In which we should already have all the skills we need to get through this thing

 Unless you are REALLY new to horses, 

you've been through equine viral outbreaks a few times.

If you ARE new to horses but you are more than ten years old, you STILL already have the needful skills to get through this, because we had a worldwide pandemic recently and pretty much everybody on the planet got to practice the protocols: 

• Stay away from crowds
• If you are in a bubble of safe/healthy people, stay in your bubble
• Don't share spit
• Wash your hands
• If you have symptoms, isolate and call the doctor

There's no reason to throw away perfectly good skills.  Coping with an equine outbreak is just a variation on stuff we already know how to do:

• Don't travel to crowded places.  Boarding facilities should close to haul-ins and restrict haul-outs. 
• If horses do/did travel to a crowded place, they should be isolated 14-21 days after.
• Keep horses far enough apart that they don't breathe on each other or snork on each other.  Don't share halters or buckets.  
• If horses have been in an isolated bubble, let them stay together in the bubble.
• Wash hands before/after each horse you touch.  
• If you come into contact with an infected horse, don't touch anybody else.  Go home and wash everything.
• Call the vet if you see symptoms.

Fish Creek is closed, of course--nobody allowed to haul in or haul out.  That seems fair.  They've got a lot of horses to keep safe, and a lot of those are seniors or "super seniors."  

The last time we were at FC the Dragon wasn't feeling sociable,
so we went to the outdoor arena and practiced by ourselves.

I will miss using the arena during terrible weather, but I won't die of rain--that's why God made GoreTex, after all.

My situation is a little unusual:  my horse lives with two goats and no other horses nearby. 

Goats don't spread this particular germ

The northern neighbors' horses are currently on their far pasture (5 acres away from mine), which is good--those horses don't travel but they also don't get vaxxed very often.  

The other nearest horses to the south are 20 acres away--we can see them, but we can't hear them.  

So, my horse is quarantined with no effort from me at all.  

After checking with my favorite vet, I got the green light to haul out to a trailhead.  As long as we stay away from other horses at the trailhead and on the trail, we're fine.

No germs here!

Of course, I saw Kitty and Charlotte while we were tacking up.  We waved and talked without petting each others' horses.  Not my favorite, but it's fine.  

I'm sure Kitty's horse misses the cookies that I keep in my pockets for horses, but I found somebody else to take care of those.

This is the trick we call "LOOK AWAY", and the reward is a cookie!

Riding solo is what the Dragon and I have done most of our time together for all these years.

We like the company of other horses and riders, but when it's just us, we can meander quietly...

This is a "meandering" trail

or, we can ZOOM.

This trail is good for zooming!

We don't zoom nearly as fast or as far as we did in years past.  But that's okay.

Any day on the trail with my happy, healthy horse is a Good Day.