Title

Horse management webinar series: Expanding NDSU Extension's reach to equine enthusiasts

(AS2040-16, September 2021)
Summary

This report describes the development of the Extension horse management webinar series. Survey results suggest that the webinars were utilized by many constituents and that the constituents found the webinars useful and utilized the information to make improvements on their horse operations.

This article is part of the 2021 North Dakota Livestock Research Report.

Lead Author
Lead Author:
Mary Keena, Carrington Research Extension Center, NDSU
Availability
Availability:
Web only
Publication Sections

Introduction

The 2012 North Dakota horse inventory was 45,271. This is the last time horse data was gathered by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Based on positive feedback from 2016 horse meetings, combined with current requests NDSU Extension agents were receiving, we determined that hosting horse management-related programming was necessary and relevant for our constituents. This report describes the development of the horse management webinar series.

Extension Response

Initial plans were to host educational meetings in four to five counties across North Dakota with a high concentration of horses. When COVID-19 restrictions were implemented, meetings moved to an online format.

Based on a needs assessment, we learned that most North Dakota horse owners work during the day in nonhorse-related careers, so a live, noon webinar series was created and recorded for later viewing. Four spring-related webinars and two winter-related webinars were held during the 2020 reporting year. Topic areas were picked based on feedback gathered during each webinar.

Two hundred fifty-two unique individual registered for the webinar series, with 66% being from North Dakota and 13% from Minnesota. We also hosted international participants from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Peru. Eighty-three percent of the participants who joined sessions in real time were horse owners or stable owners/managers.

Results and Discussion

Ninety-eight percent of the participants who joined sessions in real time said the webinars were useful or extremely useful. The webinar videos were watched in real time or viewed via the recording a total of 914 times.

In a six-month survey that was sent to the spring webinar registrants, they indicated management changes were made because of the webinar information.

The following comments are from participants who made changes within six months of the spring webinar series:

  • "I changed my pasture size, rotation schedule and let one overgrazed area rest for the year."
  • "Helped my landlord with some composting tips with the manure piles from previous renters who had horses. Changed up my parasite control to help reduce resistance and also more frequently with the summer parasite concentrations we had."
  • "Bought a manure spreader."

Acknowledgments

NDSU Extension Collaborators:
Paige Brummund
Rachel Wald
Kevin Sedivec
Leigh Ann Skurupey
Gerald Stokka

NDSU Non-Extension Collaborators:
Carrie Hammer