About 40 brave and enthusiastic members of the University of Kentucky Eventing Team and the local horse community showed up at the (unheated) indoor arena at Clear View Equestrian Centre in Lexington, Kentucky on a frigid February morning for the World Class Grooming and Horsemanship Clinic hosted by Emma Ford.
They were rewarded with a day packed with education, priceless tips and tricks, some fascinating insights into the world of caring for horses at the very top level of competition and some great stories about a career that has already spanned the globe encompassing several Olympics, World Championships and 5* events.
Emma and her World Class Grooming partner, Cat Hill, have seen their collaboration on one book together turn into three books, and now a growing demand for clinics and help with further education in their field, and after a day spent auditing it’s clear to see why.
Emma starts with a short talk about compassion, what it means to her, how it has shaped her life and career, and what does it mean to us? Perhaps too frozen to talk, most of the clinic participants are shy at the beginning of the day, not wanting to answer any questions or talk much at all.
But within a couple of hours, Emma’s laid-back chatty style, her deprecating sense of humour, and wonderful anecdotes that complement the topics she’s discussing have won us all over, and we’re shooting up our hands and volunteering all sorts of information!
Above all, it’s her overwhelming love for the horses that shapes everything she does and teaches, and I feel privileged to have been able to spend a day trying to soak up some of her knowledge.
It was much more fun and much broader than I expected, this was not a pure ‘grooming’ clinic - it’s a day dedicated to horsemanship and how you can be the best person for your horse, whether that’s on the ground or mounted.
Emma very kindly also spent some time telling us about her life as a groom, how the role of the professional groom is changing and the clinics that she now runs. She may not be doing as many events nowadays but there is still one biggie on her Bucket List to do as a groom – Badminton – as she tells me in our full-length interview coming soon
Article by Samantha Clark
