04/06/2020
To our clients,
Depending on evolving circumstances, we are hoping to be able to re-start our health program vaccine appointments in two weeks, on April 20th. We ask that in order to limit the spread of COVID-19, only one person be present at each barn visit. We are also often able to work on the horses with no one present, which would be preferable. This is both to help us limit us spreading the virus ourselves, if we are carrying it without symptoms, and to help keep ourselves healthy and able to see horses in emergency situations.
The Maryland Horse Council has the following recommendations for barn protocol in light of the shelter-in-place order from Governor Hogan.
Thank you, and please stay safe,
Drs. Peter and Edward Radue
On Monday, March 30th, Governor Larry Hogan signed a new executive order instituting a “Stay at Home” directive.
During his press conference, he stated, "No Marylander shall be leaving their home unless it is for an essential job or an essential reason such as obtaining food or medicine, seeking urgent medical attention or for other necessary purposes...essential businesses are directed to scale down operations to reduce the required in-person staff in order to limit in-person interactions and institute telework.”
This new executive order went into effect at 8pm Monday, March 30th. The Governor further stated: “Today’s order states that any person who knowingly or willfully violates the order is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction is subject to imprisonment not to exceed one year or a fine of $5,000 or both.”
We understand that these are difficult, stressful, and confusing times. The Governor has issued two orders recently that directly affect horse businesses and horse people. The first, issued on 3/23, was directed at businesses, and mandated the closure of non-essential businesses. The second, issued 3/30, was directed at individual citizens and mandated that they stay at home except for essential reasons.
Following the issuance of these orders, there was a lot of discussion about what they mean for horse businesses and horse people. The Horse Council has been in constant communication with the MD Department of Agriculture and its MD Horse Industry Board, to try to interpret what these orders mean. The directions we received so far from MDA in these discussions (and - keep in mind that these are subject to change as the pandemic develops) can be summarized as follows: 1) self-care boarding activities are permitted; 2) in general, when horses are in full-care boarding situations, horse owners should not travel to visit, groom, or ride their horses absent a legitimate reason that their horse’s health or safety cannot be secured by the staff at the boarding facility. Owners of boarding facilities have the discretion to decide that, under the current circumstances, additional help is needed to provide basic care for horses, and they can designate individuals to add as temporary “staff.” They can provide those individuals (as well as their regular staff) with letters certifying their right to travel to those jobs.
