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LOCAL NEWS By Kieran Nicholson The Denver Post The horse stables at Chatfield State Park have been shut down as a precautionary measure relating to a possible outbreak of a viral disease. The stables are closed until laboratory samples, taken from symptomatic horses, are analyzed by a USDA veterinarian. Officials are checking for the possible presence of vesicular stomatitis (VS), a viral infection that primarily affects horses and cattle, and occasionally swine, sheep, goats, llamas, and alpacas. “Customers with horses boarded at the stable may continue to enter the facility to provide care, but the horses will not be permitted to leave the facility,” according to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife media release. “The closure will remain in effect pending the results of the tests.” Test results could take between three and seven days. The virus was first reported in Boulder County in July, since then 184 locations where the infection has been confirmed have been placed under Colorado Department of Agriculture quarantine. Most of the properties are in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties. Chatfield State Park straddles the Jefferson and Douglas county line. As of Wednesday, 201 horses and three cows statewide have tested positive for the disease, which causes painful oral blisters and sores that make it difficult for the animals to eat and drink.

Stop in the Boulder Bookstore on Pearl Street, Tuesday, July 22nd at 7:30 pm to visit with Rafeal de Grenade as she reads from her new book Stilwater: Finding Mercy in the Outback.  Stilwater details the adventures of a 23 year-old woman working on horseback on a thousand-square-mile cattle station in the middle of the Australian outback. It’s a moving, on-the-ground depiction of the beauty and brutality of such an overwhelming operation, and it’s a unique meditation on the blurred lines between domesticated and wild. More striking than anything, though is the power of Rafael’s prose. “Rafael de Grenade’s insights into rural life are as rich as her insights into the land itself. There is simply no book like this.” – Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Coming Home to Eat “This monumental adventure on a cattle station in the remotest part of the Australian Outback is told forthrightly and without sentiment. Stilwater Station was no theme park. It was ringers, bulldust, blood, grime, being on horseback under a helicopter in the maelstrom of a muster, solitude, introspection, growth.” – Jay Dusard, author of The North American Cowboy “An extraordinary setting for an absorbing and finely tuned memoir. Crocs, swamps, drought, wild horses, and cattle—this portrait of a young woman’s life on a seemingly endless cattle station in northern Australia is simply too good to put down.” – Gretel Ehrlich, author of The Solace of Open Spaces For more on Stilwater please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA9Q1pi346c Additionally Rafael de Grenade will  be reading on Wednesday, July 23 at 7:00