Hendra virus a hot topic at Horse Information Day

What began as an idea to share some practical animal management tips with Liston locals has grown into a day’s presentation of equine information and demonstrations.
The Horse Information Day, held at the Liston Community Hall, will involve guest speakers from a variety of backgrounds.
Liston Community Hall secretary Susan Johnstone said, “Over the years the population has changed from predominantly cattle graziers to include ‘tree-change’ investors, hobby farmers and small acreage owners. As a community organisation, we wanted to provide something for horse owners in our area and, once we started contacting speakers, we found we had uncovered a wealth of information to share with people from further afield, not just those of the Liston area.”
One of the featured speakers will be Victoria Ferguson, a pioneer of herbal medicine for horses in Australia. Victoria started her passion with horses back in the 1950s as she started showing ponies as a child, moving on to riding hacks as a teenager.
After a rewarding career in the cattle industry, Victoria turned to selling and training horses for the Olympic sports, before becoming a champion dressage competitor representing Australia in three different international events.
After her sponsorship ceased, Victoria found herself with a stable of horses without the means to maintain their supplement program. She asked her father for advice on what he had done with their show horses and, as a result, went back to natural feeding. This motivated Victoria to research further, not just for her benefit, but also eventually to develop her own Herbal Horse business that became well-known across Australia for providing natural feeding programs for horses.
Writing columns in Horse Deals magazine, books ‘The Practical Horse Herbal’, and her latest, ‘Complete Horse Herbal’ are further chapters in Victoria’s mission to empower rural people to care for their horses.
Complementing Victoria’s natural horse health care information are speakers from the NSW DPI, Jason Siddell and Jeff Lowien, who will talk on conventional supplement feeding and pasture identification and management.
Gary Wells from Toowoomba joins the list of guests who will demonstrate horse therapy; and Stanthorpe vet Kirsten Widderick is coming to talk on dental care.
Another hot topic that will be open for discussion is the Hendra virus, with the Queensland Horse Council president, Debbie Dekker, available to share the latest on how this deadly virus is carried, and risk management.
The Liston Horse Information Day will be on Saturday, September 3, at the Liston Community Hall, with morning tea and a barbecue lunch available.
Anyone wishing to attend should call (07) 4686 1289 or (07) 4686 1101.