Victorians Grasp The Nettle.

At last there is some positive and courageous action in Victoria, which has been effectively held at ransom since the Equine Influenza outbreak in August. The fear of the Melbourne Cup Carnival being cancelled has created a paranoia that goes beyond logic. The threat that local competitions in the Melbourne area with local horses pose with regard to spreading the EI virus is considerably less than the threat of a Cup Carnival visitor bringing the virus from NSW. No one wants the Cup Carnival to be cancelled, but that the entire state is being bullied into a standstill until the Carnival is over is hard to take. The revenue to the state over the Spring Carnival via TABcorp is enormous, but it does seem tough that all equestrian sport is at a standstill, with no offer of compensation. It is not a matter of some ‘disgruntled girl’ not being able to take her pony to a show, it is the matter of a great many business seriously going to the wall.


Ian and Pat Mouser’s Tonimbuk Equestrian Park, an hour and a half east of Melbourne is a busy international class competition venue, or at least it was prior to the EI outbreak. “This has seriously affected us, we have had competitions booked in every week and they have all cancelled. If this goes on any longer we will just shut the place as you know it and turn it into an agistment centre. The DPI has genuinely scared people. Werribee Park must be in terrible trouble. We will be conducting four EFA jumping shows and we want to get them up and running as soon as possible. We have the infrastructure necessary, with 100 stables and access to as many yards as we need to satisfy any DPI requirements. We also have four all weather arenas and new arena surrounds and markers and we would be happy to organise dressage competitions if there is the demand”.

Note
During the writing of this article, Horse Deals received a call informing us of the $500,000 compensation package offered by Victorian Premier, John Brumby to not for profit organisations which have lost money (or in fact not made money) as a result of canceling events, "to help reduce the risk of EI entering Victoria". The full press release can be found on the Horse Deals Blog. What affect this will have on the Victorian EFA’s proposed showjumping days on the 4th, and 18th November and 2nd December and the One day Event on the 27th and 28th October at Werribee Park we do not know at this point. Ian Mouser came out with an emphatic, “if we can run the shows at Tonimbuk we will and we will be conducting pre entry all discipline training days on the 20th and 21st October”. For information regarding the Tonimbuk competitions go to-www.tonimbuk.com