UofL Equine Industry Program and KEEP launch second round of COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey

The University of Louisville Equine Industry Program and the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) have released the second round of their COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey. The survey will be shared with employers throughout Kentucky's horse industry and community to further capture the impacts of the pandemic on the Commonwealth's signature industry.

The second round of the COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey will close July 13. Access the survey here.

The previous survey, conducted in May, showed that the pandemic resulted in Kentucky's equine businesses cutting costs and postponing capital improvement projects. However, the survey indicated that the vast majority of respondents did not have to lay off employees.

Since the last survey, horse racing has resumed in Kentucky, although without spectators, and historical horse racing facilities have reopened with limited capacity. The second round of the COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey will capture how this is affecting the equine businesses across the state. Churchill Downs announced last week that the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, scheduled for Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, will occur with a limited number of spectators.

Survey participants will not be identified in the published results.

"Since we completed our first survey in May, the state has lifted some of the restrictions on the horse industry, which should provide a boost to equine business across the state,” said Elisabeth Jensen, KEEP's executive vice president who oversees the daily operations of the organization. “However, we have yet to see the impact of how the pandemic is affecting horse sales and what that means for Kentucky's equine economy. We hope that this second round of our survey can, when combined with the data from our May survey, paint a clearer picture of the challenges the industry will face."

"The UofL Equine Industry Program educates and trains the next generation of leaders for Kentucky's signature industry," said Sean Beirne, director of the UofL Equine Industry Program in the College of Business. "The COVID-19 Kentucky Equine Business Impact Survey provides us with an incredible up-to-the-moment view of the challenges that the industry will face in the coming years. In addition to helping inform policy-makers on the status of the industry, we can also use this data to prepare our students for the challenges of the industry they will be entering."

The Kentucky Equine Education Project is a not-for-profit grassroots organization created in 2004 to preserve, promote and protect Kentucky's multi-breed horse industry.

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