FEI Solidarity Course for Grooms in Colombia: Teaching Grooming Techniques and Horse Communication

Training

Education

-- Text and Photos © Carmen Franco

Since returning to my home country, Colombia, I’ve been busy working in many areas, one being our National Equestrian Federation, in charge of the Development and Education Technical Committee. As you can imagine, there is a lot to do in ALL areas of our sport.

One of those areas or groups are the grooms. Our society has a very marked class difference between the many poor and the very few rich. Most of our grooms come from the first group, from countryside families that moved closer to cities to find a safer place to grow, as the rural areas became for a while too dangerous between the guerillas and the drug cartels businesses. Some grooms inherited their abilities and jobs from their relatives, some came to try their luck at something new. Some were able to graduate from school, some didn’t. Most of them are great human beings, dedicated, hard workers, and loyal.

Because of the need to educate each group of people involved in equestrian sports, the committees of every discipline suggest courses and clinics to hold during the next calendar year and as a suggestion from the members of the Development and Education committee, the Federation applies for FEI Solidarity courses. Last year we applied for the Grooms course and luckily, we got it.

Organizing the Course

Valeria Ariza teaching the basic principles of grooming and
handling horses

The FEI tutor for our country was Valeria Ariza, a real horsewoman from Uruguay who has been doing these courses in different countries for around 10 years now. The structure of the course (standardized by the FEI for the whole world) is brought over four days: the first three with theory in the mornings and practice sessions in the afternoon. The last day there is an “evaluation” for the grooms and then they receive their certificate of attendance.

I communicated with Valeria several times to prepare her trip to Colombia. She sent all the instructions and requirements, and we started working on publishing the form to enter the course. We got support from FEI Solidarity to do four different locations: two in the center of Colombia where we have the biggest concentration of sport horses, one in the state of Antioquia and one in the state of Valle. Each course could have up to 14 grooms registered. A few days after we published the registration form, we had all courses at full capacity and, by closing date, we went up to 108 grooms entered with more requesting to be in!

We decided to give a spot to each riding school or club to have at least one groom per place who could learn and give back to the others. The spots left were given to the locations that hosted a course and to the places that entered several grooms.

For each one of the locations, we had to have a tutor representing the Federation and helping with the organization. Besides that, the FEI decided it was time to prepare more tutors to be certified to continue spreading the knowledge inside the country and beyond. A total of 11 people signed up for this part, me being one of them as I was the tutor for VTP Sporthorses, the first location where we held the course.

Teaching Days

On Monday 27 January 2025 we had a full day of theory about the structure of the modules, lectures and content to be taught, with examples of the activities to be organized through the days. Despite this being a first-time teaching tutors, you could immediately tell that Valeria had done this for many years and her way of talking was very fluent, clear and educational. I left that day very inspired to see the work with the grooms.

After a brief opening ceremony, day one at VTP Sporthorses started with the well-being of the horse, a subject that is the center of the course, not because they are words that seem to be in fashion lately, but because it is the true spirit to be imprinted in each one of us. Very quickly the grooms started realizing they were learning the reasons why to do the things they were taught without explanations. They saw examples of where the horses live and how they live can affect their performance in a very positive or negative way.

After the morning’s theory, the practice in the afternoon was about a tour of the facility with Valeria commentating on the good conditions of the stables and those that could be improved, followed by a very detailed session on how to tack up a dressage or jumping horse.

The second day was a very touching one for all of us. It was centered around the nature and behaviour of the horse and how our body language can help with their well-being. The theory was very eye-opening for the guys, as they understood many of the behaviours they are confronted with daily in their jobs. The afternoon was so rewarding! The practice session is done in a round pen, and she gives very basic lunging concepts to all of them. But in reality, she wants them to work with their body language to communicate and understand the horses’ language too. They soon realized how their postures made the horses calm down, get more energetic, move away or move closer to them. It was beautiful to see their smiles when they were able to get to the point of the horse following them and stopping by their side. We worked also on the basics of presenting horses for the FEI jog and on setting up obstacles for a jumping competition warm-up.

Day three was about the presentation of the sport horse. Both theory and practice sessions were very educational. Thanks to horses lent by different owners, they were able to practice braiding mane and tails. The more experienced grooms helped the other ones with braiding techniques.

Evaluation Day

The fourth day is left for an activity to review whether the grooms got the main concepts of the course. They were divided into three groups and assigned tasks of preparing horses for different situations with clear rules and times to have them ready. They had half an hour to plan and two hours to execute. Even though they were from different clubs or riding schools and some barely knew each other, they worked great together. The results were three stunning horses, very well groomed and tacked up, plus the time was perfectly managed so the horses didn’t need to be tied up for long.

After a short parade to present the horses for pictures with their teams, we had a nice ceremony to give the attendance certificate and have lunch all together.

Without a doubt a very fulfilling experience for all of us, and I’m very grateful to Valeria, the FEI Solidarity team, the Federación Ecuestre de Colombia, the hosts of every location, the owners who allowed us to work with their horses, the Ligas, Alpina and all the sponsors who covered food, books and pens, and of course, the horses who let us learn from them. I’m sure the lives of many horses that accompany us in this beautiful sport will change, in a positive way, and those who are around them most of the time: the grooms.

I wanted to conclude this article with very wise words one of them said during the course: “anyone can tack and untack a horse, but not everyone can be a professional in taking care of them."

Learn more about FEI Solidarity here.

Successful presentation of the horses: grooming, braiding, handling