When a trainer advertises that s/he is a certified USEA instructor, level whatever, to what degree can a student be assured that the trainer’s instruction in the certification program has been sound? Rigorous? Over all, good preparation for instructing students and dealing with a variety of horses?
I ask because the USEA website encourages enrollment in the certification program and mentions that one need not be a professional to enroll. It also seems to focus on the business advantages of having the certification, rather than on improvement in horsemanship and teaching skills.
Who teaches in the certification program? Is the quality of teaching uniformly good, or does it just depend? Asking from an amateur’s perspective, someone looking for a trainer, and wants to know how much value can be assumed from the title.
The Canadian program has a riding test, teaching test, written test, and first aid requirements. Some very good coaches with lots of competition experience never bother getting it because by that point it seems silly to set up a course of two foot six jumps and describe how to use side reins.
That said I see some awful teaching and training by both recently certified young people and older trainers particularly when they slip into crank and spur dressage short cuts.
It does help with insurance costs.
I am pretty sure the USEA program is like the EC program and does not provide the education, just the testing. So you just learn to ride on your own hit a certain standard and there you are.
Since the programs do not provide the actual education you need to look at the coaches CV and evaluate their riding and teaching yourself. They might be way better than the minimum needed to pass, or they might have just scraped by on a good day and not have much depth
For depth you could look at whether they were junior trainers for BNT or if they have brought horses up the levels in their discipline, or if they just worked at mediocre up down lesson programs shouting “heels down kick kick kick good job Susie” 5 hours a day.
Now in Britain you need to attend an actual riding school program to get an instructors certification. It’s more standardized.
“… does not provide the education, just the testing”. Wow. As a Brit I read the initial question with some puzzlement: surely a certification is based on a consistent level of attainment? Now I understand the question.
At best, certification suggests a trainer cares a little bit, is willing to take some steps towards improvement.
In the USEA ECP program, the candidate must attend multiple workshops, receive feedback from the workshop faulty members, and be assessed (which incudes teaching actual students). It is most definitely NOT “just a test”. It also requires continuing education, to maintain certification.
The details of the program are on this web page
There are valid arguments about the ultimate value of the program, but it IS primarily an education program, not a testing program.
They’re going to have to if they want to coach at sanctioned shows. 2022 they were to be “registered” (background check, Safe Sport training) and 2023 they are to be “licensed” (full program).
There are grandfathering programs for coaches who have been teaching 15+ years and meet the other requirements though.
ETA: this applies to Canada (since I was replying to Scribbler who is a fellow Canuck)
This does look more comprehensive than EC. That’s good.
But it still isn’t a full riding program like BHC offers. You enter at your self assessed level, take teaching seminars, and pass tests. It’s assuming you arrive with your own advanced riding skills. It doesn’t answer the OP question of does certification say anything about depth or breadth of experience with different horses. It doesn’t guarantee anything about the riding education that produced that coach.
I do think these certification programs are really important and useful to weed out the incompetents. There are a lot lurking in the edges of horse world. But certification doesn’t help the client distinguish between mediocre and excellent. Every profession has a scale from mediocre to excellent that you need to discover for yourself.
Correct. Its focus is in training and identifying competent and safe instructors, independent of their actual riding abilities. (And we all know of excellent riders who were incompetent instructors, as well as excellent instructors who were only indifferent riders.)
Correct, and that is one of the things I wish were better. It focuses primarily on skills the rider needs, and not enough (IMHO) on the skills the horse needs.
This is now true. Until recently you had to show that you had taught at least N students competing at a specific level to apply for certification at that level.
I agree. In addition, some excellent instructors have never applied for certification, the late Jimmy Wofford being the one that springs to mind
I attended the workshops twice and I was very disappointed.
I will preface this with the fact that I have a masters degree in education so watching them try to stuff, what took me two years to learn, into a couple of hours over a few days was beyond painful. Reinventing the wheel with no understanding of said wheel…
I always felt that it would be a better bet to follow the mentor program that teachers do. My idea would be to pay to have one of the certified/grandfathered instructors come to visit our farms and watch us ride and teach for a week (maybe a couple of times over the course of a year or two) I would have been more willing to pay for that and keep working and have them evaluate my farm and horsemanship in real time.
I choose to spend my money on lessons and developing my skills. For me that has worked out better then having completed the ICP program. When I switched to dressage I didn’t even entertain the idea of their program, I just rode with very good instructors and clinicians and got myself and my horses to GP. Oh and my clients are all moving up the levels as well… from Intro to GP… I can progress the horses and the riders and I’ll keep working and learning to be better, and I’ll take that over any certifications.
@Scribbler my insurance for teaching is $1500 a year… my bedding bill alone is $4000 a month. Not sure how much a huge break it is in the scheme of things.
There’s a lot of traveling instructors who don’t own a lesson string, or who teach part time. They get coach insurance to cover them at other peoples farms. I honestly don’t know what the rates are now. Our barn requires $5 million liability Insurance and the rates are high enough to stop many uncertified coaches from getting it.
My observation is that the USEA program does not weed out the incompetents on the fringes because it requires more of an investment in both time and money than most of the incompetents on the fringes can spare. Unfortunately, it also requires more of an investment than many young competent professionals can spare.
I can also think of at least a couple of very experienced professionals with ICP certifications (awarded under the prior program) whose programs were successful to all external appearances but were, um, questionable underneath. Fortunately, the horse world is small…
Kind of agree (I’m from Canada) on the basis of the EC instructor certification needing tweaking too. The workshops weren’t all that helpful and in my area, there is huge politics going on in which one instructor calls all the shots. If their ‘opinions’ are wrong such as putting a beginner in the hands of a harsh bit for safety and you voice that, then you won’t pass. period. They also fail everyone at least once unless you pay them $$$ to shadow, which is a bit irritating. I know someone that was certified in Europe and gave up on getting theirs here because of how political it was and they just couldn’t agree with the instructor calling all shots. I completed everything I’d need in order to qualify for evaluation, but put it aside years ago due to anxiety of getting evaluated by that particular instructor (and had heard so many negative things previously).
The one thing that irritates me a little though is that there seems (I could be wrong) to be no option to forfeit the jumping portion of testing. I have already done my rider level 6, but am looking at rider level 8 for later on. I haven’t jumped in years, have no plans too after injuring my hip, and certainly don’t have a horse for it. I have NO INTEREST in teaching jumping. I am not a jumper at all and tell anyone this, while directing them to the nearest jumping instructor I know of with a good reputation.
EC has been fiddling around with the coaching certification program for over 30 yrs now and it has never produced a consistent quality of coaches. The latest incarnation is more about ticking safe sport boxes than horsemanship and the mandatory registration to coach at EC shows is pushing away many of the part time coaches and DIY ammies in my area from showing sanctioned - cost to be certified doesn’t work out if you coach your own kids and a niece at 2 shows a year.
Just a note that DIY ammies can self-declare as their own coach without having to be licensed. They need to be adults (juniors can’t self-declare) and they can’t coach anyone else. That doesn’t address all of the scenarios you listed but it will address this one.
