Five Year Review of the NDSU Extension Horse Management Webinars
The COVID-19 pandemic forced changes for many of us. Some were comfortable, most were not. Some were good, most were debatable. One of the things we’re taking away from that period of time was the forced change in how we communicate, particularly for work. Prior to the work-from-home order issued in early 2020, we had in-person meetings planned for horse owners in a couple counties in North Dakota. When the pandemic put a stop to that, we pivoted to an online platform and haven’t looked back!
We have hosted 23 webinars over 5 years with 972 participants attending live and 4,472 views of the recordings on YouTube.
Live webinar participants responded to the same poll question asked from 2021-2024, rating the overall usefulness of the webinar they were attending. Of the 320 respondents, 42% rated the webinars as extremely useful, 40% as very useful and 18% as useful.
We sent a 5-year survey to our listserv in December 2024 and received 96 responses. Horse owners made up 66% of the respondents and stable owners/managers made up another 12%. North Dakota was represented by 39% of the survey respondents while 23% were from Minnesota.
Survey respondents were asked what specific changes they made as a result of the information obtained from the NDSU Extension Horse Management webinar series. Survey respondents were also asked what has been the benefit to them, their animal(s), their finances and/or the environment.
Change was expressed in all 18 topic areas that have been presented on the webinar platform. The following are the top 6 areas where respondents expressed changes to their practices:
- 40% in Grazing Management
- 34% in Manure Management
- 31% in Haying Management
- 30% in Winter Horse Management
- 25% in Emergency First Aid
- 25% in Weed Management
Our survey respondents were awesome and shared a lot of valuable information with us. While we don’t have room to share all the data here (we are working on a larger report), we wanted to pick out a few management changes and benefits and encourage you to attend our upcoming webinars in March 2025.
Changes made because of viewing the webinars:
“I have changed my grazing rotation and used electric fencing to make the horses graze a smaller area for a short period of time. I have also been more aware of length of grass I allow the horses to graze the pasture down too.”
“Moving, piling, and composting manure.”
“Working on better manure management plan (it’s a work in progress).”
“Your webinar on weed management has helped us identify and mitigate weeds that we had in our pasture.”
“I have been more selective about the quality of hay that I have been purchasing.”
“We went from generic feed for everyone to individual needs based feed.”
Benefits resulting from management changes:
“The benefit has been to our horses by providing better pasture grass to them.”
“Pasture is healthier due to delayed spring grazing and early removal in the fall. Additional changes to manure management will yield less flies, more changes to be made.”
“It's more money saved with more pasture producing forage and manure fertilizing it.”
“The weedy areas of my pasture are going away and my pasture has more even forage coverage.”
“Hay is lasting longer as it is fed more wisely in the winter which saves money.”
“Animal [individual] based feed has helped keep weight on my old guys.”
Reviewing this data has been exceptionally rewarding. Understanding the time and effort we put into programs has real, attainable benefits for horse owners, their animals, their finances and/or the environment validates the need to continue offering education on this platform.
The 2025 NDSU Extension Horse Management Webinars will be on:
March 12 – Breeding Management of Mares in Northern Climates
March 19 – Foaling and Foal Management in Northern Climates
March 26 – Managing Horses on Small Acreages in North Dakota
You can find past webinar playlists here:
Visit ndsu.ag/horsewebinar to register for the webinars.
Mary Keena
Mary.Keena@ndsu.edu
Extension Specialist/ Livestock Environmental Management
Paige Brummund
Paige.F.Brummund@ndsu.edu
Extension agent/ Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ward County
