The first Annual Equine Conference for horse owners was started by a collaboration between the Northern Kentucky Horse Network, the ANR Agents from Northern Kentucky(Boone, Campbell and Kenton Counties), and the Extension Horse Specialist. The aim was to develop an educational program that would take horse owners to another level of equine knowledge. The Network has for a number of years organized educational programs for the horse owners in the area but they wanted to increase the knowledge and go beyond the basic information. the challenge was to bring in speakers from outside the local area and have them discuss topics based on the most current research information available. The challenge for this was to identify speakers who could address topics using the current information.

The partnership between the organizing groups allowed this to happen.  The network provided the topics they felt would be of greatest use to the horse owners in the area and the extension specialist was challenged to find  speakers who would be best at meeting the goals of the program. The ANR agents facilitated the event and coordinated the efforts of all involved. the result was a one day conference that covered a variety of topics, had speakers from across the state but also from out side the state and over 165 people in attendance from a significant number of counties. 

The successes were many but the conference was a success, topics of significant interest were presented by top quality speakers, participants were exposed to the latest research information on topics they considered to be important. Lastly the collaboration between the groups was effective in determining the needs of the horse owners and developing a program that addressed those needs. 

Lastly the success of the first annual has led to the planning of the second annual conference in November 2018 with an added section to provide the youth of the horse industry with a program that will address their educational needs. The industry working together to meet its educational needs and showing that cooperation and collaboration with horse owners and extension works.