Equestrian Sport NZ has posted a consolidated annual result of a surplus of $458,923 for the year. This is 19.8% lower than the previous financial year which can be explained by a 15% decrease in revenue – some of which is due to Covid-19 affecting the end of the competition season. 

In its annual report released at the 2020 Annual General Assembly yesterday, ESNZ has delivered a good result despite challenging times with Covid-19 and reduced income throughout the last two months of the financial year which ended on 31 May 2020.

Income from funding, grants, and sponsorships decreased by 24% and operational revenue decreased by 5%.

ESNZ Chair Lynda Clark said the organisation has come out of the Covid-19 initial phase in better financial shape than many other sports.

“In April and May, our income reduced by 82% on the same month last year. This improved to 44% less in May and then improved again to a 22% reduction in June.  Figures since then show a retained 20% minimum drop in income across the start of 2020-21 year.”

Ms Clark said whilst this was a positive result, the effects of covid-19 would be felt for many months to come and the organisation would need to continue to monitor income and expenditure very carefully through the 2021 financial year and beyond.

Chief executive Dana Kirkpatrick said the final numbers of members for the financial year has shown a slight correction which could be attributed to the end of the competition season being cancelled., whilst the number of equines registered has shown a slight increase.

All disciplines have shown a reduction in discipline starts purchased for the year however these were offset for Dressage and Jumping with an increase in casual starts/day memberships. The positive is that the introduction of casual day memberships has been useful for those members who want to compete in a few events throughout the season.

The year has seen successes in the development of the Change the Rein campaign, implementation of new Drug and Alcohol testing regimes, retention of HPSNZ and Sport NZ funding for the next four years and the Constitution Review. There is still considerable work to do on the Database, the Coaching Development Strategy, and new initiatives like Interschools, Youth Voice and Diversity and Inclusion.

The annual report breaks down to record the performance of the Disciplines, High Performance, the Central office and the National Equestrian Centres.

The Central office has finished the year with a surplus of $127,368, largely due to a concerted cut in meeting costs, travel and accommodation following the lockdown. The wage subsidy will also have contributed to this.  Whilst this is a good result, it is felt a constrained spending approach will definitely need to continue throughout 2021 and 2022.

Following are the discipline break down results for the 2020 year.

The full ESNZ annual report and presentation for the AGA are available at the following links.
https://www.nzequestrian.org.nz/esnz/about-esnz/annual-general-assembly

This year’s AGA was live-streamed and can be watched at the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/172073372853010/videos/1243841406016513