Get wheels turning again: EFA

SYDNEY – The current virtual shutdown of the equestrian industry will lead to a permanent loss of events and participants, Equestrian Federal of Australia chief executive Franz Venhaus has warned.

“We are concerned that the current virtual shutdown of the industry will lead to a permanent loss of events and of horse sport participants, including clubs and their committees, who may simply give up and won’t make the effort to return when things get back to normal at some time in the future,” Venhaus said in an EFA newsletter.

“Events are the lifeblood of the sport, the clubs, and also of the commercial sector of the horse industry.

“Riders and owners buy new horse gear and horse services when they want to go to shows or when at shows. Not having events reduces this business considerably. Events and other gatherings are also important to professional riders, horse trainers, coaches and others, who have seen their basis of making a living disappear,” he said.

“I am not advocating an open-slather approach to the holding of events but I have to ask the question why clearly disease-free horses in a clearly disease-free area of the country far removed from infected zones cannot gather without much ado for competition, at least at the local or regional level,” Venhaus said.

“Why are authorities effectively frightening clubs and other organisers with onerous regulations and forecasts of doom so much that organisers don’t even consider holding events?

“We need the authorities to assist clubs and organisers to hold events, not to make them impossible.”

He said many horse organisations had cancelled all events for the remainder of the year in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

“This has even been happening in disease-free states like Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia (events are still being held in Western Australia),” Venhaus said.

“What seems to be forgotten is the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of people and businesses that rely on events for their income, either directly or indirectly.”