2021 Sunshine Tour Ends Early Due to EHV-1 Virus Outbreak

Organisers of the 2021 Sunshine Tour have announced the 27th edition of the Tour will end earlier than expected, on Sunday 7th March. The decision has been made due to a horse showing neurological symptoms similar to EHV-1, despite the horse giving a negative result for the virus. This horse in question remains in isolation more than 2km away from the main competition site and has been so since the 26th of February.

Timeline of events

The horse was reported to have arrived at Dehesa Montenmedio directly from its home stables in Belgium, and was fit and healthy with no symptoms. The horse participated in the competition for the first two weeks as normal and on the first day of competition in the third week, Monday the 22nd of February.

On Friday the 26th of February the personal vet for this horse’s stables notified the organising committee that one of their horses had a fever. The horse was immediately isolated by the organising committee of themSunshine Tour, in stables that are more than 2km away from the actual showground. According to the regulations the FEI, (Federación Ecuestre Internacional) were duly notified about the case.

At first the symptoms that the horse was expressing appeared to be those of piroplasmosis and the horse was given a blood test for piroplasmosis and a PCR for rhinoneumonitis, both results were negative.

Over subsequent days both the competition vets and the FEI vets monitored the horse’s fever and condition twice a day. After a few days the fever had subsided.

However, on the morning of the 4th March, the horse presented for the first time neurological symptoms.

At 4.30pm on the 4th of March, the Organising Committee of the Sunshine Tour met with the FEI, the RFHE and the Ministry of Agriculture where it was decided to close the show down at the end of competition on Sunday the 7th of March.

The above organisations have carried out a complete risk analysis and have come to an agreement between them that to guarantee an ordered departure of the horses, the event will continue until March 7th.

The organiser have expressed concern and have acted together to help minimise the spread of this virus.

Feature image: VEJER DE LA FRONTERA, CADIZ – MARCH 14: Sunshine Tour 2020 at Dehesa de Montenmedio on March 14, 2020 in Vejer de La Frontera, Spain. (Photo by Manuel Queimadelos / Oxer Sport)

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Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.