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NZ Racing Shut Down


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From today's NZTR directive. Total sense.

Exercise of Horses
2.0 Whilst this Directive includes within its provisions the ability to exercise horses, this is a provision provided only where needed to ensure the continued welfare of the horse.
3.0 Light ridden exercise of a horse is permitted only when:
3.1 The trainer is unable to identify an agistment property with that has capability to accept the horse within a 1-hour drive (note that relocation of horses to agistment is permitted within paragraph 9.2);
3.2 The horse is boxed, due to there being no suitable yards or paddocks on the trainer’s facility; and
3.3 The stable lacks a horse walker or treadmill.
4.0 If ridden work is justified under paragraph 3.0, the trainer must instruct the rider that galloping or fastwork is not permitted. Education of young horses, including through starting gates is also not permitted. These prohibitions are stipulated on the grounds of personal safety at a time when the public health system is dedicating to combatting COVID-19.

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49 minutes ago, curious said:

Read 4.0.

Hang on a minute is there a greater chance of injury if a horse is galloped?  

Don't more accidents happen in stables doing other things?

Aside from that it is clear that we won't see any racing within 6 weeks.  How long will it take to get horses fit?

 

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5 hours ago, curious said:

From today's NZTR directive. Total sense.

Exercise of Horses
2.0 Whilst this Directive includes within its provisions the ability to exercise horses, this is a provision provided only where needed to ensure the continued welfare of the horse.
3.0 Light ridden exercise of a horse is permitted only when:
3.1 The trainer is unable to identify an agistment property with that has capability to accept the horse within a 1-hour drive (note that relocation of horses to agistment is permitted within paragraph 9.2);
3.2 The horse is boxed, due to there being no suitable yards or paddocks on the trainer’s facility; and
3.3 The stable lacks a horse walker or treadmill.
4.0 If ridden work is justified under paragraph 3.0, the trainer must instruct the rider that galloping or fastwork is not permitted. Education of young horses, including through starting gates is also not permitted. These prohibitions are stipulated on the grounds of personal safety at a time when the public health system is dedicating to combatting COVID-19.

What about unlicensed pre-trainers and horse breakers?

Will those trainers that break in and educates their yearlings be able to do that?

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On 26/03/2020 at 11:07 AM, curious said:

Read 4.0.

They've tidied this up a bit in today's amendments.

4.0 If light ridden exercise is justified and permitted under paragraphs 2.0 and 3.0, the following
prohibitions are stipulated on the grounds of personal safety at a time when the public health
system is dedicating to combatting COVID-19:
4.1 Galloping or fastwork is prohibited.
4.2 Education through jump-out starting gates is prohibited
4.3 The horse may be ridden only at a trot, canter or up to half-pace.
4.4 Horses may only be ridden at a distance of 50 metres or more from other ridden horses.
4.5 A very cautious approach must be taken to a decision to ride a very inexperienced horse
or a potentially fractious horse.

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What a load of cobblers!  What does the rest of it say?

For example recommendations on sanitising reins before use by another rider?

Stable staff assigned their own leads?

Assign one person to making up feeds.  

Etc etc.  None of it can be enforced but at least surely their collective experience could come up with some guidance.

Common sense I know but....

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25 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

What a load of cobblers!  What does the rest of it say?

For example recommendations on sanitising reins before use by another rider?

Stable staff assigned their own leads?

Assign one person to making up feeds.  

Etc etc.  None of it can be enforced but at least surely their collective experience could come up with some guidance.

Common sense I know but....

Our prescient management obviously has worked out it has backed itself into a corner.

They were gung- ho to keep things rolling so racing could start as soon as possible once levels were pruned back.

That, of course,  was never the reason for allowing horses to be exercised,  and the protocols that needed to be adhered to just, well, weren't. 

A ticking time bomb, and the right decision. 

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48 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

What a load of cobblers!  What does the rest of it say?

For example recommendations on sanitising reins before use by another rider?

Stable staff assigned their own leads?

Assign one person to making up feeds.  

Etc etc.  None of it can be enforced but at least surely their collective experience could come up with some guidance.

Common sense I know but....

Yes pretty much. That was in the earlier version.

