Marina Lemay (34) from Montreal, Canada, won the best groom award during Friday Night Lights at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. A full house saw victory in the FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle for her charge, Zen Elite Equestrian Center’s 13-year-old Helix and his rider Adrienne Lyle. With a personal best of 80.325%, Lyle and Helix won the class and Marina the $500 Lövsta Grooms Award.
What led to your job working with Adrienne Lyle?
It was actually a little bit by happenstance, honestly. I was kind of looking for a bit of a shift in my career. I had been working in equine rehab in North Carolina and I just missed Wellington as I hadn’t been there for about five years.
I was kind of reaching out to different people about potentially working just part time for one season and I saw a very old ad from Katie Duerrhammer who was a student with Adrienne. I casually reached out to her, and said I know the ad is really old but are you guys still looking for a groom? And she said no, but Adrienne was looking. So it was a little bit of an accident, but it ended up great and I have been working for Adrienne now for about two and a half years.
How would you describe Helix’s personality?
He is a very quirky horse. Probably the most quirky horse I’ve ever been around. We say sometimes that he’s a little bit neurodivergent because he’s very peculiar in the way his mind functions. He’s very meticulous in his brain. He’s very pattern-oriented and likes his routine.
But he has the biggest heart ever. All he wants to do is please and understand what you want of him and do the job correctly. So he ‘s a really fun horse to work with because he has so much try, and he always gives it 200% – no matter what you’re asking, which is really great.
How did you prepare for the FEI World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle?
It’s kind of an all day thing. A lot of it is, honestly, just waiting around to do the next thing.
But Helix goes out for a lot of hand grazes and he just tools around the show staring at the other horses doing the National classes. I keep him busy because he’s a very interactive horse and he doesn’t like to be left alone in his stall for too long.
We have a type of PEMF recovery blanket that he wears about an hour before the class.
And it just kind of warms up his muscles and gets him feeling all loose and limber. And that’s pretty much it. It’s not like a huge, crazy routine. It’s a lot of waiting around and keeping him happy and occupied throughout the day.
What do you love most about your job?
The selfish part of me is going to say the traveling. But the horses are really why I do it and are always going to be the passion at the forefront of my career.
But this particular job, I have to say I really, really enjoy because I get to travel to all these really great, fun, exciting shows and venues. We go to Europe and do some really cool competitions. And that’s been super exciting for me. But obviously the horses are the best part – just getting to know them and their different individual quirks and that kind of stuff is very fun too.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to work as a groom at the top level of the sport?
Just be really patient and don’t expect the moon. Just cut your teeth in the industry like everyone else and just do your best and try hard and have a good, positive attitude. And I think a lot of these positions and good opportunities and exciting gigs are almost luck-based sometimes.
Yes, if you work hard, you’ll have good things happen to you, but sometimes it’s just a bit of a waiting game. It is a little bit luck based. I’ve worked at a lot of FEI barns, and this is the first position I’ve been in where I get to travel internationally – and go to the Olympics, which is obviously a dream come true for any groom.
I got by with the connections that I had, but I think I’ve learned to work hard and have a good attitude. That’s a very good place to start.
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Read more stories about winning grooms of the 2025 season in Wellington:
* About Luis Mandujano and Ladislao Lara
* About Remigio Padilla
* About Sofie Karlsson
* About Anna Halasz
* About Tamiles Pezzim
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.
