Dear Great Britian II. Attn: Grumpy Snowed in People,

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Festive_Felicitations

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Dear Grumpy Snowed in People,

Becaue I'm getting bored of all your sulking and complaining :)

I realise that the never ending cold must be very depressing but everyone who is complaining about not being able to see there horses or ride please spare a thought for what all you fellow Australian horse lovers (mainly in NSW) had to go through during the EI (Equine Influenza) out break in 2007.

The day the out break was officially recognised and a halt to all horse movement was called was a saturday in early August 2007 - around one of the buisiest times competition wise. The halt in movement meant that horses couldn't leave the property they were on and those at competition venues couldn't leave either. The no movement order lasted for 6 months

Due to the sheer size of Australia competion venues are often far from home which meant that come Monday riders had to make the hard choice of taking time off work at least till things got organised or if that was not possible leaving their precious horses in someone elses (often a stranger) care.
Think of a farm hosting and ODE or a showground holding a large show they might have yards and facilities for a few horses but not for 100's on an extended stay. The result was bedlham as people tried to get food and water for all the horse, riders argued with vets and government offcials that you can't suddely confine a horse fit to do a 2* 3DE to a 5x5m yard, and that they HAD to be allowed to exercise. Then organising exercise timetables for said 100+ horses...
Anyone (human) leaving or entering the venue had to be thoroughly disinfected.
OK to be fair after the first day or 2 the gov and local communities got organised and rallied round to make life as comfortable as possible for those involved.

Many riders/owners who'd left there horses and gone home - if they had horses at home - were very strongly discouraged from returning to see their horses becasue of the danger of carrying the infection.

But you could say these were the lucky ones - what about all the people who kept there horses on small 5 acre properties and were suddenly not allowed to leave it, some people had arenas and round yards and could continue exercising their horses after a fashion.
The big problem was no one had any idea how long the lock down was going to last. Did you try and keep some fitness level? Did you rough off entierly?

After 2months even the horses that had been roughed off were bored ridgid and starting to gallop laps of their fields - which brought all the stress of potential injury, how to prevent it, ways of starving off boredom etc. The stress wasn't helped by the news that a mare and foal had died from EI, and a previously healthy gelding had been touch and go.

But imagine the anger and rage at the news that the TB racing industry had been given the go ahead to move broodmares around, with in 'zones' so that the breeding season wasn't lost. The only reason we had EI was because a TB stallion coming from Japan for the breeding season had some how got through quarantine while sick. :mad: :mad:

I guess your familiar with EI but one of its main symptoms is a high temp. By the time it really spread and began to affect large horse populations it was Dec and temps were in the high 30's. Ever tried to cool off a horse with a 41C temp on a humid 35C day? Its not fun.
Topped off with the depressing thought of permanent lung damage from all the coughing.

Eventually 6 mnths after all this started, when most horses had either been vaccinated or sick, and after months of vocal pressure from riding clubs etc reaching the news, and PMs were being bombarded with letters the government lifted movement bans for everyone else.

I have never seen horses so delighted to go for a hack. Previously reluctant horses were towing their owners out of the yard and down the road. The normally laid back Beau spent most of his time cantering sideways (meant to be walking)...

SO when you think that you haven't ridden for a few weeks, or that you havent seen your horses in a fortnight, and all the comps you are missing. Look on the brightside at the worst it is going to last till the end of Jan - 8 weeks? if it does improve a bit you can go to indoor arenas/ all weather gallops. You have NOTHING to whinge about.

Regards,

Australia.
(Totally unoffical, un-elected, non-demographic representative of,)
 
Very well said. I must admit that I myself wasnt aware of how huge the disruption was when this occured.
I have a couple of fellow liveries that are constantly moaning about the snow (or anything else they can at any time of year really). It gets everybody down, but we all just have to do the best we can, and if we can get to our horses but not ride, then be thankful for quality time spent developing our bond with them.
 
I had absolutely no idea that all that was going on and dont really know anything about the disease. It must have been dreadful. We had similar with foot and mouth but not to that extent. Last winter I couldn't ride for about 4 months due snow but there isn't anything you can do about it. This year it is likely to be longer though.
 
