Grooming

So for my second summer of College and the first year after I got out, I groomed hunters and show jumpers for a couple of farms in Ont.  It was a lot of hard work but I got so many opportunity that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford.  So this is going to be a pictures post with some details and then I hope to share some stories about the people I worked for and met.  I figured that with the Olympics coming up, and with the sale of Lucas it would be good to focus on that part of my life for a while.


So for my first real 'away' job I moved to Kingridge stables in King City, Ont.  This was the "North" operation.  They had a "South" location in Ocala.  I couldn't belive the size, and the look of the place.  There were over 30 box stalls and we had run in sheds/open barns for another 10 horses.  Most of the horses here were the top level show jumpers and hunters along with a dozen or so young horses that needed miles and the shows that were only about 20 min away.  We also had 3 horses used for fox hunting but they also did double duty in the show ring if the actual owner of the place had time to go to a show.  I mostly rode those horses, as they didn't require much jumping work (at this point the highest I had jumped was 2'6", these horses were the first I ever rode that knew how to do a 'real' lead change!), but lots of good correct miles. 

I left when the summer was over, we seemed to attract a large number of girls who only wanted to 'look' like they were working,  and who never had to work to provide for themselves.  I once took a hammer out and fixed a fence and gave every single one of the girls a heart attack thinking that they might have to fix the next one.  The head property guy told the guys that "shes too good for here", and his reference did help when I applied for Halton Place next summer.

Main barn from driveway/horse loading area

Allie Cat, still competing when I was there

Money Talks, a wonderful old stud that I got to lunge and tack. 

Horse Radish, one of the fox hunters I got to ride on a regular basis, in the indoor (the panels of the roof that are white/clear actually open up so that there is no roof on the indoor)

Kingridge main barn from the entrance drive way.