PrintThe author hopes more young professionals will embrace the USHJA Trainer Certification Program And Trainers Symposiums.
This past November I was privileged to attend the SmartPak/USHJA Trainers Symposium in Buffalo, N.Y., at
the Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center.
Resident trainer Susie Schoellkopf and her entire staff did an amazing job with their presentation. The place was immaculate, beautiful jumps and equipment, ample seating, and good food available throughout. Somehow they even managed to get the temperatures into the 60s with sunshine in Buffalo in November—no easy feat to be sure!
George Morris was the sole clinician and did a spectacular job. This symposium system is designed to teach the teachers, and since this is George’s real expertise, he rose to the challenge and beyond.
It was a large group of almost 200 riding instructors, all of whom were intensely interested and eager to watch, listen and learn. Feeling their interest and desire, George really rose to the challenge and delivered.
For me, what was especially interesting about this symposium was that there was no real set format, just three groups of different levels of riders doing their thing on three different days.
The demonstrators ranged in ability from interested intermediate-level riders to top hunter and jumper competitors such as Jennifer Alfano and Callan Solem. When you take one great teacher, three groups of good demonstrators, present many different exercises over three days, and apply nothing but good basic and classic riding principles to solve the problems the exercises bring to light, you have a sure-fire system to learn about riding and training, and also to learn about teaching the same.
Over the course of the three days, issues such as jumping style, factors of jumping, course issues, flying changes, as well as how to use classic flat exercises, etc., all came up naturally. As these issues presented themselves, George effortlessly led us through his solutions to all of these problems and questions.
It was a natural, and therefore good, system of teaching teachers to get a better understanding of their craft. I found this symposium not only very beneficial and educational but also inspirational.
In addition to this training to help us with our riding and teaching, there were several other presentations.
USHJA President Bill Moroney, Susie Schoellkopf, and USHJA Director of Programs and Education Melanie Fransen led an interesting roundtable discussion on the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association Trainer Certification Program. They explained philosophical ideas about the program as well as specific points about how the program actually works.
This information was beneficial, as those who attended had their questions answered immediately. There were also interesting presentations made by SmartPak and Nutrena about joint disease and the principles of feeding horses. Again, with this format we’re able to learn so many things, from so many experts, in such a short time. It’s nothing short of an awesome concept.
There were many questions about the USHJA Trainer Certification Program in general. The most obvious was: “Why do we need this program?” and “Do I need to be a part of it?”
In my opinion, the idea of certification for our professionals is inevitable, the wave of the future and long overdue.
