There are particular areas within rural VIC that have high equine activity such as Macedon Range & Mitchell Shire. These are well known areas for horse riding, training, agistment, rallies, adult riding clubs and many more equine related activities.

There are fireworks taking place regularly on private property within rural VIC, where there are lots of horses nearby. A fright could see a horse go through a fence and out onto this major road, causing injury to the horse and potentially a catastrophic car accident.

It is well documented that horses suffer extreme stress from the noise during fireworks and being prey animals they take flight at any incident that frightens them.

It is also well documented that horses have been injured as a result of fireworks some fatally due to the flight response that is natural to them during fireworks. If nothing changes then it is only a matter of time of more horse injuries and accidents. 

If one horse panics it often causes a reaction by the other horses as they are a herd animal. One frightened horse can soon turn into many.

Animal welfare VIC suggests keeping horses well away from fireworks that can be seen or heard but this is completely impractical. It is a huge undertaking to ask all horse owners to remove their horses at any time of the day or night, for a 6-8min display of fireworks. Often owners don't have their own means of transport to remove the horses.

I would like to see noisy fireworks banned, and replaced by "silent fireworks" in order to protect the livestock in rural VIC.