Trickle Down Effects Of EVH-1
Last week a Washington horse that attended the National Cutting Horse event in Ogden, Utah from April 30 to May 8 tested positive for a highly contagious disease called, Equine Herpes Virus 1 (EHV-1). I’ll be back to tell you how that has effected me personally. The horse community has been buzzing and blogging over the devastating outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus that occurred at the National Cutting Horse Associations event in Ogden Utah. At least two horses have been euthanized from the virus that in severe cases causes hind-end paralysis and death. As the cutting horse community dispersed to their home states so did EHV-1. And just my luck, that the infected Washington horse came home to our riding facility meaning my rope horse is now quarantined until June 15. While I lose the bulk of my competition season our horse facility, Appleatchee looses over $15,000 by cancelling just the Memorial Day roping alone, not to mention other scheduled events. Our community is hurt as well as a couple hundred contestants cancel hotel reservations . In peak rodeo and horse show season event after event is being cancelled throughout the west and in wake of this outbreak and dreams of hard working horse owners go down the tube. One friend, with the horse of a lifetime, believed this was the year she would make the national finals , not when your horse is quarantined. Those of us feeding shoeing, and working with horses are sanitizing …..everything, everybody is on edge. So far only the cutting horse has shown symptoms but if another horse comes in our barn comes down with EHV-1 it really stinks as my horse will be in lock down for the whole summer.
