Suspected strangles, is this reasonable or not?

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mar2505

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A yard 15miles away has a horse with suspected strangles. The vet has told her to contact people she was at an event with and advise them and she is awaiting blood test results. My YO has refused to let anyone leave the yard, hack or go to shows tomorrow because she says she has a duty of care to our horses and missing one show until this lady has results should be more important to us. However all around us other yards who have had horses at same event are hacking out and attending shows and people tell me my YO is being unreasonable. I have hired a lorry to go to local show tomorrow and now am over hundred pound out of pocket. Am I being unfair to think she is over exagerrating and over panicking when its not been confirmed?
 
I can see it from both sides to be honest. But 15 miles is quite a distance and it's unlikely that you would come in direct contact with an infected horse - if there actually are any! So I would be annoyed if I was you.
 
I would rather be safe than sorry....
However it is down to each YO and u do have to repsect that they have a duty of care.. i would much rather a YO like this and have a yard of healthy horses.
Just an idea could you not use the trailer u have hired to go to the beach for a ride or hack well outside the area, i'm sure if u explained YO would be ok with this so u dont lose your money??
 
I am furious but she loves a crisis. She told me 2 horses down the yard were being blood tested but forgot I knew the owners who said they never even go to shows. Trouble is everyone else on yard thinks they are being caring so fighting a lost cause. I dont know if this is a deal breaker cause just when I am happy on yard another thing happens like this to make me want to leave. Does this happen elsewhere.
 
Having had strangles on our yard I'm afraid I would err on the side of caution like your YO. Strangles is highly contagious and is easily spread from horse to horse. Better to miss one competition than have strangles confirmed and end up confined to barracks - we couldn't go out for 8 -10 weeks when it was here as you have to wait to get the ok from vet. Besides which the news of a yard having strangles spreads quickly and we weren't welcome anywhere - and it was over the summer so missed pretty much the whole show season.
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Fingers crossed you will all be out and about again soon.
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I suggested that but she has point blank refused to let us leave yard with any horse until anyone hears that this horse is ok. Meanwhile we are on edge of woods and everyone else hacks past us with their maybe infected horses!!!
 
personally i dont think she is over reacting, if your horses (or horses on your yard) have been to a show or event with the possibly infected horses you should be quaranteened within your yard until the results come back imo. this to me seems to be a sensible move on your YO's part not only for the reputation of her business but also if other possibly infected horses from the area are going out and about tommorrow you would be risking infection from them too.
 
Silly question then but why are local shows still going on. One will have quite a few pony club kids who will have been at same rally(or possibly), should they not stop them. Do they have a duty of care?
 
Ok that does seem slightly unreasonable, but again its her yard. If you are not happy with her rules etc then maybe moving would be a good plan? I know when my old YO overreacted about everything it was one of my main reasons to pack up and leave (that and the gossip/bitching etc)!! However if u are happy there and this is a one off like SU said 1 week is better than 10!
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no they dont its not a notifiable disease so technically you can go where you please and do what you want but it is your YO's pergogative?sp to enforce rules on her yard because she has a duty of care to her liveries and the reputation of her business. Whether others in the area follow suit or not is completley up to them but i know which yard id rather be on.
 
Thanks a million. I think for me I had issues with how she told me as she kept it sll quite until she heard me on phone booking time and then said dont think your going anywhere. She likes to control people and has lots of kids with rich parents on yard that she can control cause they know nothing and she cant control me cause too old and wise for that.
So frustrated as had been looking forward to it for weeks
 
i can understand your frustration completely and she doesnt sound like the nicest lady in the world! but i really think you would be more upset if your horse ended up with strangles and you worried that is was because you had gone tommorrow, and for sure others on your yard would also end up infected which would lead to more arguements however well you get on with the owners atm! strangles on a yard is a whole can of worms you dont want to open, let others in the area do as they please tommorrow and stay on your yard and have a day playing with your horse safe in the knowledge your not taking an unneccessary risk that would cost loads more than 100 quid in the long run. In all probablity youwill b given the all clear in a few days and you will have the rest of the summer to go out to shows.
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i can understand your frustration completely and she doesnt sound like the nicest lady in the world! but i really think you would be more upset if your horse ended up with strangles and you worried that is was because you had gone tommorrow, and for sure others on your yard would also end up infected which would lead to more arguements however well you get on with the owners atm! strangles on a yard is a whole can of worms you dont want to open, let others in the area do as they please tommorrow and stay on your yard and have a day playing with your horse safe in the knowledge your not taking an unneccessary risk that would cost loads more than 100 quid in the long run. In all probablity youwill b given the all clear in a few days and you will have the rest of the summer to go out to shows.
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temsik put it so much better than I could. I 100% agree with what she says.

Keep us updated though will you please?
 
this happened to me. it was about 15 miles away- confirmed, and i wasnt allowed to compete, hunt or hack off the farm. so i moved yards about 5 minutes, and they let me compete,hack and hunt all through the winter without a bother... i can understand why the first YO said no, mainly because all the people just hack and so would deem it unfair if i went out and got strangles and came back with it.... but the 2nd YO was perfectly happy for me to go out, but i do hunt and compete atleast an hour away- but others on the yard did things closer...
i geuss its the YOs choice tbh, but its very annoying and i know how you feel, i was so annoyed when she told me i couldnt go hunting, id cleaned my grey horse who was plastered in mud so i was really p1ssed off!
i can understand why your YO would be worried if the lady with strangles has competed recently, where the yard had strangles in my case was a polo yard and so hadnt had their horses off there till the end of the season....
 
She is totally over reacting. Strangles is not spread through the air only by contact with an infected animal of it's mucas.

