Early last week, after President Trump declared a National Emergency for the COVID-19 outbreak and Governor Walz declared a Peacetime Emergency, we posted a statement on Facebook to share our thoughts on potentially pausing activities at Enchanted Hollow Stables.
Since then, as most people know, there have been some major developments in the situation.
Governor Tim Walz declared on March 15th, 2020 that Minnesota schools will close from at least March 18th to March 27th as a result of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak continuing to spread around Minnesota. There is a very real possibility that those school closures could last beyond the end of March.
Following that news as well as the news of a positive COVID-19 test result in Wright County, we had to take a very serious look at our plan for the next couple of weeks. While it will certainly be a struggle for our family’s small business here at Enchanted Hollow Stables, we feel that for the health and wellness of our beloved clients and their families that it would be in everyone’s best interest for us to make some temporary changes.
Lesson Students
This was a very difficult decision for us, but we are doing it with the health of our family and our clients in mind. We will follow in Governor Walz’s lead and not be having lessons during the weeks of March 16-20 or March 23-27.
We are exceptionally blessed to have a very active and busy lesson program, but that does mean that there a lot of people coming and going on a day to day basis. This leads to our instructors interacting with and being exposed to a lot of people. We do not have any interest in playing a role in causing any COVID-19 infections!
For that reason, we do feel that it is in the best interest of the health of our clients to not hold regularly scheduled riding lessons for a couple of weeks. We plan to be back to our regular lesson schedule after March 27, but this may change depending on the state of things in our community in a couple of weeks.
Horse Camp Participants
Our Spring Break 2020 Horse Camp that was planned for March 30th to April 3rd is canceled. We will work privately with those that were registered for that camp to have their camp fee applied toward one of our summer camps.
Boarders and Leasers
Boarders that keep their horses with us and leasers that lease horses from us will still be allowed to see their horses and ride. We do not feel at this time that it is ethical to not allow those individuals to see their horses that they own or lease. With that being said, we do have some guidelines we would like them to follow for the foreseeable future.
- Please thoroughly wash your hands prior to coming to the barn.
- We have hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes in various locations around the tack rooms, lounge, and barn. Please use them before and after handling any tack, grooming tools, cleaning tools, or any other equipment around the barn.
- Please do not have physical contact with anyone. No hugs or handshaking.
Most importantly, these rules below apply to ANYONE entering the property.
- If you have any related symptoms at all — DO NOT come to the barn. We reserve the right to ask anyone that is exhibiting any symptoms to leave the property.
- If you or anyone you have interacted with has shown any related symptoms or has tested positive for COVID-19 — DO NOT come to the barn.
- If you or an immediate family member have recently traveled on vacation, been on a cruise, or attended a large gathering of 100+ people within the last two weeks — DO NOT come to the barn.
We are doing our part in cleaning surfaces and disinfecting as much as we can on a regular basis. Please do your part by following the guidelines above.
We reserve the right to invite anyone onto our property that is not a boarder or a leaser, but will exercise caution when doing so.
Please don’t be offended if we ask you a lot of questions before determining whether you will be allowed on the property (such as those outlined above, like whether you or a family member have traveled recently). A couple of members of the Sansevere family are considered high-risk individuals.
Please do your part in trying to help keep everyone safe and healthy.
This difficult time will come to an end!
We look forward to resuming regular activities as soon as possible.