When it comes to taking care of our horses, there’s a strong argument there’s no better person to ask than a groom. They tend to these horses every minute of every day, anticipating their every need, and ensuring they can perform their best.
As we head into the tough winter months with the additional considerations of the cold, the ice, the mud, and the lack of daylight, we figured we could all use some more tips from these #SuperGrooms to bolster our spirits for the long, and freezing, days ahead. Check out part one here!
Lea Adams-Blackmore and Sharon White at the Pan American Games. Photo courtesy of Sharon White / US Equestrian.
Lea Adams-Blackmore
While we normally highlight Lea Adams-Blackmore because of her own eventing career, this year we caught up with her after she took on the role of groom for Sharon White at the Pan American Games. As Sharon’s full-time assistant trainer, Lea splits her time between working with Sharon’s horses and clients and riding her own horse, Frostbite. Earlier this year, Lea and Frosty took part in the Bromont Rising Program at the MARS Bromont CCI Horse Trial for the second time. She also tackled the CCI3*-L at the Maryland Five Star in October, where she and Frosty finished on their dressage score just one tenth of a point away from the top ten.
When I caught up with Lea to talk about winter grooming tips, she was visiting her family in Vermont, so you know she has some experience with a true Northern winter.
Winter Grooming Tip:
“I hot towel them often. Sharon loves a good hot towel. So when it’s this time of year and it’s a little bit too cold to give them baths, we take a little bucket of really warm water and put a dollop of Ivory soap in it. We use Ivory soap for almost everything. We’ll use it to clean tack, we use it to give horses baths. It’s super gentle on their skin.
“Take a rag and rub them down. You rub down all the sweaty bits, basically just go over their entire bodies with the warm soapy rag, and then you let them dry. We’ll put coolers on them. Then you come back and curry them with Coat Defense so that you get all the sweat off. The Coat Defense powder is great for keeping the coats healthy.
“They love it. They all get itchy this time of year, especially where the tack has been. So my horse, personally, loves his hot toweling. He loves his face rubbed pretty aggressively with the hot towel.”
Winter Grooming Pet Peeve:
”Definitely static electricity. Taking blankets off of horses drives me nuts when there’s static electricity. Half the time you shock them and then they freak out. And I’m like, ‘I didn’t mean to shock you!’ It drives me nuts. But I find that if we keep their coats really oiled and super conditioned, it gets better. We use a lot of coat moisturizing products. So I feel like that helps but yeah, the static electricity this time of year drives me nuts.”
Steph Simpson and Fedarman B, the ride of Boyd Martin. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Stephanie Simpson
As Boyd Martin’s head groom, Steph has her hands full. Last time we caught up with Steph, we talked about how she handles bringing along her own project horses, her passion for the sport of eventing, and how she avoids burnout from such a demanding lifestyle. You can refresh your memory and catch up with Steph in our Between the Ears column.
Not only does she take care of Boyd’s horses in Pennsylvania, but she also travels with them down to Aiken for a couple months over the winter. Which, lucky for us, means that we get a double whammy! Winter grooming tips for those of us who stay up north, and for those who go down south.
Winter Grooming Tip:
“One thing we struggle with when we go south is the sand, which is very irritating to their skin. I think a lot of people struggle with it in both Florida and South Carolina. To get rid of the sand as fast as possible, I like to wash their legs when they come in from turnout. And I use a lot of Hair Moisturizer, we call it pink spray. I love that stuff. If you think about it, if you’re washing their legs often or they’re getting bathed a lot, you’re stripping the oils from the coat. I find that it’s really helpful to use the pink spray to restore what you take. It also helps a lot with flaky dry skin.
”If you can get away some days without giving them a bath, I find currying them and then using a witch hazel spray really helpful. It’s just an astringent, like the same stuff in face wash. If they do get slightly sweaty, it just helps dry everything out and keep bacteria from forming. So that’s a definite go-to for us, just in our daily routine.
“We groom three times a day. Obviously before they get ridden and then everyone gets groomed after they get ridden and then at the very end of the day everybody gets groomed over and blanketed appropriately and stuff like that. So grooming is key, but also there are a few products that can help you out along the way if you have some struggles.
“I think it’s important to groom often because you can stay on top of stuff. If they get a little nick while they’re on turnout or if someone pulls a shoe in turnout that somebody didn’t notice when they brought in, it gets picked up when they get groomed at the end of the day.
“We have really nice arenas, but they’re all wet sand. So, as far as hoof care goes, at the end of the day what’s really important is getting that wet sand out of their hooves. I feel like if you don’t get that out of there, that’s when thrush can show up. If that wet sand stays in there, that’s just asking for disaster.
“If we get something in that’s got kind of shelly, weak feet, we will use Keratex, but I think for the most part as long as you keep the feet really clean and you know always be on the lookout for thrush or little quarter cracks and stuff like that for the most part you can stay ahead of it.”
Winter Grooming Pet Peeve:
“Oh God, blanket straps. Really tight ones or dangly ones that they’re definitely going to get their legs caught in when they lay down or they roll or chest straps being done up really tight. I’m really particular when it comes to blanketing.
“Sometimes they’ll get shoulder rubs, so we’ve found that if you use a slinky– a shoulder guard– that can reduce the rubs. But if a blanket isn’t fitting great, I’ll go for different brands or different styles. I’ll just try a different fit. Maybe one has an attached hood and maybe one has a detachable hood that’s just rubbing them differently. So we’ll just kind of play around with what build of horse suits what type of blanket.”
