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Higher-risk for COVID-19. WWYD?

Riders with Health Issues
#1

I have MS and am on an immunosuppressant, so I officially fall into a high-risk category and have been playing it safe since I work with researchers and front-line providers who have stressed that this is not something to take lightly. Meanwhile, the place where I lease has gone about life as usual. Now, as my state considers easing its stay-home order, I’m in a bind. I love riding, miss “my” horse and would go back in a heartbeat…but here’s the situation:

I’m the only person at this facility taking precautions. The tack room is a shared space with lots of high-touch surfaces. No one masks up, and from what I’ve seen on social the teens are still riding together and aren’t six feet apart on horseback let alone when tacking. I adore my instructor but she’s been posting things that make it clear she isn’t social distancing or following the guidelines either. The owners think everything’s fine since it’s a big property, and it’s been pretty clear that they think I’m being a little ridiculous for not coming out. (For the record, I don’t consider riding essential since my horse doesn’t depend on me for care or exercise. I hate not going, but we aren’t supposed to leave the house if it isn’t a must-run errand.)

Here’s where it gets tricky. Our curve is looking good, but the pandemic isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. My physicians agree that I need to WFH until there’s a vaccine or real herd immunity — so we are talking months to a year or more of being very cautious. I want to ride. This barn, this trainer, this horse have been a dream for me. But I’m scared. I think I’d feel safe if I didn’t feel like such a behavioral outlier there. I could come up with a system to glove-and-mask my way through things, try to schedule rides when no one’s there, and do everything possible to protect myself…but given the overall situation, it feels like a risk I shouldn’t take.

Fellow horse friends, I’m genuinely curious about what you’d do. No judgment from me — everyone is in a different situation. I’m just struggling and a little frustrated. And very, very sad.

#2 
       Giving up riding for possibly a year or so is not fun, but you’re going to be giving up riding and everything else if you catch it and succumb. I would be super cautious. 

        If you do go back, I think the lowest risk way would be this. Come to the barn completely dressed in boots, gloves, helmet, and headset and have a groom have the horse completely ready in the crossties.  Take horse and ride. Afterwards, deliver the horse back to the cross ties. 

         If the barn group is not going to take full precautions, ask them to cooperate in the following way for someone who is immuno comprised like yourself. Wear some noticeable neon yellow vest or something that notifies people that they should stay 10 feet away from you. 

         My understanding is that outdoors is much safer than indoors because open air dissipates the virus and UV tend to kill it. You would need to pay for full care for the grooming, and your barn mates would need to voluntarily give you wide berth, but that does not seem like too much to ask.
5 Likes
#3

Thanks, YD. No grooms at this barn, alas, and honestly I probably should tack myself just so I’m the only one handling my gear. Something tells me this isn’t going to work out. :frowning:

#4

I have MS, and I am on an immune suppressant too, plus I am over 65. For reference I live in North Carolina, 30 miles east of Charlotte, NC.

Luckily for me my riding teacher understands my fears. I do go into the very front of the barn (with a really wide door) to groom the horse’s ears and mane, then she shoos me outside.

I wear a cloth mask with a coffee filter in the pocket, plus I cut off the top of the leg of a pair of panty hose and wear that over my face mask. I read on NPR that this can make a fabric face mask much more protective since it closes up all the gaps. I find it irritating, and my glasses fog up, but that is much better than death by drowning on dry land in a hospital bed.

Lots of hand washing when possible, hand sanitizer when it is not possible.

Otherwise I stay home. Luckily for me my husband is willing to do all the shopping for food and going to the laundromat. Not everybody down here believes in face masks, in fact I am the only one wearing one at both stables I ride at. THAT I find irritating for sure. I do check every week to find out if anybody has been sick at the stable.

IF my balance had not deteriorated severely I would not be riding, but since my balance disappeared it was a case of risking the stables so I can get the physical therapy of riding or not riding and getting too unbalanced and falling, risking a hip fracture and a lengthy stay in a hospital or nursing home. That made the decision easier on me.

The good news is that my balance is much better now since I started riding again after 5 1/2 weeks off.

I miss eating out some, and I miss going to the tack store and book stores, but not enough to risk death from this nasty, nasty virus.