A more sensible precaution would be to not allow you animals to drink or graze when out and not have anyone from that yard on your yard.

In the New Forest strangles is basically endemic in the ferral ponies and so crops up most years. If we didn't go out when there was a case within 15 miles we'd probably never leave the yard.
 
Your YO is being a very responible person by keeping you in while waiting for results.

Strangles is a very easy to catch bug - we had a horse with it recently that had been living in the same place, turned out for over a year - she moved to us and within a day or so was sick. All we can think of is that a new horse in her old paddock was a carrier. We voluntarily put ourselves in quarantine so that we didn't risk anyone elses horses.

It was a real pain as I had shows to go to but owning a foal my first responsibility was to keep her safe. I had my horses in two different places, a friend I share grazing with looked after the ones in the infected placae so that I could stay away. It meant that I didn't see some of my horses for two months.

It doesn't need direct contact - drinking from a trough at a show, touching noses, a sneeze from a horse in the early stages. Lets hope the tests come back negative.
 
Theres confirmed starangles about 15 miles away from us at the moment and we have carried on as normal as lets face face it your horse could catch it at any time if its out competing, we just don't let anyone on our yard from that place
 
The problem with strangles is even after it has gone, it leaves a yard with a bad vibe to others. My yard had strangles (one horse) about 5 years ago, and even to this day I hear comments like "don't go there, they've got strangles" The YO has even put a big banner on their website stating that they don't have this disease anymore!!
I can understand, and almost agree with your YO, she is tryin to prevent her whole yard coming down with this, and causing a lot of heartache in the long run, but at the end of the day, she physically can't stop you from leaving, but then you run the risk of bad vibes on your return!!
 
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She is totally over reacting. Strangles is not spread through the air only by contact with an infected animal of it's mucas.

A more sensible precaution would be to not allow you animals to drink or graze when out and not have anyone from that yard on your yard.

In the New Forest strangles is basically endemic in the ferral ponies and so crops up most years. If we didn't go out when there was a case within 15 miles we'd probably never leave the yard.

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^^^^

What she said...
 
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She is totally over reacting. Strangles is not spread through the air only by contact with an infected animal of it's mucas.

A more sensible precaution would be to not allow you animals to drink or graze when out and not have anyone from that yard on your yard.

In the New Forest strangles is basically endemic in the ferral ponies and so crops up most years. If we didn't go out when there was a case within 15 miles we'd probably never leave the yard.

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totally agree also with all of this and to be honest strangles is much more prevalent than most people realize as people have a habit of keeping quiet about it, so at most shows you go to someone somewhere probably has been within 15 miles of a horse with strangles.
Which is why you should not allow your horses to drink from the troughs (take your own water ) or say hello to its neighbours.
 
Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread.

Would you mind if I just asked a couple of semi-related questions?

We've got Strangles on our yard because one of the liveries bought a new horse of unknown origin to the yard. One of the other liveries said to the YO straightaway that the horse was ill and further investigations should be done before it's allowed to stay and use the general yard facilities.

The YO ignored this warning and hey presto the new horse has developed Strangles and we've been quarantined and it looks v likely that we're going to miss the Summer season.

Many of the liveries compete from Pony Club level up to National Riding Club level & BSJA.

Has our YO been allegedly negligent? Anyone ever taken it up before the beak?!
 
Having been alerted to Niffer’s comments by my clients I would like to reply to the accusations made against me.

Firstly, I am the Yard Owner Niffer talks about and yes we do indeed have an outbreak of Strangles at the yard. However, that is where the correlation between actual events and those told by Niffer ends.

These are the facts… A horse came to the yard whose background is known. I have the papers to show that she was bred in 2000 at a reputable Stud (she is a purebred Arab). She was owned by the same person for nine years and stabled locally up until February 2009. After that time the owner fell on hard times and she came to us on 15th May.

She was noted to be unwell 7 days after her arrival the vet called immediately and from then on the yard has been under a strict quarantine regime. Three vets have confirmed that when she arrived on the yard she would have not shown signs of being ill. I led her to the field myself and she was certainly no different to any other horse who has just arrived. She was alert and in no way showing signs of illness.

The 3 veterinary practices who service the yard have been extremely supportive and we have been in close touch to ensure that everything is being done to contain the outbreak. We held a meeting at the yard where all 3 vets came to discuss the situation with our clients and to answer their questions. We have liaised with them throughout. They said we were to be commended on our handling of the situation.

Since the original outbreak we have had 5 other horses contract the disease – 4 are horses who have had direct contact with the mare in that they share the same field and in the other case they shared water.

All other horses (the majority) in what is termed the ‘green zone’ are in fields away from the outbreak are free from illness. The first thing we did when the mare showed signs of illness was to keep everyone in their own fields. No horse was allowed on the yard and strict hygiene rules were started. Every inch of the yard was sprayed with Virkon.

The point in my posting this is to show the difficulty Yard Owners face in dealing with a situation such as this. Our vets have told us that there are a number of yards in our area who have the disease and are keeping quiet about it. Not good but I completely understand why they are doing it.

I expected a certain amount of misunderstanding from people from other yards but what has been so difficult to deal with is the infighting on my yard. The blame and nastiness is shocking. The vets keep saying, ‘there’s no blame – it can happen to anyone’s horse’ and seeing as a lot of our people go to shows regularly the risk is fairly high and constant. How would they feel to be on the receiving end of such hostility? The poor woman whose horse brought it to the yard is devastated at the situation. Yet it was suggested she should have used our meeting with the vets to publicly apologise!

We are due to start testing shortly and hopefully return to normal but I just thought that this may be of interest to any other yards who have a similar problem.
 
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