2020/21 Equestrian Season and Member Fees

As we approach the end of the financial year, it is natural that questions will arise as to what the membership renewal period will look like.

Unfortunately, as with all industries and activity, equestrian sport has been impacted by the COVID19 pandemic, which has resulted in the cancellation or postponement of all events and activities since 16 March 2020.

Here in South Australia, we are looking towards gradually re-introducing activity, albeit in a heavily modified way, in order to continue meeting the strict hygiene and distancing measures mandated by the State Government.

Equestrian, like most other sports, is powered at all levels by the fees paid by our members. These fees include insurance, administration and competition support components and Equestrian South Australia in turn pays Equestrian Australia a proportion of members’ fees to subsidise national operations and programs. It is an integrated system, which relies on having a thriving membership base.

The remainder of fees collected from members stays within Equestrian South Australia and sustains our sport by contributing to:

• Providing support to our disciplines, officials and competitions
• Technology subscriptions and upkeep making administration more efficient and enabling customer analytics to grow our membership
• Events and competitions including development squads and clinics and development programs for Young Riders, coaches and officials
• Government advocacy, which has led to securing important grants for the development and sustainability of equestrian sports in South Australia
• Marketing, communication and sponsorship acquisition to enable continued engagement and growth in our sport/s.

We understand that membership renewals, which normally start in June, for the new membership year starting 1 July, may place more stress on our community at this unprecedented time.

ESA is working with EA, Gow Gates and the other States and Territories to model different membership scenarios, and as such, will not be in a position to communicate 2020/2021 membership renewals until the end of May 2020.

We understand the profound effect this pandemic has placed on us all, emotionally, mentally and financially and will endeavour to communicate with all our members as early as possible in order to give you the most up to date advice regarding fees and activity going into 2020/21.