for that matter.
If I recall, some of the BNTâs sent their grooms home in trailer overnight from Lake Placid one year when ICE/BorderPatrol arrested a few drunk barn workers in town and threatened to bust the show. Some sent them home in trailers, others had given then cars of their own or clients that offered to hitch a ride back with the rigs.
It was a long time ago and I canât remember the year, but it was certainly a different scene that week.
Mmmm⊠is it though?
Iâve worked at a big pro barn and conditions for the âguysâ (meaning grooms, all Hispanic and largely illegal) can be pretty rough. Like 4 dudes to a bedroom IF you get a bedroom and grab a piece of floor if you donât, definitely riding to Welliworld in the van with the horses, day off once every 2 weeks, work 7-6 plus night check.
Wasnât much better for me and I was one of the white girl staff riders. I remember one year we got all of the horses loaded to go down for the winter and my boss asked us straight faced if we could drive straight through so we could be there to help get them settled in. We had staff in FL already to set up, plus itâs like a 17 hour drive and weâd be up all night finishing packing and making sure the horses got on the truck without any damn SHAVINGS in their tails! Thatâs when I started getting the feeling that maybe my best interest wasnât a primary concern.
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For many years, Lake Placid has been a show that a lot of Hispanic workers skip. It is not unusual to see different staff there that just got hired for those couple of weeks.
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Yeah⊠I think this was probably now over a decade ago⊠so I would imagine that super scare year was a catalyst that involved leaving âquestionably-documentedâ team members back at their safe haven. Being that close to the border definitely makes it risky and I suspect border patrol and ICE probably have that show circled in red every year.
I posted this because I wanted to highlight an issue of the hunter/jumper âindustryâ which is: the continuing oppression of young people and undocumented people by the Uber rich. My question to all of you is what are you going to to do about this and when? Clutching your pearls, blaming the victim, claiming that the young people are willing victims is a cop out for your comfort. When will we step up and acknowledge that we owe our fellow humans a decent wage, decent living conditions and decent work conditions? And if we are not willing to do that, then, perhaps, we need to own our love the of systems of slavery, feudalism and conscription our own pleasure and that we will continue to ignore and condone them? Just saying⊠. .
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With all due respect, I donât think that any of us are clutching our pearls here.
We recognize that itâs an issue and that things are often swept under the rug, but, that being said⊠maybe be straight forward with your motive and with your mission to change the industry rather than brushing over all of that with an obscure example of strange transportation behaviors. FWIW, itâs not just young people and undocumented folks riding in the back⊠Iâve watched owners of expensive animals and actual trainers also offer to be back there to monitor horses that are prone to fall down, freak out, or colic on rides. Not every truck and trailer is equipped with cameras and that was certainly not status quo years ago. So, bottom line, if youâre gonna make your platform be the obnoxious treatment of employees of the uber rich and entitled horseshow folks⊠maybe lead with that as your subject?
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