Name: Sue Conwell, 27
Occupation: Groom
Background: Conwell was born and raised in St. Louis. She learned to ride at age 6 and received her own horse from her parents when she was 13. While a high school student, Conwell worked at racetracks during the summer. After graduation she moved to Chicago and began to work full-time as a groom.
Years in present position: 6
I always knew, even when I was young, that I wanted to work with animals. I love all animals. When I was a child, I used to bring home stray cats and dogs. I wanted to be a veterinarian, but, even though my grades were pretty good in high school, I wasn`t too crazy about chemistry so I didn`t think I could get into vet school.
Being a groom gives me a chance to be with the animals I love. I work for Neil Boyce, who is an owner and a trainer, and I go wherever he goes. Right now we`re at Sportsman`s Park, and I not only work here, I live here. I have an apartment over the barn which is similar to a motel room. It`s extremely convenient. Some of the other tracks don`t have quite as nice facilities, and I generally try to make other arrangements when I`m someplace else.
Right now, in training, we have 42 horses and more out on the farm in St. Charles. There are seven grooms and seven hot-walkers that work with these horses. A hot-walker is someone who walks the horses in the morning or after a race to help them cool down. A groom takes charge of the feeding and the general care and cleaning of the horses. I`m personally responsible for five of the horses, but I also keep an eye on all the horses.
My day starts pretty early. I`m at work at 5 a.m. The first thing I do when I get to the barn is check the training chart. If I have any horses that aren`t going to train that day, that are just going out for a walk, I take care of them first. I clean the horses up, which means brushing them, combing their tails and getting the straw and dirt off them, and then the hot-walker takes them for a walk. While the horses are out, I clean the stalls. I give them fresh water, clean their feed tubs and give them fresh hay and straw. When they come back, I clean their feet.
I do the same thing for the horses that are going out to gallop, and I put the tack (gear) on them. Then the exercise boy takes them out. When they come back from the gallop, I give them a bath if it`s warm enough and then put a blanket on them, and the hot-walker walks them.
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Horses that are going to race just walk in the morning. We give them a bath so they`re good and clean and look nice. They don`t get any fresh straw or hay when they`re going to race. That`s because some horses will eat if it`s there, and it just fills them up and it`s hard on their breathing when they run. Some horses that are real good eaters will go into the stall with no fresh food in it and start eating stuff that isn`t so good, like older straw. We put a muzzle on them so they can`t eat anything.
Usually I`m finished with all this around noon. Then, if we`re not racing, I come back for feed time at 2:30. I clean their tubs and set out a night feed, which is bigger than the earlier feeding and includes a vitamin supplement.
We do some of our legwork in the afternoon. This consists of painting a horse`s leg with an iodine-based medicine that keeps their legs tight and cool. This relieves the soreness that comes from the racing. We use a brush that looks like a toothbrush.
The pressure that`s exerted on these horses` legs is unbelievable. When they`re getting sore, or something`s going wrong, they carry heat in their legs. That`s the first sign. Then they may have to have some extra work done on them. They may have to stand in a little tub of ice water. And we have a freeze machine which makes a horse`s legs cold. We also have some stuff called ”miracle mud.” It`s like a poultice. We put it on their legs with bandages and plastic, and that also draws heat and has medicines in it. It`s pretty good stuff. For every horse that races, after they settle down and have some hay, we do this poultice.
I also clean the stalls and put out fresh hay again in the afternoon. My day is over around 4 if there is no race. But if my horses are racing, I work much later. The last race usually runs between about 5:15 and 5:30. If I have a horse in the last race, it has to have a bath after the race and then walk for an hour. So it`s about 7 or 7:30 by the time I`m done. I usually put in 70 or 80 hours a week. But I work a little longer than everybody else. I`m a little slower and a bit of a perfectionist. I always want to do everything just so.
Horses do get sick, and one of my responsibilities is to notice if a horse is not well. One of the more common illnesses is colic. Actually, all it is is a stomach ache, but a horse can die from colic because a horse cannot throw up. They`ll go down in the stall on their backs and thrash around, and their intestines can get twisted up if you don`t catch it right away. In a case like that, we call the vet, and he usually gives the horse mineral oil. There are also a couple of old-fashioned remedies, like rubbing turpentine on the horse`s belly. This gets them kicking and moving, which gets their bowels moving and relieves them of the stomach ache.
Horses can get the flu or fevers, too. If a horse that generally acts well is suddenly not eating his feed or has a dull look in his eyes, we take his temperature. If it`s a fever, we have to call the vet. We cannot administer any drugs to these horses on our own.
When the horses are too old to race, Neil usually gives them away. One owner had a daughter who wanted a horse, and Neil had one that was 10 years old and had hurt his leg, so Neil gave the horse to her. He tries to find a good home for his horses, or he turns them out at the farm. Most of these horses make fine pets after they`re through racing.
People who are keeping horses as pets should be careful of how much they feed them. You have to feed them according to what the horse is doing. If they`re not being ridden very much or don`t get very much exercise, they shouldn`t be fed a whole lot and allowed to get real fat. A horse can eat himself to death. They eat about four pounds of grain a day, plus hay. But that varies from horse to horse.
Caring for a horse also means keeping them brushed and cleaned and keeping their stalls clean. You have to take care of any cuts they might get. The most important thing you can do for riding horses is take care of their feet so they don`t get thrush, which is a foot problem in horses. It`s a rotting away of their feet that can develop when they stand in their urine. If you clean their feet with a regular household bleach it disinfects them and keeps it from happening. Of course, you must keep up on their health as well. What I like most about this job are the horses. The personalities of these thoroughbreds seem to be a lot stronger and more unique than other breeds of horses. They have very distinct personalities-just like people, or dogs. I like the sweet ones a lot, the ones that always like to be hugged and really love to see you.
We had a horse in 1982 and 1983 who was very comical. He would drink orange juice out of a glass. He always had to stand in an ice tub every day, and he`d stand there and sway back and forth all day and he`d take one leg out of the tub. We`d see the leg was out and holler, ”Annie (his name was Annie`s Turn), get that leg back in the tub.” He`d pick it up and put it back in and go back to swaying.
I`ve been hurt by the horses at times. I had a horse bite my shoulder very badly one time. I`ve had my feet stepped on several times. I don`t think I`ve broken any toes, but it`s probably been close. I`ve been kicked. I`m fortunate that I haven`t ever been hurt too seriously. If someone is careless around these horses, they could get hurt. Even if you`re careful, things happen.
I believe the horses understand about winning a race. If they`ve never won, they may not realize what it means, but once they win, they do. I had one horse than ran about 10 times before she won her first race. But once she won, she tried so hard to win every time. That`s what we call a horse having a lot of heart. It`s that inner drive to win. One of my horses, Nubs, would actually be mad if he lost.
These horses are like my own kids. When they win, it`s like being a parent-I`m so proud of the way they perform.