Methodology

Gathering data for this project consisted of conducting interviews and taking trips to various farms in the Northfield area.  Interviews consisted of asking local owners and managers of horse farms about their opinions and management routines to see what the knowledge base in the area is.  A foundation for the  data that has been gathered from the literature written by experts in this subject and will help to give the interviews context and relevance as well as to help come up with some best management practices  for the Northfield area. This method is appropriate to my topic because I  needed to find out what current practices in this area are to ascertain the current environmental impact of horses in the Cannon River region.  Interviews and farm visits are the ideal way to see current practices in action and find out why and how people have thought about and implemented their current practices.  To get a useful sample, I tried to come up with a representative sample of horse farms in the area, though it was impossible to take a random sample.  I did not target certain farms with certain characteristics, but instead I tried to find farms of various sizes, with various breeds of horses, and with a wide range of primary riding disciplines.  This was not a random sample or a true representative sample.  Instead it is a purposive sample, which has its own pros and cons. I also tried to draw conclusions about local horse farms in the aggregate as well as use specific examples as horse farm owners gave me permission.  A problem with this method is that my conclusions might be skewed because it happened that horse farms with more environmentally friendly practices were more likely to agree to do an interview and give permission to use photos, names, and quotes.  This means that there is a higher likelihood of nonrandom error, which could lead to potential limitations in terms of validity.  I took this into account when I drew conclusions and analyzed the data. Despite the problems with this method, it is appropriate for my project and providing some specific examples of horse harms in the Cannon River region will give my project more context and relevance.  There are also some positives with this method because sometimes you can learn more from a few unusual cases rather than a representative sample.  In this case it was great to talk to farms that were  aware of environmental considerations because  now  some of the management practices that are talked about in the Foundation section can be seen through these farms.

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