OLYMPIC GAMES AT MELBOURNE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 3

OLYMPIC GAMES AT MELBOURNE

HORSE EVENTS TO BE HELD (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (-n.ee. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 11. Mr Sam Hordern, president of -the Equestrian Association of Australia, says horse events will be held at the Olympic Games in Melbourne despite the quarantine ban on the entry of horsey into Australia except from New Zealand. Britain arid Eire.

Mr Hordern said that even if the quarantine regulations were not relaxed, enough entries could be attracted in. Australia to hold the events. If the horses spend six months berfore the Games in England, Eire or New Zealand, they can enter Australia .without any quarantine. The Olympic rules state that the event can take place if there are seven entries.” He said he realised horses carried many diseases, but if all the Olympic horses were thoroughly examined before leaving their own countries, no disease would enter Australia. The Minister of Health (Sir Earle Page) said in Canberra today that he considered there would be enough entries from countries to which the quarantine regulations did not apply. Competitors from other countries could borrow horses from quarantine-free areas. After all, it is not the horse that -gets the prize, it is the rider,” he said.