Natt Campbell Learned Horsemanship the Practical Way
Natt Campbell is in the habit of helping and teaching others the art of horsemanship, something she herself learned from childhood as a largely self-taught and partly mentored kid. And so much of that learning came from being in the right place at the right time.
“My mum started to drop me off at a riding school on the weekends, and I would do whatever needed doing to get a lesson,” said Campbell, who is British dressage rider Andrew Gould’s manager and showgroom. “I was a horse-obsessed little girl. I never stopped talking about horses.” Later Nat would ride her bike to the stables and work from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in exchange for either a lesson “or a tenner [ten pounds].”
The woman running the business Campbell described as “old school.” Campbell’s time there provided her with generations of advice on horsemanship and tales from southern England reflecting the golden days of British show jumpers, featuring John Whitaker and Milton – the first horse to win $1 million in prize money – as well as Whitaker’s brother Michael.
“We did a lot of hacking up on the South Downs,” Campbell said, also recalling how the owner of the riding school would run a camp in the summer. “We’d [Campbell and her peers] go for five days, stay in her house and all the girls would watch old videos of Milton jumping.”
Learning the Shows
Campbell had to wait until she was 15 before she was able to have her own horse and admits to trying a couple of shows not knowing “what I was doing at all.”
That is no longer the case for Campbell who four years ago started grooming for Gould. Campbell has learned on this job, too, and the learning curve was steep when it came to international competition, requiring international travel plans.
“When Andrew competed abroad the first time, I was obviously really excited, but I was like, ‘Oh my God. I don’t know what to do,’ ” she said. “We were both doing his first competition abroad as a senior. We were like two dumb blondes trying to figure out paperwork.
“But we’ve got it now. We’ve got this routine down,” she added. “We’re kind of at a point now where he doesn’t need to say anything. I’ll know what he is doing; he’ll know that I’m doing, which is super important. You’ve got to have trust in each other.”
Traveling to the Olympics
This summer, when Gould and his horse Indigro were called up as alternates for the British Olympic team at the last minute, Campbell traveled to Versailles and the Paris Games – a far cry from her humble beginnings in a small local riding school.
“We were already kind of ready, just in case, but nobody thought that we were supposed to end up going,” said Campbell, an assumption that proved wrong once Charlotte Dujardin withdrew from the competition. “I didn’t have time to think about it. It was just like, ‘OK, it’s a new plan,’ and we had no time to get nervous.”
Studying Horses
Campbell’s journey to horse management in the highest echelons of equestrian sport included studying equine sports science at Nottinghamshire Trent University.
“That’s a pretty intense course,” she said. “There wasn’t much practical; we didn’t necessarily have to do yard work and stuff like that. We might have done one day a week in a yard. It was mostly learning about physiology and nutrition and that kind of thing in the classroom.”
From working for lessons as a horse-crazed kid, Natt Campbell found herself in Paris for the 2024 Paris Olympics where her charge Indigro and Andrew Gould were Great Britain’s reserve in dressage.
She toyed with the idea of becoming a nutritionist or a vet, and she added British Horse Society Levels 2 and 3 to her resume. She tried her hand at teaching but found that it was not for her.
“I was terrible at it because I was too shy,” she said.
For the Love of Grooming
It was at that point that she realized that what she really wanted to do was become a horse groom.
“That’s when I realized that I actually love looking after them,” she said.
Nat stumbled across dressage – a discipline unfamiliar to her at that point – having found a job locally with a rider who competed in regional competitions. It proved to be a culture shock.
“It was the first time I’ve been somewhere that when the horses were in the field, if they’re running around, you need to make sure you keep an eye on them. It was that extra amount of safety,” Campbell said.
She learned to do a full body clip and braid as well as pack a trailer for shows.
“All that kind of stuff was so new to me,” she said. “When I was kind of on my own doing it I had to work out my own methods. I had to figure out the timing of everything – look at the ride time and work backwards from there. I was teaching myself.”
Passing It On
For the past two years, Campbell has been passing on her hard-earned knowledge in educational videos that she makes to share with other grooms. Much like the philosophy of HorseGrooms, she is keen to nurture horsemanship in the profession.
Nutrition
She studied nutrition but likes to keep feeding simple.
“I don’t want my horses on a lot of supplements,” Campbell said. “But they might be on one or two if they need it. I try to keep it simple. I start from the basics and then figure it out.”
She likes to feed hay liberally, so horses have something to munch on, and believes in the importance of daily grooming.
“It doesn’t have to be a full massive groom every day if you don’t have time,” she said, “But I expect that they should at least have their feet done and have their skin properly cleaned with a curry comb or a really good brush every day.”
Tail Care
Campbell also has some fastidious methods when it comes to tail care. She insists that tails are separated by hand to avoid pulling hair out.
“I have been known to hide all the brushes,” she said. “I have some wide-toothed combs that I don’t mind. But if I hear any kind of ripping noise I’ll come round the corner and I’ll be like ‘Oy!’”
Outside Time
Recovery massages can factor into a day when a horse has been worked and Campbell is always trying to make sure horses have plenty of recreation outside of the stall – something she believes needs addressing in the big picture of horse welfare.
“The social aspect for competition horses is something we need to try and find ways of improving,” she said. “Obviously some of us are better off than others as you’re also very limited by what your facilities are. For example, if you’ve got to rent somewhere, it might just not be perfect, and you just have to deal with it as best you can.
“Having horses able to be out physically in the field with a friend is not that common,” she added. “A lot of yards aren’t set up at all for a horse to have any contact with another horse. A lot of the time you have paddocks rather than fields, so you don’t really have facilities to have two out together. But in an ideal world I would at least have all the young ones that are in live out overnight with their friends.”
Old School Horsemanship
Old habits don’t always die hard where horsemanship is concerned – something as basic as turnout can be overlooked, and Campbell hopes to educate those that may not have had the advantage of “old school” teaching.
“It’s the luck of the draw as to whether you’re lucky enough to learn from someone ‘old school’ who can teach you all they know,” she said.
In general, Campbell believes that it pays to get more horse-centric rather than human-centric.
“And I think times are changing,” she said. “There seems to be an underground movement as I’ve heard a lot of people emphasizing the need for turnout across the board. It’s so important. Mentally horses need it, and physically they need it. It’s trying to merge the natural state of the world with the unnatural competition state of the world.”
The advent of HorseGrooms has been welcomed by Campbell who plans to combine her experience in educating through video, with her new role as a HorseGrooms’ contributor.
“I love how HorseGrooms is showing all the different ways of doing things,” Campbell said. “There’s not just one right way of doing stuff. There’s lots of different ways that are equally as good. People have been doing [grooming] for way longer than me. There shouldn’t be any gatekeeping. It’s really important to share what we know – especially with the young people, the ones that are coming up. There’s no sort of secrecy between grooms; you’re all out there in the same boat.”
Photos courtesy of Jon Stroud Media
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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.
