WSHP Covered Arena & Associated Build-Out-Cle Elum

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2001-2005 American Quarter Horse Association data (http://www.aqha.com/association/wholstatistics.html).Data from these organizations is useful in analyzing underlying trends in the horse industry,and is presented in Table One. From 1996-2005 the number of horses and the numberof horses used primarily for competition have increased 33%and 37%respectively.The number of approved shows,as shown in the USEF and AQHA data,has increased at a much smallerrate. Over similar f¡ve year periods (half of the longer period),the rate of increase for approved shows was 2.57%and 11.56%for USEF and AQHA. While the number of approved shows has increased relativelyslowly,the number of total entries has increased at a high rate for USEF (39%),and a slow rate for AQHA (7%).Given USEF's slow increase in the number of shows,and rapid increase in the number of entries,the number of entries per show has increased more rapidly (35%) than for AQHA,which actually experienced a decline in the entries per show (-4%). These data support the idea that at the national level there is an increase in demand for horse shows.This increase has resulted in either a larger number of entries per show (USEF)or a larger number of shows (AQHA).Both increases are important in the economic feasibility of the WSHP,however as will be argued in Section 4,the number of small shows is not lacking;instead it is the numberof large shows (400 horses)that is important for the facility's financial success. Both public and private facilities have been developedacross the nation as the numbers of horses and horse owners have increased.The largest of these facilities tend to be publicly owned by state,county and municipal entities.The public ownership has come about through either the initial establishmentof the facility by the public sector,or by the purchase of a private sector facility by the public sector.Typically, 9