Ten years is a long time for any relationship and when it comes to grooming for a top show jumper, that decade is built on a foundation of trust. “We know each other very well now,” said Maria Israelsson, who has groomed for leading Irish show jumper Shane Sweetnam since 2016. “And he just lets us [the team] do our job. He doesn’t interfere too much. He knows that we know what we’re doing… he trusts us and it is a good relationship.”
The Irish
Israelsson is from Sweden but has hints of an Irish accent when speaking English. Yeah, I think I spend too much time with too many Irish people,” she joked. She works alongside an Irishman Seamus McKeever, her husband in fact, whom she met in Ireland some 15 years ago. “We do pretty much everything together,” she said. “Sometimes I go to the show, sometimes he’ll go to the show and then we just work in between and just get the day done. We’ve worked together for a long time now. So most of the time we are on the same page.”
Coriaan van Klapscheut Z
One of Israellson’s current charges is Coriaan van Klapscheut Z, known in the barn simply as ‘Corey’. This Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] Corey has been on form – and set Sweetnam up for a good winter season last fall when the Irishman won his first Grand Prix of the year at the ESP Pre-charity show in November. Week 4 also gave Corey and Sweetnam a $215,000 CSI4* Grand Prix win and last weekend the pair finished third in the $200,000 JTWG Inc CSIO4* Grand Prix to close out week eight.
Corey, 11, required some patient handling from Israelsson. “When we got him he was eight, like a year and a half ago. And at the beginning, he was very difficult to wash,” recalled Israelsson. “Because first of all, he didn’t want to walk into the wash stall because he was spooking at the black rubber mats. And then he would spook when the water would run. He’s gotten a lot better. But he’s very sharp. If he doesn’t like something on the ground, he’ll skip away from it.”
Companionship helps to sooth the Belgian Warmblood. “Sometimes when there’s a lot of things going on. He doesn’t like to be on his own,” she said. “He always wants to have a friend. So it’s a little bit of a sharper horse that way. But he’s very sweet to look after.”
James Kann Cruz
Corey’s main barn friend is James Kann Cruz, the 13-year old Irish Sport Horse who has been a mainstay of Sweetnam’s string for some time. “James is totally a favorite because we have had him a long time and he is a special horse,” said Israelsson. Keeping horses long term is not always the end game. “It is a sales business as well. So we have horses coming and going quite often.”
Maria, second from the left, with the other grooms of the Irish showjumping team at the Paris Olympics
No Pressure
Israelsson does not come from a ‘horsey’ background and learned horsemanship from a once a week riding lesson, while helping out at a local riding school. Sweetnam is currently ranked number 11 worldwide in show jumping – but working for a top level rider is something Israelsson remains grounded about. “Obviously we want the horses to do well,” she said. “But I don’t feel a pressure to perform in that way, or that I have to be up to a certain standard because the rider is in the top 20 or higher.”
One More Day a Week
WEF, is the main showground for the Sweetnams in the winter season – the 13 weeks of competition punctuated by trips to show at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala. Intense competition puts a special weight on grooms as the job spills over into seven days a week, starting with Monday preparation, ready for the FEI Jog on Tuesday. “It would be nice to have maybe one more day in the week,” said Israelsson.
Groom’s Prizes
She is also pleased to note that conditions for grooms have improved not least with the advent of the Double H Grooms award. “More shows are doing groom’s prizes like in Wellington,” she said. “Which obviously is very nice.”
Feature Photo by MacKenzie Clark
This groom interview is part of an ongoing series by HorseGrooms, featured throughout the Wellington season in the official publications of Wellington International, the WEF Weekly Wire, and the AGDF Times. By highlighting the grooms behind elite competition, Wellington International supports HorseGrooms’ mission to give greater visibility to the people whose daily care, horsemanship, and dedication underpin top-level equestrian sport.
HorseGrooms collaborates with events, horse show organizations, brands, and professionals worldwide to share practical knowledge and real stories from the people who care for horses every day, from local barns to top-level competition venues.
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Sarah Eakin has a long history of sports reporting and covering equestrian disciplines – particularly show jumping, polo, racing and dressage – for a range of international publications as writer and editor-in-chief. In 2024, Sarah launched Paper Horse – an online magazine with an eclectic mix of stories from the horse world at www.paperhorsemedia.com. Paper Horse is an official Media Partner of Wellington International. Sarah was born in England and came to the US in 1996 as Sidelines’ Polo Editor; at the time she was chief polo writer at the Horse and Hound and Polo Correspondent to The Daily Telegraph. She married US professional polo player Gary Eakin and stayed Stateside traveling throughout North America while covering equestrian events. She is also an author; Wed, White and Blue, her first novel is on Amazon.
