Throughout the COVID pandemic Equestrian Victoria has continually focussed on supporting the health, safety and wellbeing of our membership, and broader community, through both timely communications and planning for a COVIDSafe return to equestrian sport.

We are all thrilled that our members have been able to return to competition, albeit in a modified fashion. However, we also need to be mindful that any additional COVID lockdowns could impact events throughout the year, thus effecting competitors, volunteers, organising committees and spectators both financially and spiritually.  While the last 12 months has demonstrated the equestrian community’s great resilience, there are some members, whether club or individual who have struggled, and we need to be aware and considerate of this.

In the event that further snap lockdowns have the ability to impact our events calendar we have taken the decision to reschedule the Equestrian Victoria Masters Games to a biennial event starting from 2022. We have done this for 2 primary reasons. By rescheduling the Masters Games this allows our affiliate clubs and competitions to run their scheduled events without clashing with Equestrian Victoria and, we hope, will encourage our membership to support their local events, volunteer organising committee and clubs who are the lifeblood of the sport.

It also allows Equestrian Victoria to ensure that its limited resources continue to be focussed on achieving our strategic priorities and supporting our membership through our remaining key events over the next few months, being the Leader Equine Interschool State Championships, the Jumping Victoria State Titles and the Furphy Media Melbourne International 3-Day Event.

We know that this announcement may disappoint some of our community, and we want to assure you that we do not make this decision lightly.  We also want to assure you that the 2022 Masters Games will be bigger and better than ever.