IGA welcomes Courtney Carson to the team
 

"Hello International Groom’s Association. My name is Courtney Carson, and I am incredibly happy to join the team here in the USA.

When the first whispers of the IGA were going around the internet, I was very quick to email Executive Director Lucy Katan and vocalize my interest in being a part of this development.

I have held the role of Experience Director on the Board for the last year, and now while I am not working professionally as a groom full time I am very excited to direct some of my energy into expanding the IGA here in North America as a part time role.

For those who don’t know me, I grew up riding and in Pony Club in the Midwestern part of the country. I found my love of stable managing and organizing through the USPC as well as having my horses at home in my full-time care.

I thoroughly enjoyed competing and brought my own horse up through the 2* level of eventing while in college. Following the completion of my degree I went to work for Doug Payne in his stable of upper level event horses and show jumpers.

Throughout my career I was fortunate enough to attend competitions across both North America and Europe. I have spent time at venues such as Tryon, the Kentucky Horse Park, Wellington, and Fair Hill (Maryland) among others for both show jumping and 3 day eventing. I was also fortunate enough to attend some top European events as well as be part of Pan American Games and Olympic Games teams.

Throughout the years I’ve become incredibly passionate about working conditions for grooms both at home and during competition. This led to my initial involvement with the IGA.


After a six-year career of working as an equine groom I felt it was time to take a step back for my own personal life. I have since taken my love of working with animals and applied that into small animal veterinary medicine, but fortunately I have been able to stay involved with horses through teaching clinics along the East Coast. 

I am very excited to add this part-time role of Coordinator for the IGA into my resume as well. Not taking care of horses full time will allow me the freedom at competitions to speak with other grooms, organizers, and sponsors about our organization and what we are trying to do.

I hope to hear first-hand from grooms what their questions and concerns are, be a face and a voice for North American grooms.

When I was still working full time as a groom, I began working with US Eventing competitions to have a Grooms’ Representative on site, or at minimum a WhatsApp group where event-wide communication could happen. This allowed for updates to get directly to the grooms in a timely manner and took away the factor of needing the time to hike to the show office and back multiple times a day for information. 

I hope to continue to implement this as well as raise the bar for grooms across the country. I hope everyone in North America is excited and will watch this space in the coming weeks for updates geared towards them."

 
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