OMG :eek::eek:

Incredibly saddened to read that. Didn't know it was for that long.

For the record, I have not moaned about the cold/snow - worse things happen at sea. No, I mean NSW.
 
I remember the outbreak Felicity, it was horrible for everybody in the Equine Industry - apart from no equine movement, the substantial financial losses were great. They even nearly called off the Melbourne Cup due to EI. The lock down in Warwick was pretty bad. Let’s hope that never happens again - was the class action against the Government ever successful?
 
I imagine Foot and Mouth would be similar - but I understood that some, severly disinfected, movement was still allowed?

Tallyhohoho - LOL! :)

Missparis - yes I forgot to mention the financial side! All the poor blacksmiths. physio's, etc who were initially told they couldn't work!!! Which was, after protest, then ammended to yes you can visit properties but you have to completely disinfect your self (including chage of clothes) and your vehicle between visits.

The class action was (I think) unsuccessful but as a result (I suspect) the mutterings about making us pay for the cost of imposing & enforcing the no movement order (due to the govs negligence) disappeared. The case did show that the out break was due to lax/ totally unacceptable work standards at the quarantine facility.
 
After hearing other's plights of not getting to horses etc, I am thankful that I do go and see mine twice a day - and even if I can't ride - and it's pony and not me that's getting grumpy :P - I give them both hugs (when they let me).

That outbreak sounds awful felicity and I do remember the Foot & Mouth outbreak here, and the difficulties it brought to us.
 
Soloeq. - no becasue it is (well wasn't) present in Australia being an isolated island etc. So rather than have to vaccinate everyone - which would be impossible to monitor enforce out west - it is supposedly caught in quarantine which one reason why any horse coming in to Aus has to do about 28 days of quarantine.
2 weeks before departure and 2 on arrival.

We don't have rabies, equine influenza, only a few strains of strangles and outbreaks are nearly unheard of though we do vaccinate for it, and loads more diseases Im sure. However we have some of our own like Hendra (95% fatality).
 
I was still in living Australia when EI hit - on a yard with 12 horses. We weren't allowed to leave the place to go far (other than for food) and people had to spray their cars etc when dropping supplies outside the gate. We were in the middle of nowhere, totally isolated. Despite all precautions, all of the horses got ill.

When I moved to Sydney we kept the horses at CPEC - one of the first places to be struck by EI. They said they didn't know what all the fuss was about and that they dealt with it easily.

I would far, FAR rather go through that again than this freeze... and I only have one horse at the moment! This is seriously hard work. You might want to try living here for a while and see which you find more inconvenient!

EI was just a big media circus and they should have let it spread rather than attempting to stop it. All they did was delay the inevitable and force precautions that made no difference at all.
 
But isn't that why we're called 'Whinging Poms'? :p

ps - I hate the snow and the ice and want to ride :(

pps - Happy Christmas to all :D
 
For me, Foot and Mouth was very similar to the OP's post.
I worked at an agric. college at the time (with approx 300 horses), and kept my own on a local sheep farm. Unfortunately both areas were under Section D notice (I think that's right) so we weren't really able to move animals. I had to change and disinfect every time I went between yards.
The sheep farm had all the ewes in for lambing, wasn't allowed to put them out and ran out of fodder.
Local farms were burning their stock, and I remember driving home through Cumbria at the height of F & M and seeing no stock in the fields, but pyres and smoke everywhere.
A little moaning about the weather is nothing...now you've got us started on F & M. :p
S :D
 
Shilasdair said:
A little moaning about the weather is nothing...now you've got us started on F & M. :p
S :D
Click to expand...
Yes but at least it is a different subject!!! :)

MunchMincePies - I'm sure the deep freeze is hell to live with, and I agree that the attempts to contain it were a stupid waste of time adn money - especially when so many (thinking rich, dumb blondes in Syd) seemed to think that quarantine/disinfecting etc didn't include them!! :mad:
 
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