3 Likes
#5

The only truly safe option here is not to go to the barn. I’m so sorry to say that, but extended time in the same space with others is the easiest way to catch this beast, and if they’re not wearing masks, they are seriously putting you at risk. Even if they were wearing masks I would not consider it safe for anyone on immunosuppressants to be out for anything other than truly essential needs.

I’m personally playing the paranoia game today. Spiked a fever at midday for a very brief period (haven’t had a fever since middle school) and now have an intermittent dry cough. Literally my only human exposure in the last 3 weeks was one day at the barn for a one hour farrier visit, and we were both wearing masks the entire time and keeping 6’ apart, but 6’ doesn’t work when you’re forced to linger in the same space. Maybe it’s not COVID-19, but now I’m rethinking everything. Stay safe. Stay home.

5 Likes
#6 
As much as you would like to ride, being at the barn and worrying that others are not wearing masks, or possibly getting too close, or not washing their hands is going to diminish the pleasure. I’d just sit it out at home until there is a vaccine.
#7

Are you trying to do this without telling anyone you have MS / a health condition? If not, I would just say to your instructor “I have a health condition that means I need to keep my distance from other people. Is this something this barn can accomodate?” And take it from there based on her answer and willingness to help.

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#8

I am also immune suppressed; my situation is due to taking a biologic for rheumatoid arthritis. I have been very, very careful, but I also need to live. If I still had a boarded horse, I would be finding a way to see him as well.

With that said, I don’t think I would take the risk of going to a barn like you describe. I would be trying to find some other solution. Have you considered moving your horse to a more realistic/compliant barn? It’s going to be a long time before those of us who are immune compromised are no longer at risk from this; perhaps it will be never.

Whatever you decide, I am wishing you the very best.

Rebecca

6 Likes
#9

We can’t control what other people do but we can control what we do. I know its not fun to say but the safest place to be is not around people full stop. Especially people who do not seem to take this seriously, I find that such disgusting behavior maybe you do not care about your life but you should care about others and not put them in danger, I equal it to drink driving.
I also haven’t seen my ponies in over a month, I dont leave the house unless I walk my dog, luckily he Is an older Pomeranian and its already 38 c over here so I take him at times people are not out and about. I also go food shopping 2 times a week. nearly everyone here is in masks, but if police catch you without one you will get a fine and or go jail, every shop they take your temperature before you go in and they hand our gloves also even if you are wearing gloves.
We can not be too careful, especially with people who really do not care about themselves or others around them. It sucks and it sad that you may not be able to see your horse but its better not to see them for a little while, than never seeing them again god forbid.
stay safe!

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#10

I commend you for taking precautions, as there are far too many people who still are not taking COVID-19 seriously. I think the safest option is certainly maintaining isolation. Unfortunately, you can’t control what other people are doing at the barn and that is up to the barn manager/owner to enforce rules. If they aren’t, then I’d say that you have limited options: either by switching barns (If able) or staying at home. Do you have a suitable mask you can use to protect yourself? Fabric masks are helpful when everyone wears them (reduce the distance the virus will travel), but will be unhelpful for you if no one is wearing one. Taking every precaution for yourself is quite difficult, especially at a place where no one else is doing the same. In that case, I would not go to the barn as long as possible.

I am at a barn with one other boarder, so it has been much easier to keep distance; however, even then no one but me has been taking any precautions but trying (and not always succeeding at maintaining distance). I have also been taking precautions by wearing a mask, rubber boots and disposable latex gloves, making note to remove all these before I touch my vehicle. I carry a spray bottle with 99% alcohol in it and handle it only with gloves on - leaving it outside the vehicle until used. I also have a mini spray bottle in my pocket for after. When I am finished at the barn, I spray down my gloves and boots thoroughly and rub over with a paper towel. Leave them for a few minutes (important), then surgically remove the gloves (dispose), open the car trunk to put the boots in and spray bottle (handling by not touching - using paper towel, the inside of the removed gloves or etc). I then use the pocket spray on my hands. and always always wash my hands after.

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#11

If the people around you don’t care it will be very hard to be comfortable and safe and enjoy your riding. What a frustration and disappointment.

IF you can get a small supply of N95 masks that are comfortable and effective for you during exercise, that could be an option. Consider your car a safe zone. When you leave the car you are fully dressed in your mask, in gloves, your helmet, everything. I’d wear glasses or sunglasses. It all stays on while you are at the barn. It comes off when you return to your car, removing everything safely and as if it is a biohazard, using hand sanitizer on your hands after you remove it all.

