Panel Offers Ideas on Attracting, Keeping Workforce

Experts advised that with changing standards for work visas reducing available foreign workers at tracks and farms, horsemen should consider new approaches to develop, welcome, and retain a local workforce. 

That advice was presented during a panel on workforce development at the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association convention March 15 in New Orleans.

Remi Bellocq, a former CEO with the National HBPA who now serves as executive director of the Bluegrass Community and Technical College, which offers a program on basic horsemanship, said he sometimes sees a decline in work ethic in the younger generation, but added that assessment doesn't apply to all young people. 

"If we start to build a training pipeline domestically, we're going to have to put a lot of kids into that pipeline because you're going to have a lot of attrition; that's been our experience at the North American Racing Academy," Bellocq said. "But the ones that come out, if I have them for 15 weeks and we teach them how to be a good groom, or an exercise rider, or what have you, shame on us if we don't embrace those students, pay them what they ought to be paid, and really give them a pathway to success. If not, we're just shooting ourselves in the foot."

Bellocq said horsemen should consider giving workers good pay, some off days, and help with housing options. He said while his graduates love horse racing, they also have to make life decisions in terms of work, and racing will need to compete with outlets like Amazon for workers.

Reid McLellan, executive director of the Groom Elite Program, said that for many of his graduates it's important to have an avenue for growth within the industry. He said horsemen should take advantage of that enthusiasm, and as they prove themselves reliable, allow workers to take on added responsibilities.

In terms of developing a U.S.-based workforce, besides taking advantage of the North American Racing Academy and Groom Elite, Bellocq encouraged horsemen to develop programs through 4-H and reach out to their local chambers of commerce to start programs. He said the U.S. Department of Labor also will assist in developing apprentice-type programs, which he said previously were more widely used in racing.

McLellan said at Woodbine he taught a Groom Elite class to trainers who now teach the class on the backstretch. He said in its first two years, it has produced eight workers who now are active on the backstretch.

National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback encouraged horsemen to consider all of these options.

"There are a lot of avenues, but I'm not sure all of us are going down all of those avenues to find the labor," Hamelback said.

Trainer Buff Bradley said finding and retaining competent workers is his biggest challenge both at the track and at the family horse farm in Frankfort, Ky. He said he has taken advantage of a number of options, including working with local 4-H. 

At the track, Bradley has worked on scheduling to allow his employees time off and would like to see more housing available. He thinks farms relied so much on foreign workers that they didn't work to develop the domestic workforce. He said he has tried to work with young people and has become more reliant on part-time help.

"In the summertime I'm good, because I have all of these high school kids who want to show up," Bradley said of the farm. "But they don't all know much about horses, so you have to teach them, and some of them don't last long. What I've found is that for the farm, I've had to hire a lot of part-time workers. There are people who want to work with horses, but they don't want to dedicate their whole life to it.

"If we're letting people work on Saturdays and Sundays or Monday through Friday in the afternoon, we've had a little better luck with people coming out to do that."

Note: Remi Bellocq is also the cartoonist for BloodHorse magazine.