No Horses For Canberra Royal

Dear Horse Exhibitors:

It is with much regret that we advise that we have cancelled the horse events at the 2008 ActewAGL Royal Canberra Show, due to Equine Influenza. We have tried every avenue to keep our horse events alive. We’ve had discussions with the Chief Vet in the ACT and vets in the NSW DPI and have even raised the issue with our ACT Chief Minister.

Conditions could improve in the next six weeks, but people need adequate time to prepare their horses, especially for a Royal Show. We have to make decisions based on what we know now, and there is too much uncertainty as to the future.

At the moment, we cannot have horses from Victoria and South Australia. Victoria is digging its heels in with very demanding quarantine protocols before agreeing to opening their border. We can only have horses from the green zone in NSW and ACT. That has left us with limited horse entries. The bio-security measures that we have to put in place, whilst not insurmountable, are not practical. If we had an outbreak it would mean shutting down Harness and Thoroughbred racing in the ACT.

We simply could not afford the risk of having to manage a ‘lock down’ of 45 days and adequately care for and exercise all of those horses. Worst still, if we did have the Show and horses did not show any sign of Equine Influenza because the incubation period is 5-6 days, and subsequently they returned to infect over 200 properties and stables – we could wipe out the green zone of NSW overnight. Remember it just takes one member of the public from an infected property to get into our Show and pat a horse to cause a serious problem. The Barmedman outbreak is an example of this.

We need to act responsibly. We can defeat this virus and rid it from Australia forever. According to current predictions that should be around May, June 2008.

The Society will now proceed to refund all entry fees and membership fees. Please be patient, it will take some time to process close to 6,000 entries. There isn’t much more we can say. We know the hardship this dreadful disease has caused so many hard working and earnest people in the recreational horse industry.

Stay strong, have the best Christmas you can under the circumstances and we look forward to seeing you at Australia’s biggest horse Show, the 2009 ActewAGL Royal Canberra Show!

Enquiries: Amy Gorman, phone (02) 6241 8867, email amy@rncas.org.au
Geoff Cannock Neil Austin
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CHIEF HORSE STEWARD