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USDF certification

From: Ally

Dear Jessica, I know that you recommend and support the ARICP. I'm thinking of getting certified as a riding instructor, but I'm really only interested in dressage. Should I certify with the ARICP or with the USDF? It seems to me that both programs are really good, but I have a lot of respect for you and I want to know if you support the ARICP because you think that the USDF program is a bad one. Either way it's going to be a lot of work and a lot of money, so please give me some advice. I really want to know what you think. I've heard some things about bad instructors who have USDF certification. Please tell me why you chose the ARICP instead of the USDF!

Thank you very much, Ally


Hi Ally! It sounds as if you've looked into both programs, and I can assure you that the USDF has a good program now and it's only going to get better. I'm sorry if you've run into a couple of bad instructors with USDF certification, but I'm sure there are a few bad instructors in EVERY certification program, whether it's the USDF, the ARICP, the BHS, or anything else. I'm also sure that those instructors you met don't reflect the USDF's overall program, its organization, or its aims. NO program is perfect, and NO program, no matter how stringent its requirements, can guarantee that all certified individuals will behave in a responsible and ethical manner. So yes, there are probably a few bad instructors with certificates from any program you can find. But as long as a program DOES require that instructors prove their level of knowledge and their competence as teachers, the existence of a few "bad apples" should reflect badly on those unethical individuals, not on the program. The USDF isn't a police force -- neither is the ARICP, the CHA, the HSA, or any of the other certifying programs.

I think that the people organizing the USDF certification program are working hard, trying hard, putting a lot of effort into it, constantly striving to improve it, and doing better every year -- just like the people organizing the ARICP program. I have a lot of respect for them, and for what they are trying to do.

I chose to support the ARICP for three reasons. Two of those reasons had to do with the administration of the certification program. One is that ARICP instructors must sign and abide by a Code of Ethics, and if they do NOT abide by it, proven violations are cause for the withdrawal of their certification. The second reason was that all certified instructors must re-certify every five years, taking a large number of exams and having their teaching skills re-evaluated by a committee of experts in their specialty area(s). I liked that -- it meant that no instructor could get certification, act in an overtly unethical way, and keep the certification forever. It also meant that no instructor could claim, ten or fifteen or twenty or thirty years down the road, to be "certified" just because they had passed a certification exam many years before.

My third reason for my supporting the ARICP was, and is, that it's a comprehensive program, providing certification to instructors in many different riding specialties. My own passion is dressage, and my certifications are in dressage and combined training, but hunt-seat riders and stock-seat riders (just to give two examples) also need and deserve to have competent, ethical, certified instructors!

Supporting the ARICP did not and does not mean that I don't respect and appreciate other programs. Nor does it mean that I don't support and recommend other programs. If my opinion matters to you, here it is: I respect you for wanting to become certified, and I think that you should choose the organization and program that appeal to YOU most. Whichever choice you make, you won't go wrong. Time and financial constraints usually make instructors settle for one -- most of us, myself included, just don't have the wherewithal to pursue multiple certifications. But if I had the money and the time, I would be happy to get certified by the USDF as well as the ARICP. ;-)

Jessica

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