you and I are on the same page. I wear a mask. I socially distance. I dont really wash my hands like crazy; I prefer to keep my immune system strong. I havent been to any social events besides a 6 person campfire and we were all spread out. I will still go to shows and follow the rules.
and yet here you are reading statements and coming to your own conclusions and putting words in my mouth. I never said that having COVID gives you permanent immunity. Not once. Just like having the FLU does not give you permanent immunity. but Antibody tests exist for a reason. people have already been shown to catch it twice. this goes back to my statement that this virus is not going away. So what do you suggest we do. Sit in our houses under house arrest until the end of time because we are scared of a respiratory virus. At some point; life needs to return to mostly-normal regardless if this thing still exists or not.
I respect everyone’s decisions to handle this virus as they see fit. If people find risk with Pony Finals being held; don’t attend it. Don’t let your kids attend it. For those attending; I hope you follow the rules and do your part to protect yourself as well as others: Mask, social distance, keep away from eating in local restaurants (order out, etc). We should all be able to make decisions on attending events that suit our preferences in these times. And if we do decide to patronize such events; we should do so keeping in mind the safety and well-being of all and following all rules set forth. Pony Finals will not be the same fun, interactive show that is has been in years past. But if the organizers are confident that they can host an event and that their attendees will be mindful enough to follow the rules; then let them have a show.
There are MANY Florida transplants, etc who showed up at the horse park this week and are showing at the grounds right now. No quarantine. No one appeared to have an issue with them this week; but Pony Finals appears to be the end-all
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See above (bolding mine) where you assume immunity occurs after infection.
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Kind of amazes me that… people have had to cancel their weddings, miss their loved ones funerals… and people are this wound up about trotting ponies around a sandbox.
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The problem with this is most easily illustrated by using the analogy of driving.
I respect everyone’s decisions to determine whether or not they want to stop at a traffic light. While research says traffic lights dramatically increase safety, the government shouldn’t be allowed to tell you what to do. If you have a problem with my decision to not obey traffic signals, that’s your problem. Stay off the road! Need to drive to the grocery store? Need to go to work? Well you better keep your eyes open because your safety is less important than my freedom to drive how I want.
Now, back to the actual issue of pony finals. These kids do not evaporate after they attend. They go back to their communities. They visit public spaces and interact with essential workers. If they opt to not quarantine for 14 days, that risk is even greater. The same families who are prioritizing ponies over the health of their neighbors may also be ones who are not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing.
Until you buy a self-sufficient island, you actions directly impact the health and safety of your neighbors.
If someone’s decision to handle the virus means increasing the risk of exposure for others, I have no respect for that.
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Also linked to auto accident deaths. But no one is dying of cancer or heart disease!
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Currently at a show - it’s almost impossible to get people to keep their masks on at the barn. Little better at the ring where they have people chasing you down if you take it off, but there are some who feel they are above following rules. It’s probably like this at every show and will be until we manage to beat this virus through a vaccine or other scientific method. Pony Finals isn’t going to be any different - some people will follow the rules and others will think the rules don’t refer to them. The stewards will be as vigilant as possible, but that’s not their job. Hopefully USEF will have about 500 Mask Meanies running around keeping people on their toes. Amazingly, I haven’t seen much of an issue with the younger kids - it’s the teenagers who don’t think it’s cool to wear a mask and have authority issues anyway that are the biggest problem. Followed closely by parents…
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This is not a “do it my way” but for the love of heaven or hell- increasing washing your hands will NOT decrease your immune system, not the way people should be doing it and definitely not in the short term. That is an uneducated myth perpetuated by other science that overkill of good bacteria can be harmful (it can). Improvements in hand hygiene have been shown to reduce respiratory illness by 21% (95%CI, 5%, 34%). Honestly- antibacterial vs normal soap shows little difference. Just go to NCBI.NIH and see for yourself. That is science- not hysteria.
By all means- go around not washing your hands. Have those fecal particles and other grossness “improve your immune system” ( vomit emoticon). Have at it. (Spoiler alert- won’t happen)
As someone who works with and see the raw Covid data Every.Damn.Day of sick people, healthy people, positive and negative- I am done trying to convince people. I can’t talk about science anymore to people who are either willfully ignorant just refuse to see what science (peer reviewed science) says.
and I agree with Tackpud. I was at WEC this weekend. Covid police out in force. Most attempted to have masks on all the time. I did see a lot of smaller kids without them, though. (pony kids). WEC really made it the onus on the trainers to get their people in-line. (which seemed to work even if the trainer thought it was ridiculous bc that is what one agreed to when we entered the show). PF will be a nightmare.
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It is frightening how much ignorance is out there and how dangerous that ignorance is to public health.
I was hoping that USEF would be responsible and cancel Pony Finals.
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Exactly.
I will not be able to see either of my elderly parents again before they die, due to the pandemic.
My family had plans and plane tickets and we had coordinated schedules. Yet being intelligent people who understand the the risk of travel during this pandemic, even with quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, we also understand that there is no real assurance that our visits would not endanger our and our parent’s lives.
Travel during this pandemic endangers many peoples lives. Because when there are people in the U.S. like Snaffle, who are out and about and think that hand washing is overrated, we have no chance at controlling the pandemic and protecting the lives of our friends and loved ones.
When USEF won’t just shut a Pony Finals down at least until scientists can find some answers about how the virus actually behaves in children, it’s a shameful day for horse sport.
