Equestrian Northern Territory faces uncertain future following national restructure

A Northern Territory sporting body is at the precipice of a very uncertain future with a national restructure set to exclude the Territory.

Team NT at the 2024 Marcus Oldham Australian Interschool Championships in Tamworth. Picture: ENT Facebook.

Equestrian Northern Territory is effectively in limbo as it awaits a proposed restructure by the national body.

Equestrian Australia is in the middle of a total restructure of how it runs the sport, which will continue to classify the ENT as a non-participating member.

The NT previously had a say in the operations of the sport with an ENT member representing the Territory at the national level.

ENT general manager Danila Lochrin said the reforms were “false advertising” and would damage the sport in the NT.

“There are publications that have been put out by EA regarding this whole, ‘one member, one vote’ mantra, but that’s false advertising as they have said we are not allowed to vote at the upcoming election,” she said.

“What EA is doing is wrong and they need to make amends as quickly as possible.”

Equestrian in Australia operates as a bottom up system, meaning members must pay the national body.

“We barely receive a cent from EA, but we have to pay them,” Lochrin said.

“We have received a small amount from the high performance branch to conduct some clinics, but that’s not a regular occurrence.

“We pay the exact same fees and other costs associated with the sport as anyone else in any other state.”

ENT and its members fear they will be left behind and priced out of the sport. Picture: ENT Facebook.

Equestrian is an immensely expensive sport, as a lot of external costs are involved in the world of equine sports.

From the horse itself to a float, a suitable car, fuel, vet bills, land, insurance, tack and feed are all additional but necessary costs.

Lochrin said she was very concerned if prices continued to rise the ENT and its members would be priced out of the sport altogether.

“The difficulty we have in the NT, is we can’t provide the same level of amenities as those down south,” she said.

“Despite paying all the same costs – because we don’t have the critical mass – we rely so heavily on keeping our membership numbers at a certain threshold, in order to receive critical government funding and other sponsored funding.

“So we need to be very careful about how we price memberships and we do that because we understand our market and community and the economic constraints that affect a flux place such as the NT.

“We’re in a bit of an economic lull at the moment, so it’s a huge concern to us and our members particularly as these proposed changes could price us out of running equestrian in the NT.

“And EA demanding all of us to give them even more money when they just posted a $645k loss for the year isn’t exactly promising.”

ENT is still unsure of its future standing in the sport, but has received public support from other state bodies.

EQ (Queensland), EWA (Western Australia) and ET (Tasmania) have gone into bat for the Territory, all three organisations making public statements condemning the exclusion of the NT, advocating for EA to renege it decision.

EA was contacted for comment but did not respond by time of publication.