When the vet had finished giving my horses their annual flu boosters, she reminded me the vaccination regime had changed. For the purpose of competing, horses must be vaccinated for flu every six months, which is something that had passed me by.
What with worrying about human vaccines, I had not noticed this change in the rules for equestrian jabs.
I thought about it for a split second, then decided. ‘Lucky I don’t compete then,’ I told her. Because being a rabid anti-vaxxer, I don’t want my horses pumped more full of vaccine than is absolutely necessary.
And this is precisely the sort of irrational and illogical reaction people have come to expect from someone like me.
I admit it, I’m so anti-vaccine I pay a vet to come out and give my horses a flu jab every year, and I don’t just unquestioningly agree when, after 20 years of this routine, for various horses, with no problems, the vet suddenly informs me that many owners are giving the same jab every six months now.
‘In terms of immunity,’ said the young girl, as she put the used syringes back into the boot of a 4×4 she didn’t look old enough to drive, ‘it obviously doesn’t make any difference.’ (The vets are now so young you have to help them. This one wrote April 2021 beside the vaccine stamp on the horse passport.)
‘I’m sorry, what?’ I asked. ‘Well, obviously, they don’t need vaccinating every six months, it’s just the rules have changed.’
I suppose this rule change will, coincidentally, make everyone involved, from vets to vaccine manufacturers, a nice pile of money, but all the same I said I would ring and make an appointment as usual next year.
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