CHENNAI: The outbreak of the virus in Europe is very troubling. Events have been cancelled, fever is an obvious symptom, quarantine is the law of the land and, in some extreme cases, deaths cannot be ruled out. The above sentence has no relation to the coronavirus but one can see why Fouaad Mirza, and the equestrian community, has made that connection between Covid-19 and Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1), a virus that occurs among horses worldwide. Right now, EHV-1 is threatening to run amok after an outbreak was first detected in Valencia during a showjumping event a week or so ago.
Since it’s transimissable, all equestrian events have been cancelled across mainland Europe for the next four weeks. A few of the events have been allowed to go on under strict bio-secure rules. One of the riders who’s been directly affected by the outbreak is Mirza. In fact, he had finished fifth in a CCI 3* event at Montelibretti in Italy in the last week of February when the news of the outbreak spread. The double Asian Games medallist, who needs to meet a Minimum Eligibility Criteria (MER) to rubber-stump his Olympics ticket, will travel back from Italy to his base in Germany.
Post that, he will have to isolate himself. And his horse, Dajara 4, for two weeks. “She will be tested for the EHV-1 virus upon entry into Germany. I have made some arrangements to put her up in a separate stable. She will stay there for two weeks. Before I get her back to my stable with the other horses, I will have to test her again,” he says. “She will also be subject to regular checks by a veterinarian and daily temperature checks.”
Of course, since Mirza is coming from another country, he has to get himself tested for Covid-19.
To ensure Dajara 4 isn’t alone, he is planning to have Fernhill Facetime around her for company. The 28-year-old who had banked on Fernhill at the Games has since retired him out of sporting events. “Fernhill sustained an injury which potentially won’t allow him to return to the top level. We decided to retire him.The plan is to have Fernhill around Dajara 4 so she doesn’t feel lonely and have a friendly face around her.”
The cancelled events has obviously disrupted the plans of a few athletes, including Mirza, who had hoped to meet his MER in the coming month. But the FEI, the world governing body, have moved to assuage their fears. “We are very conscious of the fact that this is a very stressful and distressing time, and that this is potentially hugely disruptive for those athletes aiming for their MER or confirmation results for Tokyo, but we are looking at ways to alleviate that in order to assist athlete/horse combinations in getting their MER or confirmation results once the events in mainland Europe are allowed to resume.” Mirza himself isn’t too perturbed about the situation. “I have targeted an event in May in Sopot (Poland) for my MER.” Riders have till the end of June to meet their MER.