Agree 100%
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So I noticed that WEF is patting itself on the back for closing off general admission this year but on the livestream yesterday I saw the hospitality tables set up, back to back, and people sitting among them. The tables were definitely not six feet apart. That area will probably packed during SNL tomorrow.
I guess in Wellington the belief is that only poor people can get and transmit the virus. I mean even when USEF shut down all competition last year, they all still packed the show grounds to jump around in school rounds.
Maybe it’s going to take a big name in the industry getting severely sick/dying for this community to start taking this seriously. Right now making a canned sympathy Instagram post when a no name groom or assistant passes is considered doing something.
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In California, there are three or four tiers, depending on the seriousness of infections and on hospital capacity. The rules differ according to which tier your county is in.
Four tiers. The counties are grouped into areas, so it depends on what group your county is in. Riverside (where Thermal is), LA, and several others are in the purple tier which is the most restrictive.
Counties and cities can make more restrictive limits. The state has additionally said that Californians should not travel more than 120 miles from their homes.
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At the moment, I think most of the state is in the purple (worst) tier. The point was that different rules apply to different regions of the seriousness of the outbreak differs across regions.
Correct. The only counties not in the purple tier are some in Northern California.
I said it should be cancelled, actually, because based on what feels like a reasonable reading of the stay at home order that Riverside county is currently under, and the restrictions on non essential travel, sporting events, gatherings, etc, it shouldn’t be allowed.
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Horse trainer here. We’ve been showing since the shows opened up.
That said, we’ve been as smart as possible. Clean hotels, no sharing rooms or carpooling. Normally, I’ll stay with family but I’ve stopped doing that. If we have a meal together it’s outside and apart. We also try to stay as local as possible (NorCal). I am blessed with a group of clients who understands how to be covid conscious. I am also lucky we have shows that aren’t that far away.
I have been to some shows that have been incredibly organized and conscientious. Some have come up with great systems of limiting personal interactions and it’s been actually a huge improvement to the experience. I have been to another that was not (and we won’t be returning).
Should Thermal be canceled? I think the biggest issues with the DC is the distance most people travel, how they travel, the length of time spent there, how they stay there, and the hospital capacity in the area. Truth be told, we have done a very poor job of containing the virus, so whether you’re at home or at a show, the risk is going to be similar as long as you don’t change your eating or living habits (as in, no shared rooms/houses, eating separate, etc). Driving is much safer than flying.
The biggest concern imo is hospital capacity. I do not know what that is for the Coachella Valley at the moment but I do know that people often have to go for some pretty serious injuries. I’d say just maybe don’t push yourself too hard this year if doing so might result in hospitalization.
Show staff flying in is a separate issue and that would be the responsibility of management. I do not know how they have handled this.
2020 and now 2021 have been years of big compromise. There’s no clear way to do anything well. Everything is 25% more difficult than before. I have been enjoying having the undivided attention of my students and have seen an interest in horses develop because it’s one of the only “safe” outdoor exercises people can do. Lesson programs are bustling now in our area.
I do believe it is possible to be almost as safe as you are at home while at a show. It takes some effort but I do think it is doable.
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Came across this
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Travel-Advisory.aspx
120 miles. That would eliminate out of state travel and certainly international travel. Yet, I saw videos of an International jumper rider shipping their horses from Europe to Florida for the show there. I thought COVID was also raging there? Super scary choice; if you ask me.
It will be interesting to see who goes and who stays home from Thermal and how that effects entires. My guess is entry numbers might be down significantly.
So far, from the two weeks of preview, it looks like a few of the same trainers with multiple entry in the same classes. Are the entry numbers usually this low the preview weeks?
I would be very leery of staying in CA motels with the CA Governor Project Room Key, still in effect. That just can’t be safe for travelers and not sure how one could find out what motels are participating?
Dozens if not hundreds of riders have shipped from Europe to Florida for WEF. This pretty much means thousands of people who wouldn’t otherwise be there, regardless of whether “spectators” are allowed.
