The last ninety minutes

Shine is never produced at a show. It is only called in. A timetable from arrival to the arena, run the way Grand Prix grooms run it.

Stand next to a professional groom once and you notice how little happens in the last ninety minutes before a class. No scrubbing, no rushing, no hunting for the second glove. The work was done before. What happens now is sequence.

Nothing is repaired on show day. It is only called in.

The evening before

Washing happens the night before, not in the morning. A coat needs hours to dry through, and a horse that goes under a rug damp still smells of it the next day. White markings and the tail are done in the evening and protected overnight, either with a tail guard or with a clean box.

• Wash the coat and tail; only dampen and sort the mane
• Clean white legs and bandage them dry
• Clean the tack and pack the box in the order you will need it
• Pick out the hooves, but do not oil them yet

T minus 90: arrival

The horse stands, drinks, looks around. During this time you do nothing to the horse. You walk the route to the warm-up, find the secretary’s office and put the box where you can reach it without a detour. A horse that arrives and is immediately worked on is more anxious at the start than one that had twenty quiet minutes.

T minus 70: the base

Now the dry work: curry comb in circles, hard brush with the coat, soft brush to finish, always front to back. The dust this raises is the reason the order never changes. Polish first and curry after, and you start twice.

Then the face: a damp sponge, eyes and nostrils, and a separate cloth for each of them. That is not cosmetics. That is hygiene.

T minus 50: plaits

Plaits take exactly as long as you have practised. Do them for the first time at a show and they take twice as long and leave you rattled. Which is why grooms practise them at home on a Tuesday evening, when nothing depends on it. Slightly damp hair lies better; wet hair slips.

T minus 30: tack

Saddle, bridle, bandages or boots. Everything black gets a final wipe now; everything white goes on the horse as late as possible. A white saddle pad that has been on for half an hour before the start has a grass mark on it. Guaranteed.

T minus 15: shine

The last step is the shortest. A cloth with a drop of coat gloss over neck, shoulder and quarters, never under the saddle and never under the girth. Hoof oil thin, in the direction of growth, and then walk the horse a few steps so nothing picks up its own bedding. Oil applied ten minutes before the start takes half the stable into the arena.

Coat gloss belongs where the judge looks, and never where your leg sits.

T minus 5: the last look

One circuit of the horse, in this order: hooves clean, girth checked, plaits complete, bridle cheekpieces even, tail free, no straw in the tail. Then a hand on the neck and away. Anything you notice now goes in the notebook for next time. Nothing more is changed.