Talking of Horses, Hearts and Employment

By Jennie Baker

MY name is Jennie Baker and I am 22 years old. I have been a member of GUCH since June 2000. I was asked to write an article on my occupation and the prejudice I have encountered. Horses are great animals to work with. They never tell you what to do, never answer you back, ever shout at you and usually do what they're told. Working outside is one of the best things about the job, although when it is raining and -10 degrees it can get a bit much. It is a very physical and demanding job and horses don't wait for anyone, they eat all your money and your time. The wages are not brilliant either; people who work with horses do it for the love, not for the money. There are a variety of different jobs ranging from studwork or farriery - to show jumping or horse racing. I have been around horses since I was five, and have worked with horses since I left school at 16. This has been mainly in racing yards, though I did qualify at the National Stud and worked for a short time at a local stud farm. Trainers take advantage of young people, thinking they can get away with paying them next to nothing and leaving them in the yard to do all the jobs no one else wants to do. In addition, the female staff are often put upon by employers or senior yard staff. Some employers are very understanding and have no problem with taking on someone with a medical condition. Others, however, seem to think that the person is not capable of doing anything so physical, and either won't give them the time of day, or leave them to muck out stables and sweep yards. I have noticed some prejudice working in racing, just for being the wrong sex. So having a heart condition as well didn't really work in my favour. I proved myself and rode horses up the gallops and jumped ditches and hurdles, but when I started to get breathless, my employers said I was panicking and didn't let me ride out after that. It felt that they were trying to get rid of me because they couldn't be bothered to try and understand how I was feeling.

The people who I work for at the moment are very understanding if I don't feel well or get out of breath. They also let me ride out with them. I was born with quite a complex heart condition. I have dextrocardia, pulmonary atresia, congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries, VSD and ASD. This was all corrected in 1988, and was fine up until about a year or so ago. The doctors said that where my two pumping chambers are round the wrong way and pumping through the wrong valves, the tricuspid valve was leaking quite badly and this was making the pumping chamber enlarged. Also the homograft pulmonary valve was moderately leaking and narrowed.

The doctors have discussed my condition and have decided it would be too risky to do an operation on my heart as it is. They have decided that the safer option is for a heart transplant. I an waiting for an assessment at Harefield Hospital in order for them to carry out the necessary tests. In the meantime, Dr. Cullen is going to put me on some drugs to help reduce the pressure on my pumping chamber and delay the transplant for a long as possible. It is my great wish to have a operation that will allow me to continue to work in the industry I love, with people I like to work with and for. There is nothing like leading a horse around a parade ring with hundreds of people watching it and me, then watching it go and win the race.

Printed in GUCH News, December 2001