Behind every high-performance rider is a support team that helps keep his or her horses healthy, sound, and ready to compete. For U.S. Eventing team member and 2016 Olympic individual bronze medalist Phillip Dutton, that team is led by Emma Ford, who serves as his head groom and barn manager at True Prospect Farm in West Grove, Pennsylvania.

Ford’s tenure with Dutton began in 2005, and she’s since groomed for him at two Olympic Games, two World Equestrian Games, and two Pan-American Games. In 2007, the U.S. Eventing Association named her Professional Groom of the Year, and she won the Professional Riders’ Organization Liz Cochran Grooms Award in 2012. Ford took a year off in 2013, thinking she wanted a “quieter life,” she says. “But that wasn’t the case!” In 2015, Ford and Cat Hill co-authored World Glass Grooming for the Competition Horse.

Ford is currently grooming at her 14^th Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, underway at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. She’s busy caring for Dutton’s three entries—I’m Sew Ready (“Jackson”), Mr. Medicott (“Cave”), and Fernhill Fugitive (“Jack”)—but took time while traveling to answer our questions about the groom’s role keeping horses healthy at Rolex