In his almost four decades in the horse business, Antonio Bustamante has worked for people in all parts of the hunter/jumper world, from horse enthusiasts at their home farms to Olympians and, for the past 13 years, for Val Renihan’s Findlay’s Ridge LLC. Everywhere he works, he leads by example as a horseman whose calm, comforting demeanor soothes his charges.

“I think Antonio’s temperament is why he’s been with me so long,” Renihan said. “He’s easy-going with the horses and that’s really important to me. I can trust him with a nervous horse, and he has a lot of common sense.”  

Findlay’s Ridge barn manager Chris Strucker, who has worked with Bustamante since 2018, agrees with Renihan’s assessment of Bustamante, who now is the farm’s head groom. He and others note that Bustamante’s calm energy doesn’t just help the horses in his care, it helps the people around him.

“He has this calm demeanor—he moves slowly and relaxed around the horses,” Strucker said. “I’m a bit of an uptight person, so seeing how horses respond to his calm energy versus my panicked energy has opened my eyes and really resonates with me. It’s helped me learn to relax with the horses more.”

Bustamante, 51, grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and came to America in 1985 with no horse experience. At the time, one of his friends was working with show horses, so Bustamante decided to give it a try. His first grooming job was working for a private client from England who was based near Memphis, Tennessee. 

“I learned a lot about caring for show horses from her,” Bustamante said. “I believe you can learn new things every single day.” 

Over the years, Bustamante has cared for hundreds of horses for many different riders and trainers, including trainer Dave Pellegrini (Tennessee), the late amateur hunter rider Patty Raynes (New York), Canadian Olympic rider Mario Deslauriers, and top equitation trainer Renihan, with whom he’s worked for since 2010 at her business, which is based in Wellington, Florida, in the winters and North Salem, New York, in the summers. 

“Val teaches a lot of junior riders, and I like to work with the kids,” Bustamante said. “I see a lot of the kids that grew up riding with Val at horse shows now, and they either work for or ride with someone else. It’s like coming home a bit for me to every horse show; my family follows me around. It’s always nice to see everyone again and say hi.”

Amateur rider Ellie Ferrigno is one of those “kids.” Now in her senior year of college at Auburn University, Ferrigno has known Bustamante since she first started taking lessons with Renihan at 8 years old. 

“I remember seeing all of Val’s extremely fancy horses when I was little, and Antonio took care of them, so I thought he was the best of the best,” Ferrigno said. “As I got older, I learned that that was true when he took care of the horses I rode. Antonio has taught me to be very gentle and quiet around the horses; you get so much more out of them when you go slow with them.”

When Ferrigno won the 2019 Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals—East (New Jersey), Bustamante was there caring for her mount, Discovery O. 

“That year, we only had a couple of horses competing in USET Finals, so we all worked together in the barn,” Ferrigno said. “It was so relaxing doing it with Antonio because I have known him for so long—it felt like we were just having fun.”

Although his job title is head groom, Bustamante’s role has evolved to the point he only has two horses—Sophia Masnikoff’s 3’3” junior hunter Heartdancer H and Brooke Hagerty’s children’s jumper Zeno Z—in his full-time charge. He focuses much of his time managing other aspects of the operation, from overseeing the junior grooms to trailering horses and packing or setting up at horse shows.

“Antonio is very reliable; I can send him to the horse show by himself with a guy or two and he’ll set up everything for us,” Strucker said. He and Bustamante have been working together since September 2018. “It’s a relief to me knowing I can send Antonio early to the shows to take care of it.” 

One of the things Strucker admires the most about Bustamante is his horsemanship skills. “Antonio has more of an old school approach to grooming; he doesn’t give a lot of baths,” Strucker said. “He always hoses off the horses, but he doesn’t soap them a lot. Instead he will brush them for 45 minutes after. I personally like that—it makes a huge difference in their coats. His horses’ stalls are pristinely clean, bedded up to their eyebrows, and I never worry about hock rubs. Antonio can manage himself and his daily schedule, and he follows along on the horse show apps to see when he needs to have his horses at the rings.”

As a groom, his work has been recognized at major shows. 

One of Bustamante’s favorite memories of working for Renihan was when she surprised him with a Groom’s Award at the New England Equitation Championships (Massachusetts) in October 2017.

“Everyone at New England Finals knows Antonio, and Joe Dotoli called me to ask me what I thought of them giving the award to him that year,” Renihan recalled. “I thought it was an awesome idea—by that point, Antonio had been working for me for a while, and he was so loyal. But we didn’t tell him he was getting it!” 

At the end of the long show day, Renihan sent one of the girls back to the barn to find Bustamante so they could present the award. 

“I didn’t know what was happening at the time, and one of the girls came to the barn and said, ‘Antonio, Val wants you to go to the ring,’ and I was like, ‘What does she want; we’re done for the day—why do I need to go back to the ring now?’” Bustamante said, laughing as he recalled the story. “So I went back up to the show ring, and there were people in the middle of the ring and the in-gate person was like, ‘You need to go in there with them.’ So I went and they gave me the Groom’s Award. They also gave me a jacket and a check for $500. I will remember that always—it was such a great memory and I’m grateful to Val for that experience.”

More recently, he earned the Best Turned Out Award on Oct. 27 at the 2023 Washington International Horse Show (Maryland) with Masnikoff’s Heartdancer H. Bustamante has cared for  the 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, known as “Danny” in the barn, since he came to Findlay’s Ridge a year ago. 

“Everyone in the barn knows I really like Danny a lot,” Bustamante said. “Over the years, I’ve had a lot of favorite horses here. I love to spend time with the horses, just grooming and brushing them.”

Between Renihan’s busy show schedule and getting junior riders qualified for all the major equitation finals, Bustamante’s ability to be a “jack-of-all-trades” is invaluable to Renihan.

“His loyalty and his dependability are huge for me,” Renihan said. “And he knows everyone, everywhere. I can always count on Antonio, and I count on him a lot. We have a mutual respect for each other—I try to look out for him, and he does what I need to get done. He’s very methodical.”