Hundreds of horses hit Henty

THE first horse event in regional NSW since the outbreak of equine influenza last August went off without a hitch at Henty at the weekend.
Horses as far as the eye could see lined the football oval to compete in equestrian events at the 104th Henty Show and the owners couldn’t have been more pleased.The Lavelle family, of Temora, had been locked down in the red zone since before Christmas.“Our horses have been through the vaccination program and it’s great to have them back out competing again,” Gary Lavelle said.“It’s like a big horse fraternity here as people have been catching up with one another from all over the district.”Although there were no quarantine measures in place, horse owners were required to carry their travelling horse statement issued by the NSW DPI.A vet was also on stand-by should an outbreak have occurred.But Mr Lavelle had no hesitations about taking his three horses to the event.“If there’s one thing that the equine influenza outbreak has done, it’s made horse owners more aware of things,” he said.
“If an owner’s horse has even the slightest sniffle than they are going to keep their horse away from the event and other horses.”
Thurgoona’s Debbie Dowell also didn’t think twice about letting her horse compete on Saturday.
“I am completely confident the horse flu situation is under control now,” she said.
“Everyone has been conscious about the equine influenza rules and everyone is just so glad to be back competing again.”
Show secretary Lorri Roden said they had been flooded with horse entries from places as far as Bega, Nowra and Canberra.
“We took 250 entries, that’s about triple the usual amount of entries we get here,” she said.
“We had one dedicated woman, 83, who brought her horses all the way from Perisher Valley.”