No, they don’t know if people can be re-infected, that’s another unknown about the virus. Re-opening the country “pronto” would be a disaster.
I’m sorry that you found my words patronizing and that I can’t give ideas about how to make horse shows safer. I’ve been on the phone trying to console a friend who has lost two dear friends to the virus and daily with my sister who is working at an high risk essential job. If I am curt that’s probably why, and I apologize.
Some folks can’t even comply with wearing a face covering in public. I saw one yesterday (and he was sneezing) in a store where most everyone had their faces covered and was keeping a good distance apart. I can only imagine what other public health practices they ignore.
There is just no way to make public gatherings safe right now. It’ll be interesting to see what USEF and the FEI come up with for the future.
NCHJA is planning on running their annual show the last week of June. It is held at a State facility, so they must have had some assurance that they can go forward, even if NC remains shut down at this time
There is another side to this, and that is the question if horse show organizers/managers actually want to run just now, due to the challenges of not losing money with lower entries.
Shows will have to get by with reduced entries and therefore reduced revenue. One solution is cost-cutting elsewhere. And requiring attendees to provide their own sanitizing supplies, so the show has the least extra cost possible.
Limiting riders in warm-up and adding more time between scored rides will reduce the number of entries a show can accommodate on a given show day. And other limitations may also serve to reduce entries, in addition to people who just won’t show at this time.
(I get limiting the riders in warm-up, but I haven’t yet grasped why adding time between judged rides makes any difference to covid transmission.)
If a show can’t control its cost sufficient to the reduced revenue from entries, organizers may feel that it is better not to run it at all. Sadly.
I have to pose a question to those of you opposing a horse show running soon with well-enforces social distancing. Are you prepared for many of our historic horse shows to go under? For many of our show mangers to lose their entire businesses? For numerous trainer to lose their farms, their houses, their livelihoods? Because we are not too far from an entire industry collapse and nobody seems to be talking about the elephant in the room.
Totally understand and such a hard call. For me personally, I feel like it’s a bit soon for me to consider going to a horse show, someone above mentioned a schooling show in TX, that I could go to but have opted not to at this time. I think it’s a way bigger elephant in the room than just the equine industry…it’s movie theaters, gyms, concert venues, musicians, record labels (and all of the jobs that surround those), the whole movie industry, the wedding industry…the list literally goes on and on. I just find it all sad and don’t know what the right answer is. In the meantime, I try to support the staff at the barn through tips and buying them breakfast. Not sure what else to do right now.
In CO the rule thru May is no gatherings of more than 10 people. You can’t even run most horse shows with fewer then 10 people before anyone gets on a horse. Some counties are still under stricter measures. The CHP/Langer Group says they will have new rules for barns, the show office, the gate area. But they haven’t said what those will be yet.
We were supposed to hold a USDF show at our barn this month (not happening of course) and one in June and July. We are much smaller than the horse park in terms of space. The show managers were telling the owners we need to basically build another entrance/exit to the office (which is the boarder lounge, part of the indoor) and put hand sanitizers all over the property. We can hardly buy enough soap, sanitizer and cleaning supplies to support the barn staff. Couldn’t get a bunch of sanitizer even if we wanted to try. Also they said we would have to divide the judge’s booth with plexiglass for the scribe. But how you do that with one door to get in where the plexi does anything I dunno.
I’m sure judges are wanting to make a living right now but are they wanting to fly and stay in hotels so soon?
A h/j show would have to do an order of go for each ring to try to limit the number of people in the warmup area. And no getting your horse out if you aren’t showing at that time.
While I think some venues could make it work better than others, is it worth holding the show for reduced entries (if schedule has to be modified and some distancing in stabling) or is it a money pit? I also have little faith in compliance given that when I go to the grocery store, so many people still seem to have no awareness of personal space much less social distancing.
It’s the same situation with many other businesses. A terrible choice. Lose the business due to closure for public health reasons or lose the business due to the spread of illness and death among business owners, their employees, and their customers.
Except that 75% or more of show staff are independent contractors so not receiving unemployment. Braiders, announcers, jump crew, some grooms, independent shippers, the list goes on. Plus, I thought this was a horse related board so I guess that’s why I didn’t think to bring up move theaters and restaurants … I was assuming we are all passionate about this sport, and passionate about supporting those who put our competitions on. The more I read on this board (on other threads) the more I’m thinking that’s maybe not the case.
I’m so sorry to hear about your friends. I work in a hospital and this week the calls for code blues and rapid responses were too much regularity. It’s gutting because these patients have none of their loved ones around them when they need them most. I appreciate your apology we’re all a little on edge these days… for any number of reasons no thanks to this stupid a** virus. To say it sucks is an understatement.
From my casual out and about observations this week people seem to comply more with the face masks - last week was the first week it was enacted in my state, Maryland. And then you have the idiot odd ducks who decide to smoke thru one or hit the grocery store looking like they just got off Apollo 11.
