Dressage Letters April 2022

April 2022 ~ Dressage Letters ~ Page 3 California Dressage Society www.california-dressage.org CDS Central Office Paula Langan • manager/editor [email protected] P. O. Box 417 Carmel Valley, CA 93924 (831) 659-5696 • fax (831) 659-2383 Tue, Wed, 2-7pm • Thur, Fri, 1-5pm Dressage Letters:April 2022,Vol 28, Issue 4 Publishedmonthly by the California Dressage Society, . Periodicals #5940 at CarmelValley, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to POBox 417, CarmelValley, CA93924-0417 Printed byAPi-Marketing President Joan Williams (408) 512-2890 Vice President Pat Hart (714) 299-6507 Scholarship Committee Chair Nancy Szakacs (408) 476-4743 Treasurer Diana Muravez • (951) 201-0686 [email protected] Insurance Equine Insurance Donna Parker 800/321-5723 [email protected] Junior Rider Sara Mosqueda • (909) 203-9290 CONTENTS Articles CDS Adult Amateur Clinics.........................................pages 16-17 CDS North JR/YR Clinic.............................................pages 14-15 CDS South JR/YR Clinic ............................................page 23 CDS Southern Chapter Reports....................................pages 1, 4-6 CDS Sponsor Opportunities.........................................page 22, 24 CDS Women’s History Month......................................page 18-21 Regional Adult Amateur Competition..........................page 13 Monthly Departments Activities Calendar ......................................................page 28 Bulletin..........................................................................page 12 Classifieds.....................................................................pages 30-31 Membership Renewal Form ........................................page 32 Monthly Clinics ...........................................................page 25 President’s Column.......................................................page 3 Show Calendar .............................................................pages 26-27 USEF, USDF, FEI ........................................................pages 10-11 President’s Column by Joan Williams We had another EHV-1 outbreak here in California. A large venue had several horses testing positive a few days before a large competition. They went ahead and held the competition that weekend and the horses that were already on the showground were allowed to stay and compete and the ones not yet there were contacted and turned away. The show ended early and the horses that had competed were allowed to head home and self quarantine, with requests to self quarantine and check temperatures twice a day and have nasal swabs sent in by their veterinarians. Over the course of the week more horses tested positive and as horses were allowed to leave and spread out over California to their home barns more cases of EHV-1 were popping up in Thermal, Sonoma, Woodside, and LA. I am on the list to receive updates from the large horse parks, CDFA, USEF and from the FEI. We were given an update every few days on the spread of the disease. CDFA and USEF ultimately gave an announcement that all California recognized competitions will be suspended for 14 days from the beginning of March and then extended to March 31. The California Dressage Society has been diligent in putting updates out on Social Media so our members can be informed. I was surprised in reading this morning on Social Media that a few schooling shows are still continuing. I was also surprised in reading that many people had not heard there was an outbreak and that others did not understand why things were being suspended for a horse flu. In case there are still members out there that have not heard about this disease, there is a neurologic form that can be fatal. Equine herpesviruses are DNA viruses that are found in most horses all over the world. Almost all horses have been infected with the viruses and have most of the times no serious side effects. It is currently unknown what causes some infected horses to develop the serious neurological forms associated with EHV1 that may be fatal. EHV-1 is contagious and spread by direct horse-to-horse contact via the respiratory tract through nasal secretions. It is important to know that this virus can also be spread indirectly through contact with physical objects that are contaminated with the virus: Human contaminated hands or clothing Contaminated equipment and tack Contaminated trailers used for transporting horses Contaminated wipe rags or other grooming equipment Contaminated feed and water buckets The air around the horse that is shedding the virus can also be contaminated with infectious virus. Although it is known that the virus can be airborne, it is difficult to establish the distance the virus can spread in this manner under typical horse management and environmental conditions. We are fortunate at our barn to have a superior veterinarian living on site LaurenWinfield Mahoney. Our facility said there would be no trailering in or out of horses for the next two weeks. I suspended going to any competitions for my group of riders for the month of March or until the virus had died down. Last year CDS was hosting a JR/YR Championships and EHV-1 was found at the facility where we were hosting the Championships. Connie Davenport the show manager and the CDS board all had an emergency zoom call to discuss. We were all in agreement that it was not worth putting the horses at risk and the decision was made to postpone the show for a few weeks or until we were sure the danger was past. The disease died off and the kids were still able to compete at a later event. What you can do to help: When EHV-1 pops up, stay home, hunker down and train your horse. If everyone does this in two or three weeks the virus will die off quickly and we can all be enjoying taking our horses places competing and riding in clinics again.