Good morning members of the Connecticut Equine Community,

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture, working in concert with the Connecticut Farm Bureau and the Connecticut Horse Council, has released the attached guidance with clarification regarding equine activities. Please distribute to your members and contacts within the industry.

The information can also be accessed here: https://portal.ct.gov/DOAG/Press-Room/Press-Releases/2020/COVID-19-Guidance-for-Horseback-Riding-Schools-Stables-and-Boarding-Stables

If you are not currently subscribed to receive the CT Weekly Ag Report, I encourage you to do so. You can sign up quickly here. We are utilizing this list to share information with all agricultural businesses as it is released.

Our COVID-19 page has additional resources on what you can do to implement safe practices in your operation. We recognize that this has been a significant market disruption and the COVID-19 page include a Business Services section for information on business support programs and adjustments that have been announced. If you have suggestions as to how else the Department can assist, please email them to AGR.COVID19@ct.gov.  All of our COVID questions and concerns are being funneled through this email address. 

Thank you for all of you do and all of your efforts to support equine activities in our state.

Rebecca E. Murphy

Marketing & Inspection Rep II

Connecticut Department of Agriculture

450 Columbus Blvd., Suite 703, Hartford, CT  06103

Main: 860-713-2503|Direct: 860-713-2538

Cell: 860-573-0323|Fax: 860-730-8321

Our person of the year is no stranger to the Morgan world. This person has been an active owner, enthusiast, supporter, and horse show mom for many years. This person has served the Morgan horse industry in various capacities, always giving their time and energy to help strengthen the breed, our shows, and youth programs.

This person joined the CMHA board of directors a couple of years ago, and quickly assumed leadership roles to help grow our club and support our on going activities. This person has been instrumental in helping launch our new website, and transition to a new platform, while saving all of our historical information from the old platform. For any of you that have visited our website in the previous few years, you know how rough it was, and how much we needed a new one! This person has given hundreds of hours of their own time to work with our webmaster and get a new website built and launched.

For the past two years, this person has organized our points tabulations and year-end awards. This person’s creativity and negotiation skills have helped us acquire nice year-end awards, while keeping the many different parts of our points system straight. Please join me in thanking Colleen Tondalo, our 2019 person of the year, for her outstanding contributions to Connecticut Morgan Horse Association.

The CMHA Board has decided to move to a new hosting company. The interface has been updated and we have incorporated online payment support to add new memberships, purchase items, make donations and register for events. There are also new online forms for nominating horses. Please explore the page and send us any feedback using the Contact Us forms.

Thank you, and keep riding!