For many of us just being able to get back in the saddle would be a bonus Take care Skydy - I wish you and your sister the best and hope you get thru unscathed. Stay safe, healthy,
Totally agree. I do get the feeling that HITS may something we all don’t know, and that’s the fact they could be looking to restrict people to staying in their region (not traveling from Los Angeles to GLEF) and potentially exposing more - if you look at the Saugerties schedule it looks very interesting - like 6-7 days of showing with a 1 day format for each division w/ less classes per division (“show and go” format they’re calling it) which seems like they’re expecting majority of people to be local. Like you said, tomorrow should know more!
Actually they can receive unemployment, as long as they’ve filed taxes with a 1099, they can receive unemployment during the pandemic plus an extra $600/wk for the next 4 months. Now if they didn’t file taxes or were under the table they’re sadly out of luck.
I haven’t seen any Apollo11 astronaut lookalikes. :lol: Here, the variety of face coverings is extraordinary and good to see. Most everyone is taking this very seriously, as they should. The farm store looks like the “bad guys” cast of a John Wayne western are all shopping at once.
There are always some people who don’t care how their behavior affects others, unfortunately their disregard of basic guidelines can be deadly in these circumstances.
Doesn’t look like they did much for the jumper side. Still have the divisions spread over 4 days. Obviously those showing 1.20m and higher rarely elect to do more than 1 class a day, but there’s no reason the children’s and adult’s couldn’t have been condensed to allow “show and go”.
Not that I’m planning to show anywhere. I can’t even see my horse right now and I doubt I’ll want to show at all this summer.
I’m going to point out that as you said we don’t know if people can be re-infected, so re-opening the country “pronto” MAY be a disaster. No way to know if it “would” be a disaster.
I’m one of those who “can’t comply” with a face mask. I cannot tolerate it. A combination of pre-existing claustrophobia and left over PTSD from a accident in which I was almost smothered. Even in my state - Michigan - my dictator of a governor has said it is not a requirement if you medically cannot tolerate it.
I think it is possible to make horse shows pretty safe even with the current level of social distancing. 99% of classes bring in no spectators. The ones that usually do, either don’t allow for that this year, or figure out ways to add seating and require distancing. Most of the barns that I know that would be attending these types of shows did not close in the first place, so they would’ve already infected each other if it was going to happen.
Hopefully show management companies have spent the last 2 months figuring out how to manage the necessary distancing to get these shows going again. I can think of several ways. Automate the check in process and leave the number packets for non-contact. Limit the number of entries to ensure that barn groups have appropriate separation in stabling, or add temp stabling. Establish a hard limit in schooling rings and enforce it no matter how BNT they think they are, and don’t allow a single trainer to hog a ring. Add schooling areas and set schooling times for specific barns with large numbers of riders. Establish a order of go and enforce it that allows for trainers with large groups to spread out. Break up U/S into smaller groups - it would take longer, but the smaller group would get evaluated faster so not exponentially longer.
All these things cost additional funds that will eat into the management profit, so hard to convince management to implement.
Then there is the issue of individual state mandates. My SO has a drag racing car. There are several tracks that have said they are opening regardless, and the local LEO has said they will ticket everyone who comes. I can see the same thing for horse shows, depending on local LEO.
The sentence “opening the country pronto would be a disaster” was not my opinion. It is the opinion of public health professionals, doctors that specialize in epidemiology.
But the UE system is broken in a lot of states right now. I know people who are still waiting from March for a single UE or PUE payment. It’s not that they haven’t filed their taxes, it’s that the system was never set up to support self-employed individuals and the hasty patches are not working. At all.
You are correct that the industry is teetering. Some things may be lost that can never be replaced, tragically. Some people will lose almost everything of value that they have.
Many businesses will go under due to the virus restrictions. Businesses that would have otherwise have had good long futures.
None of those facts changes the facts of the virus. It is very contagious, and while it is not serious in the vast majority of patients, it can kill a certain number. No cure, no vaccine. So no control over the spread without these restrictions.
What is the right moral choice? Drive people out of their businesses, wreck employment, destroy the economy for years to come, in return for saving lives? Or sacrifice those lives in order to save the businesses and the economy and people’s standard of living? I do not know the right answer.
This historic and terrible moment will be analyzed and debated for decades into the future for the choices that are made.
In animals, when certain diseases are contagious and there is no cure and no vaccine, the USDA has been aggressive about eliminating the disease by isolating or euthanizing the animals that have it. Even if the disease is not typically fatal and the animal will recover, the disease is not controllable and would be widespread and costly. EIA, mad cow disease, EHV-1, piroplasmosis, etc. There was a long thread recently about the imported horse in quarantine that kept incorrectly testing positive for Glanders. Even though it seems everyone thought the test result was wrong and the horse was healthy, that horse was never leaving quarantine until it was consistently testing negative.
Now we have this situation in people - contagious disease, can’t control the spread because no cure, no vaccine. The common cold we tolerate. But covid we don’t, for now, because of the rate of hospitalization and death. So, isolate and quarantine to control the spread.
Are we doing the right thing? Will authorities continue to make the same decisions in the future? How high will the ultimate cost of the attempt to control this disease finally be? Don’t know any of those answers.
