Newsdate: Fri 17 July 2015 – 06:45 am
Location: SOUTH DAYTONA, Florida

American Horse Publications (AHP) conducted its third online nationwide equine industry survey from January 6, 2015, through April 1, 2015. The objectives of this survey are to gauge participation trends and management practices in the U.S. equine industry, to identify critical issues facing the equine industry as perceived by those who own or manage horses, and to better understand issues pertaining to horse health.

Top concern per survey - Unwanted horses

One objective of the study was to gain a better understanding of how those who own and/or manage horses perceive the various challenges; to this end, participants in the Equine Industry Survey were asked to identify the top three issues facing the equine industry.

A variety of issues pose challenges to the equine industry in the present and going forward. One objective of the study was to gain a better understanding of how those who own and/or manage horses perceive the various challenges; to this end, participants were asked to identify the top three issues facing the equine industry.

Nearly 54% of the respondents indicate that the problem of unwanted horses (and what to do with them) is one of the top three issues.

The cost of horsekeeping (40.1%), overbreeding (34.5%), owners who don’t understand horses (32.6%), the loss of trails and riding areas (31.0%), and competition for open space from other agricultural commodity producers developers (27.0%) were the next most frequently identified issues. The top five issues identified remain the same from the 2012 survey.

The importance of these issues sometimes depends on respondent demographics. Some of the identified trends are discussed below.

The unwanted horse issue still appears to be equally relevant across the country, while in general, it appears that the cost of horsekeeping is of more concern to those on both coasts. Overbreeding and owners who don’t understand horses are identified as important issues roughly equally across the country. Loss of trails and riding areas is most salient to respondents residing in zip code regions 9 and 2. Competition for open space seems to be of more concern moving towards both coasts.

While disease outbreaks were not commonly identified as one the top three issues, those in zip code regions 5, 6, and 8 identify them as an issue about twice as often as those from other regions. The issue of horses going to slaughter appears to be of increasing concern going from west to east across the country. A related issue, not having the option of slaughter in the United States, is identified as a bigger concern in the western half of the United States, with the except of zip code region 9.

Among some of the top 6 issues identified, there are also some interesting patterns in responses based on age of the respondents. The unwanted horse issue is of significantly more concern in respondents age 45+ than those under 45. As in the 2012 study, the youngest respondents are most concerned about overbreeding; this decreases across age categories. Also similar to the 2012 study, loss of trails and riding areas becomes of increasing concern as age increases; this same pattern exists in the closely-related issue of competition for open space.

Table 1 – Zip code regions and their corresponding states.