F and M, do I deaf the dressage tomo?

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custard

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Right, we are in Warwickshire and Radway is going ahead tomo as normal. However, YO has asked us not to hack on the road or travel, mainly to save annoying the farmers. It is after all they who keep us supplied with hay etc!

Please help me make decision whether to go or not, don't want to be percieved irresponsible or selfish.
 
TBH I would stay at home. I know it sounds harsh but it is only a competition and doesn't mean as much as the livestock in your area. There will be other competitions but it is up to you at the end of the day. If you go good luck and hope you do well.
 
I say stay at home and think about farmers in your locality. As you say they supply us with hay etc. If they get F&M they'll go out of business and may not want to return to farming. We all have a duty to help each other.

It is very hard to miss something you've been working towards but there is another day.
 
I would stay at home simply as a gesture of respect to the farmers.
Your movement may have NO effect on F&M in your area, but I know in 2001 our farmers really appreciated that we restricted our movements to support them.
 
I too would stay at home - it's going to be a lonely time for farmers and they need all the support they can get.
 
Hmm, think I can see what the feeling is and quite understandable too.

Having said that tho if comp/show venues made a stand and all cancelled for a couple of weeks then nobody would be tempted to go in the first place. Of course they don't want to do that they'd lose lots of money as they'd have to give refunds.

Secondly am quite happy to stop at home as a show of support for the farmers but haven't seen any of them rushing out to put straw/disinfectant in their drives this morning........
 
If I was you I would stay at home to show your real support for the farmers. there will be plenty of other shows.
 
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Having said that tho if comp/show venues made a stand and all cancelled for a couple of weeks then nobody would be tempted to go in the first place.

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And if riders made a stand then there would be no one to run a show for...

There's always going to be people who believe that competing/money is more important..you can choose whether you want to be one of them.
 
we had a show to go to in Leatherhead tomorrow, but it has been cancelled. Think they are acting very responsibly. It's about all of us doing our bit..
 
I would show support to your local area and not go, but mostly I would support and respect your YO's request. Afterall, they have to live and run a business in the area after everything resolves, you on the other hand can move on when ever you like.

I personally think that until more is known in the coming days as to whether the disease has spread, we should all be respectful and stay at home - I know many won't though.
 
If I was your YO and you chose to leave after specifically being aked not to, you sure as hell wouldn't be coming back onto my yard
 
Can't put it any better, Druid! No sitting on the fence then!

As someone said, if all outside 'things' were cancelled as a matter of course (you can't expect DEFRA to have even thought about it can you?!) then these problems wouldn't arise.

Of course, anyone who does go and compete will have a very hollow victory if the sensible ones have stayed at home, their win will mean zilch!
 
Especially as they are now looking at a few other suspect cases
frown.gif
 
I've been a local summer show today. There is a horse section there and it carried on as normal but with straw mat disinfecting the driveway.

Having then spoken to the organisers of the show, it turns out that a vet who also works with Defra contacted them and they were asked to call it off. They didn't as everything was in place and they allowed them to go ahead with the horses as long as the straw was down.

I didn't take horses and would have pulled out, had we supposed to have been entering.
 
Having read some of the replies, is everyone of the opinion that all shows everywhere in the country should be cancelled and we shouldn't leave our yards? I've been for a hack today and I'm due to go to some RC SJ tomorrow and not heard that it's been cancelled - 4 of us going from our yard supposedly. Nobody has asked us not to go anywhere - if they did I would stay put. Not sure what to do now.
 
I wouldn't be hacking off property unless in a completly non-agricultural area and I certainly wouldn't be travelling to shows/clinics. Just for a week or so until it becomes clear if there are other cases, it's juts not worth the risk imo
 
I personally think that until they can say for definite where the cattle on that holding came from (I understand chap is a dealer so they could have come from Scotland as far as we know and they haven't done an exclusion zone that far!) then there should be a blanket ban for at least a fortnight on moving any stock anywhere - including horses. I hope they by now have stopped ramblers, cyclists etc too. I can't see that happening but it would be the most sensible thing - something DEFRA are not known for - just to give everyone a breather and for the labs to catch up on any tests they need to do.

I am a cautious stick in the mud though and I do remember how bad it was last time; if we can help stop that happening, surely we should?
 
