It’s Sunday morning, Aug. 26, in Australia, and the news isn’t good.

Horse movement throughout the country has been halted; Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing has been cancelled until Tuesday, perhaps longer, except in the Northern Territory; all other horse shows are cancelled; and now there’s news that equine influenza has spread into the heart of the country’s horse breeding area.

The government has requested up to 200 horse owners who took their animals to Carol’s Ranch Riding Club event in the Hunter Valley town of Maitland (about 160 km or 65 miles north of Sydney, and about 120 km or 48 miles east of Scone) on the weekend of  Aug. 18-19 to have their horses tested for equine influenza. The Hunter Valley is where many large Thoroughbred breeding farms are located.

“It’s early days yet, but a number of horses that attended an event at the property on that weekend are showing clinical signs of equine influenza,” New South Wales Primary Industry Minister Ian Macdonald said in a press release. “The NSW Chief Vet, Bruce Christie, has advised me that we need to locate and examine every single horse that entered and left the property