It was nefer008 with the rumor about a vet falsifying paperwork, not you.
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From Tami Smith - please read
“Regarding EHV-1 California outbreak
In regards to the several assumptions in regards to my horses and their involvement with the EHV cases at the Desert Horse Park, I feel it is necessary for me to speak publicly so everyone understands the details involved with my personal horses and to ease the confusion and/or concern moving forward.
Firstly, it has and always will be that our barn, associates, employees and owners are 100% about the health and welfare of our equine partners.
As this ever growing dilemma has transpired we have been problem solving and staying two steps ahead of what has been advised by USEF, the State, and our veterinarian. As you know protocols have changed several times, however we have taken extra measures to assure our horses as well others were not at additional risk.
On February 15th, Desert Horse Park notified via e-mail that there were 3 positive cases in a tent on the other side of the property from where our horses were stabled. At the time we were notified we had been in transit to Fresno for another competition. There was no evidence that our horses were exposed or in close proximity of any infected horses. In addition, our barn had left the facility before the initial case was identified, however we were still vigilant about how to handle any potential issues from the outside and closed our stable to any outside horses once we returned home.
Due to the seriousness of EHV-1, I contacted my vet immediately who works closely with and for the USEF Veterinary Committee and we immediately put into effect an in-house temperature check as well as stayed away from cross contamination practices such as hand grazing, interacting with outside horses as well as washing hands after handling horses. This has been and will continue to be followed as precautionary measures as this EHV outbreak can happen at any time in any location throughout the world.
On February 24th two of my horses traveled to Ocala Florida. During there transport it was brought to our attention that horses that competed at the Desert Horse Park would need to quarantine for 14 days as well as provide a negative EHV-1 test after 21 days from being at DHP. When our horses arrived in Florida, they were immediately put in a secluded barn by themselves and away from any other horses until we could provide both a negative EHV-1 test as well as a full 14 day quarantine. This protocol was not suggested or put into effect until my horses were already on their way to the east coast. They were being ground transported in 8x12 box stalls and never came off of the trailer during their transport, still being temped twice a day as well as preventing any cross contamination.
All of our horses that competed at the Desert Horse Park have all received negative EHV-1 tests and have all been secluded as an extra precaution for the safety of our horses as well as others. We have met the 21 day quarantine protocol as of Wednesday March 2nd. In addition, the horses that traveled to Florida added additional quarantine as a strict safety protocol.
I realize that it is easy to make assumptions and think that we were irresponsible by transporting our horses, at the time of traveling to Fresno and the horses getting on a trailer to Florida it was a very secluded population that I or my horses had not been exposed to so the travel for those horses was not concerning although we had already put into place several measures to make sure our horses were not infected and should they be A-symptomatic, we kept them sequestered and have been working closely with our veterinarian as well as others to prevent potentially infecting another horse.
I am saddened by the quick judgement and misrepresentation that people tend to lean towards however it is unfortunately human nature. I ask that if anyone were ever to have questions in regards to me, my horses, or of their whereabouts, I’d be happy to discuss those concerns.
We are happy to see most barns and trainers have been adhering to the protocols to help prevent this horrible disease and spread of EHV-1.
Our hearts go out to the families and people who have lost their beautiful horses.
We are feeling very grateful for the team behind us that helped us develop a plan to keep ours and everyone else’s horses safe”
Tamie Smith
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Oh ok, I knew about that one already. Something about the way it was written by the poster made it sound (to me, anyway) like it was a new case.
Tami Smith’s Facebook post doesn’t say that the USEF Vet Committee knew. She wrote that she consulted with her vet, “who works closely with and for the USEF Veterinary Committee”. We don’t know if her vet shared the info with the committee.
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I thought this too but her own statement said on the 15th Feb she was shipping the horses to Ram Tap when notified of the Thermal cases. It started the 18th Feb so to be there the 15 or 16th makes sense. This is in her own statement, not rumor so I assume the dates are correct and there was no 7 days of quarantine before moving horses. She also says she spoke to a vet who works with USEF and followed their instructions so feels she did right. So now I am very confused as to what people think the protocols were. All in- this is very badly handled. It makes me nervous to have shoers or vets or visitors come out at all now since the information is so bad.
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From Tamie Smith
The horses left Thermal the morning of the 10th and arrived mid day the 17th at Fresno. Temps were taken twice a day after the outbreak was known, (notification that this was an EHV outbreak wasn’t made aware til these horses were already in competition. Emails from Desert Horse Park were not read until the weekend) however at this time there was no evidence of exposure because the horses had left Thermal before the outbreak. The outbreak was in barn 34 (we think that was the barn #), these horses were stabled on the outside of barn 3, at the opposite ends of the property and not in the same vicinity of the working arenas. In addition, horses were getting temps taken because that is a protocol the barn follows when horses travel regardless of EHV outbreaks. No horses at our home stable at any time have had any abnormal temps or any positive tests. Nor did our vet falsify any documents, to suggest or state this is a blatant lie. It’s interesting that anyone can create a login and just start falsely making accusations.
As you can imagine, looking at this situation today is different than the 23rd when horses were put on a private transport to Florida.
