At Rancho Sierra Vista Equestrian Center in San Juan Capistrano,
California, bad news came on the heels of the new year. “A
little cough had been making the rounds of the barn, and we were
on alert for that,” recalls trainer Cathy Hanson, who stables 30
horses at the 350-horse multidiscipline facility. “But in early
January one horse developed neurological signs, and that
prompted testing.” The blood test came back positive for a form
of equine herpesvirus-1 that can cause potentially fatal
neurological disease in horses. “EHV is everywhere, and it’s
super-contagious,” Cathy says. State animal health officials
were called in, and on January 10 the facility was quarantined.
An outbreak of contagious disease is a nightmare at any barn,
let alone a facility home to so many horses. This was the first
such incident for Rancho Sierra Vista, but it was just one of
several outbreaks that have put riders on edge around the United
States in recent months. The list of disease-causing organisms
that spread horse to horse