This means that you don’t touch the mask or your face the whole time you are there - once on it stays. Can you do this? Maybe, with the right mask. The ones with valves work better and in better times you could buy several until you found the most comfortable one. It also means you can’t remove it to drink water which may be a nonstarter.

The alcohol spray bottle and/or sanitizing wipes are helpful. I assume fabric is hot for a day or until it is washed; I leave my items in the car. I’d assume 3 days for a mask.

I’d change all clothes and shower immediately on returning home (we all do this anyway right? :slight_smile: ).

This is a lot to take on and it might not be practical or even sufficient if there are a lot of sloppy people around you.

Until you can get real N95 I probably wouldn’t risk it.

#12

That barn and program were an ideal situation … until covid. Now it is far from an ideal situation for you, OP, and it will get progressively worse. I doubt it will ever again be safe for you.

IMO: You need to move barns to one where you feel you will be safe in a covid environment, because there will only be more covid in the future.

Your current barn-mates are more and more likely to bring in exposure as time goes by, and covid seeps like ink into more and more incremental territory. Statistically, within the next 12 months or so, most or all of these people will have covid, and probably recover. But they don’t see a personal reason to change their habits, and there is nothing you can do about that.

Covid saturation will get worse and worse over time.

Until most of the world - especially your world - is actually vaccinated. It isn’t just developing a vaccine, it’s getting into enough people to matter, and then time for that to make a difference. Literally it could be years.

Covid is changing reality and altering the course of life for many people. There are people who will have to change careers, because their underlying health conditions make it unsupportable to continue one where they meet the public, or are in close proximity to co-workers. Some people will realize that they have to change their housing arrangement, because some of the people in their household are vulnerable while others in the same household are positioned for high exposure. There are some life-shattering decisions in many people’s future.

I am sorry that this rotten foul disease has upended your world like this, given that horses tend to be at the center of the lives of people who own them (that post on this board, anyway). It isn’t fair. But it is reality.

5 Likes
#13

I completely understand how you feel OP. I am also high risk. I think I would move my horse to another stable if possible. I currently go to my barn during odd hours to avoid people. I am also lucky it is all outdoors with plenty of spots to tie up to groom and ride. If you could find a small stable with an outdoor arena or fields to ride in, you would be safer. I wear gloves at all times and sanitize hands once back in my car. I also keep all of my tack in the car so i don’t need to go in the tack room.

3 Likes
#14

Sorry, this is really not intended to be me picking on anyone, but we really are all safer if everyone is properly educated, so I had to comment.

Valves are 100% not what you want in a COVID-19 mask. They are intended to allow you to breathe out unrestricted, but then filter when you inhale. They are used when you are sanding, etc. They are not used for disease prevention. Masking against COVID-19 is really about protecting others as much as yourself, so both inhales and exhales must be filtered. I don’t know if the CDC has released anything yet, but if you do a Google search you’ll get lots of hits explaining why valves are not appropriate. There’s a reason you can find them on the market but the valveless N95’s are still the equivalent of a gold bar.

On the amount of time, assume a week between mask uses, not 3 days, and it needs to be stored out of the way, in a dry place where you won’t accidentally touch it. Basically we don’t know how long it may survive on a mask but it seems like the longest time period we’re aware of for various materials is 7 days, so the recommendation is to follow that. Better yet, since medical grade masks are still in low supply, make/buy cloth masks and wash them after every use with laundry detergent.

That said, masks are not 100%, as evidenced by the number of sick, properly protected healthcare workers. As someone who is immunosuppressed, you are at greater risk for catching it and then you’re a risk for spreading it. This disease just sucks.

1 Like
#15

I think your points are basically correct, but I still think a valved mask has a place in this situation, where the wearer knows she’s clean, and is protecting herself from people who may be infected, most especially in a situation where other people are not wearing masks. The valved mask is better tolerated for an athletic situation and/or glasses IME. IIRC there are some medically rated valved masks that are also filtered properly; those are harder to get - or the other option is to try a cloth mask over the valve to help protect others.

I would certainly add the masking to the most social distancing possible.

I am also looking to a future when these masks are available again. I think, IMHO, for someone as fragile as OP the protection provided by a cloth mask alone is not sufficient to take risk for an optional activity. Hopefully the supplies of PPE will open up soon… most likely before we have a vaccine or effective treatment.

