Page 35 - The Hunt - Summer 2024

back downhill, then removes his bridle and saddle. Withoutmoreado charges across the enclosed paddock, bucking and hopping like a schoolboy who’s just found out it’s a snow day.
The 23-year-old Holm’s calm handling
of the situation echoes the crucial role
a professional groom plays. They must understand and control their charge at all times, especially on competition days—those highly public moments when all the attention is on the horse, its rider and its trainer.
“I need a groom who really cares about
the horses,” says eventing champion Phillip Dutton, who trains at his True Prospect Farm near Avondale. “It also has to be someone who can read the moment, as there are times to be really efficient and hustle, and other times when that’s not a priority.”
Dutton has competed in seven Olympics, winning a gold medal at the 1996 games. His groom is 24-year-old Grace Harris, a New Zealander by birth who recently moved to Chester County. Harris was working with horses in England when she answered an ad posted by Dutton. “We did the interviewing by Zoom,” she says.
Harris came to the United States in 2022. Just two weeks after settling in Pennsylvania, she was acclimating to driving on a different side of the road all the way to a competition in Florida. In June 2023, Harris traveled back to Europe, this time in charge of getting Dutton’s highly rated mount, Z, through customs. The horse had been flown to Germany so Dutton could be part of the U.S. team in the Aachen CCIO4*-S international competition. Following a training accident in France this past October, Dutton retired his 15-year-old riding partner.
In the world of equine competition, the role of a groom is detailed and demanding. They’re responsible for the physical and mental well-being of a mount—or several mounts— before, during and after competition, and all the times in between. “Grooms are basically people who like to be caregivers,” says Max Corcoran, a career groom who currently serves as Eventing Elite Program and team facilitator for the U.S. Eventing Association. “Many ex-grooms go into nursing or some sort
of healthcare.”
“I need a groom who really cares about the horses.” —Eventing champion Phillip Dutton
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