Hi all,
I hope that everyone is well and managing within the strange environment that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to us all. Dressage Canterbury is receiving lots of information from Dressage New Zealand to help support area groups at this time. Their most recent message is below and I have attached the newsletter for you here – Dressage Newsletter April 2020:

Dressage NZ hopes you are all managing to stay positive and safe in these challenging times for our sport.
The Dressage Board is currently meeting every fortnight to keep up-to-date with developments and working alongside the ESNZ team when a coordinated approach is required. Dressage thanks the national office team who are currently all working from home and taking the opportunity to work on the database and other projects whilst keeping the organization active.

Attached is a newsletter which includes the following
Page 1: Dressage Board Initiates Event Classification Change to Support Area Groups
Page 2: Area & DNZ AGM Updates & Planning Forum 10th May
Page 3: Trial Zoom Meeting
Page 3: Bates National Dressage Championships & Webb Equestrian Para Equestrian Championships
Pages 4-16: Preliminary Notification Remits & Agenda Items for Planning Forum
Pages 17-20: Draft Calendar at 16/4/20
Pages 22-25: Nomination & EOI Forms for DNZ Roles

The recent issue of the DressageNZ Bulletin was a real bumper edition – if you missed it – follow the link https://issuu.com/dressagenzbulletin/docs/issue_41_march_2020_
If you have any questions about any item in the newsletter, please email dressage@nzequestrian.org.nz or phone the Dressage office on 027 240 2702
Wendy Hamerton
Dressage Sport Manager

Inside the newsletter is some very heartening news for area groups, a key announcement being that all competitions for the 20/21 calendar until 31 May 2021 may be run as ‘local events’ (LE). The benefits of this include that area groups can still run series qualifying classes, prize money is not compulsory, TD (training and development levies (which the area group has to pay to DNZ every time a horse/pony goes up the centre line) stay at the lower rate of $3.50 per horse/pony per class, judges’ costs may be reduced (this is because different categories/levels of judge can be used on classes at LE competitions as opposed to RE (regional events)), and that non-graded classes can be run at LE, with riders needing to pay the $15 per day casual ESNZ membership on top of their entry fee but not be fully registered with ESNZ. It’s a real positive for us all that that ESNZ and DNZ have generated some great ideas that will help area groups to maintain and grow their sport in this uncertain time. Of course, each area group must decide for themselves which of these options to take. (Do think seriously about getting involved in committee work to help drive these decisions!).

Dressage Canterbury normally holds its AGM in early May. Due to the current Covid-19 situation, DNZ has recommended that groups delay any decisions around scheduling their AGM until after the Government announces any further changes to the current restrictions. At this stage, and based on my reading of the recently updated Alert Level 3 restrictions, it does look rather unlikely that a face to face/in person meeting under Level 3 conditions will be possible. The Dressage Canterbury group will keep you posted on this situation and your patience around this is appreciated.

You will notice in the attached newsletter that there are competition dates published (p17-20). Be aware that these are currently in DRAFT and it is highly likely that some of the dates will change. Indeed, since this newsletter was released the date for the Canterbury Dressage Championships has been brought forward from the first weekend in December to 28/29 November.

Can I please encourage you to read the remits and discussion documents on pages 4-16 of the newsletter. This is your opportunity to have a say, please take it! Email your thoughts back to me, your Rider’s Representative, at npagenz@gmail.com, or comment on the facebook post that relates to this news item.

Happy reading!

Kind regards,
Nicki Page
Chair, Dressage Canterbury (on behalf of the Dressage Canterbury committee)

P.S. Thanks to Sonja Swale, President of Southland Dressage, for her assistance with the content of this news announcement

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