Alert Level 4 Clarification

HRNZ wish to clarify movement of horses from an Alert Level 4 area. Our level 4 Orders and Directions as approved by Government are as follows:

Movement of horses under Alert Level 4:

1. Trainers must inform horse owners if a horse movement is to occur.

2. A horse may be moved between properties during COVID-19 Alert Level 4, only if the purpose of the movement is to ensure the welfare of the horse.

3. For clarity, this means horses may move out of a stable property to a nearby training track for daily exercise, or to an agistment property, or to veterinary surgery; but cannot be moved from agistment property to a training property.

This means you cannot move a horse from an Alert Level 4 area to race in a lower Alert Level region i.e if you are based in the Northland and Auckland regions your horses cannot race at the Waikato BOP meeting at Cambridge on Friday September 3rd. Racing is not deemed animal welfare under the Animal Welfare Act.

We will continue to work with Government on this in the meantime and will notify you immediately if anything changes.

If you have any queries please contact Catherine McDonald on [email protected]