Hygiene measures.
8.3 When exercising horses, or in stable areas, trainers and staff are required to maintain
strict standards of personal hygiene:
8.4 Provision and use of disinfectant buckets and sprays, or soap and running water located
throughout the stable and tie-up stalls for regular washing of hands:
8.4.1 On arrival and before departure from the workplace;
8.4.2 Before and after eating or drinking;
8.4.3 Before and after assisting another person around the horse (e.g. legging up a
rider); and
8.4.4 Before and after handling of tack or equipment that is handled by more than
one person.
8.5 All persons must wash and wear clean clothes before and after work;
8.6 Wearing of overalls and gloves for duties when it is practical to do so;
8.7 Use of disinfectant on all tack or other equipment that is used, particularly regular
disinfectant of lead ropes and the reins of horses saddled for track riders; and
8.8 Assign a staff member to regularly disinfect surfaces that are often used such as toilets,
benches, doors, gates, barrows, rakes, brooms, buckets and high contact areas on
vehicles.

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22 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

All good.

Just been through this in the last 24 hours trying to get one home from a trainers for interim agistment and light exercise. Who can move it? Can I go collect it? Can the trainer run it back here? Should we use a commercial transporter for a 10 minute trip. How do we do the exchange? Who can handle the gear, rugs etc. and under what conditions? It's not easy to get right but common sense applied and I think we did the best we could for human safety, regulations and the welfare of the horse.

Anomolies remain in the directive though I think it's pretty well done even though the rules changed overnight.

E.g., if you look at 4.1, it says galloping or fastwork is prohibited.

Then in 4.3 it says the horse may be ridden up to half-pace. Half-pace means different things to different people around the world but I always thought it was galloping.

Edited by curious
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When does a canter become a gallop?!

The thing they are trying to do is reduce the chance of injury to riders who would put strain on hospitals.

It's a nonsense - how many riders end up in hospital per month normally?

There is some irony that most accidents occur at home which is where we have all been sent.

The focus should be on managing people contact protocols in racing and its associated support industries.

Those things you outlined with the agistment of your horse is what they should be focused on.  

A better directive would have been to keep horses where they were.

Too late now the horse has bolted.

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8 hours ago, Freda said:

Our prescient management obviously has worked out it has backed itself into a corner.

They were gung- ho to keep things rolling so racing could start as soon as possible once levels were pruned back.

That, of course,  was never the reason for allowing horses to be exercised,  and the protocols that needed to be adhered to just, well, weren't. 

A ticking time bomb, and the right decision. 

I take it this means that all racecourses are now closed for any exercise purposes?

And what determines this?

light ridden exercise is permitted if the Trainer considers that it is necessary for the horse’s wellbeing

Exercise of Horses


2.0 This Directive includes provisions enabling exercise of horses under COVID-19 ALERT LEVEL 4,
restrictions where needed to ensure the continued welfare of the horse. The welfare of the
horse is encompassed by both its mental and physical wellbeing, and NZTR recognises that:
2.1 The mental wellbeing of some horses may be negatively impacted by monotony if only
exercised on treadmills or horse walkers.
2.2 Some horses require light ridden exercise to avoid becoming overweight.
2.3 The continuation of pre-training practices that provide graduated learning of young
horses is important to their development.


3.0 Light ridden exercise of a horse under COVID-19 ALERT LEVEL 4 restrictions is permitted if
the Trainer considers that it is necessary for the horse’s wellbeing and alternatives would not
be effective, if the exercise is conducted:
3.1 At a private property; and
3.2 The horse and staff and/or Trainer are resident on the same property, and all persons
remain fully compliant to the government’s requirements under COVID ALERT LEVEL-4;
and
3.3 The property includes suitable areas or an existing circuit upon which light ridden
exercise can be safely conducted.

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I would think that provisions 3- 1 and 2 precludes public training rracks, but not, necessarily,  private properties where the provisions are met.

Certainly,  having our local track open for training ( although appreciated by me for reasons of wound management) was more for the purpose of getting racing off to a flying start than any 'wellbeing'  notions.

And safety protocols were, with the exception of two trainers,  ignored.

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