Professional polo player Alvaro Tadeo takes the body temperature of one of his horses at Eldorado Polo Club to determine if there is any indication of fever following a state-imposed quarantine at the nearby Empire Polo Club after a horse tested positive for the Equine Herpes Virus-1 and had to be euthanized Monday. photos by Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun
Caregivers exercise horses at Eldorado Polo Club on Thursday. A state-imposed quarantine affects the area bound by Avenues 50 and 52 and Madison and Monroe streets. No horses will be allowed in or out of the area.
The EHV-1 infection may cause respiratory and neurological diseases and lead to the abortion of horse fetuses, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture. Any horse that had close contact with the euthanized horse within the past 14 days may have been exposed. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun
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INDIO — Although polo games at the Empire Polo Club and neighboring Eldorado Polo Club have been canceled or postponed amid a 21-day quarantine of the horses, festivities planned in those areas will continue this weekend.
A state-imposed quarantine at Empire comes after one horse tested positive for Equine Herpes Virus-1 and had to be euthanized Monday.
While no cases have been confirmed at Eldorado, it is abiding by the same quarantine.
“We treat the health and safety of our horses with extraordinary concern,” Eldorado General Manager Jan Hart said in a statement. “Though no cases of EHV-1 have occurred at Eldorado, we want to do all we can to stop the spread of this contagious illness.”
Hart said that as soon as they heard of the affected horse at Empire, her club immediately began to quarantine animals before the state requirement.
The quarantine affects the area bound by Avenues 50 and 52 and Madison and Monroe streets. No horses will be allowed in or out of the area.
The EHV-1 infection may cause respiratory and neurological diseases and lead to the abortion of horse fetuses, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
Any horse that had close contact with the euthanized horse within the past 14 days may have been exposed.
Experts have not linked the local incident to the 15 confirmed cases that have occurred in Orange County since Jan. 11.
Both polo fields were unusually quiet Thursday, the fourth day of the quarantine.
There were no practice games — only caregivers tending to the horses near their respective stabling areas.
“Yesterday, it was a ghost town,” said Kaitlyn Kerr, 22, a groom at Eldorado Polo Club.
She tends to three horses for a polo player and said she wonders how this 21-day shutdown will affect her and others who rely on the game.
“You don't play, you don't get paid,” she said.
Horses may not be able to leave or enter the quarantined area, but grooms like Kerr still need to care for their horses daily.
She feeds them, provides a light exercise — nothing that will stress them out — and takes their temperatures twice daily to make sure they don't show signs of the virus.
“It's kind of scary. If another case shows up, it starts again,” she said of the 21-day quarantine. “It would kill the season. There would be no polo.”
Alvardo Tadeo, 29, has been playing polo professionally for about seven years and has never seen a case like this before.
His concern is for the horses and his livelihood.
“Everybody is nervous. What is going to happen? Is it going to get worse? I hope not. I hope it goes away,” he said. “But we have to think about what are we going to do. I got family, and I have to think about how are we going to survive.”
In addition to polo players and grooms, other businesses in the area rely on polo, including local tack and horse supply shops.
“It affects everybody here — the mallet shop because no one is breaking mallets,” Kerr said.
A polo finals match and the inaugural Polo & Wine Festival at Empire were scheduled for this Sunday. While there will be no polo, the wine part of the festival will continue, and ticket prices for the event will be reduced from $30 to $15.
Tony Schieffer, director of polo sales at Empire Polo, said there will be live entertainment and lawn games such as croquet and bocce ball.
Hart said her club plans to hold a few parties at The Cantina during the polo shutdown — including a Super Bowl party and scavenger hunt.
“Hey, we're still here. It doesn't affect people,” she said.
The end of the polo season at Empire is slated for April 1 with a $100,000 grand final.
Schieffer said he is hopeful that it will still occur.
“We're hoping there's no more outbreak. A lot of pros and people's lives depend on polo,” he said.
