11 December 2025 Equestrian Australia Special General Meeting - Update for Members

Dear Members,

We wanted to update you on the Equestrian Australia Special General Meeting (SGM) scheduled to be held on 11 December 2025.

No Quorum at the Equestrian Australia Special General Meeting

EA Chair Nicholas Ballard convened the meeting with the support of Vero Voting, an independent organisation that conducts AGMs and manages voting.  At the opening of the meeting at 7.00pm, Vero Voting told the meeting a quorum was not present. In accordance with rule 16.3 of the EA constitution, the meeting was suspended for 30 minutes to allow time for a quorum to be formed. When the meeting restarted at 7.41pm, Vero Voting confirmed that the quorum had still not been met. In line with the constitution, the meeting was adjourned until 7.00pm on 18 December 2025.

EA made every effort to ensure the SGM could proceed. We immediately notified all parties once we became aware of issues with the validity of some proxy forms, we publicised this information widely, and we delayed the meeting to provide time for a quorum to be formed. EA is committed to member engagement in governance matters and did everything in its powers to convene a valid SGM. The SGM and the acceptance of proxies complied with the Corporations Act and the EA Constitution.

Unfortunately, the largest proxyholder, Mr Lloyd Raleigh, did not attend the meeting and did not inform EA or any other parties of his absence. All proxyholders must personally attend the meeting to ensure the proxy votes are valid. Mr Raleigh was aware of this requirement ahead of the meeting and was directly advised of the proper procedures for proxy submission in accordance with the Corporations Act and acknowledged his obligations as a proxy holder through comments on his personal Facebook page. By not attending the meeting, the proxies given to Mr Raleigh could not be counted, meaning there was not a quorum.

We recognise some members are disappointed and frustrated that the SGM did not proceed. We have received direct feedback from members concerned about the delay, and EA shares this frustration.

We know that many members took leave from work, gave up family time or dropped personal commitments to make time to attend the meeting. As well as the time and resources forgone, the financial cost of the SGM is borne by members through annual fees – is essentially wasted. Regrettably, the need to convene another meeting for next week in accordance with the EA Constitution creates additional cost to EA, which is estimated to be more than $50,000 and requires a further commitment from members to attend next week.

Next Steps

The adjourned SGM will be held on Thursday, 18 December 2025, at 7.00pm AEDT. Registrations are open, and a separate email from Vero Voting has been sent with instructions on how to attend.

Ahead of next week’s rescheduled SGM, members who have already submitted their proxy should be assured that their proxy is still valid.

To avoid a similar aborted outcome at next week’s SGM because of a lack of quorum, members can change their proxy before the deadline of 7.00pm AEDT, 16 December 2025.

EA recommends members appoint the Chair of the meeting as their proxy - with a direction of how they want to vote – as they can be assured the Chair will attend the SGM. This will ensure their vote counts.

To help answer any questions members may have as a result of the adjournment please see a link to the Questions and Answers on our website here.

EA also received a number of questions in advance of last night's meeting relating to the SGM, proxy forms submitted by Mr Raleigh and questions for Directors. The answers to these questions can be found on our website here.