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Leah Nelson: 2015 Continuing Education Grant Recipient

When I made the decision to pursue my USDF Instructor/Trainer Certification, I anticipated that I would learn a lot and was excited for the opportunity to improve my education and abilities as a trainer and coach. I believed in the importance of setting a standard of training in this country and preserving classical principles of the sport. What I didn't realize was that it would be one of the simultaneously most humbling and empowering things I've ever done in my riding career.

The experience was extra interesting for me, since I was coming from several states away and didn't know any of the people or horses that I met. I relied on the organizers, local riders and trainers who so generously offered up their lovely horses and equipment for me to borrow. I would advise future participants to not let that aspect discourage you from taking part in the program if it's not offered locally. Traveling to a new place was a great opportunity to meet colleagues and develop relationships.

The format for the workshops mirrors the testing format, and a lot of our energy was dedicated to getting comfortable with the format itself - staying within a strict timeframe, being efficient and concise, prioritizing problems and choosing effective strategies to address them. While all these things are of course important for testing, the overarching theme was that the program is not about the test; it's about making us better trainers! The program is designed to instill a foundation of excellence on which to build and use our creativity to develop our own styles of teaching. It's about creating correct habits, prioritizing safety at all times and increasing the depth of our 'toolbox'. It sets us up to create a training program and career based on consistency, professionalism, and results through logical progression of training. I remember one of the USDF faculty saying "dressage is not made up!" meaning that there is a long, tried and true history of classical approaches that are effective and instead of reinventing the wheel, we need to preserve and implement those theories to bring horses and riders along.

My advice to prospective participants includes the following:

  1. Watch all the videos and do all the reading on eTrak - there is a wealth of knowledge and references there accessible to all USDF members. Encourage your students to use it too!
  2. The recommended reading list is wonderful and I was happy to add most of it to my library. You can find a lot of those books used on Amazon.com for just a few dollars!
  3. Practice, practice, practice so that your good habits become the norm, and bring your own equipment so that you're familiar with everything.
  1. Present yourself professionally. Make sure you and your equipment is clean, tidy and shiny.
  1. Do all the workshops -we were told that the lunging workshop is often not attended as well as the others but there is plenty to learn and we all found that we had a lot of bad lunging habits!

Special thank you to Shaman's Circle Ranch, Zephyr Ranch, Utah Dressage Society - especially organizer Stacey Hornsby, and the USDF Faculty Sarah Martin and Sarah Geikie for putting on these excellent workshops. Thanks to all who volunteered as demo riders and offered demo horses, and of course, thank you to The Dressage Foundation who made this experience possible for me and also provided UDS with support to make this program a reality. I had a great time in Utah and have a winter of practice time to prepare for the Pre-Certification in the spring!

--Leah Nelson