Julia Hargraves from Warwick

“Warwick lockdown not as bad as we thought it would be”.
1st September

Well-known young showjumping rider, Julia Hargreaves was recently in the Horse Deals news about a month ago, for her precocious Silver Classic Victory at the Elysian Showjumping Championships riding her imported gelding Haymen. However, the self-confessed “eventing groupie” was at the Warwick CIC/W to help her friend and well-known eventer Christopher Burton. Horse Deals caught up with Julia on the first day of Spring.

How are Chris’s horses?

Chris brought five horses up here, including Adelaide Four Star hopeful, Newsprint. They all have the flu, either had it or are in the middle of it now. This is good news as we wanted to be here to monitor them when they were sick. Now that they are coming out the other side we (not the horses) can think about returning home. They have all reacted a little bit differently, KS Secrets never went off his food, but Newsprint did a little and one had a very high temperature, but you would no even know he was sick. Chris is still optimistic about going to the Adelaide Four Star if it is still on. His other Adelaide horse, Unrepentant is with its owners on the NSW South Coast.

And the others?

All the horses here have or have had the virus now, so it is now a matter of waiting the 30 days from the last horse to become infected, until we can take them home. (Once a horse has had the virus it is highly unlikely to contract it again within a three month period)

How is life in Camp?

They are doing their best to look after us here, providing three meals a day and a regular bus into town. The Red Cross are making sure people have the basics like bread and mils etc. Confinement has not been as bad as we thought it was going to be.

How are things at home?

(Julia and her parents have the Copabella Stud at Arcadia, with the very successful imported stallion, Copabella Visage at the forefront of the breeding programme.)

It is a bit scary. We are free of the virus at the moment, but horses in the area have it and the virus is airborne. (A good analogy of the airborne contagion is to liken it to someone in the front of an aeroplane sneezing, and someone up the back catching a cold. However, The entire airport will not catch a cold. The virus can travel in the air up to 50 meters or maybe more in a high wind. It is important to try and establish an exclusion zone of more than 50m around horses if possible.) A lot of the European horses at home have been vaccinated and may have some immunity still, but I am worried about the mares and foals.

What shows are you missing?

The NSW State Showjumping Championships at Nowra (end September) have been postponed and I am not sure, but I think the Australian Showjumping Championships in Canberra from the 11^th to the 14^th October have been postponed as well.

The Warwick “while we wait” eventers calendar is in discussion mode. Horse Deals will keep you up to date as much as possible with the lockdown situation and EI outbreaks around the country.