United States Eventing Association

This January the West Coast played host to the annual USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) Symposium at the beautiful Galway Downs, in Temecula, California, and despite some chilly mornings, participants were treated to three days of interactive learning and sharing of knowledge in a safe space dedicated to the continuing education of eventing coaches from around the U.S. and Canada.

Why is continuing education so important? One of the biggest takeaways from the Symposium was how inspiring and reinvigorating the sharing of information can be to us all. As a coach and a rider, I am always searching for different ways to deliver a consistent message. Whether I’m teaching a student or training a horse, the "one size fits all" approach rarely has a place. As expressed in the mission statement, the goal of the ECP is to "produce and improve the craft and art in the teaching of riding and horse management for the sport of eventing through the application of the highest principles of horsemanship, which ensures the ethical and humane treatment of horses and the safety of both horses and riders, and extends to all those associated with the health and well-being of the horses."

With this in mind, we set out to enlist the help of some of the best minds in the horse world and create an educational Symposium that directly reflected that mission statement. We were all left in awe of U.S. Olympic dressage rider Steffen Peters, who delivered two phenomenal demonstration lessons the first day, sharing his training philosophies in an unforgettable display of horsemanship and unwavering dedication to empathetic coaching.

We were treated to an inspiring demonstration of cross-country exercises in the show jump arena by 2023 Land Rover Kentucky winner and West Coast eventer Tamra Smith. Participants were enthralled by Yvonne Ocrant, who shared a wealth of knowledge when it comes to wading through the muddy waters of equine law. To help tie it all together, Natalie Hummel joined the group on the final morning to talk about the importance of the mind and the mental aspect of the sport. We discussed the role of the coach and the responsibility we all have to our students when it comes to navigating the ups and downs of both training and competing.

In between our fantastic panelists, we spent three days focused on demo lessons creating interactive sessions focused on sharing information and ultimately delivering that message to each combination utilizing all four of the faculty members in attendance. Jennifer Rousseau, Mary D’Arcy, Emily Mastervich, and I all worked together to find new and exciting ways of bringing participants’ ideas together into a cohesive lesson plan.

One of our biggest goals was to ensure every single participant’s voice could be heard, so we determined smaller break-out groups were the best way to go. Our goal in the program is to keep challenging coaches to develop their eye, to analyze the biggest challenges each combination faces, and prioritize them. Then we challenged the groups to come up with exercises to address the issues raised. Surrounding the demo lessons were all the coaches immersed in a pool of knowledge, excitedly sharing favorite exercises, and enthusiastic group discussions about what aspects to address with each combination and in which order. Once the lesson plans were drawn up and shared, the faculty members tagged each other in and out of the lesson, bringing to life the fellow coaches’ ideas and plans.

As the ECP program continuously evolves, we as coaches must also keep evolving. We strive to deliver a consistent message, but the tools we gain through this sharing of information only serves to broaden our delivery. To sharpen our eye. Through continuing education, we solidify knowledge and concepts we’ve developed over the years and at the same time add tools to the toolbox, broadening our depth of knowledge and our ability to communicate with students and horses the best way possible.