NFR week competitor forced to switch horses due to equine herpes outbreak
19-year-old rodeo athlete got 30 minutes with borrowed horse before competition
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The National Finals Rodeo kicked off Thursday, but many competitors weren’t able to bring their own horses because of the equine herpes virus outbreak.
Nineteen-year-old Harley Mackey and her horse have won several titles together, gearing up for the biggest one yet at this year’s Vegas Tuffest during NFR week in barrel racing. But weeks ago, her winning horse was exposed to equine herpes virus in Wyoming.
“So it jumped to our hometown very, very quickl,y and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is real,” Mackey said.
Her horse was quarantined and could not leave state lines to make it to NFR week. Despite the setback, Mackey decided to compete anyway.
“It’s kind of important because I have sponsors that I have and to show them, ‘Hey, I’m here for it.’ They would totally understand the side of things of my horse being quarantined,” she said.
Father panicked over daughter’s title hopes
Dad Joe Mackey was gripping onto hope for his daughter’s title.
“It may cost some of these contestants a world title that they dreamt about since they were 2 years old,” Joe Mackey said. “Absolutely, I panicked for two days. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep... sat out with those horses the whole time.”
The family scrambled to find another horse to borrow. Harley found a horse from another family coming into town for the rodeo. She met that horse Thursday, one day before competing.
“You put all the work in through a whole entire year, like rodeo just doesn’t stop, there’s no off-season you put so much effort, blood, sweat and tears,” Mackey said.
Harley competes Friday morning at Thomas and Mack and only got 30 minutes with her new horse Thursday. She compared the situation to a race car driver practicing with a specific car and then being handed a completely different one on race day.
She said she is confident her hard work will pay off, showing how important it is to get back on the horse, even if it’s a different one.
Nevada remains virus-free so far
Even though the equine herpes virus has spread across several states, there have been no confirmed cases of equine herpes virus in Nevada so far.
All participating horses for NFR must stay on lockdown at Thomas and Mack and get their temperature checked regularly. State officials believe it’s safe to continue with most NFR events because of the measures put into place to make sure all the horses are healthy.
But horses who do get the virus can get very sick, according to Dr. Peter Wolfe, state veterinarian of Nevada.
“There are different clinical presentations to this virus from just common respiratory signs like difficulty breathing, discharge from the nose. It does cause some reproductive problems in female horses, but when it shows up in this form, the neurologic form, it can be devastating to the horses. In some horses, we can lose the horses to this form of the virus,” Wolfe said.
Dr. Wolfe said should there be an outbreak in Nevada, the Department of Agriculture is ready to respond.
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