Hello, my name is Linda. Through my years as a volunteer with the Northeastern Ohio Dressage Association, 2015-2019, I watched as the number of participants dropped off quickly. I wanted some answers as to why. I began doing some research and discovered some answers you might be interested in. They proved there is a quick deteriorating trend within the equine industry.

The first piece of information is the average age of an individual who owns a horse. That individual is between 45-54 years old.

The second piece of information I found was from the American Horse Council. They had two bits of information that stood out. In 2005 they surveyed the number of horses in the USA. There were approximately 9.2 million horses at that time. In 2017, they did the same survey. There were only 7.2 million at that time. That is a loss of 22%.

In any business those are staggering numbers. Why?

The age of the owners is a sign the younger generations are not participating in the industry for future stability. The parents in their 30’s with younger children are not bringing up the next generation.

The second set of numbers from the AHC exposes the crippling problem concerning a lack of lesson horses. Our bombproof lesson horses are our gateway companions that offer the ability to build a passion for a lifetime of participation. Their numbers are almost non-existent. These two combined issue have exposed the need to improve the way we are approaching our future equine industry.

This is why the marketing and promotional campaign HOOFPRINTS ON HEARTS was created.

Hoofprints on Hearts is a grassroots project with the intent to re-brand the equine industry as a source of distinction for establishing lifelong values, both individually and as a community. We are partnering with companies in leadership roles within the industry to secure a foundation to ensure future growth for the equine industry as a whole. We will begin to achieve this goal by offering this opportunity for up to 10 Students to receive a year long scholarship for horseback riding lessons. This is a community effort to rebuild the horse / equine industry and we recognize that this will take time. This is the place we choose to start.