121 The Southern Arizona Equine Health Symposium: Impacts on extension program reach and the change to a virtual event

Abstract

The Southern Arizona Equine Health Symposium is a regional educational event focusing on equine health care and management. This one-day event is a collaboration between UArizona Cooperative Extension and industry partners. Equine experts and veterinarians presented 20+ in-person lectures and demonstrations ranging from introductory to advanced topics to over 200 participants annually (2017–2020). COVID-19 restrictions resulted in a virtual event in 2021, with 8 webinars over 2 d. Evaluations gathered attendee's view on degree of usefulness for horse care decisions, intended changes in behavior, instructor effectiveness, and knowledge gained in each presentation (Likert scale from 1-very little to 5-very much). Additionally, attendee demographics (e.g., age, gender), horses and/or acres of land owned, previous participation in UArizona equine extension programs, and UArizona website visitation were collected. Comparing the 2021 virtual event to the most recent in-person events (2019–2020), all have been consistently well received, but the effectiveness, quality of presentations, or knowledge gained were not able to be analyzed because the set of presentations was different each year. An interesting pattern emerged in 2021 presentations, with a lower change in knowledge reported in common/familiar topics (colic 1.1, farrier 1.2) as compared with less common/more scientific topics (eye problems 2, melanoma 2.1) (t(71) = 5.5, P < 0.01), and the overall average change was slightly higher in 2021 (+1.5) as compared with 2020 sessions (+1.2) (t(11) = 1.99, P = 0.07). Evaluation feedback from the previous year is used to identify topics for the following year; this has shown to be effective, in part by the high ratings of the seminars/demonstrations. There was no significant change in attendee demographics or horse/land ownership, but moving the program online resulted in a significant increase χ 2 (2, n = 344) = 10.89, P < 0.01 in participants attending from outside of Arizona in 2021. There has been an increase χ 2 (2, n = 342) = 23.93, P < 0.01 in percentages of conference attendees who reported visiting the UArizona extension website (35% in 2019, 41% in 2020, and 67% in 2021). While in-person events allow for more direct participation, there are opportunities to increase online presence to have a broader reach with educational materials in the future.