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Sophie Hulme
While Sophie does have her own training and eventing career to attend to, she moonlights as a groom for James and her friends when she has time. When we previously caught up with Sophie in early December, she told us how grooming for her old mentor, James Alliston, at Boekelo helped her continue to recover from a trailer accident that resulted in the loss of her top three horses in 2021.
According to Sophie, “It was really nice for James to let me groom for him at an upper level like that because, at some point, I would love to be at that level,” she said. “You get to be a part of everything in a different capacity when you’re grooming, which I think is really fun and really cool because you’re still a part of the team at the end of the day.”
When I spoke with Sophie on the lighter subject of winter grooming tips, she was muddling through the rainy English winter.
Winter Grooming Tip:
“In the UK, we always make sure that we wash and dry the legs off properly. We get mud fever, or scratches, like crazy over here and do little tips and tricks like using baby oil or udder cream to help stop mud fever and keep the legs from getting scratches. Last winter we just had a bunch of them come up with loads of mud fever and everything and it’s not fun stuff to treat. But a friend of mine recommended udder cream and if you rub it in, it works a treat, like properly does it
”We also always have nice backup rugs for any weather and we always pack extra ones in the lorry. We always keep a rain sheet and a cooler at all times in the lorry. So you’ve got extra backups so that nothing gets too wet or too cold when you’re at shows or when you’re out.”
Winter Pet Peeve:
“Putting a wet or dirty rug back on clean or freshly clipped horses. That is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. On our yard, we’ve got a big industrial washing machine. So if anything is a bit scruffy or the rugs are a bit dirty, it goes into the wash and they get a fresh new one. You have to make sure the horses are dry as well. I’ve had bad skin conditions come up before because someone’s put on a damp or not-so-nice rug that has no breathability, it’s like a turnout or something. You get fungal things cropping up if you do that.”
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Emma Ford
We haven’t spoken to groom Emma Ford since the spring, when she was helping Sydney Solomon pack for her debut at LRK3DE. Emma is very well known in the grooming world and in the horse world as a whole. Together with Cat Hill and Jessica Dailey, she published World-Class Grooming for Horses in 2015, which she wrote while grooming for her long-time employer, top eventer Phillip Dutton.
Currently Emma is working with the USEA Grooms Program, which will be hosting lectures in both Ocala and Aiken this winter. The lecture series is open to anyone who wants to attend, whether you’re a groom or a rider.
Winter Grooming Tips:
”I think my best winter grooming tip is to think about your individual horse’s needs. Are you staying north or are you going south? With those decisions your winter grooming needs change so much. If you’re staying north, clipping and style of clip depends on how your horse is stabled and the time you have available to care for them once ridden.You don’t want to put them away while they’re still wet. But then you also have to consider, are you the one who changes the blankets or are you boarding and therefore you require staff to do that for you? You want to keep your blanketing system relatively simple for your barn staff.
”If you’re staying in colder climates, you’re not going to be washing them as much in the winter, so I use a lot of hot toweling. I use Shapley’s Number One Light Oil added to hot water, and then go through the whole hot toweling process. I definitely hot towel after riding to lift up the sweat and the dirt, but also as part of my daily routine. It helps to add some moisture and oil back into their coats, which tend to get very dry in the winter.
“I think currying is probably one of the most important things you can do to really get the circulation going and bring the oil to the surface and smooth that oil through the coat, especially if your horse has a super long coat.
”You have to look at your hoof care program as well. Different things affect the way the horse’s hooves breathe. Are you going south for the winter or are you riding in an indoor a lot this winter? Waxy footing won’t let the horse’s foot breathe if you don’t clean it off. I pick out my horse’s hooves when they come in from turnout and before and after riding.
”If you’re staying north, it’s important to make sure your horse is staying warm and drinking enough water. To encourage the horses to drink more water in the winter I also make what I call a tea. I put some grain in a bucket of warm water and a lot of horses will drink that down. You also have to make sure they always have hay in front of them. Not only for weight, but to keep themselves warm as well.”
Winter Grooming Pet Peeve:
”You really need to pay attention to what is right for your horse and for your lifestyle and not what’s just most convenient for you. For example, whether or not you need to do a blanket clip instead of just a trace clip. You need to think about things, like is your horse living out 24/7 or are they inside a lot? If you’re riding a lot, maybe a high blanket clip will keep his back warm and be more beneficial to him than clipping him out completely.
”I see people use a lightweight sheet when it’s maybe 40 degrees and starting to rain on full coated horses. What they don’t understand is that that is actually worse than being naked, because all that does is flatten down the hair coat and there’s zero insulation in the sheet. So, either don’t blanket them because they have a good thick coat, or use a blanket with at least 100 grams or 200 grams of fill in them.”
To wrap things up before 2024, we asked EN readers (you!) to nominate a groom they love one last time. This is the groom who has gone above and beyond all season long, always staying late at the barn, and going the extra mile to make sure the horses are safe and happy. Together with Achieve Equine, we’re thrilled to announce that we have not one, but two #SuperGrooms for 2023: Hannah Black and Stephanie Simpson!
The EN #Supergroom series is brought to you thanks to support from Achieve Equine, providers of FLAIR Equine Nasal Strips, VIP Equestrian, and Iconic Equestrian.
