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Action Items
Motions Voted On
Minutes for OHSET State Board Conference Call June 19, 2015 8:30 PM
In Attendance: Anne Geser (Central), Marty Hopper (Central), Barb Walley (Central), Corinne Dimick
(Northwest), Donna Espelien (Northwest), Scott Chauncey (Northwest), Sherri Henry (South Valley),
Dave Haring (North Valley), Teresa Hoffman (North Valley), Michelle Michelsen (North Valley),
Michelle Chris Dinsmore (Northeast), Phil Armstrong (Northeast), Angela Martin (Southern), Wendy
Bernards (Willamette), Sonya Kunkle (Willamette), Monica Lovenburg (Tri-River Valley), Nick
Meuret (Tri-River Valley), Anne Rusk (Southern), Toni Bonner (Southern), Candi Bothum (State
Chair), Karissa Dishon (State Vice Chair), Denise John (State Treasurer), Bill Weir (Co-Ops and
Eligibility), Jan Harer (State Secretary), Dr. Gayln Snair (State Meet Veterinarian)
Vote Count – 15
C–2
NW – 2
SV – 1
NV – 2
NE – 2
S–2
W–2
TRV – 2
Respiratory Illness at the Morgan Horse Show in Redmond –
 Most horses moved out today.
 About 16 horses have come down with a respiratory illness/virus.
 A trainer brought some sick horses to the show.
 Spread to other horses at the show.
 Symptoms include high fever, snotty noses, etc.
 Horses are responding to treatment – eating, drinking.
 Have talked to the veterinarian at the show and are managing fevers.
 Appears to not be EHV-1, but no tests yet.
 Show veterinarian took samples from 3 of the affected horses.
o UC Davis will test these samples for free – but results will not be available until
Wednesday.
o OHSET will pay for the tests.
o Will send samples to OSU Veterinary Hospital for testing with the State Veterinarian’s
OK.
o Will run tests on Monday at 8 AM with results by 12 PM.
State Meet –
 We need to decide on whether to proceed or cancel the meet.
 Need to start setting portable stalls up tomorrow.
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The show veterinarian feels confident that this is not EHV-1, but will not know for sure until
tests done.
o There have been no neurological signs.
Uncomfortable putting horses in the barn where the breakout occurred. Will have to clean and
disinfect the stalls/barn.
Do we move forward? Call the meet? Do health checks for all horses coming to the meet?
Dr. Gayln Snair –
 This virus will stay in the environment for about 48-72 hours.
 Bleach and antiviral agents will kill the virus.
 Will need to clean/disinfect the Horse and Beef Barns.
 Athletes should disinfect the stalls again after we do a thorough cleaning of the stalls.
 Need to have strict biosecurity at the meet.
 Direct transmission can spread the virus.
 Unreasonable to assume no risk. The risk is very real.
 She would “back up” her clients if they chose not to come.
 There is always a risk when traveling to anywhere.
 Some of the affected horse’s fevers have broken.
 Trying to find out more information about those horses that became sick.
o Were they vaccinated?
o What kind of vaccine?
o Which company manufactured the vaccines?
 There should be a 2 week quarantine for those horses that attended the show.
 Virus can live 48-72 hours and can move from horse to horse in a very short period of time when
the horse is running a fever.
 Vaccinated horses would have 10-20% shedding of the virus. Non-vaccinated horses would have
100% shedding of the virus.
 Can’t vaccinate today to be effective in 3 days.
 Hearing most people are reluctant to come to the meet.
 She also coaches a team and they are required to have their horses vaccinated.
Discussion –
 Are people scared to come?
 Don’t want to over react or under react.
 Public perception – everything will be the state board’s fault.
 Can’t make decisions on fear.
 If the tests are positive for EHV-1 – need to cancel the meet.
 If the tests are negative – we can manage.
 District straw poll – number of athletes coming –
o NW – about 50% not coming.
o NE – about 50% not coming.
o S – is very concerned about being in the Horse Barn where the affected horses were.
o W – can’t say right now.
o NV – had about 9 horses at the show.
o TRV – a fair number will not be coming.
 What do we do?
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There are many county fairs coming up and state 4-H horse fair.
This virus travels very quickly between horses.
Not willing to take the personal risk.
Dave motioned to cancel the state meet. Anne seconded the motion. Yes vote would cancel
state meet. No vote would continue the state meet.
Discussion:
o Amount of work needed to do is not a reason to cancel the meet.
o Several are “sitting on the fence” about the meet.
o Not a lot of time after the results are announced to make a decision.
o Would be easier if more time.
o Is there a guarantee if we spray the stalls? No.
♦ There is a process that needs to be followed to disinfect the stalls.
♦ If done correctly – the risk is low.
o Do we have the manpower resources to do this?
♦ Have access to 2 15 gallon sprayers.
♦ Clean out the stalls and spray tomorrow night. And again on Monday.
♦ Think we can do it.
o What about all the other areas the horses have been? Will those be cleaned?
♦ Yes those will be cleaned and disinfected.
♦ Arena areas, etc. The sun will kill the virus.
o Whatever we do – will be issues.
o There could be costs associated with the risk of coming.
o Horses can touch each other in the stalls.
o There is not a lot of time to process all the information.
o There are those that are “running scared”.
o With a number of athletes not coming – can we bear the financial burden?
o Would this really be a state meet?
o Could get ourselves into trouble if “something” happens.
o The meet is different than a rodeo –
♦ Pull in, tie to the trailer.
♦ Not in a stall for a couple of days.
♦ Highly vaccinated.
♦ Huge difference in what OHSET does.
o The Morgan Horse Show chose to go forward.
♦ Had no health checks.
♦ Didn’t do anything wrong.
♦ Did spread quickly.
o The test results could be Influenza, EHV-1, or EHV-1 Neurological. Most would like test
results before making a decision.
o Vote: 6 Yes, 7 No, 2 Abstain. Motion failed. State meet will go on.
After some discussion on how members voted and the confusion of the voting o Anne motioned to cancel the state meet. Toni seconded the motion. A yes vote will cancel
the meet. A no vote will keep the state meet on.
o No discussion.
o Vote: 8 Yes, 7 No, 0 Abstain. Motion passed. The state meet will be cancelled.
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Additional Discussion –
o Would the test results change the voting?
o Lots of athletes would come if we did have the state meet.
o If the loss of 40% of the athletes at the state meet – what is the financial impact?
♦ Will have costs with canceling the meet.
♦ Quality of competition at the state meet?
o Candi can’t make the decision. The leadership needs to step up.
o Donna motioned to go back to districts and gather more information as to who will
attend or not. And meet back tomorrow early morning to decide the fate of the state
meet. Nick seconded the motion.
o No discussion.
o Vote: 15 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstain. Motion passed.
o Will have a phone conference tomorrow at 7 AM. Need a quorum.
Meeting adjourned at 9:45 PM.