10/20/2026
EIA UPDATE: ALL HORSES NEGATIVE
We finally have the update we have been waiting for.
Every horse at SugarTide has tested negative for Equine Infectious Anemia on our final round of testing, and our quarantine has officially been released.
After several long weeks, we are incredibly relieved to close this chapter. But throughout this process, we have tried to use our experience to provide accurate information about EIA, and there is one final piece we think is worth sharing.
EIA highlights an important distinction between biosecurity and disease detection.
Good biosecurity matters. Quarantine, health monitoring, clean needles and equipment, fly management and testing requirements all play important roles in reducing disease risk.
But an EIA-positive horse does not necessarily look sick.
Some horses develop clinical disease. Others experience intermittent signs. Some remain completely asymptomatic while still carrying the virus.
That means there is no temperature check, physical examination or period of observational quarantine that can establish that an apparently healthy horse is EIA-negative.
That requires a blood test.
At SugarTide, horses entering the property were already required to have a negative Coggins within the preceding year. Siesta met that requirement. He had previously tested negative, appeared healthy and showed no clinical signs that would have identified him as an EIA risk.
A negative Coggins reflects a horse’s status at the time represented by that blood sample. It cannot guarantee that horse’s status indefinitely.
This is also where the wider context around EIA becomes important.
Routine EIA testing is not universally required in Canada. Within show jumping, many of us are accustomed to producing a negative Coggins for competition, travel and boarding, but that is not the case across every discipline or facility. Many Canadian horses may go their entire lives without ever being tested.
Even horses competing at the Calgary Stampede are not required to provide proof of a negative Coggins.
Yet EIA is a federally reportable disease, and the consequences of a positive result are extremely serious. A horse confirmed positive for EIA is ordered destroyed by the CFIA.
Perhaps the most useful thing that can come from our experience, then, is a broader conversation about testing.
We would love to see routine EIA testing become a more normal part of horse ownership across disciplines, even when it isn’t required. Not because every horse should be treated as a threat, but because EIA can be carried by a horse who looks completely healthy.
Siesta looked healthy. He had previously tested negative. Nothing about him told us what a blood test eventually did.
If sharing his story encourages more owners to consider adding a Coggins test to their horse’s routine veterinary care, perhaps something valuable can come from an experience none of us ever wanted to have.
For us, thankfully, this story ends with the best possible news.
Every remaining horse tested negative on both rounds of testing. Our quarantine has been officially released, and our horses are free to come and go again.
We are enormously grateful to our veterinary team at Moore and Co, especially our primary veterinarian Dr Katherine McDonald who insisted on being present at all our testing, the CFIA, our staff, our clients and everyone who supported us throughout this process.
And if your horse has never had a Coggins test simply because you’ve never needed one, perhaps it’s worth asking:
Why not test?
