The American Horse Council Foundation announced July 19 it will be extending the deadline to complete its horse owner and supplier survey to Aug. 18. The results of the survey will be used to update the AHC's National Economic Impact Study.
"The survey has been open since the beginning of June, and unfortunately we have only had around 9,000 responses," said AHC president Julie Broadway. "We decided to extend the deadline for respondents to take the survey to ensure that we are getting as many responses as we can—we estimated that the survey link should be reaching approximately 900,000 people, and the 2005 Study had over 18,000 responses itself. The industry has waited a long time for this study to be updated and we want to be sure we are getting the full picture of the impact of the vast equine industry."
The main survey is designed to capture the impact of individual horse owners (whether commercial or recreational) and industry suppliers of equine-related goods and services.
Take the Horse Owners and Supplier Survey
The 2017 Economic Impact Study will contain expanded demographics with youth participation and additional segments of the industry, including equine assisted activities and therapies, equine sanctuaries and rescues, equine academic programs, and equine youth organizations. Anyone interested in receiving one of these survey links, please contact the AHC at info@horsecouncil.org.
"We were advised to do the rollout of the survey link in two phases," said Broadway. "The first phase included AHC member organizations and their affiliations which served as our initial sample frame. The survey link needed to be sent to a known population size so we can accurately judge the response rate. For example, if we send the survey link to 500 people and 100 reply, we know that the response rate is 20%, and the results must be increased to characterize the full population according to statistical survey methodology."
"Phase two invites anyone that wants to complete a survey the ability to do so using the social networks of our member organizations to increase participation in a 'snowball' effect," continued Broadway. "The questions are exactly the same as in the phase one survey link, but the URL for each survey link is slightly different so The Innovation Group can distinguish these responses from the control group. We certainly want as many people as possible to complete the survey, it just needed to be done in phases so the statisticians and economists can interpret the data correctly."
The AHC encourages Individuals to share the study link above via email, social media, etc., in order to ensure maximum participation.