Strengthen & Adapt

September Update

August Update

We are pleased to announce a new event aimed at making equestrian more accessible to grass roots with the first of two events to be held later this year.  And we thank our Delivery of Events Working Group for helping us to develop this project.

Demo & Dabble is a fun and friendly multidiscipline event for grassroots riders.  The idea behind the concept was to offer ‘demo rings’ as an off-horse option for those who would like to learn a little bit more about each discipline, and the ‘dabble rings’ to function as a fun and supportive approach to introductory levels of Dressage, Jumping, Eventing  and CTR.  The first Demo & Dabble will hosted by the Waikato Equestrian Centre in Hamilton on 16 and 17 November.  See our news story.

Also see our Facebook Event for more details.

July Update

The Strengthen & Adapt Membership Group is pleased to release the “Starting Out” infographic to promote and raise awareness of our “introductory membership” highlighting the access a rider can gain to all 5 disciplines.  This is a membership that is currently in existence, and is aimed at attracting the grassroots rider who may be interested in easy and simple access to multidisciplinary competitions.  The introductory membership gives riders access to lower-level competition across all 5 disciplines for the annual fee of $54.30 per rider.  No horse registration is required at the levels described in the infographic. Those interested in the introductory membership can sign up in the usual way via HorseReg.  (Note that there are other options that accompany the introductory membership which allow access to higher levels of competition e.g. graded level 1 dressage, CCN 80 + 95 eventing).   

May Update

Working groups have been formed in response to the results of our post-roadshow questionnaire, directing our focus on the areas that respondents saw as being priority.  

– membership co design ( supporting riders to ride )
– delivery of events ( supporting riders to ride )
– volunteer pathways ( strengthening the system )

All groups have met at least once and the members are keen, dedicated and providing lots of fantastic ideas. The Membership co-design group is working on potential membership development ideas that could be explored to improve our membership offerings. The delivery of events group are in discussion around building a North and South Island multi-discipline event with on and off horse options, as a pilot (test & learn) for 2024, with a vision to potentially extend it to regions in 2025 and beyond. The 3rd group – volunteer pathways –  is made up of members who have vast experience on organising committees and a good understanding of what our sport needs in terms of its volunteers.  Discussions have been around creating pathways for volunteers and succession planning to ensure we have a good supply of volunteers at every level.

At present, the three groups are in the discussion phase and will be working on producing some changes and outcomes over the course of the year and the Strengthen & Adapt project span.

On the ESNZ front, our GM of community Jo Colin is developing work in the “One Equestrian Voice” space and has brought the ESNZ discipline boards (dressage, jumping, eventing, endurance and para) together to develop the culture and systems needed for ‘One Equestrian Voice’. Alongside this we are working with Taranaki region to look at a “test & learn” around what a regional “One Voice” can do to drive quality equine experiences and competition.

We look forward to bringing you more updates as the year progresses.