On Limited Release

When Horse Deals spoke to Parkes detainee, Donna Wright today she delighted in telling us, “I’m on the road. It’s wonderful to be on the way home. The DPI have let the highway patrol know so we should not be pulled up. The permits came through yesterday. We live in the Red Zone, (Donna traveled with the group from Centennial Park), and so we could get permits to leave, however, there are still horses there, which cannot get permits to leave as they are from the Amber or Green Zones”.

“I’m home and a bit emotional,” declared Meg Drury, who has been giving us situation reports from the Moonbi lockdown for the last six weeks. “I got my permit last night and have just brought my horses home this morning”. It is however, not all joy for the inmates as they may be allowed out of Moonbi, but those in the Amber and Green Zones have been told they must find agistment for their horses in the Red Zone for a further two weeks. A Level dressage judge and rider, Joy Seccombe is one of the Moonbi detainees with a ‘restricted’ pass out. “Five or six horses, including mine come from the Amber (buffer) or Green Zone and last night they told us we were not able to go home, although our horses have been tested twice and given the all clear. They have changed the rules. The reason the DPI gave us was that they don’t know if the horses are still shedding the virus or not! I don’t know what the tests were for and I thought our science was better than that. They tell us we have to agist in the red Zone for another two weeks. I have been in the Red Zone for six weeks and now they want another two. I asked if I could get a permit now to go home in two weeks, they told me, no. It’s quite beyond me really. I feel our horses are the safest in the country, they can’t get it and they can’t give it. I am trying another avenue to get a permit to go home to Ebor, (halfway between Armidale and Coffs Harbour), so we will see how that goes. I have found agistment in Armidale and I do have a permit to go there”.

With Australia’s excellent record in scientific research and endeavours, you would not think it so difficult to determine whether or not a horse was shedding the EI virus. And if he is not, he is not, or is there some other argument?

“Blair Richardson and Chris Burton have already left,” declared our Warwick correspondent, Alishya Hill at midday. So the “battle of the border” has been won in this case at least, with Blair to take his horses back to Scone and Chris to Glossodia. It is certainly not a laughing matter, but what were they going to do all the way home, shed the virus like a tip truck dumping gravel? Again, where is the science or is voodoo the answer to EI?

“All the decontamination procedures are going according to plan”, continued Alishya “and 66 horses left Morgan Park yesterday (Tuesday). I am getting a bit tired and I’m ready to go home”. Alishya will accompany Heath’s horses back to Lochinvar next Monday or Tuesday, permits permitting.