hopscotch bandit
Well-Known Member
Our Y.O has wisely given a letter to all the liveries asking us to bear with her during this difficult time. She's been researching hugely solutions for a yard like ours via government advice, the BEF and the French Equestrian Federation (who are advised by the same scientists that our equine decision makers are but are two weeks ahead of us) and a couple of plans have been put in place to be used if necessary.
Advice is mainly to wash hands before arriving and upon leaving (we must supply our own towels to keep in the car), also to try and carry a hand sanitiser with us, not to share other peoples wheelbarrows and tools, shared tack, feed bins, not to allow any non essential visitors onto the yard, etc and make sure we have enough feed, bedding and hay in case we go into full lock down.
We also need to consider what options we have if we have to self isolate ourselves, i.e. who will be looking after your horse.
If we go into full lock down which we hopefully will not have to do then all our horses will go out 24/7 and the Y.O will hay/feed and our arrival times will be staggered to avoid each other. We have also been asked not to congregate in areas like the tea room, feed room, etc.
I think it's an excellent idea to come up with an action plan which can be used in the event that we need it and I fully support the reasoning behind it.
Anyone else had similar?
As an aside I was talking to my vet last night whose family lives in another part of the world hugely affected by Coronavirus and he is understandably terribly worried about his parents, his Mother works for the Government in that country and is working really long hours due to the virus implications, and his Father is a vet who is restricted at the moment to only dealing with emergency call outs as it is so bad there. He must be so worried about them, as we are about our older parents. My Mum's 84, fortunately doesn't have any underlying issues but I'm worried about her non the less.
Advice is mainly to wash hands before arriving and upon leaving (we must supply our own towels to keep in the car), also to try and carry a hand sanitiser with us, not to share other peoples wheelbarrows and tools, shared tack, feed bins, not to allow any non essential visitors onto the yard, etc and make sure we have enough feed, bedding and hay in case we go into full lock down.
We also need to consider what options we have if we have to self isolate ourselves, i.e. who will be looking after your horse.
If we go into full lock down which we hopefully will not have to do then all our horses will go out 24/7 and the Y.O will hay/feed and our arrival times will be staggered to avoid each other. We have also been asked not to congregate in areas like the tea room, feed room, etc.
I think it's an excellent idea to come up with an action plan which can be used in the event that we need it and I fully support the reasoning behind it.
Anyone else had similar?
As an aside I was talking to my vet last night whose family lives in another part of the world hugely affected by Coronavirus and he is understandably terribly worried about his parents, his Mother works for the Government in that country and is working really long hours due to the virus implications, and his Father is a vet who is restricted at the moment to only dealing with emergency call outs as it is so bad there. He must be so worried about them, as we are about our older parents. My Mum's 84, fortunately doesn't have any underlying issues but I'm worried about her non the less.
