12 August 2020
Dear Members and supporters,
COVID-19 ANNOUNCEMENT AND IMPACTS ON EQUESTRIAN SPORT
Equestrian Sports NZ has worked on the possible outcomes from the announcement on Tuesday 11 August that there is Covid-19 community transmission in NZ.
At this stage we are working on the rules that Auckland region is in Level 3 and the rest of the country is in Level 2.
This has significant impacts on the equestrian community and the organising committees that have worked hard to get things ready for the coming season. It also has potential to be financially significant for the sport.
Please can we ask that all members be patient and understanding and adhere to all guidelines put in place by organising committees. We want to work with organising committees so that members can still compete and ride their horses but if we have significant numbers of people not adhering to guidelines at events we will have to review this. Safety and members, both riders, volunteers and officials, health is the most important aspect here.
Please see the following links for the ESNZ guidelines for all organising committees and competitors in Levels 2 and 3.
LEVEL THREE – for Auckland only
LEVEL TWO – for the rest of NZ
The biggest issues are as follows:
LEVEL THREE
In Level 3, the Auckland super city region, events are not possible. Therefore, any events in the greater Auckland region are now cancelled until Friday or any further extension of the L3 restrictions. Organising committees with events on Saturday 15 August and Sunday 16 August may need to decide prior to Friday whether they will cancel now to give their competitors certainty.
This restriction also means that any competitors or officials planning on travelling out of Auckland will need to cancel plans until at least the end of Friday 14 August and potentially for longer if the restriction is extended.
No competitors/officials from Auckland can enter/officiate events anywhere in the country whilst the Auckland region is in L3.
LEVEL TWO
Events can be held with numbers of people up to 100.
Events with entries over 100 people must ascertain whether they need to cancel, restrict entries or break their event into different time slots or areas where the different groups do not mix.
Domestic travel is ok between L2 regions but not from a L3 region to a L2 region. Meaning no competitors/officials from Auckland can enter/officiate events whilst the region is in L3.
Contact tracing will be required – see the Level 2 Toolkit for our recommendations and templates.
Please check all the guidelines in the Covid Alert level 2 Toolkit at the following link: https://www.nzequestrian.org.nz/level-2-tool-kit/
COMMUNITY RESILIENCE FUND
This fund has reopened and will be available to any sporting entity that is facing financial hardship or incurs costs that cannot be reclaimed from the source. The link is above and if you have any questions please call your local regional sports trust who are administering the fund.
OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS
ESNZ website will have a rolling list of events in all disciplines and their status from later on today at the following link: https://www.nzequestrian.org.nz/coronavirus-updates/
All OCs are asked to talk to their discipline sport manager and advise any cancellations and postponements and these will be added to the list each day.
Jumping Marilyn Thompson [email protected]
Dressage Wendy Hamerton [email protected]
Eventing Eliza Johns [email protected]
Endurance Jo Lankow [email protected]
Para Aimee Cotter [email protected]
Organising committees will need to decide how they treat cancelled entries and scratchings but the preference would be to be understanding and empathetic.
All zoom based officials training seminars will continue, any “in-person” training will need to be reviewed and either postponed if social distancing and guidelines cannot be met, or shifted to a zoom platform.
Thank you all for your assistance and help in getting us through this whilst still trying to manage events and get people out there riding. We must be vigilant about health and safety.
We will keep you updated whenever we have new information to hand.
For any inquiries please email them to [email protected] and we will come back to you as soon as we can.
Kind regards and fingers crossed for a good resolution.
Dana Kirkpatrick
CHIEF EXECUTIVE