Has your yard put any potential provisions in place due to Coronavirus?

Ours is going to be busier than usual with school and college age liveries up during the week now. Everyone was complaining about competitions being cancelled but still took their horses out in the lorry for other things. I was shouted down when I suggested maybe restricting trips out to the essential might be a good idea.

I'm going up and riding but keeping a distance and that and food shopping is all I'm doing atm. Fields are still bad and turnout limited so I do need to exercise as otherwise Tigger legs turn into cankles.
 
HBB said:
I am in utter disbelief that a local competition centre is still going ahead with an arena event training day on Saturday! So much for social distancing, unnecessary travel and safeguarding the NHS!?

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3094718817213763&id=601673086518361
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Wellington are actively advertising their arena hire now they aren't busy with competitions. They have set up a permanent dressage arena, and a permanent SJ/arena xc course. There is also a clinic running tmw.
I'm on the fence with this one, but I suppose arena hire is no different to people riding in the arena at home.
 
mavandkaz said:
Wellington are actively advertising their arena hire now they aren't busy with competitions. They have set up a permanent dressage arena, and a permanent SJ/arena xc course. There is also a clinic running tmw.
I'm on the fence with this one, but I suppose arena hire is no different to people riding in the arena at home.
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Our local arena has done the same, I am also a bit on the fence but if they have no other income it may be that or close down and go broke, we went yesterday booking and paying online so no contact with anyone, each box was parked a good distance apart in the lorry park, I think it will prove popular unless movement is really restricted.
 
chocolategirl said:
I was wondering this too??! My yard is DIY, there’s 20 horses plus 5 of our own, and I can tell you now, there’s no bloomin way I’ll be able to care for 25 horses on my own! I’m asthmatic so in a high risk group, so I am very conscious of the risks of me getting this damn virus, but for crying out loud, this all seems to getting a bit bonkers now ffs ??‍♀️, I mean what if the YO owners on these yards get ill, whether it be with the virus or something else, what then..?!!?‍♀️
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I expect some horses that are out 24/7 could survive if they had a large enough area without human intervention for a few weeks. But those who can only go out on postage stamp fields or those strip grazed or laminitics on wood bark or sand would soon run out of food and those needing drugs for pain relief, i shrudder to think. Doesn't bear thinking about does it?
 
ycbm said:
Can everyone who has decided not to ride or who is telling others they shouldn't ride let us know whether they are currently active riders and whether their decision is based entirely on the virus?

I don't intend to give up at the moment and I'd like to be able to judge the tide of opinion from people who are currently active riders with no reason to make the decision to stop but to save the NHS from a potential casualty.
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I am now coming to the realisation that where I am it is the time to stop. A shame as I have worked really hard all winter to keep both in work and they are super fit and looking great. Both are sensible (12 and 14 years), but I also know that the worst accident I had, which resulted in a broken back, was caused by a horse simply tripping. We don't have anything like the concentration of cases that you have in the UK as schools etc were closed earlier in the curve, but I know that to turn up to the emergency room now with an accident caused by riding a horse would be very frowned upon, and to be honest I feel rightly so, and that I have been a little selfish in carrying on this long. A shame, but now is not the time to whinge about our individual preferences, after all not much is being asked of us, just to stay home. Today I didn't ride, and I think that is it for me now until this crisis is over:( At least for now we can enjoy seeing our horses, and if everyone abides by the rules and limits contact perhaps harsher restrictions will not be necessary. Wishing everyone well.
 
JGC said:
I would say that DIY livery doesn't exist in my part of France certainly, not sure about elsewhere. There some special exceptions that can be used if the YO gets sick themselves, but that's it.

Life under lockdown is scary and bizarre. There are few people out even on "allowed" outings and the police are checking virtually everyone at the time. The pictures in the hospitals are frightening and the situation is only going to get worse in the coming days because of the long incubation period. Even if I was "allowed" to the stables right now I wouldn't do it. Every extra trip is an extra chance that I will expose myself or others to the virus.

I hope you can all enjoy your ponies as long as possible and that the situation doesn't ever warrant such measures in the UK.
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DIY doesn't really exist in France. At least none that I'm aware of. All yards have a YO who is an instructor along with staff to take care of the horses.
A matter of trust and how well yards and riding schools are run.
Fingers crossed all horses make it through these tough times.
But most of all, that everyone stays healthy to reunite with their horses!
STAY HOME, IT CAN SAVE LIVES.
 
