The Kentucky Department of Agriculture has issued guidance clarifying compliance with the Governor's order to close all non-essential businesses to the public by 8pm, Thursday, March 26, 2020 for all equine facilities. These documents can be found in full here: Department of Agriculture Guidance.
A large horse facility
The State Veterinarian's office advises all boarding facilities to cease all unnecessary operations and activities, engage in horse care activities ONLY, and close their facilities to all but essential staff.
© 2017 by Jill Lang
These documents apply to all facilities and the second document applies solely to breeding sheds. We apologize for the poorly written sentence that made it sound as though breeding sheds were ordered to close. Breeding sheds may continue to operate in compliance with the guidelines!
In addition to the guidelines outlined in the linked documents, the State Veterinarian's office advises all boarding facilities (and any other operation that caters to outside clients of any kind) to cease all unnecessary operations and activities, engage in horse care activities ONLY, and close their facilities to all but essential staff.
If a facility has clients that engage in self-care for their horses these individuals are allowed to come to the facility for horse care activities ONLY. Moving forward, the facility owner or manager should take control of developing a schedule in which clients are assigned a time to visit the facility to care for their horse(s).
This will minimize the number of individuals at the facility at any given time. If a client has a horse on full or partial care (whose needs are being met by staff), those individuals are asked to refrain from visiting the facility. In addition, if it is possible to decrease the amount of staff at a facility, in order to minimize the number of individuals coming and going, an employer is asked to do so.
Please note that these are the directives as of Wednesday, March 25th, and it is possible they will change in the coming days and weeks. We will continue to update you as the situation develops and more information is obtained from both the Offices of the Governor and State Veterinarian.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Katy Ross, KHC Executive Director, at katy@kentuckyhorse.org or (859) 367-0509.
ABOUT THE KENTUCKY HORSE COUNCIL -
The Kentucky Horse Council is a non-profit organization dedicated, through education and leadership, to the protection and development of the Kentucky equine community. The Kentucky Horse Council provides educational programs and information, outreach and communication to Kentucky horse owners and enthusiasts, equine professional networking opportunities through KENA, trail riding advocacy, health and welfare programs, and personal liability insurance and other membership benefits. The specialty Kentucky Horse Council license plate, featuring a foal lying in the grass, provides the primary source of revenue for KHC programs.
Press release provided by Kentucky Horse Council, Katy Ross - Executive Director