For many people, it’s hard to imagine that peace and quiet can be found at a horse show, but Glenn Geary, of Henry “Hank” Hulick’s Horsewatch, knows otherwise.

After the sun goes down and the heat of the day dissipates, while the last groom is wearily watering one last time, and the horses are finally able to relax, Geary starts his rounds. There’s the occasional stomp of a hoof, the dull hum of horses contentedly munching hay, and the heavy breathing of those taking advantage of the lull in activity to stretch out on the clean shavings for a snooze.

The cool night air starts to lazily blow through the tents, and a calm settles over the horses. It’s Geary’s job to do his best to make sure the tranquility of the night isn’t broken.

Geary serves as an overnight “babysitter” for equines. When he arrives at the horse shows, he puts up stall cards on the doors of his usual customers and also posts a sign-up sheet in the office. Once the show starts, he checks on the horses and writes notes for the owners about what each horse is doing, almost every hour from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m., when the grooms and trainers start trickling into the barn.

“I’m always looking for something that could go wrong,” said Geary. “That’s my job.”

His services are imperative. After a long day of competing, grooming, training and riding, it’s often all too easy for exhibitors and grooms to stumble back to whatever “home” may be for that particular week and forget about what’s going on back at the horse show. After all, we sleep for eight hours a night, don’t the horses do the same?

The Beginning

Hulick has a long history of involvement with horses. He ran his own farm, Saddle River Farm in Sterling, Mass., for many years and took between 15 and 20 horses to hunter/jumper shows. After retiring from competition, Hulick’s son, James, and daughter, Gail, took over showing the horses and won numerous championships at the A-rated shows.

Hulick also worked as a jack-of-all-trades at the horse shows, tackling every job except that of the veterinarian and farrier. He’s judged hunters, jumpers, Morgans and Sad-dlebreds, and he’s now a horse show steward.

“I would get stopped at night when I was doing things like running the drag in the ring or watering, and people would ask where their stalls were, how to contact the vet, where to put a loose horse, and things of that nature,” said Hulick.

One night at the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair (Pa.), Hulick saw one of the security guards riding an exhibitor’s horse–without permission. After realizing the problem of weak security and lack of overnight care for the horses, Hulick began Horsewatch.

At first, many people were skeptical; after all, no one had a form of night watch for their horses at home. But, Hulick persisted with his entrepreneurial skills and eventually started a business, which has survived and grown for more than 25 years. Now, Horsewatch cares for between 50 and 75 percent of the horses at the major shows.

“Horses at shows need Horsewatch because they’re in a strange environment with different stall configurations and weird noises, and they’re still expected to compete successfully. The purpose of Horsewatch is to ascertain whether the horses are calm, quiet, comfortable, not overheated, and not sick or injured, since many things can happen at night,” explained Hulick.

Unfortunately, in recent years, age has caught up with Hulick, who is in his late 70s. Six years ago, he started looking for someone to take over the business and found Geary. The pair worked together for a little over a year before Hulick turned the business over to Geary.

“I wanted to find a person who was a good horseman. Glenn is the perfect employee. He has the right attitude, is responsible, and is not tied down,” said Hulick.

They Trust Him

“It’s a trust factor. The people and the horses have to trust you,” explained Geary.

So, how exactly has he earned their trust?

Geary has been working with horses his whole life. He grew up on a dairy farm, where he worked with animals daily. His love for horses blossomed from there, and he attended competitions to watch show jumping legends like Harry de Leyer on Snowman and Johnny Bell on McLain Street.

“I would watch the professionals ride and learn from them. I was always up at the ring watching, and then I would go home and try to mimic them,” said Geary.

For many years, Geary competed in Pony Club competitions on “a freaky mare who could jump like crazy.” After high school, he joined the Army. When his service was up, he went back to the horses.

“I worked in an automobile business during the day so I could ride at night,” said Geary. “I just couldn’t stay away.”

Eventually, he was able to leave the automobile business behind and settle down at Shadow Rock Farm in Ballston Spa, N.Y., as a trainer. The last time Geary sat on a horse was in 1998, when he helped prepare his wife, Betsy’s, grand prix mount, Frequent Flyer, also known as Sherman.

