I enjoyed my brief time working as a groom at Hastings Park Racetrack here in Vancouver BC. Apart from getting yelled at for not shoveling fast enough or putting foreign race tack on incorrectly.. overall very good learning experience. I learned some pretty great phrases while I was there too, as well as how to truly 'do it yourself'.

It was a real reality check for me. I had come from pretty pretty princess hunter world where my tack was polished, my horse was polished and I was polished. Don't get me wrong, a good groom regime goes a long way in life and first impressions are important.. but one day as I was picking pieces of shavings off a high strung thoroughbred's white polo wraps on his way out to the track my boss screamed at me.. "GODDAMMIT MICHELLE, GET HIM TO HIS JOCK! THIS IS HORSE RACING NOT A FASHION SHOW!!!" "Ooooooh yeah.." I thought.. I guess sometimes it's not a fashion show.. not even for a stakes horse worth multiple thousands more than anything I had ever owned.  The wealthy owner was probably not going to notice a piece of sawdust on a polo wrap as the colt thundered down the back stretch.

The other phrase that really stuck with me was 'Run em cheap.' This apparently is an old term used to describe DIY -do it yourself- racing barn management. You don't spend 15 bucks a bag on fancy feed. You feed oats. If your horse needs extra, you add accordingly. You do not buy fancy expensive horse shampoo, you make your own. You use cooking oil to moisturize dried out leather hardened by rain and sand. You do all these things so that when that horse of yours that you work so hard with runs in the money.. you actually get to keep some of that money after you pay all your bills.

Some of my most beloved DIY recipies..

Fly spray.

1 empty spray bottle + 15 drops citronella oil + 1 part water +1 part white vinegar + 1/4 part mineral oil = flyspray

Horse Shampoo.

1 bucket of water + two squirts dish soap + two caps mineral oil + a few drops of iodine = Horse Shampoo

Thrush killer.

1 can Lysol disinfectant spray + one bottom of hoof = no more thrush.

Happy Trails!

(pic) A view from the backside of Hastings.