As a Precaution, Fair Officials Will Sanitize Horse Barns

officials have voluntarily shuttered the horse facility at the fairgrounds until mid-June and plan to sanitize all of the stalls as a precaution against a potentially deadly horse disease.

There's no reason to believe the grounds have been exposed to the virus.

"What we're trying to do is temper down the hysteria," said fair manager Michael Bethke.

There was an outbreak of Equine Herpes Myloencephalopathy at the National Cutting Horse Association's Western National Championship in Ogden, Utah, in early May. Since then, nearly 20 cases of EHM have been confirmed in California and more than 50 nationwide.

The neurological strand of the disease, caused by Equine Herpes Virus, can be so debilitating that horses have to be euthanized.

Across the Western states, horses that were at the Ogden show have been quarantined to prevent further spread. However, none of the diseased horses are from Santa Cruz County, and there's no reason to believe horses in the area have been exposed to the disease, officials said. 

"Don't get me wrong—it's nothing to sneeze about. But it's blown out of proportion," said Blanca Boyd, the horse show manager at the Santa Cruz County Fair and Event Center.

She called the response "an overreaction in many ways."

"It's serious, yes. Do you want to expose your horse? No," Boyd said.

So the fairgrounds, which host horse events nearly every summer weekend, ponied up the option for events to reschedule once the EHM outbreak has passed.

Suzy Rodoni-Silverberg, organizer of Cutting on the Coast, a West Coast Cutting Horse Association event planned for the first weekend in June, took up fair officials on the offer.

“It’s a pretty large event, 250 horses there," Rodoni-Silverberg said. "There’ll be people from all over the Western states there. Everyone completely felt it was the right thing to do. I think the only way we’ll be able to get this thing under control is for everyone to stay put.”

Cutting on the Coast is sanctioned by the National Cutting Horse Association, the same group that oversaw the Ogden event, and the association has since cancelled or postponed all of its competitions for a couple of weeks, according to Rodoni-Silverberg.

The incubation period for EHM is about 21 days.

“It certainly doesn’t hurt to err on the side of going a little longer," Rodoni-Silverberg said. "… I think everybody’s just decided, 'Let’s be safe and wait 30 days.'”

As a result, Cutting on the Coast will be held in July.

“Hopefully, by then everyone will feel comfortable that it's safe, and they can come out and have a good time," Rodoni-Silverberg said.

The American Computer Barrel Racing Association event planned for Memorial Day Weekend also is rescheduled, Boyd said.

That gives the fairgrounds time to clean all the horse stalls with a bleach and water mixture, a move Boyd described as precautionary.

"We're disinfecting our barns to reassure people," Boyd said, pointing out that the fair has hosted two small, local horse shows since the EHM outbreak happened and there's was no issue.

There was one scare nearby: A horse fell ill in San Benito County, and officials feared the it had contracted EHM, but that was incorrect. The horse is being treated at UC Davis for another ailment, according to Boyd.

Locally, "we haven't heard of any problems," Boyd said.

Shows at the fairgrounds will resume the weekend of the Moon Valley Pony Club.