Horses for Life

October 2007 • VOLUME 26 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

"EI killed my Briar baby"

This morning between 4am and 5am Byalee Believe, the first palomino and the first colt by Byalee Briar, died of EI complications. He had a temperature on Monday afternoon, lung congestion by yesterday afternoon, appeared bright after being on a drip yesterday evening and then died of massive lung congestion. All the drugs and care in the world weren't enough to stop him from dying.

"Toby" was already sold and was destined for a career in the dressage arena. He was absolutely gorgeous, the strongest foal we had ever had, a good 60kg, and it still killed him. The mare is beside herself, as are we all. He wasn't just one of 20 foals, he was the culmination of 20 years of breeding and working and dreaming and believing in the dream. He was the reward for going out on a limb and going into more debt and importing a stallion - when he was born I sat and watched him from my computer for two days. I couldn't believe what I had created.

I should have known better. Right now it's really hard to believe. Or to dream. We don't expect 20 live foals every year from 20 mares - but this one shouldn't have died and didn't need to die.

We still have a pregnant broodmare dying of EI, we still have an EI infected 29-day premmie foal that can't stand up on its own after 36 hours, and we just brought in another 7-day-old Romance filly with lung congestion. It's 35 deg and we have had no sleep. We only have one staff left - the other 3 live in and two part time are long sacked due to no income. Maybe if there was an end in sight - but there isn't.

I am posting this not to make you all cry but to warn you - when the DPI-appointed vet came to do the autopsy he said lots of TB foals had died. So don't wait for statistics. We are being fed propaganda. And yes, before you suggest it, after crying for three hours I did get angry, and I did go to the media. And it will be run. But it won't make Toby wake up.

The comments from a petition online shows a little of the distress and heartbreak of so many people across Australia

THE WAY THE WHOLE EI SAGA HAS BEEN HANDLED IS TOTALLY DEPLORABLE. I AM DISGUSTED AT THE ATTITUDES PORTRAYED BY ALL GOVTS. A TOTAL LACK OF CONCERN FOR THE AVERAGE HORSE OWNER.
Hard to know where to start. The fact that it affects me as a veterinarian, breeder and rider. Monies involved at all levels. No feed and water because of the drought, associated costs a nightmare. Not being able to onsell horses or move them WILL escalate into a "welfare disaster". If the EI doesn't debilitate the horses, the after-effects of the extended gov't lockdown should do it.

The E.I Epidemic has forced the company that I work for who produces products for the horse industry to stand down 10 people with more to come if the situation does not get any better.The community that we work in has a very high unemployment rate with jobs very scarce, so for 10 people to be out of work because of this E.I outbreak is heart wrenching. When is the government going to step in and take some responsibility for the thousands of lives that have been adversely affected?

This dreadful virus affects all horse owners and not just those in Qld and NSW. It has ruined our market and therefore our livelihood. Our horses still must be maintained and the Government offers no help or compensation and no hope of a speedy resolution

All horse owners and related businesses in Australia deserve equal rights - NOT JUST THE RACING INDUSTRY!!!

*Out of work horse trainer*...can't sell horses, can't do anything with them, except feed them (when you can get feed - a bale of hay is $30+) - this Gov't is a disgrace and only proving to get worse the way they are pandering to the racing industry. Horse fatalities WILL and ARE rising as a direct cause of this Gov't; really hope they come up with a better solution soon.

We have a performance arabian horse stud with 5 breeding stallions and 15 breeding mares. We do not even receive a look in because our horses are not registered to race. What an absolutely ridiculous situattion we are in. We have not received any info from the DPI or any other governing body regarding the EI even though the area we live in is Menangle Park and only down the road is Menangle Park Paceway. All of the trotting horses are allowed to continue training (even though there are no races) and are constantly moving around the streets of this very small town. They have now all been vaccinated but to date none of the other horses in town have been. Just because my horses do not "race" does not mean that they are in any way inferior.

We want the spread of the EI stopped, BUT please consider the impact these restrictions have on family budgets. We bought our daughter's first horse the week the restrictions came into place, horse is now stuck an hour away – in the red zone (which we also live in). We are having to pay two lots of agistment, with already high costs in feed and petrol driving to see him – this is stretching us – HOW LONG CAN THIS GO ON?

I am a breeder and with the EI impact on my business this season I will be effectively out of pocket $38K income

I am handfeeding 29 horses currently trapped on 4 acres that I am unable to get to their usual paddocks, at a cost of almost $2,000 PER WEEK. I have had to take second mortgage on my home to pay for this! I have also had to sell my 4wd and put up my horse float for sale. I spend so long feeding and watering these horses that I am unable fully to do my work for my living.

