French horses and covid-19

As covid-19 continues to spread all over the world, making each day more human victims, it appears that, in some countries, horses risk becoming collateral victims, not so much of the virus as of the measures taken against it. 

First, I want to point out that I am conscious that the priority is to save lives. If lockdown is the only solution we have at the moment, then we have to follow the rules decided by the government in order to flatten the curve. We have to fight the virus with whatever weapon we have, even if that weapon is far from perfect. 

However, in my country, France, it is more obvious these days that the measures that have been taken will have dramatic consequences on the horse industry and on horses themselves. 

Like many other industries, such as tourism, restauration, etc., there will be economic consequences. Some riding schools, unable to rely anymore on the money brought in by lessons and clinics, will have to close down, especially if access to them remains forbidden over the summer. Some horse-owners, without a job since the lockdown (and not only in France but in many countries) will be unable to pay their bills. What will happen to the horses? Will they have to be sold? To whom? Who, in the economic crisis that is going to follow the pandemic, will be able to afford buying another horse? The future looks dark for those horses and for their humans too. 

Moreover, since the lockdown started, French horse-owners who keep their horses in a livery yard have been forced to abandon them in the care of the barn owners, without any right to go and see them, or to give them the care they need and that the barn owners are not necessarily habilitated to give (some horses have complicated pathologies, or are too difficult to handle to be cared for by a stranger). This has been going on for one month, and will continue for at least another. The situation is (sort of) bearable when the barn owners are responsible people and the horses have access to a field or paddock. 

Unfortunately, this is not the case in all yards: some horses are locked in stalls all day, with only minimum turnout. Some barn owners have decided to make owners pay a lot more than they usually did, to groom the horses’ feet, to turn them out, when this period is synonymous with financial difficulties for everyone. 

Even when the horses are out grazing, even when the barn owners take good care of them, this care is necessarily limited. Sometimes, the horses cannot be exercised anymore and will, when the lockdown ends be unfit and under-muscled. Their feet aren’t always done. Some miss their owners and become depressed. Others need to be wormed and have not been. 

Normally, letting a horse’s hooves be too long or leaving them with a belly full of worms would have been called neglect, or abuse. Does the pandemic make it acceptable? Everyone has to make sacrifices, but should the welfare of horses be one of them? 

Even when horses are kept by their owners on private land, there have been cases when they have been discouraged from providing care to them (because horses only have to eat grass, right?). 

Moreover, the situation fuels many conflicts. Between the barn owners who want that the access to livery yard should go on being forbidden, and the barn owners who are putting their health in danger due to too many horses to care for, who have other problems, and would be thankful for the owners to come back. Between horse owners and barn owners. Between the horse owners who want access to the livery yards and those who think it would be selfish to ask for that. Between amateur riders and the professional riders who go on exercising their horses, go on jumping, go on acting as if no lockdown was in place. Between the French riding federation, who seems more concerned with competitions being cancelled than with the welfare of the horses, and its members. 

What will the French equestrian world look like after this crisis? What will the consequences be on our horses? Only one thing is certain: the French horse industry will never be the same again.