Can see your point but we're hundreds of miles from the affected area and is taking a horse out any different to people getting in their cars and driving around? Walking dogs? Going to and from work? Cycling? Going to the shop? Church? Walking from the car to the house? Where do we stop? I'm in a very agricultural area - huge dairy farming region. I relief milk on a local farm (do I have to stop going there???) and coming from a farming background so fully understand the implications. The disease spread like wildfire in 2001 because restrictions weren't put in place quickly enough for the transportation of cloven hooved animals. Not one farm I have been past today have put disinfectant on their farm gates and they have still moved cows on public highways to fields to graze. There is actually an act to say that if FMD has been confirmed anywhere then milking cows only are allowed to be moved along a public highway as long as it is cleaned afterwards, otherwise a fine of £5000 is possible.

I'm just playing devil's advocate but will wait and see what the general feeling around here is before I make any decisions. I don't think anyone should be criticised for their decisions though - people make informed choices based on the information they have in their areas and to be honest once the farmers round here start taking some actions then nobody else will.
 
Well thankyou SV, some common sense! I've clearly started something here. Bearing in mind I go to and from the yard in a car, unrestricted and unchecked, what's the difference in using a lorry?

I use the motorway network to get to and from work driving through god knows what animal effluent which has been spilled from lorries en route so just how far do you take it?

When I did a recent check on the M6 near B'ham several meat wagons came through with seriously iffy meat or meat by products on board, these were the tip of the iceberg I suspect. The resultant gunge that gets spread up and down the country is probably as much to blame for the spread of disease as anything else.

As for people who leave the horses at home yet still go to events to spectate or whatever, what's the point? You've still travelled there in a vehicle.

We need some hard and fast rules TBH and as usual DEFRA and the Gov't have no backbone!
 
I am in full support of stopping this from spreading, as I have pointed out I have been, and am heavily involved in the farming community. However, we have spoken of farmers livelihoods being affected but what about those in the equine industry if we have to cancel numerous equine events - local, regional or national. It will have another huge financial impact on the industry on what has already been a very difficult year. I may be ignorant, naive or just thick but I do not see how transporting horses from one equine unit to another equine unit in a lorry or trailer has any bearing on the spread of FMD - is is any different to me driving through Cheshire (20 mile journey) to work? Or my partner going across country through rural Cheshire to work every day? By equestrian centre I mean dedicated to equestrianism, not a show in a field which has possibly had cloven hooved animals grazing there before or after a show. Yes, you can argue that horses are kept in rural areas and equine centres are often in rural areas but unless you are travelling within restricted areas (for which you would need a licence anyway) I don't see why we can't continue to support local venues. The cancellation of one more show could be enough to tip the scales of serious financial losses. Let's take it each day as it comes and make decisions based on the wishes of those we directly affect. Hacking is maybe one thing I would stop doing - I hadn't though earlier today, but going to equestrian centres where we would more than likely have our vehicles disinfected is far safer probably than going down the M6 passing farm after farm after farm.
 
If people can still walk in the countryside and thus going through fields where livestock graze why should horse owners not go to competitions.
My horse is at an arable farm and we are not close to any livestock, no one has mentioned anything about F&M, the farmers are all out busy cutting hay and straw.
I am going competing tomorrow as the centre has confirmed they are still running. From our yard to the centre is straight along the M40 and M25 all north of surrey and I won't be passing any livestock farm.

I do feel for all the farmers out there and I do hope we won't have a repeat of 2001 but I feel that implications have been put in place early enough so hopefully distruption will be kept to the minimum
 
The estate that my horses are kept on has an embargo, so no horses are allowed in or out. I think it's fair enough really - there's livestock on the estate and precautions are being taken to disinfect car tyres and boots on the way in.

I'm in a lucky position though. Having just withdrawn from a dressage competition tomorrow we're going to run it at our yard anyway with just three of us. We've found score sheets, someone to judge and we're still plaiting up and putting on full show gear to make it special. Lots of people have heard about it so we'll probably have an audience.

I'm on the fence re: the cancelling show thing. I respect that the last thing the farming community need is people transporting horses and other animals all over the place that could carry the disease, but on the other hand if the risk is unknown at the moment because the spread isn't determined then it would be a shame for other industries to suffer.
 
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