1 Like
#16

When I read the article on the NPR site it said that putting the cut-off upper leg (8-10") over the cloth mask helped make the cloth mask more like a N95 mask, by removing the gaps of the non-covered cloth mask, thus removing one of the dangers of just using a cloth mask versus a N95 mask.

It is harder to breathe in the cloth mask with the nylon stocking part over it, but that means that any COVID-19 virus would have a harder time getting into a person’s respiratory system.

Of course on horseback outside the danger is less, so if you have a hard time breathing it probably be OK to ride without the mask over your nose, so long as you put it back up whenever someone else gets near you or when you go back into the barn.

#17

Could you ask the BM to have a set time in the early AM where the barn is available to at risk people with the appropriate measures (distancing, masks, etc) in place. The teens and everyone else that doesn’t seem to care about the current situation can have it the rest of the time. Similar to what lots of grocery stores are doing for seniors and the at risk? If that is a no-go, I am afraid not going to the barn is probably the answer.

I am thankful to board at a small private pleasure barn. Distancing is really easy…I seldom see another soul while I am there. All adult or very responsible teenage boarders and no communal equipment or sharing.

Susan

5 Likes
#18

If there is any virus on the outside of the mask, moving it down like that helpfully puts virus right under your nose, plus moving the mask is hard to do without contaminating your hands and potentially the inside of the mask, as well as touching other vulnerable areas of your face.

4 Likes
#19

The point of COVID-19 is that no one knows for sure they’re “clean.” This virus is not Hep C, where if I’m not using dirty needles, I can go through life assuming I’m clean. Existing near other people for any period of time removes all surety of COVID-19 “cleanliness.” There is evidence that the most highly infectious time period is when the infected individual is asymptomatic. That means you could catch it from Barn Diva Betsy while she’s asymptomatic (because N95s are actually hard to fit perfectly, especially when you’re active, so let’s not pretend wearing one guarantees you’re “clean” - again, healthcare professionals are catching this thing through N95s). Because you weren’t around anyone who was obviously “sick,” you keep going to the barn for 2, 3, 5 days, before you start with a dry cough and start staying home. You were a shedder, breathing all that COVID-19 out through your valve. Masks are two-way protection against COVID-19: they protect both the user and everyone the user is around. A valved mask ruins that. If the people at the barn not wearing masks are being irresponsible by breathing all over the place and people are rightfully condemning them, then we need to be cognizant that half-assing a mask by putting a valve in it is no better at stopping social spread and recommending it is dangerous.

And no, cotton may not be as good as an N95 for someone with immunosuppression, but again, literally the only thing safe for an immunosuppressed individual is total avoidance. If the only complaint we can come up with for wearing two-way protective masks is it’s hard to breathe, well, I’ve heard COVID-19 feels like an anvil perched on top of you. As someone who’s been wearing a mask outside all over the place, I’ve yet to feel like I’m carrying an anvil on top of my rib cage. Honestly the most consistently annoying part is they itch and you can’t scratch.

I know I’m being pedantic, but the best way I’ve seen COVID-19 described is that we’re all being graded as a group, and every time sometime doesn’t wear a mask, wears a mask improperly, decides to go out and linger in a group, we all drop a letter grade. Feels like the U.S. is hovering at a D- right about now, and it would be nifty if we could at least pull that up to a solid B, which means I can’t help pedantic lectures trying to get every one studied up so we can pass this damn course and get back to the barn safely.

Also, you can totally remove your mask at the barn. It can be considered reasonably safe if you wash your hands as you’re leaving the barn, only touch the ties/elastic/not the front to pull it down or remove it, don’t touch your face while you’re maskless, then do a quick rewash/only touch the ties/elastic/not the front to put it back on (and I’m the sort of paranoid who rewashes my hands after, because why not - they’re already dried out by now). Nurses and doctors are eating and drinking in the middle of their day. It just takes care and not just ripping your mask off without thinking about certain surfaces as contaminated. So, if you really need some extra air to fully work your horse and you can get out and be really, truly socially distanced to do it, there’s an option for you that doesn’t involve a valve.

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#20

Do you have your own tack? I would put my tack in the car, drive to the paddock and saddle up under a shade tree, away from the barn. There’s no reason you have to go into the barn with others.

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