What’s Your Opinion?
By: Brittany Bevis
In a special session held on March 24th, the Appaloosa Horse Club Board of Directors voted to enter into contract negotiations with the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield to host the 2022 and 2023 National and Youth World Championship Shows, with an option of a third year. The 2021 show will be taking place in Tulsa, Oklahoma July 26-August 1.
In a thoughtful move, the club reached out to members to gain insight into their feelings, preferences, and attitudes regarding the Youth World and National Show. The resulting collection of survey responses provides a fascinating, real-time look into the opinions of current club members.
Some highlights:
Of the 708 respondents, the majority live in Texas (97). The next state with the most respondents was Michigan at 55, followed by Illinois at 50, and California and Wisconsin at 43. The respondents indicate that 116 are looking forward to attending the National and Youth World Show for the first time this year. There appears to be quite a rate of return competitors, because 345 respondents indicated that they have attended the show prior to 2011. Of the locations that have hosted the show, the most highly attended was when the show was located in Fort Worth, Texas with 28.7% of responses. The next was Oklahoma City at 20.4% and Tulsa, Oklahoma at 17.3%.
From the time period of 2011-2019, respondents provided the reason for their attendance at the show. The most popular answers were “as a non-pro competitor” (268) and “as the owner of a horse I exhibited myself” (238). Other responses included “as the owner of a horse exhibited by another” (174) and “as family/friend of a youth competitor” (149) or “non-pro competitor” (118).
When asked to rate their overall experience at the show, the most popular answer was 4/5 with 277 responses. When asked if they plan to attend the 2021 show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the most popular answer was YES with 43.8% and MAYBE and NO tied at 28.1% each. In justification for this answer, the most popular responses were:
– I will attend in Tulsa and would not have attended at Indianapolis, because of a location conflict- 167
– I will attend no matter the date nor location- 144
– I will not attend in Tulsa and would have attended in Indianapolis, because of a location conflict. 115
The number of horse stalls that attendees will need to purchase at the show range from 1-2 with 177 answers and 2-3 with 102 answers. The majority of people responded that they will take their horses to the show themselves- 46.9%. 54.1% of respondents indicated that when considering whether or not to attend the 2022 National and Youth World Show, the decision will depend upon location. The most popular answer for the number of miles people are willing to travel to the show is 500-550 with 85 responses and 1,000-1,050 with 68 responses.
The big question of where the 2022 show should be held, between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Springfield, Illinois, the responses were pretty evenly split with Illinois at 53.7% and Tulsa at 46.3%.
The final question asked respondents to list their favorite thing about attending the National and Youth World Show. Here is a sampling of a few answers.
“Being able to have both parents and kids show on a national level with one trip. We can’t make it to two National shows in one year.”
“I believe we need to look into development of competition. Personally, the Ranch Horse and Trail could be much more intriguing with a greater deal of complexity.”
“Haven’t been in over 20 years. This will be our first year back because of the addition of the small horse program.”
Overall, the idea to reach out to club members to obtain their opinions and preferences, regarding a big decision to be made by club leadership, seems to be well appreciated. Likewise, the move helped to gather some great data that can be used for future planning purposes. Would you like to see this technique used by other major breed associations?
