2021 EQUESTRIAN VICTORIA
CLUB OF THE YEAR FINALIST

BERWICK DRESSAGE CLUB

MEET BERWICK DRESSAGE CLUB

The Berwick and District Dressage Club has served riders from Berwick and surrounding areas for over 40 years with approximately 40 active members. While the club’s main focus is dressage, it also promotes horsemanship through other horse and social activities.

The club runs regular dressage clinics and training days running from poles classes through to 2 day events with top level visiting instructors such as Heath Ryan. These are always fully subscribed and open to non-members and eventing members welcome if space permits.

While COVID-19 curtailed dressage competitions in the last year, Berwick and District Dressage Club maintained its commitment and ran three events including the first Victorian EA competition to be up and running after lockdown – requiring a lot of ‘hoops to jump through’! The Skye Park Classic and another boutique competition at Oakwood followed in March where there was a focus on promoting participation in a horse and rider friendly atmosphere – great for horses new to competition and riders wanting to test the water at a new level.

The club communicates regularly with members through targeted e-mails to individuals, the website, and Facebook (1000+ followers) where articles of interest and general update information is provided. Members receive many benefits and the club awards annual awards for participation, achievement, determination, and contribution to the equestrian community.

To celebrate its 40 year anniversary (delayed due to COVID-19), the club will host and subsidise a celebratory dinner for past and present members in August this year.

The club has a very stable and unified committee comprised of at last four long serving members (over 10 years of service) and new additions who meet monthly. They are constantly looking for ways to serve members and to include/promote dressage to riders that may not have considered joining EA. The club is mindful of contributing to the broader community and last year chose to support large animal rescue activities and in the past has donated part of the income from the Skye Park Classic to Relay for Life. The current project is a significant donation for research into Multiple Sclerosis.