Monday, March 7, 2022

The Rest of our Spring Show Season

 As I'm sure most of you have heard, there's an EHV-1 outbreak on the West Coast. So far it's only in California, but I know of at least five Oregon barns that were showing at either Thermal (ground zero) or Rancho Murieta and have subsequently been exposed. I sincerely hope none of the Oregon horses got it and brought it up here, but if Covid has taught us anything, it's that viruses can travel very easily and  people are fucking stupid. 

I was toying with the idea of doing a schooling show in March, but I've scratched that idea. The people running the show were showing down at Rancho Murieta and brought their horses home to quarantine. Then two days later sent an email saying their still planning on having their show. Oy vey. 


To be fair, the show is being held at a different facility than their home barn, but this program typically brings a lot of clients to their shows and since they're "quarantining" the horses that were in NorCal at home, I have my doubts about their biosecurity and the health of the other horses on their property. Two weeks of quarantine is the minimum recommended, and in some cases it's 21 days, so having a show 18 days after your horses got home is cutting it very close.

There's a couple different shows in April that I was debating going to, another at the place we showed at last week, and another in a different venue as the people hosting the March show. Time will tell if April shows will be a go or not, but if we have to skip another month of showing, so be it. My horse's health is way more important than a horse show.

4 comments:

  1. It's definitely worth staying flexible this spring so we can keep our ponies healthy! My calendar looks so full because I have contingency plans all over the place.

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  2. Smart choice! Fingers crossed for you things return to normal there soon.

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  3. Totally the right call! I hope so hard that people do the right thing and this can pass quickly. Stay well!

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  4. It's fucking awful right now, and I hate that we have to make the decisions to sit out because show managers and USEF can't step up and take responsibility.

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