Virginia Horse Industry Board News

2010 VHIB Calendar

Article Listing:

1. Virginia Horse Board at the World Equestrian Games
2. Economic Impact Study Moves Forward
3. “Virginia’s Equine Partnership”
4. Virginia Horse Industry Board Grant Winners for 2010-2011
5. Horse Board Announces Continuation of "Virginia Bred Program"
6. VA Horse Board Launches New Page on VTC Website

VA Horse Board at the World Equestrian Games

If you are fortunate enough to be planning to attend the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games(WEG) 2010, September 25—October 10, in Lexington, Kentucky, do stop by the Virginia Horse Industry Board booth (booth #13 in the Equine Village). The Equine Village should be an interesting place to spend time between events—about 150 booths representing breed and equestrian associations across the world are expected, as well as a variety of clinician demonstrations. Another 250 or so vendor booths can be found throughout the Equine Park. Some 600,000 tickets are expected to be sold for the Games with 800 human athletes and 900 equine athletes from more than 60 nations anticipated.

You must purchase tickets to the individual WEG events if you wish to attend any or all-- although a general grounds pass is available. Hotel rooms are going at a premium rate, parking and traffic will be challenging, and security will be tight—so be prepared. For more information on tickets and other important logistics, visit www.feigames2010.org.

The Virginia Horse Industry Board does invite Virginia equine clubs, associations, and non-profit entities to forward a limited quantity of their brochures to the Horse Board office to have them available at the booth at the WEG. Due to both security and space restrictions, please send no more than 1 small box (use the U.S. Postal Service priority flat rate medium-size box—8.5” x 11” x 5.5”—as a guide) or 1 large padded envelope with your association’s brochures and membership information. Unfortunately, we do not have the space to put out individual farm or business brochures at this event.

Your 1 small box or large padded envelope must be at the VHIB Office(102 Governor St., #318, Richmond, VA 23219) by Monday, August 30, 2010, so please meet that deadline if you wish to have your brochures displayed at the Horse Board booth at the WEG.

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Economic Impact Study Moves Forward

The Virginia Horse Industry Board has entered into an agreement with the Weldon Cooper Center of the University of Virginia to conduct an economic impact study of the Virginia horse industry.

Dr. Terance Rephann, Regional Economist with the Center, is directing the study. Several previous economic studies have been conducted by the Cooper Center for the Virginia Horse Center.
 
Over the summer months, Dr. Rephann’s research group will be making mail and phone contacts with approximately 40 horse show facilities to obtain information on more than 154 horse shows. The first stage of surveying will focus on confirming the event calendar information that has been pulled together and identifying show managers for events held at each horse show facility.  The second stage will consist of contacting individual horse show managers to obtain financial and attendance information for their events.
 
Individual interviews will be conducted at 10 horse shows as well.  In addition, interviews at Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent and one off-track betting(OTB) location are to be scheduled. These interviews will collect information on spending patterns of horse event participants and spectators.
  
According to Dr. Rephann, surveys started in July and are slated to continue through October. The final report of the economic impact study of the Virginia horse industry is anticipated in November.
 
If you have questions about the surveying process, please contact Dr. Rephann at (434) 982-4501 or e-mail: trephann@virginia.edu.

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Photo above: Members of the Virginia Horse Industry Board recently met at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington and had the opportunity to view the new “Virginia’s Equine Partnership” kiosk at the Center. The display highlights the cooperation between the VHIB and the Horse Center and their mutual efforts to promote Virginia’s horse industry. Shown (left to right) are: Board members David Lamb and Celeste Crisman; Chairman David Sanders; Program Manager Andrea Heid; the Center’s Executive Director Katherine Truitt; and VHIB member Gene Stone.

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Virginia Horse Industry Board Grant Winners
for 2010-2011

The Virginia Horse Industry Board recently reviewed some 32 grant proposals received by the deadline and selected the following projects as those they felt would most benefit the Virginia horse industry for fiscal year 2010-2011:

**TOTAL GRANTS APPROVED = $151,846

Congratulations to all the winners of Virginia Horse Industry Board grants
for 2010--2011!

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Horse Board Announces
Continuation of "Virginia Bred Program"

The Virginia Horse Industry Board has recently announced that the “Virginia Bred Program,” launched for the 2010 calendar year, will continue through 2011. Some 8 breed associations applied for and shared funding of $25,000 from the VHIB for their futurities, performance competitions, and trail riding activities for this year – all of which recognize and promote the achievements of horses foaled in Virginia.

The initial step for any Virginia breed association interested in participating in the 2011 Virginia Bred Program is to put together and forward a signed Letter of Intent to the VHIB Office by July 16th. This letter should briefly detail their current program or highlight how the association plans to create a Virginia Bred Program if no such program currently exists.

Once the Horse Board has reviewed all the submitted Letters of Intent, those associations will be notified whose proposed Virginia Bred Programs will be considered for funding once the complete project proposal has been submitted.

The new program operates on an annual basis and applications for the Virginia Bred Program should be submitted from individual Virginia breed associations to the VHIB in the form of a grant proposal. These proposals are to be submitted in November for the following year’s program.

Details and guidelines on submitting proposals for next year’s Virginia Bred Program will be available on this website later in the summer. In addition, any association that received funding for the 2010 program must also submit a detailed report on their program in November and explain how the VHIB funds were spent.

The Virginia Horse Industry Board believes the Virginia Bred Program underscores the Board’s mission-- the promotion and economic development of the Virginia equine industry—by recognizing the achievements of horses foaled in the Commonwealth.

The VHIB advises all interested Virginia breed associations to submit their Letters of Intent by the July 16th deadline to participate in this very exciting program for 2011. Associations that do not submit their letters by that date will have to wait until the following year to be considered for the program.

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VA Horse Board Launches New Page on VTC Website

For the past several months, VHIB Program Manager Andrea Heid has been working with Judy Watkins and Dave Neudeck, representatives of the VA Tourism Cooperation(VTC), to develop a unique “landing page” for the VA horse industry on the VTC website, www.Virginia.org

This new page, www.VirginiaHorseTours.com, is designed to promote the VA horse industry to tourists, particularly those international visitors planning on coming to the U.S. for the World Equestrian Games(WEG) this fall. The site contains resources on different activities, events, and locations related to the VA equine industry - for in state and out of state visitors as well.

Another huge benefit: any VA tourism equine-related business or entity can place a listing on both sites(VTC and Virginia Horse Tours) for free! To do so, here are some quick instructions from VTC:

The VirginiaHorseTours website is compiled from the Virginia.org (VTC’s website) database. If you would like to add your equine business (farm, stable, boarding facility, etc.), please register for a free account to access the Virginia.org Administration Tool by going to https://www.Virginia.org/admin. Once your account has been approved, you may log in and submit your business to the site, and it can then be found through the Virginia Horse Tours site as well. If you require any technical assistance, please contact Casey Higgins, Electronic Marketing Content Specialist at Virginia Tourism Corporation, at chiggins@virginia.org.

We hope you find it a great resource! Please add us a link on your site.

August 24:
VA Horse Board meeting
Charlottesville

September 25 - October 10:
VA Horse Industry Board booth is at the World Equestrian Games,
Lexington, KY

Photo above: Katherine Truitt, Executive Director of the Virginia Horse Center, looks on as Virginia Horse Industry Board members David Lamb and Gene Stone admire the new “VHIB Boulevard” sign at the Center in Lexington. The sign designates the main road through the facility grounds and is being named in honor of the VHIB’s commitment of $150,000 to the Horse Center over the next 10 years.