In an effort to increase equine extension programming, the ANR agent served on a planning committee for the biennial Equine Summitt Committee.  Previous summits have focused on research and teaching.  Through discussion with equine faculty and agents, plans were developed to host 2 Equine Summits focused on equine extension work.  The intent was to highlight some of the great work already happening in KY, determine current challenges and opportunities for equine extension work and develop a plan to build a better equine extension program for KY.  These were held in Mercer and Daviess counties and after the summit question responses were summarized, reviewed by the committee and broken into actionable items.  These were presented both at the Equine Seminar to the department and to the ANR and 4H YD agents serving on the Equine Agent Working Group.  Agents made recommendations for priority areas and provided feedback on the actionable items.  Work is now being carried out to implement these items and work toward developing new equine extension programs.

The Equine Agent Working Group has met twice to divide and accomplish goals set through the Equine Summits.  Significant work includes new publications from equine extension specialists, more agents becoming involved in equine extension programming, expanded agent training and improved marketing of equine extension.  In addition, the Mercer County ANR Agent now serves as co-chair for the Agent Working Group.