There are no restrictions here in Ocala. In the last three weeks, it’s gone from about 75% of the people I see when I go out (feed store or grocery store) are wearing a mask to now probably 10%. It’s despicable. Meanwhile Advent hospital and the other one are at 100% capacity last time I checked. My neighbor is an ER nurse at one of the hospitals and around Thanksgiving she told me that ER wait times for non-COVID issues were 7+ hours because they’re so busy with COVID patients. This week she told me it hasn’t gotten any better since then.
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It sure seems to be going against the spirit of everything California is asking residents to do.
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Travel-Advisory.aspx
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Californians are now being asked to travel no further than 120 miles from their home. Anyone traveling to California from another state is supposed to quarantine. In theory this should somewhat limit entries.
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Travel-Advisory.aspx
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My interpretation of guest (sorry, not spectators) was people in addition to the essential personnel, with essential personnel including riders, trainers, and grooms. So parents, friends, owners, sponsors etc. But it’s just a guess since I haven’t read the Covid regulations for WEF.
Thermal is set up to have one entrance I think. Oaks has one official entrance but there is a back road that goes to a training facility (that includes the covered ring usually used for Maclay regionals), but that would be pretty easy to monitor. Galway has one official entrance for the show, but there are multiple entrances to the facility which includes race horse training, training barns, a cross country course, weddings and events, soccer, etc. It is normally possible to move between those areas, but you could probably monitor most.
The USEF policy also limits spectators, though obviously that means nothing if there is no enforcement by show management.
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Stay the heck at home - it’s the law. Even if a trainer decides that they as a professional athlete simply must go, they need to bear in mind that they’re risking other people’s access to hospital for the sake of sports. It’s a moral question they should consider very carefully.
LA area hospital beds are so full that the decision has been made that those not deemed likely to survive are being left at home to die. I’m not kidding.
LA Times
"“If a patient becomes extremely ill and very unlikely to survive their illness, even with life-saving treatment, then certain resources currently limited in availability — such as ICU care or a ventilator — may be allocated to another patient who is more likely to survive,” the message states. "
KCRA
"Remaining ICU capacity in the five regions (last updated Jan. 8, 2021)
- Northern California: 27.5%
- Bay Area: 3% (Will remain under the order until at least Jan. 8 with potential to extend depending on ICU capacity projections. )
- Greater Sacramento: 6.4%
- San Joaquin Valley: 0%
- Southern California: 0%
When a region’s remaining ICU capacity reaches zero, hospitals’ surge plans are enacted."
That new, more transmissible form of Covid is now in CA too.
Oh just stay home, for the love of all that’s holy.
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Can’t help but notice there haven’t been any COTHers saying they’re going. 
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So scary
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If anyone is thinking of going, read this first.
“ “…the reality is, things are worse than people think," says Dr. Nichole Bosson, assistant medical director at the LA County Emergency Medical Services Agency. ”
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California may be eating the horses soon
Might be a stupid question, but can the governor of the state decide the whole state follows the same rules?
Who’s in charge of each county that makes the decision on masks and numbers of people in restaurants?
Not a stupid question, it’s actually a little confusing right now. We currently have a statewide order dictating that when a region’s ICU capacity falls under 15%, all counties within that region have to abide by the state’s stay-at-home order. That’s most of the state, right now. If a region is NOT under that stay-at-home order, there’s a tiered system dictating what businesses can open and at what capacity.
In all that, I’m not sure where governance for events like this falls. Many outdoor businesses have been allowed to stay open this time around, so that may apply to the show too.
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You may be right. It just seems so I’ll-advised to go. A few years ago some grooms were killed or injured in a fire in one of the rickety trailers used as housing for them. I can’t seem to find a news article about it but I know housing was upgraded. Still, are the grooms able to socially distance where they sleep?
Add to that the lack of hospital rooms…I mean, maybe your billionaire parents can helicopter you to Northern California, so I guess it’s cool.
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I am honestly surprised it’s allowed to go on, since it seems like we decided long ago that gathering people together, even outdoors, is not a great idea at this time. Not to mention encouraging travel and, like you mentioned with grooms, forcing people to choose between virus risk and unemployment. I don’t have a horse to take anyway, though, so I don’t really have a dog in this fight.
I do wonder if the availability of hospital services doesn’t seem like a big deal to everyone. It gives me pause, personally, but if I look back on nearly 30 years of riding, I’ve found myself in urgent care once. If I were to calculate solely off that fact, my odds of needing a hospital at any particular show are not that high. I almost hesitate to make this point because I don’t mean to downplay the situation - it is dire by all information available to me, and I’m sitting here on my couch instead of a long list of things I’d rather be doing - but I think an ongoing problem with this pandemic is that not everyone perceives the same dangers at the same magnitude. Many things “feel safe,” and we have a lot of latitude to make our own choices, but feelings are not data-based assessments and clearly an encouragement to be responsible has not worked out well.
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I had a debate with myself recently not about horse showing but deciding whether or not I would do some “higher risk” riding like xc schooling or foxhunting during a period when our hospitals were rapidly approaching capacity. Long ago I heard the term “low probability, high consequence” to describe this type of risk. I do think you’re right that this changes how a lot of people gauge risk, by focusing more on the probability of something happening rather than the probability X consequences.
It’s not just about needing to go to the ER. But a lot of things that are non-critical are being treated as elective.
So you maybe have a fall and break a collarbone. Most likely you haven’t punctured a lung or something and you don’t need to go to the ER. But perhaps you do have a break that would heal a whole lot better with surgery. Good luck getting surgery for that anytime soon. Or any other not life threatening injury that could have an impact on your ability to keep doing your job well (such as in the case of a pro). And this is the also true for riding at home in a place with 0% capacity/Stay at home orders of course.
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I think it absolutely should be canceled at this point. The situation is far to dire in Southern California right now and across the country. I don’t really understand why people feel the need to travel right now. It just feels very very risky.
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‘A mass fatality event’: California struggles with backlog of bodies of COVID-19 victims
But no, don’t worry, horse shows are totally safe.
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So tough! I know SO many people going, my barn included. I went down for Sunshine Series and felt very safe - everyone was following the rules.
It’s tricky…I see it from both a competitors side and a groom’s. My husband is a groom and will be going for 3 weeks, I’ll be staying home until local shows start up. The money is great, but at what risk. I don’t love that he will be flying, but he will be staying in a house with my trainer which is nice.
Hard decisions, but I definitely see the horrible impact thousands of people from other states coming to one concentrated area can have. Then again, the restaurants & businesses thrive and depend on these shows.
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I am sure that when outbreaks and fatalities are tied to certain optional sporting events people will start getting sued or charged over it.
ETA: looks like the legal ramifications of negligence over Covid are indeed coming home to roost.
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