Feeling a little more hopeful that there is potentially more testing coming to the U.K. Germany have a high rate of infection but low death rate, suspected to higher testing/quicker intervention. Hopefully we can follow suit in the U.K. and that other countries can also control the spread.
 
helffrich said:
DIY doesn't really exist in France. At least none that I'm aware of. All yards have a YO who is an instructor along with staff to take care of the horses.
A matter of trust and how well yards and riding schools are run.
Fingers crossed all horses make it through these tough times.
But most of all, that everyone stays healthy to reunite with their horses!
STAY HOME, IT CAN SAVE LIVES.
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If you’re on DIY with no services you can’t stay home though!

I’m pretty sure people fighting over loo roll in Sainsbury’s is more likely to spread the virus than doing your horse. I haven’t been to a main supermarket for over 10 days now but I’ve been in my local shop to buy bread, milk and other odds and sods. I will have to go soon though to get some fresh foods.
 
hopscotch bandit said:
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.
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If I was a diy, I would not want my horse suddenly turned out 24. 7 who has been in.
Everyone needs to be sensible and go along the lines similar to strangles. My yard is a 1 man bandit with some diy some part. Not easy for me to have to cover diy horses too
 
ycbm said:
Are you currently an active rider? It would be good to know if you are actually taking the medicine you are prescribing others.

My local A&E is currently reported to be under less pressure than it has in a long time, due to people with minor issues staying away. Ditto the operating theatres as elective and non urgent surgery all cancelled. When and as that situation changes, I will review my decision to ride to protect my mental health.

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But you see the problem is that hospitals desperately need to limit the people visiting them - this is why they have cancelled elective surgeries. Any one of us could be carrying the virus now, and in visiting the hospital you risk passing it to the medics who treat you along with everyone else who you come into contact with. So while you may feel very satisfied to have your broken bone looked at quickly it is damaging to the rest of society.

I keep reading about this 'mental health' issue, and in all honesty I cannot take it seriously. Sure there may be a miniscule percentage who would really suffer with mental health problems due to not riding, but for the overwhelming majority of us this is not the case. Feeling sad / bored / frustrated is not the same as suffering from a mental health problem, and to equate the 2 makes light of the very serious problems that some face on a daily basis.

I am not judging you for continuing to ride, I am just saying that I do not agree with the justification that it is OK because the hospitals appear to be less busy, and I am questioning whether you can really say that you fall into a category that would suffer serious adverse effects from not riding because of mental health issues. We have all had time off riding for many issues, own health or health of the horses - we should be able to manage this.
 
Winters100 said:
But you see the problem is that hospitals desperately need to limit the people visiting them - this is why they have cancelled elective surgeries. Any one of us could be carrying the virus now, and in visiting the hospital you risk passing it to the medics who treat you along with everyone else who you come into contact with. So while you may feel very satisfied to have your broken bone looked at quickly it is damaging to the rest of society.

I keep reading about this 'mental health' issue, and in all honesty I cannot take it seriously. Sure there may be a miniscule percentage who would really suffer with mental health problems due to not riding, but for the overwhelming majority of us this is not the case. Feeling sad / bored / frustrated is not the same as suffering from a mental health problem, and to equate the 2 makes light of the very serious problems that some face on a daily basis.

I am not judging you for continuing to ride, I am just saying that I do not agree with the justification that it is OK because the hospitals appear to be less busy, and I am questioning whether you can really say that you fall into a category that would suffer serious adverse effects from not riding because of mental health issues. We have all had time off riding for many issues, own health or health of the horses - we should be able to manage this.
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I think we are talking about people with existing mental health issues here, not just someone feeling a bit down cos they can't ride their horse.

I know for myself that I've been feeling increasingly depressed over the last few days and I know from experience that if I don't take measures now I could easily slide in to the abyss.

A quick ride on a sensible pony in a safe environment gives me an enormous sense of joy and wellbeing and you can't overstate how much that will be needed by a lot of people over the coming months.
 
ILuvCowparsely said:
If I was a diy, I would not want my horse suddenly turned out 24. 7 who has been in.
Everyone needs to be sensible and go along the lines similar to strangles. My yard is a 1 man bandit with some diy some part. Not easy for me to have to cover diy horses too
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This would only be the situation if we went into full lockdown like France and only the YO who lives on site was able to attend to the horses as is the rule over there, i.e. no one can go on the yard from outside.

I agree it is a very worrying situation for everyone but not least for those owners of horses who have been in for a long period of time. But hopefully it won't come to this.

I am debating whether I could live in my car for the duration and that way I could assist the YO and make sure my horse and other horses were okay should she then fall ill. But it is still too much work for two people to do let alone one. We have microwave, fridge, freezer, toilet, toaster, etc and I have millions of rugs I could drape over me or a sleeping bag in my trailer! I'm not sure my back could take it though, with the 17 painkillers I'm on every day!