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They cancelled QH Congress. I think if that can be delayed then pony finals and all of the other indoor final shows can be shut down for the year.
I am really disheartened by all of the posts I see with horse shows just being business as usual. I’ve always talked about quitting the real world and returning to my “horse bubble” but this is fricken ridiculous. I’m just waiting for there to be a major outbreak from one of these shows and everything gets shut down.
I hope to god it doesn’t, but with this many people travelling and gathering the luck is going to run out someday.
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Thanks, @lockedoutalter I came to this thread to see if anyone had posted the news about QH Congress. I think that’s a pretty BFD! I will concede, however, that the conditions at Congress are exponentially worse than any other horse show I can imagine, in terms of potential for COVID spread (both there, and in the communities people would return to). AQHA has also been heartbreakingly lax with safety protocols, as in, I don’t think they have any. The individual shows might put something in place depending on the mandates of their area.
Though something like Pony Finals is a different animal than Quarter Horse Congress, I personally don’t believe it, or many of the other shows that are planned/have already taken place, should be going on. It just really seems to me that USEF et al should be setting an entirely different tone as an organization. Obviously, the people making these decisions don’t agree with me. lol :winkgrin:
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I think the stewards are so busy at the rings that it’s got to be almost impossible to keep an eye on what’s happening back at the barns, too. I showed at Swan Lake last week, and I thought the steward at our ring and the show office etc did a good job with things–hand sanitizer at the office, everyone in masks (and they were selling them too!), only one person doing checkin and ribbon pickup–which was by the office, not ringside. I was a ship-in, and in the small HB division, so easy to stay distant and separate (you want that with baby horses anyway!) and I personally felt pretty comfortable, and plan to go back in August.
Trying to enforce the mask rules back in stabling has to be a thankless, almost impossible task, and that’s where it’s going to be a problem somewhere like PF–because there’s no shipping in to something like that, you’re stabling next to folks from Kentucky and Texas and Florida and Pennsylvania and… Tackpud is right, there need to be separate “Mask Meanies” back at the barns, because to me, that seems like the bigger risk, where everyone is somewhere enclosed and in much tighter quarters than at the show rings themselves.
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I haven’t read all 8 pages of this. Someone referred to “Mask Meanies”. What if the MM’s. had a real job at pony finals ( or anywhere)? They could just write down the numbers of those not wearing masks (or wearing them as chin warmers), turn them in to an appropriate authority who would automatically deduct 10 points per class from the offenders’ scores. Spreading the word over the PA and to the trainers AND ENFORCING THE RULE should make compliance more attractive.
Sure, it would be a PITA and slow down ribbon distribution, but it might save lives…
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In KY they are there own people, it’s their jobs to run around on golf carts and tell you to mask up or step away from people. Most people don’t walk around with their numbers on once they are done showing & that’s the majority of the time when they have their masks down and don’t want to comply. Already we’re seeing it’s hot, the kids changed at the barn but want to watch their pal do the equitation. They take their masks down near their barn fam when the MM’s aren’t around. The adults do the same. Everyone pops them on when they hey see the yellow vest or clip board coming. It’d be nearly impossible to track them all down to deduct scores. Not to mention the rules for that and the wrath of tantrums. I doubt any show management would think it was worth it.
A side not - I find it funny the USEF office parking lot is pretty scant of cars during a regular week day, business hour. Seems to me most of them are telecommunicating YET sold out horse shows still go on in their back yard.
The gov just shut down bars, reduced restaurants, and is hoping that will slow the growing number of cases in KY… but I think we will still see a big spike. My dad recently tested positive for COVID but is unsymptomatic including no fever… It all seems like it won’t happen until it happens to you, and then you realize how easily he could have been spreading to “friends and family he’s comfortable with” and they doing the same to their friends and family and so on - even with a mask mandate (which his city has).
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Belmont, I hope your dad and the rest of your family have a smooth recovery.
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If you are not washing your hands “like crazy” (whatever that means), then you are a huge part of the problem we are having in the U.S. and it’s not surprising that the U.S. is lagging in virus prevention and that we are the now at the center of the pandemic.
Other nations, having neither the funds nor the infrastructure that we do, have slowed the virus at a better rate than we have. Do you understand how many people realize the importance of washing hands in the prevention of communicable disease, and that many of them don’t have the water sources to enable them to wash?
I think that your decision to ignore the very old and proven fact that washing your hands prevents the spread of disease is inexcusable.
How can anyone who is lucky enough to live in a “first world” society (with soap and water easily available) and who has at least an elementary education not understand the importance of hand washing ,especially during a world wide health crises when the U.S. has definitely dropped the ball? It is up to us to do our part.
How can you be incapable of understanding the importance of proper hand washing? I understand that this pandemic is a terrible thing. COVID is annoying and it is inconvenient. It is also killing people and making others extremely ill and the virus is not well understood at this point in time. Scientists are working on it, but they need time. Meanwhile, do follow the most basic hygienic practice that has saved countless lives. For everyone’s sake, please wash your hands.
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Congress is a cesspool of germs in the best of times. Its called Congress Crud for a reason.
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Kentucky has been added to the list of states from which travelers are supposed to self-quarantine for 14 days when arriving in NY, NJ or CT.
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Lexington sees increase of COVID cases and cases among children. https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article244539202.html#storylink=mainstage_card4
