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Equine Influenza – An old, old enemy

Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns

The study of history is fascinating. It is also crucial to determining our future. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Bernard Shaw said, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” And Gerda Lerner said, “The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.”

In light of what we’re about to discuss, those last two lines of Gerda’s may make your hair stand on end! That’s because we’re about to discuss something forgotten for a long, long time – the fearful, amazing equine influenza epidemic which affected an estimated 80-99 percent of the horses in 33 states, Canada and Cuba in the brief period of time between Sept. 25, 1872 and March 7, 1873 and became known as “The Great Epizootic.” In that era there were some 600,000 equines in New York State alone! Horses literally ‘made the world turn’ for mankind.

Thanks to the scholarship and generosity of CuChullaine O’Reilly and the world’s first global hippological study, the Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation (LRGAF), we’re able to explore the recently unearthed history of this event, resulting from their ground-breaking three-year academic research project.



To set the stage, O’Reilly asks to, “Imagine an equestrian health disaster that crippled all of America, halted the government in Washington DC, stopped the ships in New York, burned Boston to the ground and forced the cavalry to fight the Apaches on foot… Imagine a transportation disaster that crippled all of America. Imagine a transportation disaster that within 90 days affected every aspect of American transportation, everything Americans took for granted, everything that ensured their safety, every city, town and village where they lived, and left everything in its path under siege.”

O’Reilly goes on to say, “It was an equine tragedy so deadly that one wave of the infection swept south like a Biblical plague from its origin in Toronto, Canada, down the Atlantic Seaboard to Havana, Cuba, leaving everything in its path in ruins in weeks, while another branch simultaneously raced west to the Pacific.”



The study of history is fascinating. It is also crucial to determining our future. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Bernard Shaw said, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” And Gerda Lerner said, “The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.”

In light of what we’re about to discuss, those last two lines of Gerda’s may make your hair stand on end! That’s because we’re about to discuss something forgotten for a long, long time – the fearful, amazing equine influenza epidemic which affected an estimated 80-99 percent of the horses in 33 states, Canada and Cuba in the brief period of time between Sept. 25, 1872 and March 7, 1873 and became known as “The Great Epizootic.” In that era there were some 600,000 equines in New York State alone! Horses literally ‘made the world turn’ for mankind.

Thanks to the scholarship and generosity of CuChullaine O’Reilly and the world’s first global hippological study, the Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation (LRGAF), we’re able to explore the recently unearthed history of this event, resulting from their ground-breaking three-year academic research project.

To set the stage, O’Reilly asks to, “Imagine an equestrian health disaster that crippled all of America, halted the government in Washington DC, stopped the ships in New York, burned Boston to the ground and forced the cavalry to fight the Apaches on foot… Imagine a transportation disaster that crippled all of America. Imagine a transportation disaster that within 90 days affected every aspect of American transportation, everything Americans took for granted, everything that ensured their safety, every city, town and village where they lived, and left everything in its path under siege.”

O’Reilly goes on to say, “It was an equine tragedy so deadly that one wave of the infection swept south like a Biblical plague from its origin in Toronto, Canada, down the Atlantic Seaboard to Havana, Cuba, leaving everything in its path in ruins in weeks, while another branch simultaneously raced west to the Pacific.”

The study of history is fascinating. It is also crucial to determining our future. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Bernard Shaw said, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” And Gerda Lerner said, “The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.”

In light of what we’re about to discuss, those last two lines of Gerda’s may make your hair stand on end! That’s because we’re about to discuss something forgotten for a long, long time – the fearful, amazing equine influenza epidemic which affected an estimated 80-99 percent of the horses in 33 states, Canada and Cuba in the brief period of time between Sept. 25, 1872 and March 7, 1873 and became known as “The Great Epizootic.” In that era there were some 600,000 equines in New York State alone! Horses literally ‘made the world turn’ for mankind.

Thanks to the scholarship and generosity of CuChullaine O’Reilly and the world’s first global hippological study, the Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation (LRGAF), we’re able to explore the recently unearthed history of this event, resulting from their ground-breaking three-year academic research project.