As pleasure horse owner and professional hoofcare provider I feel let down by how this crisis has been handled so far. It seems that the racing and gaming industries have lobbied to protect their and only their interests. All horses are equal - an old pony club mount or a magic million race steed. Please don't let the handling of this crisis be guided by the wrong motives. Punting and racing is only a small part of the Australian horse scene with little regard to the real value of the creature horse on whose many immature backs it is riding so well. Please don't let greed determine the future of all of Australia's equine industry!

It is not fair that the racing industry alone has had the availability of the vaccine - especially considering the value of top FEI competition horses of which I have two. Note also that the purchase, importation and training of these has been funded by personal finances rather than big business dollars.

Give us a fair go. We have busted our arses over this, which is more than any of the racehorse industry or fraternity has done or been subjected to, all standing with their hand out for the free vaccination and the $5000 from CentreLink that none of us can get. The strange thing is, we can't actually afford to own racehorses. Simply appears the fat get fatter while the other horse industry people in Australia are simply ignored and left out in the cold yet once again. Fair go Minister, this is simply poor form - don't forget there is a pending election on the horizon, and a bloody lot of horse people who will simply not vote for anyone who hasn't got the guts to stand up for the constituent.

The non-racing sector of the equine industry is MUCH larger than the racing industry. Many many people are doing it very tough. A lot of this grief is being caused by the fact that the "CURE" being forced onto us is worse than the disease. The current plan is crippling the industry and needs immediate review.

There are currently approx 17,000 racing TBs in this country. I can guarantee that the rest of the country's approx 1.5 million horses contribute more to the economy than the racehorses do. TB breeders breed on average 20,000 foals each year, where are they all??? I can tell you, in the paddocks of us "pleasure horse" owners, or in cans of dog food. We are the ones that take on and love the horses that these racehorse owners throw away. They are only valuable when they are earning their owners lots of money. Our horses are valuable from the day they are born to the day they die. We weren't the ones who brought this into the country, yet we and our horses are the ones who are physically suffering and by the looks of things, are going to suffer extremely financially as well.

Animals are being denied life saving veterinary care and are dying.

What a disgrace. The racing industry brings EI into Australia which compromises all horses indiscriminately. Why then is it the racehorses that get first preference for vaccines and excess assistance from the government compared to what we in the recreational industry are offered? There is enough money in the racing industry for them to look after their own. The rest of us who work so hard for the little we have are the ones who require assistance. You need to decide whether the country is in lock down or not. If you let the racehorses travel to races then you should be letting other horses travel for breeding purposes which is far more important, otherwise announce total shutdown without bias. Vaccines should be made available across the board.

Thanks to the Governments relaxing the quarantine regulations I now have horses suffering from this virus. And as my horses are not Race Horses I am not able to get free vaccines or a grant from the government to help me out.

DO NOT give in to the pressure from the racing industry... protect our sporting and recreational horses by eradicating this disease properly! Its bad enough that such a HUGE mistake was made in quarantine and the disease was allowed to get to this point, don't make another by throwing it in the too hard basket and giving in! and.....protect our state. Current restrictions stopping the transport of horses and gear across the Bass Straight should stay in place till this is over... we are EI FREE, let's keep us that way.

I am writing to you to express my disappointment on how the wider equestrian community has been neglected during public and press coverage representations in reference to the Equine Influenza Outbreak crisis.

In Beaudesert, Qld, our clients' horses ( 20 thoroughbred spellers) were vaccinated but our 20 Arabians were not. What is the point in vaccinating half a property? EI is 10 kms away. When we get it all our un-vaccinated horses are going to be sick. The cost to our small business will close us down.

The end result of the introduction of the Purple Zone in the Upper Hunter Valley is the cause of great distress to us, many who are not part of the race horse/gambling industry. Hard to believe, but the big losers are the many thousands of horses belonging to the Mums, Dads, farmers, pony club kids and all the other non-racing horse activities. We have been effectively locked into a large sacrificial prison. With the enactment of the Purple Zone the Race horse breeders have been moving large numbers of mares into and around this zone. Up until this happened there were large areas including our district that were free of EI, NOT ANYMORE!!!

As a veterinarian and horse owner I have been very disappointed from the start of the outbreak by the inadequacy of multiple government agencies in responding to this crisis. AUSVETPLAN appears to have been largely ignored, with targeted vaccination programs for only racehorses in a very haphazard manner and the Queensland "buffer" for vaccination (if any vaccine is left) seems inadequate considering the distances new infections are occurring over south east Queensland. The Victorian racing industry has been given vital vaccine doses that could be actually used to prevent the further spread of the disease with the boundaries for the infected areas. If the containment of the virus has been abandoned then the vaccine should become commercially available for owners to protect their horses' health and the non-racing horse economy. This disaster is certainly not just a Thoroughbred problem and everyone outside racing is fed up and going broke.

I breed horses for endurance and currently I have 28 horses with EI

A tragedy of epic proportions. Can we begin to imagine what this would be like if this was us? A new baby foal dying in our arms, a favourite old friend and you are absolutely helpless.

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