Dubai: For a trainer of racehorses one of the biggest problems is finding and then keeping good grooms.
It is simply not possible to train horses properly without the right grooms who are vitally important to the wellbeing of the race horses.
They can often be highly strung and have flighty, nervous personalities or the opposite and be stroppy and bullying. All traits which will require calming, relaxing and the building of confidence.
If you imagine the trainer as the teacher, the horses the pupils and the grooms as the teaching assistants, you are on the way to seeing how it all works.
Potential high-class horses can be easily ruined in the hands of the wrong groom and moderate ones made to try harder and achieve more under the care of a good one — in the same way as children in a classroom will react to a teaching assistant that they can respond to.
It’s a tough life working as a groom. Most stables start the day around 3.30 to 4am every day of every month of every year and each groom may care for up to four horses at a time who rely entirely on the grooms for all their needs every day.
Racehorses generally have a small breakfast before they go out to exercise so this has to be given early to avoid indigestion which leads to colic — a very serious problem in a horse.
The groom will report to his trainer on whether his charge has eaten last night’s supper before he is given more food and he will take and record the horse’s temperature first thing too. Each stable will have one person whose job it is to be the first in the yard each day and hand out the breakfast.
Serious work
All four equine limbs will be scrutinised for any sign of injury such as cuts, heat or swelling before they go out for exercise.
Then each stall or stable will be meticulously cleared of droppings and wet and new clean bedding distributed.
The groom will then brush the horses all over, taking care to slow down and go gently over their sensitive areas. It is during this process that the affection between groom and horse will become apparent, terms of endearment whispered and the response being a display of affection in the way of head rubbing and nuzzling ears that horses like to do in order to communicate with us.
Once saddled up, the groom may walk the horse to stretch his muscles in preparation for the rider getting up and continuing with the serious work.
But don’t be fooled because the groom’s work is every bit as important as the rider’s, though I realise this is difficult to accept.
Once this next stage is completed, the grooms take charge again and clean their friends with shampoo and dry them with towels before going for a long walk and a pick of grass.
When all their charges have completed the morning ritual it is time for lunch, horse first, of course, and a short nap for the men before the afternoon tasks which start around 3.30pm and finish by 5.30 to 6pm.
Of course this all changes on a race day when the groom will travel with the horse to the race track looking out for his horse’s every comfort, polishing their feet with glistening oil and stencilling patterns into the hair on their muscular quarters and maybe braiding the mane into small plaits.
Every effort is taken to look as smart as is possible before cheering them on and praying for a safe return.
With a lot of the racing here taking place in the evening it often means a very late return to the stables for everybody, but this will not affect the hour at which the grooms get up for work the next day!
One thing that will affect them though is a tremendous initiative by Malih Al Basti, the founder and CEO of Al Basti Equiworld and a Director of Meydan, who has been an avid supporter and sponsor of all equine activities, especially horse racing in the UAE, for many years.
Magnanimous sponsorship
This forward-thinking, kind and compassionate man has devised a scheme that will benefit the grooms greatly. In every race on Dubai World Cup night he will present the groom of the horse awarded the ‘best turned out’ prize a cheque for $1,000, a gesture so typical of the man whose generosity has helped jockeys’ lives become easier as well as trainers and racecourses with his incredibly magnanimous sponsorship.
It warms the heart to see his efforts turned to the people who have the pleasure of caring for our beloved racetrack heroes. Thank you Malih Al Basti for your kindness to so many.
“We are very pleased to be extending our international horse racing sponsorship portfolio to include races at Newbury. It is a course that I always enjoy visiting and we are very pleased to be supporting its continued growth,” he said.
Al Basti Equiworld distributes a wide range of feeds, feed supplements and veterinary products in the Middle East and among them many leading UK brands, including Baileys Horse Feeds, Blue Chip Horse Feeds, Charnwood, My Day Feeds and Wendals Herbs.
“The UK is important to our business. It’s where we source many of our most popular products and it stages some of the best racing in the world, which is why Al Basti Equiworld is proud to be associated with British racing in this way,” he added.
The author is a former trainer from the UK and the mother of leading international jockeys James and Sophie Doyle.
