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profitability of these facilities is inversely proportional to size.In our conversations with <br />public sector horse facility managers,the generally agreed upon estimate of profitability <br />is that costs exceed revenues in all but 8-10%of facilities.This is despite the fact that <br />many of these facilities are not required to make capital payments,as the capital is held <br />by the public entity.How are these losses justified?The construction of multi-million <br />dollar horse parks and their continued operation is commonlyjustified on grounds of <br />their generating economic impacts and unquantifiable benefits which extend beyond the <br />accounting balances between revenuesand costs.These total impacts are of two <br />types:direct impacts that reflect expenditures generated by horse park activities;and <br />indirect impacts,which reflect the regenerative impacts of the initial spending.For this <br />reason this feasibility study will be coupled with an impact analysis that will factor in the <br />total effect of direct plus indirect impacts. <br />This repod is an evaluationof feasibility and potential impact of a proposed state horse <br />park that was authorized by the Washington State Legislature in 1997.The horse park <br />is intended to be a first-class equestrianfacility serving a broad range of the <br />recreational,competitiveand educationalneeds of Washington State horse owners.It <br />will support community,youth and disabled riding programs and will foster physical <br />fitness,responsibility,and achievement.Although the general concept for the <br />proposed horse park is for a facility that is custom designed for equine events,it will <br />also be attractive for some secondary types of uses such as company picnics,dog <br />shows,motor vehicle shows,and trail bicycle events.To modify the design to <br />accommodateother non-equestrianevents will require additional capital. <br />This report is comprised of six sections.The remainder of this first section details the <br />purpose of the study,states study parameters,summarizesthe history of the <br />Washington State Horse Park,and provides a summary of the master plan.Section Il <br />reviews previousstudies of horse park feasibility and impact.Section III examines <br />existing facilities that were surveyed in the study.Section IV presents the methodology, <br />10