While caring for show jumper Reed Kessler’s horses in Wellington, Fla., for the Winter Equestrian Festival, Chloe Buckley was temporarily “Americanized.”

“I normally wear chaps, but I wore boots, and I put on a hair net and a belt, and a tucked-in shirt,” the 22-year-old said.

It took a special occasion—and individual—for the Mullingar, Ireland native to switch up her riding attire. The Kesslers sent her for a lesson with the one and only George H. Morris on Reed’s 11-year-old Westphalian mare, Charity.

“I was terrified,” said Buckley, who has ridden and groomed Kessler’s horses for three years. “I wasn’t allowed to use Cylana [Reed’s mount in the 2012 Olympic Games], because she’s too easy. I rode Charity, and Charity is not the easiest horse to ride. She likes to get you off, so it was a task, but thankfully, she behaved herself.

“George was amazing,” she continued. “I thought he was going to hate me and say really mean things to me, but he was lovely.”

“George thought she was fantastic,” said Terri Kessler, Reed’s mother. “Every time I saw him in the next few weeks, he asked about Chloe.”

One does not need to know much about the perfection-seeking Morris to know that is very high praise, but one also does not need to spend much time with Buckley to know that it is deserving.

At 22 years old, Buckley has already built herself quite the resume. Before she took the job with Reed, she spent a time working for Johannes Ehning and another year with Ludger Beerbaum. What started as a “trial” job with Reed has turned into an ongoing career.

“I only meant to [groom] for a year to start, but then I met the Kesslers, and I’ve been with them three years since,” she said.

Buckley at the Winter Equestrian Festival following Kessler and Cylana’s win in the $35,000 Ruby et Violette Challenge Cup. Photo by Erin Gilmore

Irish Lessons

Buckley grew up around horses. Her mother Catherine is a veterinarian, and her father Liam runs a stud farm. Buckley rode many of her father’s ponies and sale horses as a junior rider, which taught her a lot about handling young horses. She also cared for all her mounts herself.

“Ireland is one of the best places to grow up, especially if you’re involved with horses,” Buckley said. “There are so many horse people. It’s such a nice, quiet country, compared to places like [Wellington], where it can be manic. Compared to here, at places in Europe, you had to do everything yourself. Caring for the horses was a very family thing. My dad would come to the shows with me, and we’d do it all together. You never had a groom do anything for you, ever. Your dad drove the truck, and you went to the shows, and you put the horses away afterward. I think that’s how you learn a lot of that natural horse sense. I think that’s invaluable growing up.

“I rode a lot of young ponies and horses,” she continued. “We were a dealing stable, so I never got to keep any horse for too long. At the end of the day, it was probably better, because you learn more on a young one than you do an older one.”

From her mother, Buckley learned lessons about horse health that she still relies on.

“My mother is one of the best vets I know,” she said. “She’s incredible at looking at the bigger picture—not just treating things left, right and center. She’s a great horsewoman. Some vets will treat something, and then two weeks later you’d have a different issue. She really taught me a lot about how to be patient. It was nice to grow up and watch that, because most people don’t have that opportunity.”

With so many horses around her, Buckley had difficultly focusing on her schoolwork as a teen. She knew early on that she would someday be working with horses full-time. No other subject appealed to her, so she anxiously waited to complete high school so she could pursue her passion professionally.

“I was terrible in school,” Buckley recalled. “Ireland doesn’t have a system like in America where you can travel and show and go to school at the same time. It’s very regimented; you have to go school, and you can only miss 20 days of class. When you’re working with horses, that’s not very realistic. College never really appealed to me. There wasn’t a course I was interested in—maybe veterinary practice, but you have to be super smart.”

After graduating, Buckley set off and moved to Germany. She spent a few months with Ehning, and then she worked at Beerbaum’s farm in Riesenbeck, Germany, mostly riding sale horses.

“The good thing about Johannes was that he had a really good dealing stable, so every horse you sat on was nice,” she said. “It was nice to learn to ride a variety of horses; getting off one and onto another and adapting to the horse instead of making it do what you want. They teach you that not every horse is going to be the same, which is nice to learn. It’s invaluable that you learn to change to suit the horse more than the horse changes to suit you.”

