USEA Instructor Certification Program

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

This has sort of been a pet peeve of mine for a while and the news of the latest certified instructor just really annoyed me. Several years ago USEA started their Instructor Certification Program. In this program (for a large fee) instructors can take a three hour course and become certified by USEA. There are several different levels that you can be certified to teach the different levels of eventing.

  • Instructors of riders through Novice
  • - Instructors of riders through Training
  • Instructors of riders through Preliminary, CIC*, Training Level Three-Day Event Test, CCI*
  • - Instructors of riders through Intermediate, CIC**, CCI**
  • - Instructors of riders through Advanced, CIC***, CCI***
  • - Instructors of riders through CCI****
Now here's the thing I have knowledge of some of the people getting this certification and based upon their own riding they should not be certified to teach anyone! There is one who was recently certified as Level I/Training. Well looking back at this individual's competition record he's not qualified to compete let alone teach someone else.
  • Beginner Novice-Eliminated on cross-country
  • Preliminary-Eliminated in stadium
  • Preliminary-Several rails and time penalties in stadium
  • Preliminary-Rider fall in stadium
  • Preliminary-Rails in stadium and time penalties on cross country
  • CCI1*-Rails in stadium and a 66.4 dressage score
  • Beginner Novice-80 penalty points on cross country
  • Intermediate-20 penalty points in stadium
  • Novice-Several rails in stadium and a refusal on cross country
  • CIC2*-Eliminated on cross country
  • Intermediate-Dressage score of 68.8, several rails in stadium and a refusal on cross country
Several eliminations and rider falls, he's lucky if he get a clean stadium round. And actually he doesn't just pull rails in stadium he crashes through fences and brings the whole thing down. That's the kind of riding that the USEA think should be teaching others?

Another ICP certified instructor from my area has a several prelim horses that she has been competing for years and she consistently has refusals on cross country. I have seen her on several occasions running horse that are lame. That's not the kind of instructor I want to be looking up to. And she's a level III instructor.

Another level IV instructor from my area. Her competition record is filled with cross country penalties, eliminations, and 2 rider falls with 2 months. Another level IV instructor has a record filled with eliminations, mandatory retirements, cross country penalties and rider falls. 3 rider falls within 6 months. Seriously people wonder why there are so many safety issues in eventing right now. Well look at the people who the governing board is certifying as good instructors! When they can't stay on horses they have been competing for years and you wonder why their students have so many falls. Wake up! This is what needs to be changed. Only the people that can afford to pay the fees can become certified. And quite frankly they are not the best examples of the instructors that are available out there. But the USEA is promoting them.

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