Kentucky’s horse industry can’t stop for COVID-19: ‘The mares are foaling right now’
As the coronavirus pandemic escalates, Gov. Andy Beshear has mandated all but essential businesses close indefinitely. But for one Kentucky’s signature industry, shutting down for weeks just isn’t possible.
Kentucky’s Thoroughbred breeding industry is in the midst of a crucial time: It’s the height of breeding season.
“The mares are foaling right now. You can’t stop mares foaling,” said Headley Bell, managing partner of Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington. “And this is when we sow our crop for next year.”
Thousands of Bluegrass mares are being vanned to stallions, often to other farms, for “live cover,” the only way that the Thoroughbred industry breeds horses. Foals conceived this spring will be born in 11 months, go to auction as yearlings, race as two-year-olds and could compete in the 2024 Kentucky Derby.
Unlike Ford or Toyota, this assembly line can’t press pause and resume in a month. Stopping breeding season now would mean a year without a foal crop.
That, he said, “would devastate the industry.”
To prevent that from happening, last week the Kentucky Department of Agriculture issued guidelines, vetted by the state’s human health regulators, for how to keep COVID-19 from spreading from farm to farm.
Rusty Ford, the equine operations consultant for the Office of State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Stout, said that horse farms already are very familiar with biosecurity protocols, which are in place to avoid accidental transmission of any number equine diseases.
The only difference is the concern is now about the other end of the shank.
“This is the first time I’ve dealt with the health of human beings,” he said.
New horse breeding protocols
The new protocols, shared throughout the horse industry on March 25 by The Jockey Club, are designed “to minimize risk of infection among farm staff and related personnel charged with transporting and handling horses. ... With vans and individuals visiting multiple facilities each day during the breeding season, it is important to adopt standard practices in how people and horses visiting sheds are managed.”
▪ All paperwork related to the breeding be done electronically;
▪ No outside individuals, including van drivers and mare attendants, can come into the breeding shed;
▪ Drivers and grooms from different farms must stay apart, preferably in their trucks;
▪ Attendants wear disposable gloves;
▪ And that breeding equipment that will be reused be disinfected.
“Implementing these practices ... will be beneficial and could be critical in our ability to continue transporting horses to/from sheds,” according to the information distributed by The Jockey Club.
Ford conducted surprise spot inspections at horse farms last week to see if the protocols are being followed. So far, he’s been pleased with what he’s seen.
He said that as of March 27 he is unaware of any cases of coronavirus linked to Kentucky farms, equine or otherwise.
But he said that if the measures issued to comply with Beshear’s orders are not enough to mitigate the risk — if an outbreak occurs — the farms may have to halt.
“It would be difficult,” Ford said. “But the farms and vets have all conveyed that they would cease operations for the public’s health. If the medical profession saw that the steps (the farms) are taking weren’t enough, they would have to re-evaluate and make stringent adjustments. To ensure sure the health of employees, staff, the public. It would be done if necessary.”
Farms taking extra precautions
Ned Toffey, general manager at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, said farms are working hard to try to keep that from being necessary.
With a roster of two dozen stallions, including 2019 champion sire Into Mischief, who stands for $175,000, as well as Malibu Moon, Omaha Beach and more, Spendthrift has a lot to protect.
“We’re facing something more serious that probably any of us have faced, but we do have a certainly level of experience with biosecurity. ... We’re used to taking the kind of steps you need to take to keep the virus from spreading,” Toffey said. “We practice good, strict biosecurity out here.”
He said they have spent a lot of time communicating with the staff the basic practices that need to be in place, from hand washing to monitoring their own health.
“If they have any symptoms we urge them to talk to their manager, and we’re working closely with managers and staff to understand what we’re trying to accomplish and to implement as much when they are here and not here,” he said. “We’re something of a closed environment … a lot of our staff live here on the farm. If they have any suspicions we tell them to stay home. And they still get paid.”
Bell said that while the workers at Mill Ridge don’t live on the farm, they all are monitoring themselves as well. All employees have been given thermometers and have to take their temperature every morning and every night, he said.
It’s a familiar routine because they already do that with the horses, he said.
And the various groups of workers are now segregated: Those who handle yearlings stay with their group; those who handle broodmares stay with their group.
And those who handle Mill Ridge’s stallion, Oscar Performance, and the mares who are coming to him daily are separate as well.
If a worker does get sick, Bell said, the group that employee works with will be quarantined.
Office staff have been dispersed. And farms, many of which have become major tourist attractions, have been closed to visitors. The only tours these days are via videos Mill Ridge and other Horse Country farms post to sate the appetite of horse fans.
The stakes are just too great to allow on-farm experiences right now, with Kentucky’s billion-dollar breeding business in full swing creating next year’s foals.
“You’re in the heart of it right now, this is the most important time,” Bell said. “These are essential times for all of us at the Thoroughbred industry.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2020 at 1:10 PM.