The Want Ad That Changed Everything

After her year of grooming was up, Buckley returned home to Ireland, not entirely sure of her next move. While attending the 2013 Dublin Horse Show, she saw Reed competing and noticed a want ad the rider had put out seeking a groom and rider. She went home and responded to the bulletin.

“I was really impressed with how she rode and how her horses were, so I sent them an email,” Buckley remembered, “and then I went to France to Katie [Prudent]’s farm [where Kessler trained at the time] and started working. I’ve stayed ever since.”

A lot has changed for both Buckley and Reed in that time. Reed, who trained with Prudent for more than seven years, moved to ride with Marcus Ehning, Johannes’ brother, just a few weeks after Buckley started the job. Two years later, Reed opened her own farm in Guttecoven (the Netherlands). While Marcus still advises Reed, the 21-year-old mostly trains herself at shows.

“Most of the time it’s just the two of us at the ring,” said Buckley.

Which makes Buckley a key part of the team. She grooms and rides all of Reed’s horses and travels to shows from Europe to America, where Reed bases out of farms in Wellington and Lexington, Ky.

“I like the traveling,” she said. “I don’t go to a lot of shows in Europe [she stays mostly at Reed’s farm in Guttecoven when Reed shows locally], but I go to America a lot. I love Kentucky. I would live there if I could! We always go to nice places, and when you travel to shows with horses like Cylana, it’s nice, because you know you’re going to do well and they’re going to be easy, and there’s not going to be a lot of drama. It makes life a lot easier.”

Buckley (center) is the closest person to Reed Kessler (shown riding Cylana) at the show ring. Photo by Erin Gilmore

Part Of The Family

“I’ve learned a lot,” Buckley said. “I think you learn something every day. Nothing is ever the same. I think I have a lot more to learn, and it’s great to work here, because we have a variety of young horses as well as top horses like Cylana and [fellow five-star mount Cos I Can] who are just amazing. You can always learn so much from them, every day. That’s what I love about the job, is that you can keep learning every day. The horses are always going to show you something different every day, and you learn to read them. I can read Cylana quite well. That’s what I really like: learning more about each horse and more about horses in general, especially the health.”

Buckley has an insatiable thirst for learning all she can about her job and her horses that shines through in her work and in how Reed’s horses respond to her. Cylana, while docile to ride, can be difficult to manage on the ground; when Buckley first started the job, she wasn’t allowed in the mare’s stall. The duo first formed a relationship in the saddle; now Cylana follows Buckley around as pleasantly and mild-mannered as can be.

“She has a very funny personality,” Buckley said. “If she doesn’t like you, you’re not going to get near her, but if she does, it will still take her a little while to warm up to you, and then she can be very friendly.”

The Kesslers have taken a very obvious liking to her as well. Spending a few moments at Kessler Show Stables’ Wellington base, it’s obvious Buckley is more than an employee; she is one of the family. While Buckley talks, Teri intermittently cuts in to shower praise on her. “She won’t tell you herself,” Teri says. It’s no wonder they don’t hesitate to give Buckley opportunities to ride and learn from people like Morris.

“I’m really lucky that the Kesslers are such lovely people,” Buckley said. “They treat me like family. I’m only 22, so I’ve done a lot for my age. I’ll definitely stay with the Kesslers, but I’d like to travel a little bit and take a little time for myself and be able to visit family as well. They’re really the nicest people you could work for.

“That’s what I missed in Ireland that I get here with the Kesslers: learning more in general about horse care, about grain and nutrition, feet, and training at the top level,” she added. “There’s so much to learn, and to be able to learn all about that, I’m really fortunate.”

This is an article in Groom Spotlight, a new series of groom profiles to be featured on www.coth.com. Make sure to follow www.coth.com and like the Chronicle’s Facebook page to see them posted. If you know a fantastic groom you’d like to see appear in this series, email molly@coth.com.