“Sherman and I developed a partnership. It’s the greatest feeling when the horse lets you into his world,” recalled Geary.

Following a divorce, Geary left Ballston Spa and ran into Hulick, who offered him a job. He returned to the horse show world, only this time not as a rider or trainer, but as a spectator.

“I was in the horse business before, so a lot of people knew me. They accept the fact that I’ve been around horses for a long time, and I can tell when something isn’t right, so they trust my judgment,” said Geary.

Geary has been working for Horsewatch for six years and has built up quite the following. Horsewatch oversees many major shows, including (among others): the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.), Devon, Lake Placid and I Love N.Y., the St. Clement’s and the Saratoga Classics (N.Y.), Vermont Summer Festival, the Hampton Classic (N.Y.), the Boston Jumper Classic (Mass.), Massachusetts Medal Finals, the Pennsylvania National, and the Washington International (D.C.).

He works many of the shows by himself, but at the larger venues, where there are more exhibitors and the barns are spread out, Geary enlists help.

“For the safety of the animals, as the horse shows get bigger, I have to make sure I don’t get too spread out because that’s when accidents happen,” said Geary.

Even after almost 12 straight hours of working through the night, Geary still manages to make it to the ring. Usually after turning in for the morning, he’s up again at 10 or 11 a.m., leaving him enough time to enjoy the part of the horse world that makes his job possible.

After going to the same horse shows year after year, Geary knows many of the horses he cares for. “I love to watch the grand prix horses who were hurt [before] perform after their injuries heal. It shows that I’m doing my job,” said Geary.

More Good Nights Than Bad

Fortunately, many nights pass by without major occurrences. But there have been a few experiences that Geary will never
forget.

One of his scariest experiences occurred three years ago at the Budweiser American Invitational (Fla.). Geary was making his rounds, checking the latches on doors, and looking for signs of colic when he heard a horse struggling in its stall.

It didn’t take him long to realize that the noise was coming from a horse that was hung up in the bars of his stall. Creating double stalls for large horses isn’t unusual, but this time, the makeshift stall collapsed, pinning the horse between the bars and the floor. One of his legs had become stuck between the bars, and he was unable to get up.

“I managed to get the bars off and free up the horse. I then took him out and started hosing off the leg while I called the owners,” recalled Geary. “He showed in the Invitational the following year, which shows that Horsewatch is doing its job.”

There have been other late-night close calls, which might have resulted in disaster, and even death, if Geary hadn’t been there to help.

At WEF one year, a fire almost claimed the lives of 21 horses. It was late one winter night, and Geary was riding his scooter between the barns with his dog, Este Rae, when he noticed smoke coming out of one of the tents.

“It’s hard when something like that happens because when the plastic on the stall doors burns, it releases a toxin intothe air that can be as damaging to the body as smoke. By the time I arrived, half ofthe tent had filled with smoke. I had nochoice but to turn the horses loose and deal with catching them later,” said Geary.

He later found out that the fire had been started, not by foul play, but by a faulty electrical outlet. Geary and his helpers later rounded up all 21 horses.

They found new stalls for them, where they spent the remainder of the night without incident.

For Geary, the hardest part of the job isn’t dealing with colicking horses or tent fires, but rather watching horses of people who lack common horse sense.

“When I have to deal with people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a horse and pay a working staff who lack the common sense to properly care for the animal, it’s really hard. People who make double stalls for the horses and then tie the walls together with bailing twine–it’s the horses that suffer when the walls fall in.”

Like so many people in the horse world, Geary admitted that regardless of the long hours and terrifying moments, he could never entirely leave the horses.

“Horses are in your blood. It’s an addiction, like the whole industry. Horses make you feel good inside. With so much aggravation in life, you need to do what makes you happy. I need to be around horses, to pet them, to talk to them. In fact, I’d rather be around horses than people,” said Geary, laughing.

Although he never plans on riding again, Geary intends to stay involved in the horse world. He said, “I feel there’s a real need for what we at Horsewatch do.”