Calling all Pony Club Instructors!

You are hereby invited to attend a USEA Instructor Certification Workshop as a participating instructor or as an auditor. The cost of this workshop is greatly reduced for USPC Instructors because of USEA and USPC sponsorship. 

We are proud to announce that as part of the 2006 Festival West Educational Programs, we will offer a US Eventing Association Instructor Certification Levels I/II “Teaching of Dressage” Workshop. The USEA has awarded USPC a generous grant to help us provide this ICP Workshop.

USPC is hosting this workshop to give Pony Club Instructors and Upper Level Pony Club members an opportunity to acquire a knowledge base, both theoretical and practical, upon which they can continue to build throughout their teaching lifetime. This workshop will be open to the general public as well, on a space-available basis.

There are five levels of certification that represent the levels of competition, from Novice through Advanced, national and international. The program is for instructors of Eventing, and candidate instructors should have at least three students competing at (or who have competed at) the level for which they seek certification. Verification from those students is requested at the time of registering with the program. 

All candidate instructors who wish to be certified MUST attend workshops in the Teaching of Dressage and the Teaching of Jumping. Workshops for Horse and Stable Management are available, but not required. 

It is NOT required to be registered with the ICP program (although you need to be a current member of USEA) to attend a workshop as a fully participating candidate. However, preference will be given to registered candidates in the event that workshops exceed the maximum of eight candidates per instructor. Auditors may attend workshops (USEA membership is not required to audit), but no credit will be accrued by attending as an auditor. All candidate instructors MUST be registered with the program to attend a Certification assessment. To become a USEA ICP candidate for certification instructor, you must first register with the program, through the USEA office. The fee to do so is $50. To acquire the necessary forms, contact Nancy Myers nancy@useventing.com at the USEA office.

ICP workshops involve lectures, discussion and the opportunity for each participating candidate to ‘practice teach’ in front of the ICP instructors. At the end of each session, candidates are evaluated by the instructors, who may or may not recommend mentoring. Mentoring is a process whereby candidate instructors who have been advised to work on weak areas of their teaching apply privately to a mentor and receive additional tuition. 

ICP materials are available for purchase from the USEA office and it is recommended that Candidate Instructors and Auditors have these in advance of attending a workshop. The Instructors Certification Program Standards Booklet is available and is priced at $7.50 per copy. This is the definitive outline of the program and the standards. The ICP workbook, a loose-leaf binder containing additional information about workshops, their content and structure is available for $25 and is very necessary for workshops and on-going study. In addition, a required and recommended reading list is published in both the Standards Booklet and the USPC Bookstore Catalog. All books available from the USPC Bookstore online at www.ponyclub.org or by calling 859-422-5522. 

The Workshop schedule will be:

Monday, July 17th, 8am to 5pm - Introduction to Dressage Work for Rider and Horse

Tuesday, July 18th, 8am to 5pm – Impulsion, Straightness, Movement toward Collection

Wednesday, July 19th, 8am to 3pm – Dressage/Flatwork for Jumping, and Individual Candidate Review (no auditors on Wed. afternoon).

Location: Rancho Murieta, California

The USEA ICP Faculty members that will be conducting the Workshop are Brian Sabo and Eric Horgan. 

To be a participating instructor candidate at the USPC hosted ICP Workshop Levels I&II please complete the application, USPC Western Festival Activity Release and a USEA Release for ICP Workshops, include 2 required recommendations from USPC DC’s and/or RS’s (attesting to the amount of teaching that you do for USPC clubs and/or regions) and enclose a check for $200 (normally this workshop fee is a minimum of $375). We will have space for only 16 participating instructors so please submit your application ASAP.

To be an Auditor at the USPC hosted ICP Workshop Levels I & II, Instructors please complete the application, USPC Western Festival Activity Release and a USEA Release for ICP Workshops and include a check for $75 (normally $150) and for USPC current participating members $35 (normally $150). Auditors will be able to attend the Workshop for 2-1/2 days. 

Link to the USPC Western Champs and Festival Gold Book on line for application.

www.ponyclub.org Gold Book can be found under "What's New"