114 SIDELINES SEPTEMBER 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Emma Ford’s Gold Medal Life
By Lauren R. Giannini
Groom Wanted:
Dedication. Determination. Sense of
humor. Stamina. Willingness to work. Passion for horses.
Advanced horsemanship skills. Desire to learn more.
That pretty much defines top eventing groom, Emma Ford, who
spent seven years working for international three-day event rider
and Olympic medalist, Phillip Dutton. At the end of 2012, Emma
made a lateral move to work for Jim and Sarah Wildasin and their
daughter Arden.
“It has been more of a dramatic change than I thought it would
be,” Emma admitted. “Definitely, I had to teach myself to slow
down. It took me a couple months to settle in, but now I’ve got the
routine and I’m enjoying the pace a lot more.”
Life As A Groom
When Emma was working for Phillip, her day started between
6:30 and 7 a.m. with feeding, mucking and turning out. Phillip
arrived by 8 and made up the daily log so Emma could organize
which horses had to be ready when. “We often had 50 horses and
approximately 45 would be ridden every day,” recalled Emma,
who liked having three people on the ground to tack up and cool
horses properly. She made sure that turnouts were being switched
Woodburn and Emma at Rolex Kentucky in 2010. Emma dealt
with the devastating barn fire and with the tragic loss of Phillip’s
partner Woodburn by going all-out and working harder.
Courtesy of Equine Right Spot
e
Emma and Mystery Whisper – before heading to Newark Airport
to fly to England for training, prior to the 2012 London Olympics.
Photo by Max Corcoran
and any injuries were being lasered, ultrasounded or iced.
“I tried to set up the day so everybody had their own horses to
groom and I would definitely be in charge of the advanced horses,
going down the line, taking care of the prelim horses and so forth.
If we were done by 5:30 or 6 p.m., that was considered a good
day,” she added.
Show days were grueling. A “home” show (there and back the
same day) meant working well into the evening to wash, braid and
make sure all the trucks were ready to roll. Emma arrived at the
barn by three a.m. and they hit the road by 3:45 to arrive at the
show by 7 so Phillip could get on the horses at 7:30. “We wouldn’t
be back until after 6,” Emma said. “Those days took their toll when
you had to do that several days in a row and then you still had to
function the rest of the week.”
The Beginning of her Career
In 1998 Emma arrived from the UK to work in Massachusetts
for event rider Adrienne Iorio. Seven years later, chance and fate
moved Emma closer to her goal of grooming internationally. She
signed on with Phillip in 2005 and would groom for him at two
Olympics, two World Equestrian Games and one Pan Am Games.
Emma won the U.S. Eventing Association’s 2007 Professional
Groom of the Year and the PRO Groom of the Year in 2012.
Emma explained about her dedication while working for Phillip.
“I worked as hard as I did at Phillip’s because I’ve never seen
