So what can each of us do to help?

I think most of us are unanimous in our opinion that EI should not have got into Australia and that the non-racing equestrian community is being neglected by the government particularly in the way of financial compensation. If the horse industry is losing so much money someone must be saving it elsewhere? If you derive your income from a non-horse business and your horses haven’t got EI then chances are that you are saving money – competition entry fees, lessons, saddlery etc. It has been a month and EI has already had a major financial impact on studs, saddleries, instructors, farriers, transport companies etc and as a horse owner I don’t want my local saddlery, instructor or farrier to go out of business. So what can each of us do to help?

Saddlery

There isn’t many of us that can walk into a saddlery and say we don’t need anything – there is always something that we have been hanging out to buy or perhaps you can do your Christmas shopping early. How about get a group of your horsey friends together, go to your local saddlery on the weekend buy a few things, then go have a coffee (choose an outside table) and then you can decontaminate in the sun, go home have a shower and change before you visit your horses. Lets be smart and avoid transimitting the disease but lets not get so scared that at the end of this we don't have the services of business and people that we have relied on to date. If we all got together and helped out our local saddlery it will make a difference – you might save someones job or you might save their business.

Studs

So were you in the market to purchase a horse? Now that most of us have our houses looking very clean maybe it’s a good idea to start looking through websites etc. The last thing studs need are tyre kickers but if you are genuinely in the market then it means that when the ban is lifted you have done your research and know which horses you want to look at so that it isn’t months after the ban is lifted that studs start getting back on their feet (if they can). For those of us that are patient buying a foal now is a real option – with or without the movement ban it is going to be at stud for a few more months – this means you have secured your next riding horse (much cheaper then buying it as a broken 3yo) and will help the stud through this tough time. So maybe you are searching for a particular bloodline contact the relevant studs and find out what mares are foaling this year to what stallion. Some studs have locked down completely and others may allow buyers on their premises after following strict decontamination procedures.

Instructors

If your instructor is not giving lessons due to EI have you thought about having a video lesson? For those with the technology duplicate the tape/cd/dvd and have a phone lesson. It gives you a completely different perspective and will give you a chance to see what your instructors sees (sounds scary doesn’t it??)

Obviously there are other horse businesses that you may support (eg transport companies) that you may not be able to provide immediate assistance to. But if anyone else has ideas about helping their local horsey business then please put them on this blog.

At times like these it is easy to get angry and frustrated..... we can't go back and change anything so lets try and move forward and help each other out. I

Catherine

Logan Village, Queensland