EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Three major activities make up Arizona’s horse industry–pleasure riding (private and commercial), participant and spectator events (racing, shows, rodeos, roping, polo), and breeding. This report provides estimates of Arizona economic activity associated with private pleasure horses, horse racing, horse shows, and resident spectators at rodeos, roping, polo, and gymkhana events. Major categories not accounted for include commercial pleasure riding, participants at rodeo, roping, and polo events, and breeding of horses for export sale (outside Arizona). Despite these omissions, Arizona’s horse industry exceeds a billion dollars annually in direct, indirect, and induced expenditures–between $1.1 to $1.3 Billion.

TOTAL DIRECT EXPENDITURES: Direct expenditures on private pleasure horse maintenance and ownership, horse racing and horse show activity, and by resident spectators at other horse-related events was estimated to be between $660 to $760 Million in 2001.

• Arizona Pleasure Horse Owners spend an estimated $500 to $600 Million on the care and maintenance of pleasure horses and related infrastructure (including the annualized cost of horse, tack, equipment, land and facilities ownership).

• Horse Racing in Arizona generates an estimated $108 Million in expenditures.

• Horse Show Events contributes an estimated $43 Million in expenditures.

• Arizona-Resident Expenditures as Spectators at Other Horse-Related Events (rodeos, roping, polo, gymkhana) come to $9 Million.

INDIRECT AND INDUCED EXPENDITURES: The combined indirect and induced (ripple) effect of the above direct expenditures contributes an additional $444 to $504 Million owing to horse-related activity in Arizona.

HOUSEHOLDS AND HORSES: The number of Arizona households owning one or more pleasure horses or commercially involved in the horse industry falls in the range or 48,000 to 64,000. The number of horses in Arizona likely exceeds 170,000 head.

BY WAY OF COMPARISON: Direct expenditures on horses exceed gross sales receipts of most of the major sub-sectors comprising Arizona’s agricultural industry. In terms of importance to the Arizona economy, direct horse-related expenditures rival state government expenditures on "security and safety."

The above is the Arizona Excutive Equine Report 2000. If you would like the entire report to download to your computer with the name of horses.pdf click on the blue title. This can be viewed and printed out with Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3 through 5. The total file is 600 K of information and may take a while to download.