09/01/2021
Pay people what they are worth.
Pay people a living wage.
Honestly ask yourself would you work those hours for that pay TODAY. Not 20 years ago, Not as a 16 year old with no bills living at home.
If you couldnt keep up YOUR lifestyle on the hours and wages you offer why would anyone want to take the job you advertise?
Grooms are on my mind, galloping housewives.
The galloping housewife has been hearing from all sorts of people recently that staff are impossible to find. Yards are crying out in all disciplines, in all roles from entry level to international competition to experienced trackwork and yard riders.
Yet yesterday the galloping housewife advertised for some yard help yesterday and has been inundated with replies, despite the position only being part time and based in a rather non-horsey part of the country. There are clearly people out there.
The galloping housewife has been privileged to know and work alongside of some properly incredible grooms over the years. It has never ceased to amaze her how intelligent, dedicated, competent and caring these people have been. Yet so often these same people tell stories of terrible work conditions and rats**t pay with no thanks, no job progression and training and a level of physical grind and emotional stress that requires a superhuman constitution.
The position the galloping housewife advertised was for structured hours, with a defined role, time to do the job right, opportunity for it to develop and decent pay. Don’t get her wrong – it’s not going to be easy! The galloping housewife is high maintenance and her horses only slightly less so. Yet both the penance and reward are well balanced.
A lot of the grooms that the galloping housewife knows have left the industry – a massive loss, not just to their employers, but to all the other up and comers who no longer have their experience and knowledge to call on.
Our grooms take care of our most precious family members. We trust them with our horses’ wellbeing and safety and, more often than not, our own. We need to make this a viable career path. Yes, we definitely need to pay them more (there is absolutely zero excuse for any employer, anywhere, paying less than minimum wages for ALL the hours worked for an entry level job) but it’s so much more than that.
They need to work reasonable hours. Don’t be a dick, reader, the galloping housewife knows that horses are 24/7, that emergencies occur and sometimes it is necessary to work for 7 days or more consecutively when on the road during show season. All the more reason that on a day-to-day basis, their hours are tolerable. And pay them the damn overtime when they’re not.
The demands of the job need to be appropriate. If you want a decent level of care, then it must be possible for the groom to provide a decent level of care in the time allocated. If it’s not – employ more staff. Anyone, anywhere, craves job satisfaction. The least we can do is make that possible.
We need to provide a clear career path and encourage actual training. It takes years to learn all the skills necessary to be a travelling groom on the international circuit. No one ever started knowing everything. If your role is for s**t pickers and yard sweepers, encourage them to move up to gear cleaning and horse catching and beyond to lunging and light exercising and travel. Likewise, be realistic about your jobs position on the road to trackwork rider or yard rider for a breaker. Send your prospective competition groom for their HGV or the hopeful coach for their First Aid or your potential vet nurse to the equine health seminar. If you want your yard manager to become good eyes on the ground between lessons, then take them along to the biomechanics session with you.
And if you’re an experienced groom, have I got a side hustle opportunity perfect for you!
It’s time to step up, employers. Our industry’s future is dependent on it.
