TEXAS – A viral outbreak that is hitting horses in Texas has canceled an upcoming rodeo event in Uvalde. 

The EHV-1 virus is highly contagious and has prompted a statewide alert from Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller.

Local perspective:

On the Double Spur Ranch between Leander and Liberty Hill, owner Steve Smith runs several heads of cattle on his 10 acres. He also has seven horses, which are available for public riding. 

Lately, Smith has been focused on his cows because of the screw-worm threat. But now he must keep watch on his horses because of a viral outbreak.

“If I lost my herd, I’d be real pissed off. I would be very unhappy if I’d lost my herd, but I would be heartbroken if I even lost one horse,” said Smith.

Horse owners like Smith are being warned about the EHV-1 virus. It is highly contagious and typically transmitted by close contact. The virus can also be brought into stables, attached to tack gear, and from human clothing. 

“I would say the largest shift that I’ll take is to put a little bit of a stop to people that experience and go and enjoy other barns and then one, and then coming here. Because we have a lot of cross-pollination in that way, where people might go volunteer at another barn and then come over here. We love those people, and we want them to hang out with us. However, this might not be the right time to go and pick up something and then bring it and spread it to other horses,” said Smith.

Sid Miller speaks on equine virus outbreak

Dig deeper:

Similar precautions are being taken by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

“For now, just lock down, stay down. I’ve closed my farm, no horses going out, no horses coming in,” said Miller.

Miller issued a statewide alert on Wednesday. It advises horse owners to do health checks at least twice a day. The alert is especially for horses that were at a competition in Waco earlier this month. It’s believed that’s where the outbreak started.

“It’s a biosecurity hazard. This is what we’ve got here,” said Miller.

Miller noted how officials with the San Antonio rodeo announced the cancellation of a qualifier in Uvalde this week. Other shutdowns may be necessary.

“We’re really worried about the National Finals Rodeo and the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity in Fort Worth. Those are two of the largest equine events in our nation during the year,” said Miller.

The Winter Rodeo season ramps up in December. Miller hopes the outbreak will pass before the 2026 season gets going.

“The good thing is we’re kind of in the lull of rodeo season. We’re at the end of one year and haven’t really started the next. The next big rodeo starts off at the Fort Worth Livestock Show in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin, the winter rodeos we call those. So, we’ve got a little time before those kick up, but those are huge events,” said Miller.

Livestock clinics across Texas are also posting alerts on social media. It’s all part of an effort to contain the virus. The original source of the virus has not yet been identified, according to Miller.

“Normally, drinking out of the same water trough is the most common way to spread it. Having horses co-mingled, like in a competition or a barrel race in this case,” said Miller.

What’s next:

It’s unclear how long the outbreak will last. The Texas Animal Health Commission is trying to determine how many horses are infected, and that will determine how long this alert will run. 

The virus does not infect humans or dogs, cats, and animals like cattle and pigs.

AUSTIN, Texas — The next wave of scientific discovery is being built right here in Central Texas.

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is teaming up with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA to launch Horizon, which will become the largest academic supercomputer in the United States when it goes online in 2026.

Designed to be a major engine for open science, Horizon will help researchers tackle some of the toughest problems of our time—from extreme weather forecasting to medical breakthroughs to national security.

A Texas-sized leap in computing power

Horizon will deliver 300 petaflops of performance—making it ten times faster than TACC’s current supercomputer, Frontera. For researchers, that means bigger projects, faster insights, and entirely new possibilities.

“It’s really exciting for Austin and for the University of Texas,” said Dan Stanzione, Associate Vice President for Research at UT and Executive Director of TACC. “We’ll have the largest academic computing resource in the country. Researchers will have unparalleled access to computing anywhere in the world.”

A supercomputer built in Central Texas

Horizon isn’t just located in Austin—it’s being built here, too.

Dell is designing the integrated racks.

Final assembly is happening in Georgetown.

The system will be housed in a Round Rock data center.

NVIDIA chips and VAST storage—both companies with Austin teams—power the hardware.

“Everyone involved has an Austin tie,” Stanzione said. “Finally deploying one of these major systems in the Austin area is pretty exciting.”

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What Horizon will do

In its first year, TACC expects hundreds of research projects to run on Horizon. Some of the earliest will focus on Texas-specific challenges, such as:

More accurate hurricane and storm surge forecasts

Disaster resilience modeling for the Gulf Coast

Healthcare and drug discovery

New materials and battery development

Horizon will also become the AI hub for UT Austin, enabling breakthroughs in machine learning and large-scale data analysis.

Keeping a giant cool

Running a supercomputer this large takes serious engineering. Each cabinet draws around 225,000 watts, requiring advanced cooling solutions.

Propylene glycol will flow directly across the chips, while chilled water circulates through rear-door radiators. In total, the system will move about 400,000 gallons of water per hour to keep everything stable.

What Dell says

For Dell Technologies, Horizon is a major step forward for the region and the research community.

“Horizon delivers over 300 petaflops of performance—ten to twelve times faster than Frontera,” said Seamus Jones, Director of Server Engineering. “It will help researchers break boundaries and drive advancements in technologies we haven’t even imagined yet.”

A new era for Texas innovation

With Horizon, Austin is poised to become the nation’s center for high-performance academic computing. The supercomputer will serve thousands of researchers across disciplines—and could reshape how science is done for years to come.