26/04/2025
We’re looking forward to all of the equine events available to go watch or participate in over the next few months ☀️
*However* whenever groups of horses intermingle, there is an increased risk of disease transmission 🦠 Please help keep our herd healthy! Here are some things you can do to help:
🚫 Sharing is NOT caring!
The biggest thing is not sharing stuff between horses (like brushes, tack, feed and water buckets, etc). Skin conditions and parasites can be spread by shared grooming tools and tack, and shared buckets or stall cleaning tools can be an easy way for pathogens to get from horse to horse.
🐴 ⛔️🐴No nose to nose contact!
We all enjoy visiting with our friends at the horse shows, especially if we haven’t seen them since last year! So it can seem like a cute idea to let your horse “visit” with their friends too- but this is the easiest way to spread an illness!
As well, you will want to avoid going around petting other horses. This one can be hard to resist- especially when they have their heads over the stall doors, looking so friendly! But going down the shedrow petting noses or feeding treats (not that we should be feeding anyone’s horse without permission anyways!) is a prime way to facilitate disease transmission from horse to horse 😱 If you need to go visit and pet your friend’s horse, washing your hands before touching your own horse again is a good practice.
Ringside, it’s important to only let your horse drink from their own bucket, and not from “community” buckets or troughs. If your are borrowing or renting someone else’s trailer, ensure that it’s clean.
❌ Obviously we should avoid visiting other facilities if they have horses that are sick! But if you were to do so inadvertently, ensure you change and wash clothes and boots, wash hands, before going back to your own horse.
If a horse seems sick (snotty nose, fever, dull), tell someone like your barn manager, the horse’s owner, or your coach right away in case it needs to be quarantined.
Under the right conditions, infectious bacteria can live in water and anywhere there is moisture for four to six weeks❗️ So it may be prudent to avoid visiting other facilities for a period of time after any sick horses have recovered.
❗️When travelling, surfaces like stall walls can be disinfected with a bleach solution if you have any concerns. You can look up how to do this effectively (bleach is ineffective if used over dirt and manure).
💉 Some competitions will require horses to have received certain vaccines, talk to your veterinarian about what’s appropriate for your horse, even if it’s not “required” by the events you to plan to attend.