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Florida doesn’t worry about only have 3% of their hospital beds available? Only California worries?
Mind boggling.
I don’t think California worries. Their circuit is also going on 
residents can’t eat outside, but definitely people can come from out of state to show luxury sport pets.
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According to the article posted, the area hospitals have a low percentage of covid patients. This means their resources aren’t really strained.
The three hospitals closest to Thermal are at 100% or close capacity and over 50% covid patients. This is why it’s a huge problem, because anything over 20% means the staff is stressed to care for them.
This whole thread was inspired by a trainer saying trainer would be there all 10 weeks. It’s just too lucrative to pass up.
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Preview week is very light. It’s essentially the LA Opener Show that usually runs at Hansen Dam. Entries are more robust at the regular weeks, at least one of which is sold out. Allegedly there is a lower threshold than usual for sold out due to trying to distance barns from each other in stabling.
One of my concerns is people coming from various distances, mingling, and then going back to where they came from, thereby spreading the virus to more communities, including the Coachella Valley. While riders and trainers are mostly outside, grooms do much of their work inside stalls, sometimes with other grooms in the grooming stalls, stay in tighter quarters, and many are in the most affected ethnic demographic, Hispanic. It’s also somewhat typical for barns to pick up freelance grooms as part of their show crew.
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It’s not just horseback riders converging on the Inland Empire, in this case San Bernardino County.
“Every year, tens of thousands of people descend on a rough stretch of desert north of Joshua Tree for a weeklong off-roading festival and series of extreme races.
Billed as one of the toughest desert off-roading races in the nation, the King of the Hammers event is often described as part Burning Man and part ‘Mad Max.’”
Source - LA Times
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Apparently you can get into this show very easily to spectate. All you have to do is fill out an online credential form and say that you’re coming there to try a horse for sale or some such. And they are only doing random checks at the gate, not checking everyone. I guess pinky swearing that you don’t have Covid is sufficient? Jeebus, the stupidity…
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No lessons learned from last year, apparently, when a lot of people caught the virus there.
In other news, I broke my foot jogging yesterday and had to go to urgent care. It was deserted. They had tents outside for covid patients, but no one was there. One person was ahead of me checking in. Zero wait time. So that’s good news for people who need that kind of care.
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They were very strict during Sunshine Series. We were there for 2 weeks and stayed on the grounds. They had checkpoints even between the RVs and the rest of the grounds. It was actually a little exhausting, but I am glad they had them!
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Sorry about your foot! Darn it. Glad I am not the only one who found acute care easy to receive.
I’m sorry too to all the walking wounded (Bristol Bay and Fordtracktor included).
I broke my toe 2 months ago and have gone for x-rays twice. The first two times it was VACANT. Vacant. Like, creepy vacant. I go to a outpatient radiology/cardiology/oncology center. It’s affiliated with a major teaching hospital but it’s not anywhere near the location where the ER or any inpatient services are. It’s actually in another state. All they have there are outpatient radiology/cardiology/oncology. So when it was quiet in November and December, I was a little surprised but not HUGELY surprised.
I just went back last week. Standing room only. Lines out the door. Parking lot entirely full and people parking across the street at a restaurant and walking over. Waited a while even though I had an appointment. I’ve never seen it busy like that.
And this is an outpatient radiology/cardiology/oncology center so really shouldn’t be an initial point of contact for people whose primary concern/condition is Covid. And I have never, in my life, seen it be packed like that.
I drove by a majoy teaching hospital with an ER and inpatient services later that week. There were tents outside in the parking lot with LOTS of activity out there. I don’t know if that’s just testing or actual patient care-- but it was busy to a degree that I think you would not appreciate if you were a patient needing some kind of emergent care for non-covid trauma. Mistakes most often happen during handoff and when people are overworked. For sure, it did not look like an ideal enviornment to prevent mistakes from happening. So even if the ER there was not TECHNICALLY “overwhelmed” by whatever metric you use to define it, it wasn’t the quality of care any of us would want for ourselves or our loved ones.
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