To set the stage, O’Reilly asks to, “Imagine an equestrian health disaster that crippled all of America, halted the government in Washington DC, stopped the ships in New York, burned Boston to the ground and forced the cavalry to fight the Apaches on foot… Imagine a transportation disaster that crippled all of America. Imagine a transportation disaster that within 90 days affected every aspect of American transportation, everything Americans took for granted, everything that ensured their safety, every city, town and village where they lived, and left everything in its path under siege.”

O’Reilly goes on to say, “It was an equine tragedy so deadly that one wave of the infection swept south like a Biblical plague from its origin in Toronto, Canada, down the Atlantic Seaboard to Havana, Cuba, leaving everything in its path in ruins in weeks, while another branch simultaneously raced west to the Pacific.”

The study of history is fascinating. It is also crucial to determining our future. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Bernard Shaw said, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” And Gerda Lerner said, “The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.”

In light of what we’re about to discuss, those last two lines of Gerda’s may make your hair stand on end! That’s because we’re about to discuss something forgotten for a long, long time – the fearful, amazing equine influenza epidemic which affected an estimated 80-99 percent of the horses in 33 states, Canada and Cuba in the brief period of time between Sept. 25, 1872 and March 7, 1873 and became known as “The Great Epizootic.” In that era there were some 600,000 equines in New York State alone! Horses literally ‘made the world turn’ for mankind.

Thanks to the scholarship and generosity of CuChullaine O’Reilly and the world’s first global hippological study, the Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation (LRGAF), we’re able to explore the recently unearthed history of this event, resulting from their ground-breaking three-year academic research project.

To set the stage, O’Reilly asks to, “Imagine an equestrian health disaster that crippled all of America, halted the government in Washington DC, stopped the ships in New York, burned Boston to the ground and forced the cavalry to fight the Apaches on foot… Imagine a transportation disaster that crippled all of America. Imagine a transportation disaster that within 90 days affected every aspect of American transportation, everything Americans took for granted, everything that ensured their safety, every city, town and village where they lived, and left everything in its path under siege.”

O’Reilly goes on to say, “It was an equine tragedy so deadly that one wave of the infection swept south like a Biblical plague from its origin in Toronto, Canada, down the Atlantic Seaboard to Havana, Cuba, leaving everything in its path in ruins in weeks, while another branch simultaneously raced west to the Pacific.”

The study of history is fascinating. It is also crucial to determining our future. George Santayana said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Bernard Shaw said, “We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” And Gerda Lerner said, “The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.”

In light of what we’re about to discuss, those last two lines of Gerda’s may make your hair stand on end! That’s because we’re about to discuss something forgotten for a long, long time – the fearful, amazing equine influenza epidemic which affected an estimated 80-99 percent of the horses in 33 states, Canada and Cuba in the brief period of time between Sept. 25, 1872 and March 7, 1873 and became known as “The Great Epizootic.” In that era there were some 600,000 equines in New York State alone! Horses literally ‘made the world turn’ for mankind.

Thanks to the scholarship and generosity of CuChullaine O’Reilly and the world’s first global hippological study, the Long Riders Guild Academic Foundation (LRGAF), we’re able to explore the recently unearthed history of this event, resulting from their ground-breaking three-year academic research project.

To set the stage, O’Reilly asks to, “Imagine an equestrian health disaster that crippled all of America, halted the government in Washington DC, stopped the ships in New York, burned Boston to the ground and forced the cavalry to fight the Apaches on foot… Imagine a transportation disaster that crippled all of America. Imagine a transportation disaster that within 90 days affected every aspect of American transportation, everything Americans took for granted, everything that ensured their safety, every city, town and village where they lived, and left everything in its path under siege.”

O’Reilly goes on to say, “It was an equine tragedy so deadly that one wave of the infection swept south like a Biblical plague from its origin in Toronto, Canada, down the Atlantic Seaboard to Havana, Cuba, leaving everything in its path in ruins in weeks, while another branch simultaneously raced west to the Pacific.”