Location, Location, Location!

18th November

Every weekend at auctions around the country, real estate agents spruik, “location, location, location”, as it can make or break an investment property or business. When Malcolm Bryne moved his saddlery business from Ascot Vale to Werribee Park and improved his location, the business steadily grew.

Malcolm Byrne entered the saddlery trade in July 1975, apprenticed to the firm of Calcutt & Sons of Sutton Scotney in England. In 1981 he moved to London to work as a freelance saddler, producing exclusive custom made saddlery for some of the city's major retail saddlers. Since 1986 Malcolm has been living in Melbourne, where he has built a reputation for quality and service both in Australia and overseas. With a small team of highly skilled saddlers, trained 'in house', Malcolm creates custom made saddles, bridles and accessories for many top competitors in all equestrian disciplines.

Horse Deals spoke to Mal about how Equine Influenza has affected his business, especially now that it is located in a quarantine station. “I had a really good July and August and have been fine up until now, as I was a long way behind with orders, but now I have caught up and the phone is just not ringing. I have thousands of dollars worth of orders here and people will not pick them up. I have a two fold problem, there are no weekend competitions here, when I normally do the majority of my business and the second problem is people have really panicked about Werribee becoming a quarantine station and are not reacting rationally. People are seeing risks that are not there. We normally do a couple of saddle fittings a day, where people bring their horses to me, but people will not come here at the moment.”

“I have cut the hours back of the girls who work for me, but as they have been trained here over the last 10 years, it is very important that I can keep them and the business ticking over. At the moment we are making stock for when things pick up again.”

“We will get through this, but I feel for the big saddlery stores that had large stock orders, that they now need to pay for.” So we all need to take the advise of a press release earlier this week; “Horse lovers are urged to 'get tacky' this year and do their Christmas shopping at saddleries, produce and tack stores, as the industry buckles under the strain of Equine Influenza”.

Mal Byrne Saddlery Store at Werribee Park (where at the moment there are no horses being quarantined) is open 9.30-6pm Monday to Friday and 11-4 Saturdays and on Sunday when there are events at Werribee Park.

http://www.malbyrne.com.au/index.htm

EI green-zone thoroughbreds to get jabs

Queensland Racing Limited (QRL) will start inoculating thoroughbred horses in the Equine Influenza-free (EI) green zone in December, in a move to further free up horse movement around the state.

QRL's chief operations manager Malcolm Tuttle said around 5,000 horses would be vaccinated against EI, starting with those intending to be moved into south-east Queensland's red zone, which contains horses affected by the virus.

"At the moment we are treating the state as being in two divisions, there is a red zone and a green zone," Mr Tuttle told AAP.

"We need to make sure we can move towards the intermingling of those horse populations."

Racing is due to resume in Queensland on December 1 after the virus shut down the industry on August 25.

Read more.

Dubbo horse owners 'must vaccinate soon'

Dubbo horse owners have been given a last chance to vaccinate their horses as part of the equine influenza (EI) vaccination program.
The racing and recreational horse industries have been brought to their knees after the virus broke out in August.

NSW deputy chief veterinary officer Steve Dunn urged horse owners within the Dubbo red zone to contact the Dubbo Vaccination Centre and register for a vaccination before Tuesday.

"The effectiveness of the EI vaccine will be improved greatly if we can vaccinate as many horses as possible in Dubbo's red zone and buffer zone area," Mr Dunn said in a statement.

He said 2193 horses in Dubbo's buffer and red zones had received the first round of vaccination.

Read more.

Quarantine Station for Albury

Follow link to view Border Mail story on protest.
http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/bm/local/1019346.html

Thanks…

We like many other’s in South East Queensland run an Equestrian Business. We pre- train, break in & also campaign showjumping horses. During the shutdown of the infamous Qld Red Zone our business has come to a slow grinding halt. We have adapted in a way by gaining work outside of the Industry & wait in hope that we can re-commence our Business again soon and wonder wether we still have our Clientele.

There has been one good thing that has come out of this debacle & that is finding out who really cares.

Firstly we would like to offer a huge thanks to our Sponsor – Mitavite. Without any question they have stood by us continuing to supply us with our usual monthly feed quota and also offering a further twelve month contract. We have now been sponsored by Mitavite for over twelve years and certainly appreciate their support.

Also thanks to Julian Whilmore (FEI Vet) & Jenny Gehrke for all their hard work obtaining & then administering the Vaccinations for the Queensland EFA Squad Horses.

Thanks very much.

Clem & Sharlene Smith
Balaam Downs Equestrian