I grew up in Newry, Co Down. We always had a few ponies growing up. I started off when I was about seven or eight, showing. It took off from there. The Dublin Horse Show would have been our family holiday.
I wanted to be a beauty therapist, actually. I had done my work experience. I was with a friend who was jumping in Dublin when I was 16 and I just got chatting to someone. He said: “My cousin Greg Broderick in Tipperary is always looking for staff, why don’t you go down?” I went down a month later. I was only meant to stay for three months to get a bit of experience. I’ve never looked back.
When I first started, I was doing a bit of riding. Then Greg’s groom left and I was doing loads of grooming and I started to enjoy it. I took the plunge and asked Greg if he’d mind giving me the opportunity to try being his groom. We started a partnership of rider and groom and that was it.
At first I was doing everything – tacking up for Greg, untacking, making sure the horses were washed off, plaiting, clipping, getting the horses in and out of the field. Then it’s packing for shows, making sure you have all the correct tack, cleaning tack, making sure everything is turned out to top quality.
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We breed horses and bring them up to a level and sell them on. We have an auction every December, so the Dublin Horse Show would be a big stage for us.
We always tell the grooms and riders, your whole set up is like a shop window. If a shop window looks well put together, you will always gravitate towards that. We always try to have a very high standard in turning them out – everyone in the same riding jacket, branded gear, your stable curtains and tags. You want to have everything tidy and looking well.
I would always take pride in it, I would be very meticulous about things, how rugs are folded, even how the tack locker is packed. I’d be set in my ways, in that. Having a routine makes everything a lot easier. Still, everything can change in a split second and you have to be ready for it.
I’ve been with Greg for 16 years now. We travelled for 10 years all across Europe, we went to Spruce Meadows [Canada], we’ve done America.
Going to the Olympics in Rio in 2016 was a fairy-tale. You dream of it, don’t you, going to the Olympics. You don’t ever think it will be a reality. Going Global was Greg’s horse, we brought him up the ranks ourselves.
I think a good groom is someone who is willing to work hard and take the good with the bad. It’s not a nine-to-five job anyway, that’s for sure
Going Global liked routine. For the three months in the lead-up, I never took a day off. I made sure that every day we stuck to the same routine. He was ridden in the morning and then he went out to the field. We have a river nearby and we went down and stood in the river.
It’s nice now that grooms are being recognised in a competition at the Dublin Horse Show this year. Hopefully other shows will follow. We are the ones that work with the horse 24/7, we know their good days and bad days. We know when they are up and when they are down. I think for grooms to be recognised, or just acknowledged for all the work they put in, it’s a big thing. You don’t get to these big shows without owners and riders, but I think the groom gets them there too.
You have to make sure you have a good bond with the rider as well. If you and your rider aren’t on point, if you aren’t striving towards the same thing, you can forget about it. You have to understand them and they have to understand you. You have to trust one another, that’s a big thing.
Even getting to the likes of the Dublin Horse Show was a dream of mine. Growing up, watching all the big riders, and then you actually get to Dublin and riders are starting to know your name.
Some days, you put everything into it and it doesn’t go to plan, you might have a fence down – those are the tough days. Or when the horse isn’t feeling himself and you don’t get to jump, or you’re put off a team. But you just have to keep going. There are more days out there.
“On a good day, it’s a great buzz, it’s unbelievable. I remember when I first started working for Greg, it was, “Some day, we’ll get to a Nations Cup in Dublin, we’ll double clear”, and you think, “We will, yeah– and then it actually happens.
I remember walking into the main arena for the prize-giving, it was a pinch-me moment. That was my first Nations Cup, the first year we won it. That’s the one thing about Dublin, the whole crowd is behind you.
I think a good groom is someone who is willing to work hard and take the good with the bad. It’s not a nine-to-five job anyway, that’s for sure. Summer holidays are definitely out the window. It never stops: on the phone, doing [competition] entries, getting drivers, and I prefer it that way. The yard for me is not just a job. I think I’ve been there so long, it’s just like family. It’s a way of life for me.
Horses have probably made me the person I am today. They are exceptionally smart animals. Going Global was my best friend in some ways. Horses can nearly read you more than you can read them.
In conversation with Joanne Hunt. The 2024 RDS Dublin Horse Show will take place from August 14th to 18th