However, even though our horses were not exposed to the virus we still took extra precautions to protect them and others as soon as information was provided. As protocols were given we followed them. There was no reason to take horses to an event this early in the season to create unnecessary risk if we or our veterinarians thought there was any, however if there was question, even a minimal amount we would have scratched the event. As always horses and their welfare are our primary focus. The amount of extra hours that has gone into caring for our barn of horses to assure these horses are and we’re in good health has been extraordinary. Once again, nobody is hiding any information. Thank you to the people who are looking for the facts and not painting a very bad picture without any facts whatsoever.
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@Turntable-The first USEF Press Release is dated Feb. 12th. First EHV posi test came back the 11th @ DIHP.
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Yeah, because we all know that dressage/event/western horses would show symptoms before 14 days. 
Unbelievable.
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Blenhein has cancelled the first show of their spring series (scheduled to start March 30) and the Longines Nations Cup scheduled for May. They are also offering stalls at no cost for people needing to isolate horses.
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On the one hand, that stinks.
On the other hand, props to them for doing the right thing in multiple ways.
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Can someone clarify this part. Does this mean they will be holding contaminated horses on their property before they start competition weeks 2 and 3? It’s a nice gesture but I wouldn’t be comfortable bringing my horse here for the two weeks if that is the case.
I think they’re the only ones that can clarify. Maybe contact them? After reading it several times, perhaps they’re offering to send stalls to facilities???
“In an effort to help expedite the statewide recovery, at no cost, we are offering to lend our temporary stalls to private barns to facilitate their isolation. Please send email inquiries to BorrowStalls@ThePlaceToJump.com.”
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That grammar sounds like they are willing to send extra temporary stalls off site to people who need them?
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If so, that is an extremely generous offer.
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Lots of places have locked down so that if you leave the property, you are not coming back until the “all clear” is given. Also, lots of out of state folks who have to isolate have no place to go either.
It is! And why not since they have the stalls and can’t use them.
Hope they have a good sterilizing procedure in place for when the stalls get returned…
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I have a question about this part. They received info re: the EHV on the 15th but continued on to arrive at the next venue midday on the 17th. Would not it have been best practice to not continue on to a packed competition venue and instead divert until the horses were cleared?
Not to have a go at this competitor, of whom I know very little but have no reason to suspect she’s not a perfectly nice person, but there seem to be a lot of gaps in her explanation and her handling of the horses. As this is a person being praised (by herself and others) for excellent care and response, it seems that the standard is not where it should be. Of note:
- not continuing on to a packed venue once notified of potential exposure at the previous venue would have been best practice
- though she notes she was informed on the 15th (a Tuesday), she subsequently says “emails weren’t read until the weekend” which is astonishingly poor management and a poor excuse, as well
- she says “there was no evidence our horses were exposed or in close proximity” but later says “The outbreak was in barn 34 (we think that was the barn #)”. How can you claim “there was no evidence our horses were exposed” if, by your own admission, you didn’t know (and still don’t as of the 3rd FB post) the actual barn number initially involved?
- even if the barn # had been known, the issue is exposure while out and about in competition, at the gate, through the movement of people among the barns and among the horses, etc. I think the pertinent metric is, is there evidence that your horses WEREN’T exposed, not the opposite. In the absence of evidence that they weren’t, best practice dictates you assume they were and proceed accordingly. That’s how we have typically treated exposure even before covid (e.g., chicken pox - if your child was around the effected child, assume exposure until proven otherwise).
None of the above suggest being “one step ahead” of anything, if we are being honest. While I agree that subsequent care and handling seems excellent and well intentioned, this was still a lot of bad judgement calls here. Those horses should not have gone onto the 2nd venue after the info disclosure on the 15th, nor should they have then gone on to FL. And no professional management policy should allow for leaving unread (for 4-5 days, no less!) important announcements from venues. That is gross incompetence right there.
This was not an excellent response and should not be regarded as such. It should be a good teachable moment about how even well-intentioned, well-resourced, and well-connected professionals are missing a lot of what it takes to stop an outbreak like this. Given that this is a life-and-death issue, and many people have now lost horses, it should not be considered burdensome to ask these people to re-assess a response like this and resolve that, in hindsight, it was not excellent and, in future, would not be conducted the same way. It shouldn’t be considered mean or wrong to look at this response critically and say it was not enough/okay; it’s just a factual and practical reassessment. It would be a good thing if this competitor (and others) was able to say that it is now apparent that this was an inadequate response, rather than just continue what appears more and more to be a CYA campaign rather than a thoughtful, community-minded assessment of what seemed at the time to be a reasonable response.
I think that’s the least we owe the owners/trainers/riders/children who lost their horses, possibly in horrific ways.
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@FitzE
Yes! Same for the folks at Sacramento, who claimed they did not know about the severity of the situation until Tuesday in Sacramento. That would be 4 days after leaving thermal. Why did they stay at the show? Why didn’t they just take their horses home when you’re 30 minutes away and isolate them? Instead, they stayed at the show, continue to show them, have them within the crowd of horses on the show grounds, without caring that they could be infecting everyone else on the show grounds. There are all sorts of things wrong here.
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how can you say that your horse is not a risk because you were in barn 2 and the infection started in barn 24. Did your horses leave the barn? Did they show in the same ring or warm up? Did a worker do maintenance in barn 24 then come over to visit a friend working on something in barn 2? Did someone from barn 24 go to the coffee stand right before someone from barn 2 and have their hands on the counter
Barns are far from closed systems. Horse shows far from it
have you learned nothing from the last two years???
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