Horses and Horsemen – helping horse owners.

When developing an extension education program, the terms innovative and impactful are often brought up. How can a program be both of those is a challenge. On April 25^th ANR agents from Clay, Rockcastle, Jackson, Knox, and Laurel counties hosted a Horses and Horsemen evening program in Laurel County at the WTA Marketing Alliance facility. The program featured topics related to horse health, care, and use. Speakers were from the veterinary clinic in Barbourville, the Horse specialist and county agents. Horse owners from the five counties attended as well as horse owners from outside the program area, drawn to the event by the topics. 

From the outside this might have looked like a typical extension program and while it resembled on the difference and maybe the innovation was how the speakers interacted with the audience but also each other. When the program was advertised the speakers were not listed just the topics which showed the topics attracted the audience. 

The healthcare presentation was given by the veterinarians from the clinic in Barbourville that gave a team presentation on vaccinations for horses. Not just one vet speaking but two who shared the information supported by practical advice on how to take care of horses in various situations. Their personal perspectives added greatly to the information and allowed the audience to see how they could use the information with their horses.  The impact was that it is not a one size fits all and as a horse owner you need to be involved with your vet to make appropriate decisions.

The horse care topic was related to body condition scoring and how and why it is a valuable management tool. The system was discussed and then the group moved to the handling area where horses were available to discuss how to use the system in a hands-on manner. This lead to a discussion on how to manage horses to either increase the body condition on a horse that scored lower than what the owner desired or what to do to reduce body condition on a horse that may have scored much higher. This portion was presented by the specialist but supported by agents who were able to help start the discussions with well-timed questions.

Lastly the use topic was related to tack and equipment with a focus on saddle fit. This presentation was given by an ANR agent and supported by other agents and the specialist. As with the other topics the audience was very engaged, and the questions kept coming.

All this leads to measuring impact. Hard to do in many cases but when you consider the questions that came during the presentations those attending came to learn. How would the information be used and what was the impact. To consider this question you need to appreciate the audience. The horse owner is often an underserved client of extension in part due to many owners not understanding what cooperative extension has to offer and, in some cases, feeling they are not an extension client. The program in Laural County was promoted throughout the participating counties and beyond, bringing in a new group to extension. When asked, the agents said yes, they knew some of the people but there were many new faces in the crowd. Let’s step back to impact and consider the audience. There were people new to horse ownership and so for them much of the information was new and information they needed to care for and use their horses. They took home information that would be used. There were those who were long-time owners and were looking to learn information that might help them with their horses. These people are often looking for ways to do things better. Those who learned how to body condition score their horses can now look at how to better manage their horses with an ideal body condition score in mind and ways to achieve it. Lastly there are those who are also long-time owners who learned that what they are doing now is reasonable and can be comfortable knowing they are doing a good job caring for their horses. The bottom line is the audience was made up of new owners to long-time owners who gained information that can help them make good choices as it relates to the health, management, and use of their horses. Not every impact results in a change in practice as sometimes the impact is knowing you are doing the right things for your horses.