Dear Readers: Although there is a change in leadership, the heart and soul of The Equiery will remain the same. The women you’ve come to know and love, who are the core of the publication, are here to serve you, and each is featured over a span of 4 weeks. I am so privileged to have had these women on my team, and I know and trust that they will continue to serve our readers, advertisers and community well. Before I go, I would like you to know a little bit more about who they really are, their roles within the team, and why I admire each so very much. – Crystal Brumme Pickett, Publisher/Editor 1991-2017

Carolyn Del Grosso – 12 years with The Equiery

Carolyn del Grosso celebrates 12 years with The Equiery; IJK Photo

Controller/Bookkeeper/Customer Service

Carolyn Del Grosso is, without a doubt, the Maryland horse industry’s “Steady Eddie,” the most reliable and dependable horse person you will ever meet. Up every morning at 4 a.m., she does the barn chores, trains horses, teaches lessons, arrives at The Equiery no later than 1 p.m., works until dusk, returns to the barn for night chores. Rinse, repeat.

In 2006, after over 20 years with County Saddlery, Carolyn decided she was ready for a change of venue. She first approached The Equiery to find out if we knew of anyone who was hiring. Impressed with her degree in accounting, her twenty years of actual bookkeeping creds, her warm and familiar personality, as well as her obvious disinclination to job-hop, I created a position for her at The Equiery!

Everyone in dressage knows Carolyn as the stalwart director on the Board of the Potomac Valley Dressage Association, which she has faithfully served for 30 years. Carolyn grew up in Montgomery County riding with Seneca Valley Pony Club, foxchasing and competing in every discipline, including eventing, jumpers and show hunters. But dressage was her natural calling, clicking with her steady, even workmanlike temperament. That steady, even temperament imbues everything she does, and when she joined The Equiery team in 2006, she easily blended in with the team.

Carolyn had been part of The Equiery long before she became a staffer, as she was one of our first stallion clients, back in 1992, when the local and national sport horse breeding industry was rocking and annual stallion issues were thick encyclopedias of advertising (no internet then!). Her Hanoverian stallion Arklicht, her Kris, her love, arrived from Germany on Christmas Eve 1984, and naturally he became “Kris Kringle.” Together, the two of them have competed through Grand Prix. Carolyn – and we – lost Kris this year. The consummate gentleman, may he rest in peace.

Fate works in mysterious ways. It was the go-go 2000s and The Equiery was growing exponentially. I could no longer handle the bookkeeping myself. While I had heard about companies that offer bookkeeping services for small business, I did not have the time to find a bookkeeper. In walked Carolyn, wanting to know if we knew of anyone looking for a bookkeeper. I am grateful to Gene Freeze for not stealing her back! One of the warmest women I have known, former Equiery associate publisher LuAnne Levens referred to her as “warm pudding.” Honest, kind, unflappable and easy-going, Carolyn just blended right into The Equiery, unfazed by the monthly high/low crazy culture.