We implemented a half day turnout rule on our yard weeks ago now due to the constant rain, but the paddocks are still almost inaccesible due to the mud just from the footfall of horses coming in/going out to pasture, so carting hay across 50 plus acres (as in our case) and ensuring horses are fed at least once a day (to allow bute/supplements) would be almost impossible anyway no matter how many staff you had.
 
well my YO is now muttering about putting us all on full livery. No can do, it would be unaffordable so I may bring my 2 home. That in a way would solve a problem but it would mean no riding.
 
southerncomfort said:
I think we are talking about people with existing mental health issues here, not just someone feeling a bit down cos they can't ride their horse.

I know for myself that I've been feeling increasingly depressed over the last few days and I know from experience that if I don't take measures now I could easily slide in to the abyss.

A quick ride on a sensible pony in a safe environment gives me an enormous sense of joy and wellbeing and you can't overstate how much that will be needed by a lot of people over the coming months.
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I agree with your sentiments. I suffer from anxiety and have had bouts of depression most of my horse keeping life and I am feeling down about the whole thing so I'm trying not to dwell on it. But I'm constantly surrounded by it at work as I am involved in a lot of the preparation, planning and information overload we are giving the guys on site about coronavirus and all the things we have had to implement like additional sanitisers, sending non-essential staff home to reduce the chance, toolbox talks, posters, newsletters etc, etc. I feel like I can never escape.

On a lighter note here is a brilliant calendar designed to give tips on helping those who are finding that their mental health may be suffering during these challenging times. The calendar gives tips and ideas for both mental and physical stimulation. You can download it here: https://www.actionforhappiness.org/media/863028/coping_calendar.pdf
 
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hopscotch bandit said:
I agree with your sentiments. I suffer from anxiety and have had bouts of depression most of my horse keeping life and I am feeling down about the whole thing so I'm trying not to dwell on it. But I'm constantly surrounded by it at work as I am involved in a lot of the preparation, planning and information overload we are giving the guys on site about coronavirus and all the things we have had to implement like additional sanitisers, sending non-essential staff home to reduce the chance, toolbox talks, posters, newsletters etc, etc. I feel like I can never escape.

On a lighter note here is a brilliant calendar designed to give tips on helping those who are finding that their mental health may be suffering during these challenging times. The calendar gives tips and ideas for both mental and physical stimulation. You can download it here: https://www.actionforhappiness.org/media/863028/coping_calendar.pdf
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Thanks so much for posting this.
 
I’m currently not allowed to ride or go to the yard full stop. I’m the only livery on the yard too. I’m hoping I’m not going to have to wait 12 weeks to ride or even groom my horse as I won’t be impressed...
 
I suffer with anxiety and when it is really bad (not currently funnily enough) the only thing that helps me is riding. Not without my wobbles but when riding I focus solely on what I am doing and the rest of the chatter stops- it’s a brief respite. I walk dogs, work, read, groom the horse etc but none of these things help me the way riding a horse does.
 
How difficult is this?

Get a cabinet minister to make an pronuciamento that you can go and feed, exercise and otherwise take care of your horses!

Get it done!

Simples, eek!

Surely you horsey people have some influence.
 
All my liveries are currently coming up, including new ones moving in. We all have to look after ourselves , don't get close to anyone when out and about and be vigilant.
 
Keith_Beef said:
How difficult is this?

Get a cabinet minister to make an pronuciamento that you can go and feed, exercise and otherwise take care of your horses!

Get it done!

Simples, eek!

Surely you horsey people have some influence.
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It's not though is it? I would think that in the grand scheme of things our wants, requirements and demands come very low in the pecking order so to speak. I am sure local government is being advised by the FEI, BEF and the BHS and this is being fed into the decision makers anyway.

But the danger of us spreading a virus verses the need of us wanting to visit our horse for whatever reason. Well i know what would happen. They would think, well horses eat grass. Therefore they can all live out if push comes to shove and no more about it!

And on a more positive note, that blasted Veleo Cycle Race that takes over our roads and lanes with road closures endangering the lives of our horses (as was proved last year) has been put back a year. A small but happy victory for horse owners and hackers everywhere!
 
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One thing i have thought of is in the unfortunate event that we did go into lockdown there will be some very vulnerable and exposed yards which could be a source for looting.

After all there will be practically no one around and most yards, by their very nature, are in the countryside surrounded by fields and meadows. I'd say it would be an ideal situation for thieving scumbags. So I for one shall be taking my belongings home if we get enough warning.

Just a thought.....
 
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