Data Barn

The American Horse Council has published its “2023 National Equine Economic Impact Study.”

The total US horse population is now 6.6 million, compared with 7.2 million in the 2017 report, for a decline of 8.3 percent.

Despite the drop, that’s a good total, considering the downward pressure on the industry from the pandemic, inflation and climate change.

The total is the only number the AHC is releasing in its press release, unlike past years when the trade organization was more generous with the data.

The press release, posted in January 2024, included a link suggesting that more info would be available for media at www.horsecouncil.org/Economic2022/media tools/ but the link wasn’t working as of July 2024.

The AHC paid for the study by asking horse people to donate the funding. The group’s FAQ page for the study says the AHC needed $300,000 to $400,000 to pay for it, all from donations. Since the study was conducted and published, it would appear that horse owners contributed that funding.

And horse owners took the study.

I took the study twice in past years. Apparently, I am getting nothing for that time and effort. And it does require effort to calculate how much I paid for various things and fill in those questions.

Based on language on the report purchase page, the AHC is trying to copyright the data and control how it is used. Legally, the AHC can’t copyright its data. A piece of data is a fact that can’t be copyrighted.

But one doesn’t want to violate the spirit of the AHC’s request if one happens to generally believe in the AHC’s mission.

What I don’t understand is why it won’t share its data.

There is currently very little horse data on the internet.

The AHC could corner the market on US horse data and do all sorts of things with its report online to promote horse ownership and the industries around it. It could encourage people to visit its site because it would be the leader in data. Right now, there’s almost no reason to go to the AHC site, sad but true.

Sure, other websites, such as this one, could see and use that data, but we would be no competition for the AHC.

The AHC also could be transparent about that data. It could talk about where the horse world could celebrate success and where it needs work.

It could give prospective owners a heads-up on what horse ownership costs today and the benefits of investing that money.

Beyond that, why wouldn’t the AHC make public the data it didn’t pay for itself?

I didn’t receive any pushback when I bought the 2017 report from the AHC, and I told the person who sold it to me that I was using it for a database project in a coding course, but I planned to publish the project online, too. She seemed happy, not disturbed, by that plan.

I don’t see that generous spirit in the press release or on the report product page this time.

It is common in many industries for survey takers to get paid for their effort and then to receive a survey report summarizing the results. Plus, the company conducting the survey pays for it.

The AHC did none of those things.

Instead, it is hiding the data, which very few people will see in a report priced at $100 per report.

The AHC makes 80 percent of its revenue from memberships, not this data.

I won’t take the survey again unless the data is released to the public.

I was going to post on this site a note that people should donate to the funding drive for the 2023 survey. Now, I am glad I did not.

The data should belong collectively to those who entered or paid for it. At least that’s the way I feel.

But I love data and employing it in ways that are useful to everyone.

That’s why I pay annual hosting fees to keep this site online. I get no advertising or anything else for it. I just love sharing data, especially horse data.